State of Queensland & Anor v The Commonwealth of Australia

The State of Queensland and the Attorney-General for Queensland (the plaintiffs) commenced proceedings against the Commonwealth of Australia and Graham Frederick Richardson (the defendants) in the High Court of Australia. The dispute concerned the validity of a proclamation and associated regulations made by the Commonwealth. The proceedings before the court involved an application for remitter and for further and better particulars.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the inclusion of certain property in the World Heritage List, pursuant to Article 11 of the relevant convention, was conclusive to the validity of the Commonwealth's proclamation. The defendants contended that this listing, by itself, validated the proclamation, which the plaintiffs sought to have declared invalid.

The defendants argued that following the listing of the nominated area, their contention was that the proclamation's validity was established. They proposed to plead this as a matter of constitutional law, asserting that the act of listing was determinative of the proclamation's validity. The plaintiffs had provided particulars of displacement as ordered by the court, and the defendants indicated their intention to file a further amended statement of claim reflecting their constitutional argument.