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Under the Act

Soon after 1788 the British began attempts to 'civilise' the Aboriginals, to induce them to adopt the British way of life - to settle down, take up agriculture and follow Christian beliefs. These attempts took many forms.

Phillip, the first Governor, was eager for Aboriginal people to come into the settlement at Port Jackson so that they could begin to learn about British customs and so that each group could learn the language of the other. However, since the people would not come of their own free will, he decided to capture some of them. Phillip's first captive, Arabanoo, died of smallpox. He then captured Colbe and Bennelong. The former soon escaped, but Bennelong had a long association with Phillip and the settlement. This, however, led to his being rejected by his own people.

In 1814 Governor Macquarie established the Native Institution for Aboriginal Children at Parramatta and in 1815 set aside land on Georges Head on which the Aboriginals were to settle and tend gardens. Another reserve was attempted at Elizabeth Bay in 1826, and the Native Institution at Blacktown was established in 1829. Church missions were set up at Lake Macquarie in 1824 and at Wellington in 1831, but both were closed by the early 1840s.

These ventures, though each was short- lived, set the pattern for future attempts at 'civilising' the Aboriginals, which were to be based on 'protection' in reserves and, eventually, 'assimilation'. Aboriginal people were to become law-abiding Christian farmers.

For the 30 years after 1841, the Commissioners of Crown Lands were responsible for submitting annual reports on the numbers of Aboriginals in their districts, for distributing blankets and rations, and for disarming them. The only law passed was the Supply of Liquors to Aborigines Prevention Act of 1867 which forbad the sale of alcohol to Aboriginals.

In the 1860s more government reserves were set up. They were mostly in rural areas and unsupervised. Police were appointed as official protectors to encourage Aboriginal people to settle on the reserves. Some Aboriginals managed to stay away from them, living along the river banks or in fringe camps, but their lives were still under the control of the government. In the 1870s missionaries again became interested in the welfare of Aboriginals; Maloga Mission (1874) on the Murray River and Warangesda (1879) near Darlington Point were established. In 1882 Cummeragunja Government Station, also on the Murray, was set up. For almost the next 100 years - until the late 1960s - Aboriginals were increasingly institutionalised and their rights restricted.

In June 1883 the Aborigines Protection Board was established. The Board, consisting of five men, controlled the lives of the 9000 or so 'full-blood' and 'part- Aboriginal' people who lived in New South Wales. More reserves or stations were set up - by 1900 there were 133 of them. Maloga and Warangesda were taken over by the Board, and the people of Maloga subsequently moved to Cummeragunja. Missionaries were allowed to live on the reserves.

In 1909 the New South Wales .J Aborigines Protection Act was passed. , This was to be the main legislation governing the lives of Aboriginal people for the next 60 or so years, although it was amended many times according to changing government policies. The Act provided for all reserves and stations and all buildings to be vested in the Board. The Board had the power to move Aboriginal people out of towns; to set up managers, local committees and local guardians (police) for the reserves; to control reserves; to prevent liquor being sold to Aboriginals; and to stop whites from associating with Aboriginals or entering the reserves.

Amendments to the Act in 1915 and 1918 allowed the Board to remove children from their parents for training, and to force 'half-castes' to leave the reserves. Young girls were sent to Cootamundra Girls Home to train as domestic servants, and the boys to Singleton to train for service on farms. Kinchela Boys Home at Kempsey was established in 1924. The children in these institutions received almost no education and their labour was exploited. The effects on Aboriginal family life were devastating.

From the 1920s the policy became one of enforced assimilation for 'part- Aboriginals' as the Board tried to reduce the number of people on the reserves. In the 1930s people were shifted from one reserve to another, so that some reserves could be closed and the land leased to neighbouring white farmers, as happened at Tibooburra, Angledool and Carowa Tank. '.

The Aboriginal Welfare Board replaced the Aborigines Protection Board in 1940, but continued, under a 'new policy of assimilation', to close reserves and encourage people to move to town. In 1967 a Joint Committee of the two houses of State Parliament strongly endorsed these policies. The Committee also recommended that in due course all Aboriginal reserves should disappear. Such decisions totally demoralised the people still living on the reserves, who had come to regard them as homelands. (The subsequent official neglect of these properties largely accounts for the poor conditions suffered by many Aboriginal people now living on former reserves.)

During the 1920s Aboriginal people began to lobby for the abolition of the Aborigines Protection Board in favour of a body with an all-Aboriginal membership, Several organisations were formed and were active throughout the 1920s, '30s and '40s: the Australian Aborigines Progress Association, the Australian Aborigines League and the Aborigines Progressive Association. These organisations also fought for national citizenship for Aboriginals and full equality with other citizens, Some people also wanted a representative in the Common- wealth Parliament.

Those involved in these activities in the 1930s came from all parts of New South Wales and Victoria. Among them were William Cooper (Cummeragunja), Bill Ferguson (Dubbo), Margaret Tucker and Douglas Nicholls (Melbourne), Jack and Selina Patten and Tom Foster (La Perouse), Pearl Gibbs (Brewarrina), Jack Kinchela (Coonabarabran) and Helen Grosvenor (Redfern).

In 1937, with the l5Oth anniversary of British settlement looming, Bill Ferguson, inspired by William Cooper, called the founding meeting of the Aborigines Progressive Association and set about organising a conference in Sydney for 26 January 1938, It was called' A Day of Mourning and Protest', About 1000 Aboriginal men and women attended, Before the meeting a pamphlet' Aborigines claim citizen rights!' was written by Patten and Ferguson. This meeting was the culmination of ten years' action by New South Wales Aboriginals against the policies of the Aborigines Protection Board.

The following week, on 31 January 1938, a deputation of about 20 people presented the Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, with a proposed national policy for Aboriginals. They wanted Commonwealth control of all Aboriginal matters, with a separate Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs; an administration advised by a Board of six, at least three of whom were to be Aboriginals nominated by the Aborigines Progressive Association; and full citizen status for all Aboriginals and civil equality with white Australians, including equality in education, labour laws, workers compensation, pensions, land ownership and wages. Lyons replied that, under the Constitution, Commonwealth control was not possible.

These protests prompted the State Government to set up the New South Wales Parliamentary Select Committee of 1937 and the Public Service Board investigation of 1938 to look at mis- management and conditions on the reserves. Unfortunately, very little resulted from these investigations.

Aboriginal action continued. In February 1939 people at Cummeragunja went on strike; they left the reserve and camped on the other side of the Murray River in Victoria. Protest meetings were held in the Domain in Sydney. The movement for citizen rights continued into the 1960s. During the 'Freedom Rides' of 1965 students and Aboriginals protested against discrimination in certain New South Wales towns.

Source:
Aboriginal Australia
Aboriginal People of NSW
Produced by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission 1997
(c) Comonwealth of Australia 1997
ISBN 0 664 10152 0