As early as October 1972 the Larrakia had begun to assert their rights to land, when a 1,000 Larrakia tried to present a 3-metre long document- arguing their land was taken by British settlers, leaving the Larrakia refugees in their own country- to Princess Margaret with their signatures, on the occasion of her visit to Darwin. After the passage of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act in 1976, the Larrakia presented a formal land claim on 22 March 1979, the first move in what was subsequently described as 'the most complex and hard-fought land claim in the history of Aboriginal land rights.'