The Yorta Yorta people have branded the High Court dismissal of their native title claim today as racist.
Tears overflowed and angry voices were heard outside the High Court offices in Melbourne as Yorta Yorta claimants learnt their appeal for land rights along the Victorian/NSW border had failed.
The court, by a majority of five to two, upheld an earlier Federal Court decision that the forebears of the Yorta Yorta claimants had ceased to occupy their land in accordance with traditional laws and customs.
The court found the claimants had not established that they had continued to acknowledge and observe those laws and customs.
The Yorta Yorta native title application was lodged in February 1994, and covers about 2,000 square kilometres around the Murray River in NSW and Victoria.
It was one of the first applications lodged with the Native Title Tribunal after its inception.
The native title claim moved to the High Court in February 2001, after the Federal Court dismissed the claim in late 1998.
At the time, Federal Court Justice Howard Olney found the Yorta Yorta people's ancestors ceased to occupy their traditional lands in accordance with their laws and customs before the end of the 19th century.
In January 1999, the Yorta Yorta people unsuccessfully appealed to the Full Court of the Federal Court.
Yorta Yorta spokeswoman Monica Morgan said today was a "dismal day for Aboriginal justice".
She said the five out of seven judges who dismissed the claim were products of a white country with a black history.
"It's not about native title, it's about racism," she told supporters and media outside the court.
"It's about recognition, it's about seeing our sovereignty."
Ms Morgan said the Yorta Yorta people could take their legal battle no further and it appeared they were going to have to pay the legal costs of the eight-year battle.
"We have heard today that they're so mean spirited that they (the High Court) are even saying the court costs have to be met by the Yorta Yorta people themselves," she said.
ATSIC leader Geoff Clark said it was a sorry day in Australian history with Aboriginal traditions not recognised by the government.
Mr Clark said the decision flew in the face of the Mabo decision which recognised native title in 1992.
"It (today's decision) means it (native title) doesn't exist," he told reporters.
"It's a legal dispossession of Aboriginal people."
Mr Clark called on state and federal governments to help negotiate land settlements as an alternative to future legal battles.
AAP