July 30.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Dispossession and Transportation
….the 'whole race' should be transported to the Bass Strait islands
The press in Hobart and Launceston were divided about the report [issued by the Aborigines Committee] [1] The Colonial Times had initially welcomed the committee's inquiry, but as each week brought further news of Aboriginal atrocities and destruction of property it simply reiterated its original suggestion, that the 'whole race' should be transported to the Bass Strait islands. [2] The Colonial Advocate took a different view:
The reflection that so much blood is daily spilled on both sides, must surely be very dreadful to a feeling heart. There can be little doubt that many scores of the unhappy and useless race themselves are frequently shot dead by the stock keepers and others, not only when attacked, but in revenge for the death of their fellow countrymen, who have fallen to the blacks. It is said privately that up the country, instances occur where the Natives 'are shot like so many crows', which never comes before the public. [3]
In this case, the newspaper could have been referring to unconfirmed reports from the Clyde River of at least two night attacks in April on the Big River people which had taken at least ten lives. It could also have been referring to the new military and police offensive in the same month against the Pallittorre along the Meander River in which at least ten more had been killed. [4] By the end of July the Colonial Times was no longer in the mood for reflection. In its view the Aborigines were the enemy and nothing short of a full-scale military operation would 'teach them a lesson'. [5]
[Lieutenant Governor] Arthur was more concerned by how Sir George Murray, the secretary of state for the colonies, would receive the report. Murray had already admonished him for not sending more information about his decision to invoke martial law. Murray had also been horrified to learn of the 'great decrease' in the Aboriginal population and was now concerned by the prospect that 'the whole race of these people may, at no distant period, become extinct'. [6] He told Arthur he blamed the settlers for the 'dreadful situation' and warned that 'the adoption of any line of conduct having for its avowed or for its secret object, the extermination of the Native-race, could not fail to leave an indelible stain upon the character of the British Government'. [7] After reading the report he was at pains to point out that, contrary to beliefs held by the authors, the settlers and the colonial press, the British occupation of Van Diemen's Land was not sufficient reason in itself to allow the extermination of the Aborigines unless it could be demonstrated that they were the original aggressors.* But as the committee's report of the massacre at Risdon Cove had revealed, this was certainly not the case. [8]
Report by the “Aborigines Committee” established by Governor Arthur in November, 1829.
Colonial Times, 19 Feb. 1830.
Colonial Advocate, 1 April 1830,
Plomley, Weep in Silence, 325; HRA, series III, vol. ix, 195; Anstey to Col. Sec., 10 April 1830, TAHO CSO 1/316, 189; Moriarty to Col. Sec., 18 April 1830, TAHO CSO 1/316, 489.
Colonial Times, 30 July 1830.
HRA, series III, vol. viii, 587-8; HRA, series III, vol. ix, 311-12.
HRA, series III, vol. ix, 311-12.
HRA, series III, vol. ix, 572-6.
Acknowledgment: Lyndall Ryan, Tasmanian Aborigines, pp. 127-128, 372 n.13, n.14, n.15, n.16, n.17, n.18, n.19.
* Presumably, in the taking of Tasmania, the British were the 'original aggressors'. - RB