South Australia v Victoria

This case involved an appeal by the State of South Australia against a decision of the High Court of Australia, which had dismissed an action brought by South Australia against Victoria to settle a disputed boundary between the two states. The boundary in question stretched northward from the coast to the Murray River. The appeal was heard by the Privy Council, who found that the line marked out partly in 1847 and partly in 1850 under the authority of the Executives of the two colonies, and with the intention that as so marked out it should be finally fixed as the statutable boundary between the two colonies, was in point of law the statutable boundary, and is now the statutable boundary between the states of South Australia and Victoria. The Privy Council held that the Letters Patent of 19th February 1836, which established South Australia as a British province, must be taken to have contemplated that the boundary between the Colonies of New South Wales and South Australia, namely, the 141st degree of east longitude, should be ascertained and represented on the surface of the earth so as to form a boundary line between the two colonies. The Privy Council found that it was impractical to fix with accuracy a line on the surface of the earth representing the meridian, and that the inevitable inaccuracy of these determinations represented considerable distances on the surface of the earth. The Privy Council held that the Letters Patent must be taken to have implied and authorized the delineation and determination of the effective boundary by an executive act. The Privy Council concluded that the acts of the Executive fixing the Wade and White line as the boundary were acts such as were so contemplated and empowered, and that in point of law the Wade and White line was the statutable boundary between the states of South Australia and Victoria. The appeal was dismissed.