In June 1993 the Wik and Thayorre Peoples made a native title claim in the Federal Court for land on Cape York Peninsula. The area of land being claimed included two pastoral leases. The claimants argued that native title and pastoral rights had coexisted in the area for many years, demonstrating that it was possible for the two sets of rights to apply to the one piece of land. The judgment of the Federal Court was that the pastoral leases had extinguished native title, a decision that the plaintiffs appealed in the High Court.

In 1996, by a four to three majority, the High Court ruled that a pastoral lease does not give exclusive possession of the land to the pastoralist and therefore does not completely extinguish native title. The ruling stipulated that the two sets of rights to land can coexist, but where there is a conflict, the rights of the pastoral lease will take precedence.

Note:

The Howard Liberal-National government introduced legislation to amend the Native Title Act, known as the Wik 10-point plan. The amendments made extensive changes to the original Native Title Act. They asserted the rights of landholders and lessees, gave more power to state governments for extinguishment and imposed a ‘registration test’ on claimants. The registration test meant that each native title application had to meet strict criteria before being assessed. The bill was passed in 1997.

Sir Howard Gibbs, Legal Heritage Centre
https://legalheritage.sclqld.org.au/wik-v-queensland