In June 2026, Krauatungalung Elder Djuran Bunjileenee Uncle Robbie Thorpe appealed to the Victorian Supreme Court in Australia as part of a genocide court case. The accused? King Charles III as the UK Crown representative.
It is one of a series of court cases Uncle Robbie has filed. Another is a trespassing case brought against Margaret Gardner, the governor of Victoria.
Governor’s trespass
Uncle Robbie stands in front of the Victorian Magistrates’ Court in trousers and a North Face jacket. As I step onto the curb, he holds an arm out for a hug and warns me against being mown down by cyclists. It’s the first time we have met.
He is waiting for the Victorian Governor General, King Charles III’s representative, to attend court on a charge of trespassing. Margaret Gardner had not scaled Government House’s fence; she walked in after being appointed. But the House is on land that has never been ceded.
Uncle Robbie said:
We’ve charged her with trespass and attempting to evict her from what they call Government House, which is in the Botanical Gardens.
He wants justice:
There’s a whole story around that: the Botanical Gardens was actually a former Aboriginal reserve – land for Aboriginal people. We want to get to the bottom of how that changed out of our hands and how it’s now a Government House. People should look at a thing called the Lettsam Raid of 1842 and you can see what’s happened.
Australia is still a colony
On the face of it, Australia has a Parliament, a Constitution, and a Prime Minister. But there were several colonies until they were federated in 1901.
Since Federation, the national story has been one of an independent nation. But Governor-Generals, representing the UK Crown, still have the power to dissolve state and federal parliaments and dismiss elected leaders.
There has been no Treaty signed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, despite former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s 2008 apology.
Throughout the history of Australia’s colonies and federation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were massacred, their children removed and their rights restricted. It took a 1967 national referendum to consider them humans and Australian citizens. Prior to that, they were classed as fauna. But harm continues.
In 2023, Uncle Robbie started a private prosecution case against King Charles III.
The failure of Australia’s legal system
The Magistrate’s Court of Victoria ruled that it could not prosecute the case. Why? The Australian Attorney-General has the power to veto any case prosecuting genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
In February 2024, Gunnai Gunditjmarra and Djab Wurrung woman Senator Lidia Thorpe tabled amendments to Australia’s federal Criminal Code Bill to repeal the Australian Attorney-General’s veto power. The second reading was negatived in 2025.
The Magistrates’ Court told the Supreme Court of Victoria during an appeal in July 2024 that they didn’t have the necessary jurisdiction for the case. Uncle Robbie told the courts that Australia has not fully implemented the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
In February 2025, Supreme Court Justice Melinda Richards dismissed Thorpe’s judicial review application.
Justice Richards found that Victorian common law could not cover genocide and that First People’s sovereign law could not be applied by the Magistrates’ Court. While genocide is recognised in the Commonwealth of Australia’s Criminal Code, the Australian Attorney-General consent roadblock still applied.
The appeal and the case for genocide
Uncle Robbie has since appealed. He argued that the Attorney-General consent requirement is inconsistent with international law and Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act. He added that section 10 of the Act, “Rights to equality before the law”, should be read as not needing the consent.
He also argued in court that Australian sovereignty was not legitimate as settlement occurred without treaty or consent with First Nations in Australia.
He said:
Captain Cook never got consent. If you never got consent, this is an illegal occupation, and your courts and your laws are invalid.
The Victorian Attorney General’s representative Counsel for the Respondent Liam Brown SC argued that much of the appeal grounds brought up procedural concerns. Brown added that the Crown could not apply international law through Australian courts if it was not part of common law or legislated into domestic law.
Uncle Robbie was not surprised by this. He told me:
We know Australia’s unable, unwilling, and reluctant to deal with these issues. We’re talking about the most heinous of all known crimes, genocide, premeditated. Everyone knows it was an unprovoked attack on Aboriginal people. What did we do to the British to deserve that? And on that basis, it doesn’t give you authority. It doesn’t give you a right to operate. You can’t occupy our land.
Uncle Robbie also sought to add the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the United Nations Secretary General and the UK Prime Minister to the case. He requested that reports be provided from the Closing the Gap project and the Yoorook Justice Commission, alongside a report on historical records as proof of ongoing harm and genocide.
Decision reversed
On 12 June 2026, the Victorian Court of Appeal reserved its decision. Uncle Robbie is still waiting to hear back.
Now he’s turned his sights on Gardner, who did not turn up to attend court for the trespassing case. Instead, Executive Director for the Office of General Counsel Victoria and General Counsel Miriam Holmes attended in her stead.
The first Magistrate asked the lawyers to step out and discuss a schedule to reappear. After an hour in the lobby, they went back in to speak to a new magistrate.
They decided that Uncle Robbie will head back to court for the trespassing case on 20 August 2026 to see if Gardner does attend in person with a hearing set for October. That allows Uncle Robbie enough time to collate evidence from Elders and community for the case.
Taking it global
I asked Uncle Robbie what the next steps are for the genocide case. He told me the plan is to exhaust what they can do in Australia and then go to the International Courts:
It just can’t be internal courts. We know they’re totally biased. So we’re not going to get any justice from that. So that’s why we need to take it to the international court, for whatever that’s worth, and test that out.
Senator Lidia Thorpe has already emailed 21 United Nations member states on 24 June 2025, asking for help to stop and prevent ongoing genocide.
Uncle Robbie said that First Nations in Canada are already interested:
They’ll be keeping an eye on what we’re doing here. I think Australia’s very vulnerable in terms of moral, ethical, or legality here.
And if he got a ruling on genocide?
That would be an international war crimes trial.
In the meantime, he will continue the fight for Aboriginal sovereignty, one court case at a time. If only to show how Australia’s legal system fails to deliver justice for its First Peoples.
Featured image via Crime Scene Australia
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