<P> The legal institutions and traditions of Australian law are monocultural in character, reflecting its English origins . When the British arrived in Australia, they considered the continent to be terra nullius, or land belonging to no - one, on the basis that the Aboriginal peoples already inhabiting the continent were too primitive to have lawful possession of the land . Under the English conception of international law at the time, when uninhabited lands were settled by English subjects the laws of England immediately applied to the settled lands . As such, Aboriginal laws and customs, including native title to land, were not recognised . The reception of English law was clarified by the Australian Courts Act 1828 (UK), which provided that all laws and statutes in force in England at the date of enactment should be applied in the courts of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) so far as those laws were applicable . Since Queensland and Victoria were originally part of New South Wales, the same date applies in those States for the reception of English law . South Australia adopted a different date for reception, as did Western Australia . </P> <P> The earliest civil and criminal courts established from the beginnings of the colony of New South Wales were rudimentary, adaptive and military in character . Although legality was not always observed, the courts limited the powers of the Governor, and the law of the colony was at times more egalitarian than in Britain . </P> <P> By 1824, a court system based in essence on the English model had been established through Acts of the British Parliament . The New South Wales Act 1823 provided for the establishment of a Supreme Court with the power to deal with all criminal and civil matters "as fully and amply as Her Majesty's Court of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchequer at Westminster". Inferior courts were also established, including courts of General or Quarter Sessions, and Courts of Requests . </P> <P> Representative government emerged in the 1840s and 1850s, and a considerable measure of autonomy was given to local legislatures in the second half of the nineteenth century . Colonial Parliaments introduced certain reforms such as secret ballots and female suffrage, which were not to occur in Britain until many years later . Nevertheless, Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament extending to the colonies could override contrary colonial legislation and would apply by "paramount force". New doctrines of English common law continued to be treated as representing the common law of Australia . For example, the doctrine of the famous case of Donoghue v Stevenson from which the modern negligence law derived, was treated as being latent already within the common law at the time of reception . </P>

Where did australias first written laws come from