Place and Property in Post-Mabo Fiction by Dorothy Hewett, Alex Miller and Andrew McGahan

Abstract

Drawing on concepts developed in legal geography and critical histories of property law, this paper considers the connection between legal and affective relations to place in white Australian fiction in the wake of the Mabo decision. In what ways does land ownership, and the rights accorded by property, influence attitudes to and understandings of place? To what extent might the Anglo-Australian law of property be inflected by Indigenous understandings of land and law? Three novels published in the years following the Wik Peoples case are examined, Dorothy Hewett's Neap Tide, Alex Miller's Journey to the Stone Country and Andrew McGahan's The White Earth, due to their overt engagement with post-Mabo law and politics. Through a study of fictional techniques, especially representations of race, space and law, the paper explores whether these novels contribute to the formation of a new understanding of land and justice in contemporary Australia.