November 13.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Military operations to Land Rights
Soldiery on the Western Front of Tasmania
The Oatlands rangers and local Bothwell parties were not the only forces in the field. They were just the best documented. Even before hearing the outcome of these roving missions, [Governor] Arthur was sending further reinforcements to the Bothwell district. As well as encouraging settlers to defend themselves, authorising the formation of locally raised roving parties, and sending forces overseen by [Gilbert] Robertson and [Jorgen] Jorgenson, Arthur sent in more of the army. On 13 November, 1829 the Colonial Secretary wrote to [Lieutenant] Williams [Police Magistrate] at Bothwell, and his counterpart in New Norfolk:
The Lieut Governor having learnt with extreme regret that repeated outrages of the most barbarous nature, have recently been perpetuated in your District by the Natives, has been pleased to direct that Lieut Gibbons and a Detachment of Military, should proceed tomorrow morning to Hamilton at the Lower Clyde, there to encamp, in order to check the atrocities and expel the Aborigines from that, and the surrounding Country; you will therefore be pleased to co-operate by every means in your power, with the Officer commanding the troops, for the attainment of these very important objects. [1]
Details about the military operations are scarce, but Arthur's orders were clearly followed relatively swiftly. 'A detachment of 100 strong' left for the Clyde station' within a week. [2]
...Military operations were further strengthened in November 1829 when Captain Vicary replaced Lieutenant Williams as Bothwell police magistrate... Vicary was a recent promotion, and a relatively new arrival in the colony, but had already demonstrated a fighting spirit. One correspondent commended his 'measures adopted' against Aboriginal people. [3] Another praised Vicary for parties under his command in the midlands, because 'nothing could exceed the alacrity with which they performed their disagreeable duty'. [4] the experience of combined operations to protect and clear the central midlands were now being turned more fully towards the western high country.
The immediate impact of Vicary's new force is hard to discern. Certainly, it bolstered defensive arrangements. This increased the colony's capacity for offensive operations to clear the area of Aboriginal people...
CSO4/1/1, p. 349.
Hobart Town Courier, 21 November 1829. p.3.
Hobart Town Courier, 13 December 1829. p.2.
Hobart Town Courier, 7 March 1829. p.2.
Acknowledgment: Nick Brodie, The Vandemonian War, pp.115, 116, 391, n.43, n.44, n.47, n.48.
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“...entitled to their own land.”
[In November, 1972] in Blacktown, Western Sydney, [Gough] Whitlam delivered a comprehensive speech...On Aboriginal land rights, Whitlam declared:
We will legislate to give Aborigines land rights – not just because their cause is beyond argument, but because all of us as Australians are diminished while the Aborigines are denied their rightful place in this nation...we...insist that whatever the law of George III says, a tribe and a race with an identity of centuries – of millenia – is as much entitled to their own land as even a proprietary company. [1]
'It's Time': Whitlam's 1972 Election policy Speech - [accessed 30 May 2012] <http://whitlamdismissal.com/1972/11/13/whitlam-1972-election-policy-speech.html>