118-534: British colonisation of South Australia describes the planning and establishment of the colony of South Australia by the British government, covering the period from 1829, when the idea was raised by the then-imprisoned Edward Gibbon Wakefield , to 1842, when the South Australia Act 1842 changed the form of government to a Crown colony . Ideas espoused and promulgated by Wakefield since 1829 led to
236-408: A board to inquire into the conditions at Wybalenna that rejected Robinson's claims regarding improved living conditions and found the settlement to be a failure. The report was never released and the government continued to promote Wybalenna as a success in the treatment of Aboriginal people. In March 1847 six Aboriginal people at Wybalenna presented a petition to Queen Victoria , the first petition to
354-482: A book about the colonisation of South Australia in 1835) was first approached by a group of emigrants, while the Colonial Office was considering Sir John Franklin . Franklin withdrew in favour of Napier, but Napier quarrelled with the emigrants and made two requests (for access to Treasury funds, and for troops to act as police) which were not met, and he resigned. Napier favoured Light as Governor; however,
472-591: A document claiming they were extinct. A dispute exists within the Tasmanian Aboriginal community, however, over what constitutes Aboriginality . The Palawa, mainly descendants of white male sealers and Tasmanian Aboriginal women who settled on the Bass Strait Islands, were given the power to decide who is of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent at the state level (entitlement to government Aboriginal services). Palawa recognise only descendants of
590-483: A dozen and, by 1869, there was only one, who died in 1876. Commenting in 1899 on Robinson's claims of success, anthropologist Henry Ling Roth wrote: While Robinson and others were doing their best to make them into a civilised people, the poor blacks had given up the struggle, and were solving the difficult problem by dying. The very efforts made for their welfare only served to hasten on their inevitable doom. The white man's civilisation proved scarcely less fatal than
708-410: A drastic drop in numbers within three decades, so that by 1835 only some 400 full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal people survived, most of this remnant being incarcerated in camps where all but 47 died within the following 12 years. No consensus exists as to the cause, over which a major controversy arose. The traditional view, still affirmed, held that this dramatic demographic collapse was the result of
826-414: A few months after the establishment of the first British settlements at Risdon Cove and Hobart. The 1804 Risdon Cove massacre resulted in a large number of Aboriginal people being killed after an attack by British soldiers and settlers. A boy whose parents were killed in the massacre was taken and given the name Robert Hobart May . This boy became the first Indigenous Tasmanian to have extended contact with
944-540: A gentleman settler in New South Wales (completely fictitious), outlining his various ideas as a new theory of colonisation. He proposed an "Emigration Fund" payable by landlords' taxes and land sales, which would fund labour for the colonies. Gouger, an enthusiastic supporter, edited the letters and published them as a book, helping to distribute Wakefield's document. Wakefield saw the colonies as "extensions of an old society"; all classes would be represented among
1062-527: A huge public meeting at Exeter Hall in London on the 30 June 1834, to spread awareness about the proposal for the new province and emigration scheme, chaired by Wolryche-Whitmore. The meeting was attended by more than 2,500 people, including well-known philosophers and social reformers , and the speeches and discussions continued for seven hours. Afterwards the association received hundreds of enquiries from people interested in emigration. The Association lobbied
1180-737: A large number of enthusiastic members. Wakefield's ideas caused much debate in Parliament . After Charles Sturt discovered the River Murray in 1830, more interest in Wakefield's scheme followed. One key component of the Wakefield Scheme was that the land price should be set high enough to prevent land speculation . In 1831 a "Proposal to His Majesty's Government for founding a colony on the Southern Coast of Australia"
1298-700: A new Governor ( George Gawler ) appointed, who would also act as Resident Commissioner. The procedure for the founding of the South Australian province was unclear to the Board of Commissioners, so Letters Patent , specifically Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom erecting and establishing the Province of South Australia and fixing the boundaries thereof , were presented to
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#17327723216731416-479: A number of distinct ethnic groups . For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as extinct and intentionally exterminated by white settlers. Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000. First arriving in Tasmania (then
1534-561: A peninsula of Australia) around 40,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Aboriginal Tasmanians were cut off from the Australian mainland by rising sea levels c. 6000 BC. They were entirely isolated from the outside world for 8,000 years until European contact. Before British colonisation of Tasmania in 1803, there were an estimated 3,000–15,000 Aboriginal Tasmanians. The Aboriginal Tasmanian population suffered
1652-527: A position whereby they were willing to surrender to Robinson and move to Flinders Island . European and Aboriginal casualties, including the Aboriginal residents who were captured, may be considered as reasonably accurate. The figures for the Aboriginal population shot is likely a substantial undercount. In late 1831, Robinson brought the first 51 Aboriginal people to a settlement on Flinders Island named The Lagoons, which turned out to be inadequate as it
1770-525: A reigning monarch from any Aboriginal group in Australia, requesting that the promises made to them be honoured. In October 1847, the 47 survivors were transferred to their final settlement at Oyster Cove station. Only 44 survived the trip (11 couples, 12 single men and 10 children) and the children were immediately sent to the orphan school in Hobart. Although the housing and food was better than Wybalenna,
1888-404: A representative, James Munro , to appeal to Governor George Arthur and argue for the women's return, on the basis that they wanted to stay with their sealer husbands and children rather than marry Aboriginal men unknown to them. Arthur ordered the return of some of the women. Shortly thereafter, Robinson began to disseminate stories, told to him by James Munro, of atrocities allegedly committed by
2006-418: A significant debate was generated which split the colonists along class lines. The "higher grade" saw the hanging as a dangerous precedent and argued that Aboriginal people were only defending their land and should not be punished for doing so. The "lower grade" of colonists wanted more Aboriginal people hanged to encourage a "conciliatory line of conduct". Governor Arthur sided with the "lower grade" and 1825 saw
2124-536: Is now called Encounter Bay . They each gave names to various places around Kangaroo Island and the two gulfs: Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf . The British Government, not wanting to be pre-empted by the French, sent out expeditions to Port Phillip and northern Tasmania , and set up the first free settlement, the Swan River Colony , in 1829. Historian Geoffrey Dutton suggests three clear phases in
2242-511: Is strongly opposed by the Palawa and has drawn an angry reaction from some quarters, as some have claimed " spiritual connection" with Aboriginality distinct from, but not as important as the existence of a genetic link. The Lia Pootah object to the current test used to prove Aboriginality as they believe it favours the Palawa, a DNA test would circumvent barriers to Lia Pootah recognition, or disprove their claims to Aboriginality. In April 2000,
2360-528: Is to found a Colony, under Royal Charter , and without convict labour, at or near Spencer Gulf , on the south coast of Australia, a tract of country far removed from the existing Penal Settlements... ...The South Australian Association consists of three classes of members, First, Persons who propose to settle in the Colony. Secondly, Persons willing to aid the Association without taking a responsible part in
2478-596: Is usually considered to be the proclamation of the new Province by Governor Hindmarsh at Glenelg on 28 December 1836. However, after the government under the Colonisation Commission set up by the 1834 Act failed to achieve financial self-sufficiency, the South Australia Act 1842 repealed the earlier Act, made South Australia a Crown colony , provided for the formation of an appointed Legislative Assembly and passed greater powers to
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#17327723216732596-659: The British Museum returning ashes to two descendants in 2007. During the 20th century, the absence of Aboriginal people of solely Aboriginal ancestry, and a general unawareness of the surviving populations, meant many non-Aboriginal people assumed they were extinct , after the death of Truganini in 1876. Since the mid-1970s Tasmanian Aboriginal activists such as Michael Mansell have sought to broaden awareness and identification of Aboriginal descent. After campaigning by Tasmanian Aboriginal people in April 2023 UNESCO removed
2714-534: The Buffalo on 28 December. The foundation of South Australia is usually considered to be Governor Hindmarsh's Proclamation of South Australia at Glenelg on 28 December 1836. Colonel Light was given two months to locate the most advantageous location for the main colony. He was required to find a site with a harbour , arable land , fresh water , ready internal and external communications , building materials and drainage . Light rejected potential locations for
2832-518: The Cape Grim massacre in 1828 demonstrates the level of frontier violence towards Aboriginal Tasmanians. The Black War of 1828–1832 and the Black Line of 1830 were turning points in the relationship with European settlers. Even though many of the Aboriginal people managed to avoid capture during these events, they were shaken by the size of the campaigns against them, and this brought them to
2950-498: The City of Adelaide Municipal Corporation was the first municipal authority in Australia. At its time of establishment, Adelaide's (and Australia's) first mayor, James Hurtle Fisher , was elected. However, the new corporation suffered financial woes, after several of its actions were unauthorised or reversed by the British government, leading to considerable debt and, so it wound up as insolvent in 1843. The office of Colonial Architect
3068-672: The Colonial Office . Administrative power was divided between a Governor , John Hindmarsh , who represented the Crown , and the Resident Commissioner, who reported to the Colonisation Commissioners and who was responsible for the survey and sale of land as well as for organising migration and funding. The first Resident Commissioner was James Hurtle Fisher . The Commissioner of Public Lands
3186-625: The Governor of South Australia (then Sir George Grey ). There were moves towards representative self-government in the mid-nineteenth century, and South Australia became a self-governing colony in October 1856. The French Nicolas Baudin and the British Matthew Flinders had both made exploratory voyages along the central southern coastline. On 8 April 1802, the vessels of the two explorers met off South Australia, at what
3304-604: The Mara languages seem to be a relic of ancient conquests mirroring the hostilities during colonial times. After the sea rose to create Bass Strait, the Australian mainland and Tasmania became separate land masses, and the Aboriginal people who had migrated from mainland Australia became cut off from their cousins on the mainland. Archeological evidence suggests remnant populations on the King and Furneaux highlands were stranded by
3422-482: The (a community of people descended from European men and Tasmanian Aboriginal women on the Furneaux Islands off Tasmania, which survives to the present) and there are some efforts to reconstruct a language from the available wordlists. Today, some thousands of people living in Tasmania describe themselves as Aboriginal Tasmanians, since a number of Tasmanian Aboriginal women bore children to European men in
3540-433: The 19th century sealer communities of Bass Strait. Between 1803 and 1823, there were two phases of conflict between the Aboriginal people and the British colonists. The first took place between 1803 and 1808 over the need for common food sources such as oysters and kangaroos, and the second between 1808 and 1823, when only a small number of white females lived among the colonists, and farmers, sealers and whalers took part in
3658-414: The 19th century, also point to the significant role of epidemics and infertility without clear attribution of the sources of the diseases as having been introduced through contact with European, and Bonwick notes that Tasmanian Aboriginal women were infected with venereal diseases by Europeans. Introduced venereal disease not only directly caused deaths but, more insidiously, left a significant percentage of
British colonisation of South Australia - Misplaced Pages Continue
3776-602: The Aboriginal Tasmanians although gifts were left for them in unoccupied shelters found on Bruny Island. The first known British contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians was on Bruny Island by Captain Cook in 1777. The contact was peaceful. Captain William Bligh also visited Bruny Island in 1788 and made peaceful contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians. More extensive contact between Aboriginal Tasmanians and Europeans resulted when British and American seal hunters began visiting
3894-441: The Aboriginal Tasmanians was identified by the colonists. Rapid pastoral expansion, a depletion of native game and an increase in the colony's population triggered Aboriginal resistance from 1824 onwards when it has been estimated by Lyndall Ryan that 1000 Aboriginal people remained in the settled districts. Whereas settlers and stock keepers had previously provided rations to the Aboriginal people during their seasonal movements across
4012-564: The Aboriginal Tasmanians. Trading relationships developed between sealers and Tasmanian Aboriginal tribes. Hunting dogs became highly prized by the Aboriginal people, as were other exotic items such as flour, tea and tobacco. The Aboriginal people traded kangaroo skins for such goods. However, a trade in Aboriginal women soon developed. Many Tasmanian Aboriginal women were highly skilled in hunting seals, as well as in obtaining other foods such as seabirds, and some Tasmanian tribes would trade their services and, more rarely, those of Aboriginal men to
4130-470: The Aboriginal Tasmanians. Bonwick also recorded a strong Aboriginal oral tradition of an epidemic even before formal colonisation in 1803. "Mr Robert Clark, in a letter to me, said: 'I have gleaned from some of the Aborigines, now in their graves, that they were more numerous than the white people were aware of, but their numbers were very much thinned by a sudden attack of disease which was general among
4248-613: The Act, to control sales of land and the administration of revenue: thirteen Commissioners were based in London (at 6 Adelphi Terrace in 1840), with a Resident Commissioner appointed by the board and stationed in the colony. Those first appointed, on 5 May 1835, were Colonel Robert Torrens (Chairman), Rowland Hill (Secretary), G. Barnes (Treasurer), George Fife Angas , Edward Barnard, William Hutt , J. G. Shaw-Lefevre , William Alexander Mackinnon M.P. , Samuel Mills, Jacob Barrow Montefiore , Lt Col George Palmer , and John Wright, representing
4366-558: The Bass Strait Island community as Aboriginal and do not consider as Aboriginal the Lia Pootah , who claim descent, based on oral traditions, from Tasmanian mainland Aboriginal communities. The Lia Pootah feel that the Palawa controlled Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre does not represent them politically. Since 2007 there have been initiatives to introduce DNA testing to establish family history in descendant subgroups. This
4484-561: The Ben Lomond language meant "dwellings" but is generally translated as "black man's houses". Robinson befriended Truganini, learned some of the local language and in 1833 managed to persuade the remaining 154 "full-blooded" people to move to the new settlement on Flinders Island, where he promised a modern and comfortable environment, and that they would be returned to their former homes on the Tasmanian mainland as soon as possible. At
4602-574: The British colonial society. By 1816, kidnapping of Aboriginal children for labour had become widespread. In 1814, Governor Thomas Davey issued a proclamation expressing "utter indignation and abhorrence" in regards to the kidnapping of the children and in 1819 Governor William Sorell not only re-issued the proclamation but ordered that those who had been taken without parental consent were to be sent to Hobart and supported at government expense. A number of young Aboriginal children were known to be living with settlers. An Irish sealer named Brien spared
4720-547: The British government for years, taking part in numerous negotiations and submitting plans that underwent many modifications. Finally, after intervention by the Duke of Wellington , the bill drafted by the Association and presented by Wolryche-Whitmore was presented to Parliament , which passed the South Australia (Foundation) Act on 15 August 1834. The Act provided for the settlement as the Province of South Australia, for
4838-473: The Commissioners, which led to tension between the two and caused problems later. The Act provided that three or more persons could be appointed as Commissioners to be known as Colonization Commissioners for South Australia, to carry out certain parts of the Act. The Commissioners formed a Board, which had responsibilities for: The British government appointed Commissioners to oversee implementation of
British colonisation of South Australia - Misplaced Pages Continue
4956-735: The Furneaux Islands and mainland Tasmania. People crossed into Tasmania approximately 40,000 years ago via a land bridge between the island and the rest of mainland Australia, during the Last Glacial Period . Genetic studies show that once the sea level rose to flood the Bassian Plain , the island's population was isolated for approximately 8,000 years, until European exploration in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The discovery of 19,000-year-old deposits at Kutikina (or Fraser) Cave demonstrated occupation of
5074-521: The King highlands (now King Island ). The archeological, geographic and linguistic record suggests successive waves of occupation of Tasmania, and coalescence of three language groups into one broad group. Colonial settlers found two main language and ethnic groups in Tasmania upon their arrival, the western Nara and eastern Mara. The admixture of Nara toponyms (place-names) in the Eastern territory of
5192-464: The Orphan School in Hobart. Lyndall Ryan reports fifty-eight Aboriginal people, of various ages, living with settlers in Tasmania in the period up to 1835. Some historians argue that European disease did not appear to be a serious factor until after 1829. Other historians including Geoffrey Blainey and Keith Windschuttle , point to introduced disease as the main cause of the destruction of
5310-815: The Province of South Australia. The first migrant ship, the John Pirie , set sail for the colony three days later. An amendment to the 1834 Act (the South Australia Government Act 1838 ( 1 & 2 Vict. c. 60), passed 31 July 1838) incorporated the changes. Under the emigration scheme, "worthy" labourers and their families received free passage. They had to be between 15 and 30 years of age, preferably married, and needed two references. Steerage passengers paid £15-20, middle berth £35-40, and cabin class £70. Children under 14 years were charged £3 while those under 1 year were free. Montefiore and Lt-Col Palmer helped Colonel Light to prepare two of
5428-558: The South Australia Company arrived at Nepean Bay on Kangaroo Island : the Duke of York on 27 July, Lady Mary Pelham on 30 July, John Pirie on 16 August and Emma on 5 October. More ships left in the coming months, making a total of at least nine, which for convenience can be regarded as the First Fleet of South Australia . Apart from the last one, HMS Buffalo , all went to Nepean Bay first. A settlement
5546-657: The South Australian Company imported pure merinos from the German region of Saxony , and cows and goats were also shipped over. Sheep and other livestock were brought in from Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales. The wool industry was the basis of South Australia's economy for the first few years, with the first wool auction held in Adelaide in 1840. The settlers were mostly British, but some German settlers , mainly " Old Lutherans ", also emigrated in
5664-602: The Tasmanian Government Legislative Council Select Committee on Aboriginal Lands discussed the difficulty of determining Aboriginality based on oral traditions. An example given by Prof. Cassandra Pybus was the claim by the Huon and Channel Aboriginal people who had an oral history of descent from two Aboriginal women. Research found that both were non-Aboriginal convict women. The Tasmanian Palawa Aboriginal community
5782-495: The Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island, described by historian Henry Reynolds as the "best equipped and most lavishly staffed Aboriginal institution in the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century", they were provided with housing, clothing, rations of food, the services of a doctor and educational facilities. Convicts were assigned to build housing and do most of the work at
5900-642: The ambitious John Hindmarsh had got wind of the forthcoming appointment, and set out first to see Napier, then woo some powerful supporters in London, including the Lords of the Admiralty before approaching the Colonial Secretary (Gouger). Light was appointed Surveyor-General on 14 December 1835, and on 21 January 1836 Captain Hindmarsh was appointed the first Governor of South Australia . Hindmarsh
6018-556: The approximately 200 surviving Aboriginal Tasmanians to surrender themselves with assurances that they would be protected and provided for, and eventually have their lands returned. These assurances were no more than a ruse by Robinson or Lieutenant-Governor Arthur to transport the Tasmanians quietly to a permanent exile in the Furneaux Islands . The survivors were moved to Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island , where disease continued to reduce their numbers. In 1847,
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#17327723216736136-611: The association was to bring to fruition the idea of "systematic colonisation", as proposed by Edward Gibbon Wakefield , in the creation of a new colony in South Australia by the British government. The proposal was for a colony that belonged to the Crown but with its administration run by trustees. The aim of the Association and details of the planned administration of the proposed colony were published on 11 January 1834 in The Spectator : The object of this Association
6254-486: The capture of those without passes, £5 (equivalent to about £540 or AU$ 1010 in 2023 ) for an adult and £2 for children, a process that often led to organised hunts resulting in deaths. Every dispatch from Governor Arthur to the Secretary of State during this period stressed that in every case where Aboriginal people had been killed it was colonists that initiated hostilities. Though many Aboriginal deaths went unrecorded,
6372-554: The centre of government would be on Kangaroo Island or at Port Lincoln on the western side of Spencer Gulf , based on reports from Matthew Flinders . However, the scheme, which included free trade, self-government and the power to select the Governor, was not approved as these ideas were considered too radical and republican. In 1833 the South Australian Association was established and began to lobby
6490-409: The colony was founded is traceable, as far as our proofs allow us to judge, to the prevalence of epidemic disorders. ' " Roth was referring to James Erskine Calder who took up a post as a surveyor in Tasmania in 1829 and who wrote a number of scholarly papers about the Aboriginal people. "According to Calder, a rapid and remarkable declension of the numbers of the Aborigines had been going on long before
6608-844: The custom of the sealers was to each have "two to five of these native women for their own use and benefit". A shortage of women available "in trade" resulted in abduction becoming common, and in 1830 it was reported that at least fifty Aboriginal women were "kept in slavery" on the Bass Strait islands. Harrington, a sealer, procured ten or fifteen native women, and placed them on different islands in Bass's Straits, where he left them to procure skins; if, however, when he returned, they had not obtained enough, he punished them by tying them up to trees for twenty-four to thirty-six hours together, flogging them at intervals, and he killed them not infrequently if they proved stubborn. There are numerous stories of
6726-523: The details below. Request from 172.68.168.133 via cp1102 cp1102, Varnish XID 543188207 Upstream caches: cp1102 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 05:38:41 GMT Aboriginal Tasmanian The Aboriginal Tasmanians ( Palawa kani : Palawa or Pakana ) are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania , located south of the mainland. At the time of European contact, Aboriginal Tasmanians were divided into
6844-456: The early times of the colony, may be safely added ... Robinson always enumerates the sexes of the individuals he took; ... and as a general thing, found scarcely any children amongst them; ... adultness was found to outweigh infancy everywhere in a remarkable degree ..." Robinson recorded in his journals a number of comments regarding the Aboriginal Tasmanians' susceptibility to diseases, particularly respiratory diseases. In 1832 he revisited
6962-648: The early years. The first large group of Germans arrived in 1838, with the financial assistance of the Emigration Fund. Most moved out of Adelaide and to the Barossa Valley and settlements in the Adelaide Hills such as Hahndorf , living in socially closed communities, by 1842, and did not participate in government until responsible government was granted 15 years later in 1857. Established in 1840, with its first meeting held on 4 November 1840,
7080-456: The entire population previous to the arrival of the English, entire tribes of natives having been swept off in the course of one or two days' illness. ' " Such an epidemic may be linked to contact with sailors or sealers. Henry Ling Roth, an anthropologist, wrote: "Calder, who has gone more fully into the particulars of their illnesses, writes as follows ...: 'Their rapid declension after
7198-540: The first official acceptance that Aboriginal people were at least partly to blame for conflict. In 1826 the Government gazette, which had formerly reported "retaliatory actions" by Aboriginal people, now reported "acts of atrocity" and for the first time used the terminology "Aborigine" instead of "native". A newspaper reported that there were only two solutions to the problem: either they should be "hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed" or they should be removed from
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#17327723216737316-554: The formation of the South Australian Land Company in 1831, but this first attempt failed to achieve its goals, and the company folded. The South Australian Association was formed in 1833 by Wakefield, Robert Gouger and other supporters, which put forward a proposal less radical than previous ones, which was finally supported and a Bill proposed in Parliament. The British Province of South Australia
7434-506: The foundation of the colony: first, the practical men, with their discoveries, second, the theorists, in particular Wakefield and Gouger, who had not seen Australia, and, lastly, the settlers, who had to marry fact with ideals. Prior to the establishment of a formal British colony, Kangaroo Island was inhabited by sealers more or less continuously from 1803, when American sealing captain Isaac Pendleton established an outpost at what
7552-471: The full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal population. Keith Windschuttle argues that while smallpox never reached Tasmania, respiratory diseases such as influenza , pneumonia and tuberculosis and the effects of venereal diseases devastated the Tasmanian Aboriginal population whose long isolation from contact with the mainland compromised their resistance to introduced disease. The work of historian James Bonwick and anthropologist H. Ling Roth, both writing in
7670-503: The government for the establishment of a colony in South Australia, with Crown-appointed governance. Robert Gouger started setting up the South Australian Association from November 1833. Between that time and August 1834, he corresponded with George Grote , Sir Edward Smith-Stanley, Earl of Derby , William Wolryche-Whitmore , Joseph Hume , Liberal MP Sir William Clay , and Charles Shaw-Lefevre . The aim of
7788-465: The government on 19 February 1836, and with its adoption along with an Order-in-Council on 23 February 1836 the foundation of the South Australian province was achieved. The main changes in the Letters Patent were to amend the wording in the 1834 document which referred to the land as "unoccupied", and to recognise the rights of the "Aboriginal Natives" to live unhindered within the lands of
7906-463: The ground, with an opening at the top to let out the smoke, and closed at the ends, with the exception of a doorway. They were twenty feet long by ten feet wide. In each of these from twenty to thirty blacks were lodged ... To savages accustomed to sleep naked in the open air beneath the rudest shelter, the change to close and heated dwellings tended to make them susceptible, as they had never been in their wild state, to chills from atmospheric changes, and
8024-728: The highlands since the Ice Age. In 1990, archaeologists excavated material in the Warreen Cave in the Maxwell River valley of the south-west, proving Aboriginal occupation from as early as 34,000 BP , making Aboriginal Tasmanians the southernmost population in the world during the Pleistocene era. Digs in southwest and central Tasmania turned up abundant finds, affording "the richest archaeological evidence from Pleistocene Greater Australia" from 35,000 to 11,000 BP. Tasmania
8142-462: The impact of introduced diseases, rather than the consequence of policy. Others attributed the depletion to losses in the Black War , and the prostitution of women. Many historians of colonialism and genocide consider that the Tasmanian decimation qualifies as genocide by the definition of Raphael Lemkin adopted in the UN Genocide Convention . By 1833, George Augustus Robinson , sponsored by Lieutenant-Governor George Arthur , had persuaded
8260-442: The islands in Bass Strait as well as the northern and eastern coasts of Tasmania from the late 1790s. Shortly thereafter (by about 1800), sealers were regularly left on uninhabited islands in Bass Strait during the sealing season (November to May). The sealers established semi-permanent camps or settlements on the islands, which were close enough for the sealers to reach the main island of Tasmania in small boats and so make contact with
8378-419: The land so purchased for the Reception of Immigrants", and the South Australian Land Company ( SALC ) was formed in 1831 to establish a new colony in the area of South Australia. The SALC sought a Royal Charter for the purchase of land for colonisation, which would raise funding for the transport of immigrants, and for the governance of the new colony to be administered by the SALC. The company anticipated that
8496-474: The land. Land could be bought at a uniform price per acre, but it would go to auction in the case of more than one potential buyer. Leases of up to three years could be granted "for pasturage" on unsold lands. All proceeds were to go to the Emigration Fund, set up to help poorer people to migrate to the colony. These regulations were of great significance; the success of the Wakefield scheme to populate and fund
8614-504: The last 47 survivors on Wybalenna were transferred to Oyster Cove , south of Hobart . Two individuals, Truganini (1812–1876) and Fanny Cochrane Smith (1834–1905), are separately considered to have been the last people solely of Tasmanian descent. The complete Aboriginal Tasmanian languages have been lost; research suggests that the languages spoken on the island belonged to several distinct language families . Some original Tasmanian language words remained in use with Palawa people in
8732-543: The life of the baby son of a native woman he had abducted, explaining, "as (he) had stolen the dam he would keep the cub". When the child grew up he became an invaluable assistant to Brien but was considered "no good" by his own people as he was brought up to dislike Aboriginal people, whom he considered "dirty lazy brutes". Twenty-six were definitely known (through baptismal records) to have been taken into settlers' homes as infants or very small children, too young to be of service as labourers. Some Aboriginal children were sent to
8850-507: The living conditions had deteriorated to the extent that in October Robinson personally took charge of Wybalenna, organising better food and improving the housing. However, of the 220 who arrived with Robinson, most died in the following 14 years from introduced disease and inadequate shelter. As a result of their loss of freedom, the birth rate was extremely low and few children survived infancy. In 1839, Governor Franklin appointed
8968-541: The murdered. Amalie Dietrich for example became famous for delivering such specimens. Aboriginal people have considered the dispersal of body parts as being disrespectful, as a common aspect within Aboriginal belief systems is that a soul can only be at rest when laid in its homeland. Body parts and ornaments are still being returned from collections today, with the Royal College of Surgeons of England returning samples of Truganini's skin and hair (in 2002), and
9086-500: The new Province hinged on land development, so land law and regulations governing it were fundamental. Sales of land had proved difficult; buyers did not rush to buy an acre of wild land for 20 shillings . It was left to the South Australian Company (formed on 15 October 1835, after talented businessman George Fife Angas resigned as Commissioner) to purchase the remaining portion of the £35,000 worth of land that
9204-534: The new commander for the station, and moved the Aboriginal people back to The Lagoons. Darling ensured a supply of plentiful food and permitted "hunting excursions". In October 1832, it was decided to build a new camp with better buildings ( wattle and daub ) at a more suitable location, Pea Jacket Point. Pea Jacket Point was renamed Civilisation Point but became more commonly known as the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment . Wybalenna in
9322-785: The new main settlement, including Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln and Encounter Bay . Light decided that the Adelaide plains were the best location for settlement. The River Torrens was discovered to the south and Light and his team set about determining the city's precise location and layout. The survey was completed on 11 March 1837. Light's poorly paid and ill-equipped surveying team were expected to begin another massive task of surveying at least 405 square kilometres (156 sq mi) of rural land. Light, despite slowly succumbing to tuberculosis , managed to survey 605.7 square kilometres (233.9 sq mi) (or 150,000 acres (61,000 ha)) by June 1838. The settlement grew steadily. In 1836
9440-542: The population unable to reproduce. Josephine Flood, archaeologist, wrote: "Venereal disease sterilised and chest complaints – influenza, pneumonia and tuberculosis – killed." Bonwick, who lived in Tasmania, recorded a number of reports of the devastating effect of introduced disease including one report by a Doctor Story, a Quaker , who wrote: "After 1823 the women along with the tribe seemed to have had no children; but why I do not know." Later historians have reported that introduced venereal disease caused infertility amongst
9558-434: The proceedings. Thirdly, Persons who may take an active part in the preliminary proceedings of the Association, and may become, under the proposed Charter, Trustees for carrying its provisions into effect. The members of the South Australian Association were men of varied backgrounds, from philanthropists to merchants, including Wakefield, Robert Gouger, Robert Torrens Sr and George Fife Angas . The association organised
9676-402: The process. By 1810 seal numbers had been greatly reduced by hunting so most seal hunters abandoned the area, however a small number of sealers, approximately fifty mostly "renegade sailors, escaped convicts or ex-convicts", remained as permanent residents of the Bass Strait islands and some established families with Tasmanian Aboriginal women. Some of the women were taken back to the islands by
9794-528: The rapid depletion of the numbers of Aboriginal women in the northern areas of Tasmania – "by 1830 only three women survived in northeast Tasmania among 72 men" – and thus contributed in a significant manner to the demise of the full-blooded Aboriginal population of Tasmania. However, a mixed-race community of partial Tasmanian Aboriginal descent formed on the Islands, where it remains to the present, and many modern day Aboriginal Tasmanians trace their descent from
9912-424: The remnants were gathered together on Flinders Island. Whole tribes (some of which Robinson mentions by name as being in existence fifteen or twenty years before he went amongst them, and which probably never had a shot fired at them) had absolutely and entirely vanished. To the causes to which he attributes this strange wasting away ... I think infecundity , produced by the infidelity of the women to their husbands in
10030-427: The rising waters and died out. Abel Jansen Tasman, credited as the first European to discover Tasmania (in 1642) and who named it Van Diemen's Land, did not encounter any of the Aboriginal Tasmanians when he landed. In 1772, a French exploratory expedition under Marion Dufresne visited Tasmania. At first, contact with the Aboriginal people was friendly; however the Aboriginal Tasmanians became alarmed when another boat
10148-594: The sale of lands, for funding of the venture, and for governance. The South Australia Act 1834 set out the governance of the new colony by a new body known as the South Australian Colonization Commission , also known as the Colonization Commissioners for South Australia (and variant spellings), which would be based in London. However, the Act gave control of the new colony to the Colonial Office as well as
10266-469: The sealers against Aboriginal people, and against Aboriginal women in particular. Brian Plomley , who edited Robinson's papers, expressed scepticism about these atrocities and notes that they were not reported to Archdeacon William Broughton 's 1830 committee of inquiry into violence towards Tasmanians. Abduction and ill-treatment of Aboriginal Tasmanians certainly occurred, but the extent is debated. The raids for and trade in Aboriginal women contributed to
10384-533: The sealers being confident that they would return. Bonwick also reports a number of claims of brutality by sealers towards Aboriginal women including some of those made by Robinson. An Aboriginal woman by the name of Bulrer related her experience to Robinson, that sealers had rushed her camp and stolen six women including herself "the white men tie them and then they flog them very much, plenty much blood, plenty cry." Sealing captain James Kelly wrote in 1816 that
10502-543: The sealers for dogs and flour. Walyer was later to gain some notoriety for her attempts to kill the sealers to escape their brutality. Walyer, a Punnilerpanner, joined the Plairhekehillerplue band after eventually escaping and went on to lead attacks on employees of the Van Diemen's Land Company . Walyer's attacks are the first recorded use of muskets by Aboriginal people. Captured, she refused to work and
10620-416: The sealers for the seal-hunting season. Others were sold on a permanent basis. This trade incorporated not only women of the tribe engaged in the trade but also women abducted from other tribes. Some may have been given to incorporate the new arrivals into Aboriginal society through marriage. Sealers engaged in raids along the coasts to abduct Aboriginal women and were reported to have killed Aboriginal men in
10738-473: The sealers involuntarily and some went willingly, as in the case of a woman called Tarenorerer (Eng: Walyer). Differing opinions have been given on Walyer's involvement with the sealers. McFarlane writes that she voluntarily joined the sealers with members of her family, and was responsible for attacking Aboriginal people and white settlers alike. Ryan comes to a different conclusion, that Walyer had been abducted at Port Sorell by Aboriginal people and traded to
10856-497: The sealers' brutality towards the Aboriginal women; with some of these reports originating from Robinson. In 1830, Robinson seized 14 Aboriginal women from the sealers, planning for them to marry Aboriginal men at the Flinders Island settlement. Josephine Flood , an archaeologist specialising in Australian mainland Aboriginal peoples, notes: "he encountered strong resistance from the women as well as sealers". The sealers sent
10974-463: The sealing colonies on Bass Strait – who were often violently abducted from their homelands and made to work as slaves. Influenced by prison reformer Elizabeth Fry serving a term in prison for abducting a minor, Wakefield turned his mind to social problems caused by over-population . In 1829, he wrote a series of anonymous "Letters from Sydney" to a London newspaper, The Morning Chronicle , in which he purported to write about his own experiences as
11092-413: The settled districts, and recognised this practice as some form of payment for trespass and loss of traditional hunting grounds, the new settlers and stock keepers were unwilling to maintain these arrangements and the Aboriginal people began to raid settlers' huts for food. The official Government position was that Aboriginal people were blameless for any hostilities, but when Musquito was hanged in 1825,
11210-431: The settled districts. The colonial Government assigned troops to drive them out. A Royal Proclamation in 1828 established military posts on the boundaries and a further proclamation declared martial law against the Aboriginal people. As it was recognised that there were fixed routes for seasonal migration, Aboriginal people were required to have passes if they needed to cross the settled districts with bounties offered for
11328-422: The settlement including the growing of food in the vegetable gardens. After arrival, all Aboriginal children aged between six and 15 years were removed from their families to be brought up by the storekeeper and a lay preacher. The Aboriginal people were free to roam the island and were often absent from the settlement for extended periods on hunting trips as the rations supplied turned out to be inadequate. By 1835
11446-525: The settlers. In addition, the colonies would be more or less self-governing. His ideas were not original, but Wakefield was the one who synthesised a number of theories into one plan of systematic colonisation, and who spread the ideas among the British public and urged the Colonial Office to push forward with such a plan. After his release from prison in 1830, he funded the National Colonization Society , with Gouger as secretary and
11564-405: The ships, Rapid and Cygnet . They proposed a new code for emigrant ships carrying more than 100 passengers, which meant having a minimum deck height and including a medical practitioner on board. These reforms reduced mortality and were later adopted by all British emigrant ships. Four ships chartered by the South Australia Company set sail for South Australia in early 1836: All four ships of
11682-406: The station was a former convict station that had been abandoned earlier that year due to health issues as it was located on inadequately drained mudflats . According to the guards, the Aboriginal people developed "too much independence" by trying to continue their culture which they considered "recklessness" and "rank ingratitude". Their numbers continued to diminish, being estimated in 1859 at around
11800-422: The trading, and the abduction, of Aboriginal women as sexual partners. These practices also increased conflict over women among Aboriginal tribes. This in turn led to a decline in the Aboriginal population. Historian Lyndall Ryan records 74 Aboriginal people (almost all women) living with sealers on the Bass Strait islands in the period up to 1835. In 1804, the first major massacre of Aboriginal Tasmanians occurred
11918-473: The use of clothes had a most mischievous effect on their health. By January 1832 a further 44 captured Aboriginal residents had arrived and conflicts arose between the tribal groups. To defuse the situation, Sergeant Wight took the Big River group to Green Island , where they were abandoned, and he later decided to move the rest to Green Island as well. Two weeks later Robinson arrived with Lieutenant Darling,
12036-408: The west coast of Tasmania, far from the settled regions, and wrote: "The numbers of Aborigines along the western coast have been considerably reduced since the time of my last visit [1830]. A mortality has raged amongst them which together with the severity of the season and other causes had rendered the paucity of their number very considerable." Between 1825 and 1831 a pattern of guerilla warfare by
12154-703: The white man's musket. The Oyster Cove people attracted contemporaneous international scientific interest from the 1860s onwards, with many museums claiming body parts for their collections. Scientists were interested in studying Aboriginal Tasmanians from a physical anthropology perspective, hoping to gain insights into the field of paleoanthropology . For these reasons, they were interested in individual Aboriginal body parts and whole skeletons . Tasmanian Aboriginal skulls were particularly sought internationally for studies into craniofacial anthropometry . Truganini herself entertained fears that her body might be exploited after her death and two years after her death her body
12272-601: Was appointed to act under the orders of the Commissioners. All monies were to be submitted to the Lord of His Majesty's Treasury , and be audited in the same manner as other public accounts. A report was required to be submitted to the Secretary of State at least once a year. Robert Gouger was Colonial Secretary to the Commission, John Hindmarsh was appointed Governor and William Light Surveyor-General. The Commission
12390-775: Was banished to Penguin Island . Later imprisoned on Swan Island she attempted to organise a rebellion. Although Aboriginal women were by custom forbidden to take part in war, several Aboriginal women who escaped from sealers became leaders or took part in attacks. According to Lyndall Ryan , the women traded to or kidnapped by sealers became "a significant dissident group" against European/white authority. Historian James Bonwick reported Aboriginal women who were clearly captives of sealers but he also reported women living with sealers who "proved faithful and affectionate to their new husbands", women who appeared "content" and others who were allowed to visit their "native tribe", taking gifts, with
12508-507: Was colonised by successive waves of Aboriginal people from southern Australia during glacial maxima , when the sea was at its lowest. The archeological and geographic record suggests a period of drying during the colder glacial period, with a desert extending from southern Australia into the midlands of Tasmania, with intermittent periods of wetter, warmer climate. Migrants from southern Australia into peninsular Tasmania would have crossed stretches of seawater and desert, and finally found oases in
12626-695: Was dispatched towards the shore. It was reported that spears and stones were thrown and the French responded with musket fire, killing at least one Aboriginal person and wounding several others. Two later French expeditions led by Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in 1792–93 and Nicolas Baudin in 1802 made friendly contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians; the d'Entrecasteaux expedition doing so over an extended period of time. The Resolution under Captain Tobias Furneaux (part of an expedition led by Captain James Cook ) had visited in 1773 but made no contact with
12744-530: Was established by July 1840, with George Strickland Kingston the first appointee to the role. Other architects who served in this role included Richard Lambeth; William Bennett Hays ; and Edward Hamilton , with George Soward acting in the position for six months after Hamilton's resignation in 1860. Edward Gibbon Wakefield Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
12862-618: Was established by the South Australia Act 1834 in August 1834, and the South Australian Company formed on 9 October 1835 to fulfil the purposes of the Act by forming a new colony financed by land sales. The first settlers arrived on Kangaroo Island in July 1836, with all of the ships later sailing north soon afterwards to anchor in Holdfast Bay on the advice of Surveyor-General , Colonel William Light . The foundation of South Australia
12980-498: Was exhumed and sent to Melbourne for scientific study. Her skeleton was then put up for public display in the Tasmanian Museum until 1947, and was only laid to rest, by cremation, in 1976. Another case was the removal of the skull and scrotum – for a tobacco pouch – of William Lanne , known as King Billy, on his death in 1869. However, many of these skeletons were obtained from Aboriginal "mummies" from graves or bodies of
13098-567: Was exposed to gales, had little water and no land suitable for cultivation. Supplies to the settlement were inadequate and if sealers had not supplied potatoes, the Aboriginal people would have starved. The Europeans were living on oatmeal and potatoes while the Aboriginal people, who detested oatmeal and refused to eat it, survived on potatoes and rice supplemented by mutton birds they caught. Within months 31 Aboriginal people had died. Roth wrote: They were lodged at night in shelters or "breakwinds." These "breakwinds" were thatched roofs sloping to
13216-698: Was named American River . The island soon became a target for sealers based in the British colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land . In 1826, The Australian estimated that Kangaroo Island had a population of around 200 people, who in addition to sealing also traded in salt and wallaby and kangaroo skins. However, following the decline of the sealing industry, the island's population had dwindled significantly by 1836. Several farms were established at Three Well Rivers , with poultry and pigs being reared and barley, wheat and vegetables under cultivation. Many residents lived with Aboriginal women – either from mainland South Australia or Aboriginal Tasmanians from
13334-434: Was only too well calculated to induce those severe pulmonary diseases which were destined to prove so fatal to them. The same may be said of the use of clothes ... At the settlement they were compelled to wear clothes, which they threw off when heated or when they found them troublesome, and when wetted by rain allowed them to dry on their bodies. In the case of Tasmanians, as with other wild tribes accustomed to go naked,
13452-471: Was prepared under the auspices of Gouger, Anthony Bacon , Jeremy Bentham and Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey , but its ideas were considered too radical, and it was unable to attract the required investment. After his first proposal failed, Wakefield published his "Plan of a company to be established for the purpose of founding a colony in Southern Australia, purchasing land therein and preparing
13570-419: Was required for settlement to proceed. The South Australian Company acted as a "third power" in the control of the colony and the one which saved it. The South Australia Act was finally ratified on 19 February 1836 and the first appointments made. The appointment of Governor of South Australia , as the most well-paid position and the most important one, proved complex. Sir Charles Napier (who had written
13688-513: Was responsible for land sales and for land surveying , including choosing the site for the capital city. However, the Act did not clarify the powers of the Commission vis-à-vis the Governor, which led to discord for some years. The South Australian Commission Land Sale Regulations 1835 , authored by the Colonization Commission in 1835, stipulated that surveys were to be undertaken and maps to be made available prior to sale of
13806-649: Was rewarded handsomely, while the salaries for the other men were small. Hindmarsh reported to the Colonial Office, while James Hurtle Fisher , Resident Commissioner, was paid far less, despite having practical control of the colony. Not only did Fisher head up the board of Commissioners, but the Treasurer, Emigration Agent, the Surveyor-General and the storekeeper were responsible to him. Hindmarsh and Fisher quarrelled frequently and could not work together harmoniously, so in 1838 both were recalled to London and
13924-652: Was started at Kingscote , at Reeves Point on Kangaroo Island (now a heritage-listed site, as the earliest formal European settlement in South Australia), on 27 July 1836, but this was soon abandoned in favour of a settlement on the mainland. Some of the original ships sailed on to Holdfast Bay in November and December, with Gouger, now Colonial Secretary and Chief Magistrate, arriving on the Africaine on 8 November 1836. The settlers set up camp, to be joined by
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