December 1999 David Rhodes, Taryn Debney and Mark Grist
ABORIGINAL POST-CONTACT HISTORY
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- 8.2Settlement conflict after the 1830s
- 8.3Government sponsored ‘protection’ 1837-1860
8.0ABORIGINAL POST-CONTACT HISTORY8.1Contact history from 1803When the first ethnographic reports were written of early relationships between colonialists and Aboriginal people, they indicate a degree of harmoniousness (Wiencke 1984: 19). Joseph Solomon, for example, had a good relationship with the Aboriginal people he met in the vicinity of his property on the Maribyrnong River at Braybrook. Alfred Solomon, son of Joseph, notes that: During the early years of (Joseph Solomon’s) settlement, he had many dealings with the blacks, but they did not cause him much trouble…It was [Joseph Solomon’s] rule to allow them to bring their weapons when visiting the homestead to receive food and presents, but they rarely showed any signs of hostility (Flynn 1906: 6). Interestingly, Joseph Solomon was among the first white people in the region to have a written work agreement with an Aboriginal person. In 1839 Chief Protector Robinson formalised the verbal agreement which had existed between Solomon and his employee and drafted an official agreement. This detailed a contract between E.T. Newton, Solomon’s overseer, and Robert Bullett, an Aboriginal person who had originally worked for John Batman. The contract stated that Robert Bullett agreed to the terms of the contract for a period of twelve months for the sum of 26 pounds sterling per annum with board and lodging, payment of which was to be lodged with the Melbourne Savings Bank in the name and for the use of Robert Bullett (Cannon 1983: 743).
Although the treaty was not accepted by the government in Sydney or London, Governor Bourke then decided to establish the formal occupation of Port Phillip under his own government. Bourke sent William Lonsdale to act as Police Magistrate in the Port Phillip district to ensure that Aboriginal people were being cared for and protected. This reflects the Christian and Eurocentric attitudes in London at that time, when it was commonly thought that Aboriginal people needed to be ‘civilised’ (Presland 1985: 92-94). Hence, conciliation and protection were regarded in terms of distributing presents (blankets, suits, night caps) and getting Aboriginal people to work in return for food and clothing (Wiencke 1984: 12). Although the administrators had peaceful intentions, relations between Aboriginal people and pastoralists and settlers broke down as traditional clan estate lands were rapidly taken up for grazing during the 1830s and 1840s. Pastoralism resulted in a drastic reduction of food and water resources for Aboriginal people, introduced diseases and direct assaults on clans, all of which decimated their populations. Such serious conflict caused Governor Bourke to issue a proclamation in 1836 threatening prosecution “of all persons who may be guilty of any outrage against Aborigines in Port Phillip” (Wiencke 1984: 19). Governor Bourke also organised the establishment of an Anglican mission for displaced Aboriginal people in the hope that it would be a ‘civilising’ experience. This mission was run by Revered Langhorne and was set up in South Yarra in a corroboree area. Regardless of Bourke’s attempts to protect Aboriginal people from European settlers, the situation worsened. Woi wurrung and Bun wurrung clans in the vicinity of Melbourne rapidly became dispossessed by the increasing numbers of European immigrants and restrictive legislation. To provide some idea of how rapid the clan depopulation was, Assistant Protector William Thomas estimated that the clans in the vicinity of Melbourne had numbered 350 persons in 1836. However, in 1838 he counted only 292, and only 207 were listed in Thomas’ censure of November 1839 (Barwick 1998: 30). Although Thomas reported that no Woi wurrung died at the hands of Europeans after 1839, only 59 survived by 1852 (Barwick 1998: 30). The dispossession of clan estate lands steadily increased with the introduction of the ‘Squatters Act’, which meant that settlers could establish themselves on any part of the land. It was a commonly regarded result that: …the natives who remain in the neighbourhood of the settled districts became pilfering, starving and obtrusive mendicants…for no adequate provision is made for them (Orton in Wiencke 1984: 33). 8.3Government sponsored ‘protection’ 1837-1860In response to such reports, the British government established a scheme whereby Protectors of Aborigines were appointed from 1837 (Cannon 1983: 365). The role of the protectors was to provide food and shelter, record information and to Europeanise Aboriginal people. William Thomas, the Assistant Protector for the Melbourne region, attempted to draw Woi wurrung and Bun wurrung people away from the new Melbourne township, where they were camped about three kilometres above Melbourne, under clan head Billibillery (Barwick 1998: 31). He entreated them to join him at Narre Narre Warren, where Thomas planned to set up a station (Presland 1994: 103). Thomas had established this station, on the Dandenong Creek, by October 1840. It was established inside the territory of an eastern Woi wurrung clan, but had virtually failed by the end of 1841 due to a lack of attendance. Barwick (1998: 31) attributes this inattendance to a lack of rations. Those present at the station were only provided with rations if they cooperated in the planting of wheat and vegetables, and were then only given scanty amounts, mostly of vegetables. Many Bun wurrung were also reluctant to settle there, possibly because they were of the same moiety as the owning clan and had no rights relating to intermarriage (Barwick 1998: 31). As a result, many Woi wurrung drifted back to camps in Melbourne, though by June 1846, by government orders, they were forced to leave. Thomas is reported as saying “Poor fellows, they are now compelled to shift almost at the will and caprice of the whites’ (Barwick 1998:33). The clans’ grief was exacerbated by the death of their clan head, Billibellary, who died on 9 August 1846 (Wiencke 1984: 37). A separate reserve was finally set up for the Bun wurrung in 1852, after pressure was exerted by Thomas on Superintendent La Trobe, who wanted the Kulin kept out of Melbourne. The Bun wurrung had requested land for cultivation in their own territory from Thomas in 1849, and three years later that they were finally granted 367 hectares at Mordialloc, one of their favourite hunting places (Barwick 1998: 35). The Mordialloc camp became the Bun wurrung’s main camp for 25 years, though by 1860s there were only a few survivors left. The rest were buried at the reserve cemetery (Barwick 1998: 52). The 1858 Select Committee was told of Derrimut’s complaints that Europeans were coming onto the reserve and building homes. Derrimut, the Yallukit willam clan head of the Bun wurrung, had complained to William Thomas that ‘white man take away Mordialloc where black fellows sit down’ (Barwick 1998: 64). However, the Lands Board approved its sale and the surveyors then divided it up into allotments. Derrimut pleaded desperately that the graves of his ancestors had been buried there since 1839, but the Lands Board were not swayed in their decision to sell the land, stating that it had never been gazetted as an Aboriginal reserve (Barwick 1998: 64). Between the 1840s and early 1860s, the Woi wurrung and Bun wurrung suffered increasingly. Subsistence hunting was no longer feasible as European settlers were using increasingly aggressive measures to keep Aboriginal people off their land. William Thomas continually appealed to the government to set aside reserves within the clans’ traditional territories, though greedy colonists constantly opposed land reservation. Clan heads of the Bun wurrung and Woi wurrung also appealed constantly to William Thomas and Superintendent La Trobe, without success. Meanwhile, clanspeople were forced to seek work to obtain food. Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 0.72 Mb. Share with your friends:
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