A Brief History of Australian Aborigines

Australian Aborigines

For Aborigines, Australia was a marginally better place in which to live in 1945 then in 1900. At the turn of the century, the Australian state governments neither had a uniform nor clear Aboriginal policy. Treatment of Aborigines was consequently decided by society’s individual attitudes, not law. While many people (white) were aggressive towards Aborigines till well past 1945, a general more sympathetic attitude towards them started to slightly ease the strong oppression they were shackled by. As the social stance towards aborigines improved so did the political policy, leading to a small improvement in (or the minor establishment of) Aboriginal economy, though in practise their actual situation had changed little by 1945.

Colonisation (1788) ended traditional life for Aborigines and started a period of white degradation, leading to their severely oppressed situation in 1900. Control over all Australian land, besides the very remote areas, had been lost. Aborigines were not given the chance to determine their own future and even their language was dying out. “Few whites took the trouble to learn anything about Aboriginal life; many whites regarded Aborigines as oddities or nuisances.”

To add injury to insult, aborigines were often the victims or violent racial crimes and discrimination. Asked to make a report to the Western Australian Government in 1905, Dr W.E. Roth revealed “a most brutal and outrageous state of affairs” in the northern part of the state. As had been happening throughout the country for many years previous, aborigines were treated with severe inhumanity. There was police corruption in administering aborigines’ ration allowances; many arrested aborigines and aboriginal w...

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Australian Aborigines - History and Culture, Research Project

15. (Report and Recommendation of the Public Service Board of New South Wales, 1938); taken from:

Merrit, Alan and O’Brien, Carolyn; 1995 – “Questions and Issues in Australian Society”; Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne.

16. Gibbs, R.M., 1974 – “The Aborigines”; Addison and Wesley Longman Australia Pty Limited, Melbourne.

p. 108-110

17. Gibbs, R.M., 1974 – “The Aborigines”; Addison and Wesley Longman Australia Pty Limited, Melbourne.

p. 111

18. Merrit, Alan and O’Brien, Carolyn; 1995 – “Questions and Issues in Australian Society”; Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne.

p. 38

19. Merrit, Alan and O’Brien, Carolyn; 1995 – “Questions and Issues in Australian Society”; Thomas Nelson Australia, Melbourne.

p. 38