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The Impact of Dispossession

From the middle of the 1820s colonization moved quickly into the upper Hunter Valley bringing major disruption to traditional Aboriginal society. According to the Historical Records of Newcastle a government account in 1827 revealed there were ‘25,540 horned cattle’ and ‘80,000 sheep’ in the Hunter Valley. The lush grasslands described a few years earlier by John Howe were being rapidly consumed by the beasts of the colonists and with it the environment of Aboriginal people was grossly disturbed.

With their food supply diminished Aboriginal people turned to the sheep, cattle and crops of the colonists to survive, but as stated this brought retribution from the colonists who reacted with violent force to what they saw as ‘incursions’ of their property. Without food the health of Aboriginal people naturally deteriorated and a reliance on the handouts of the colonists was precarious to state the least. Occasionally Aboriginal people did work of a seasonal nature by assisting in the harvest of crops in return for foods such as flour, pumpkins and sugar, but too often the payments included addictive substances such as alcohol and tobacco. And when the work ceased so did the payments leaving Aboriginal people in the unenviable position of trying to survive in an environment that was losing its vitality.

In 1846 a Select Committee of Inquiry was conducted to investigate the state of Aboriginal people in the Hunter Valley which revealed a number of negative aspects of the impact of dispossession. The following extract is from the reply by Reverend Joseph Cooper of the Church of England to the Inquiry and relates to the state of Aboriginal people in the upper Hunter Valley at Falbrook, Jerry’s Plains and Wollombi:

The probable number Aborigines in this district is about one hundred and fifty. The males are the most numerous; there is however a fair proportion of females; the number of children is comparatively small.

The number has greatly diminished; within the last seven years the decrease has certainly been one-third of the number. About seven years ago I have seen eighty and ninety Aborigines encamped in the township of Paterson; the greatest number at the present never excedes twenty of twenty-five.

The decrease appears to me to have taken place mainly among the adults. The number of children observed among them... was so small that the decrease could not arise from casualties among them ... many of the finest young men, existing even three of four years ago, have now disappeared.

The causes are in my opinion two- The vice of drunkenness, to which they are, both male and female, very addicted; and disease contracted through their intercourse of their women with the whites.

Their condition is very wretched; their means of subsistence is lessened to a very great extent ... There are few or no kangaroo; they have either been destroyed, or they have retired far from the haunts of men. The kangaroo was the chief food of the natives.

Obviously traditional Aboriginal society of the upper Hunter Valley was experiencing major problems. In particular the winter times were harsh periods for Aboriginal people struggling to find a place in the sun away from the glare of colonization. The government occasionally distributed blankets as a means of helping Aboriginal people and it is interesting to note the comments of Reverend Cooper who requested in 1846 that the issue of such comforts be resumed:

I know of no bad effects arising from giving the unfortunate Aborigines blankets; we have, in a great measure, been the means of depriving them of the source from which they formerly derived their warm clothing in abundance, and it would seem cruel to withhold the blankets; I certainly think it would be highly advisable, both on the ground of principle and charity, to resume the distribution.

Pp 26 - 28

Source:
Wannin Thanbarran
A History of Aboriginal and European Contact in Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter Valley
Greg Blyton, Deirdre Heitmeyer and John Maynard
Umulliko Centre for Indigenous Higher Education
The University of Newcaste
A project of the Muswellbrook Shire Council Aboriginal Reconciliation Committee