An Aboriginal reserve, also called simply reserve, was a government-run settlement for Aboriginal Australians, created under various state and federal legislation. Along with missions and other institutions, they were used from the 19th century to the 1960s to keep Aboriginal people separate from the white Australian population, for various reasons perceived by the government of the day. The Aboriginal reserve laws gave governments much power over all aspects of Aboriginal people’s lives. Protectors of Aborigines and Aboriginal Protection Boards were appointed to look after the interests of the Aboriginal people.
History
Aboriginal reserves were used from the nineteenth century to keep Aboriginal people separate from the white Australian population, often ostensibly for their protection. Protectors of Aborigines had been appointed from as early as 1836 in South Australia, with the Governor proclaiming that Aboriginal people were "to be considered as much under the safeguard of the law as the Colonists themselves, and equally entitled to the Privileges of British Subjects. Under the Aboriginal Orphans Ordinance 1844 the Protector was made legal guardian of "every half-caste and other unprotected Aboriginal child whose parents are dead or unknown". Schools and reserves were set up. Despite these attempts at protection, Moorhouse himself presided over the Rufus River massacre in 1841. The office of Protector was abolished in 1856; within four years, 35 of the 42 Aboriginal reserves had been leased to settlers. In 1839 George Augustus Robinson was appointed the first Chief Protector Victoria in 1839. In the second half of the 19th century, in an attempt to reduce the violence on the frontiers, devastation by disease and to provide a "humane" environment for Aboriginal people, perceived as a dying race, the states' colonial governments passed legislation designed to "protect" them. The idea was that by legislating to create certain territory for Aboriginal people, the clashes over land would stop, and the Aboriginal people would become less reliant on government rations by using the land to farm. Aboriginal Protection Boards were created in most states:
In Queensland, the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, for the "better protection and care of the aboriginal and half-caste inhabitants of the colony", established the positions of regional Protectors and later Chief Protector. Further amendments and other Acts followed, but the effects were very similar, until 1991.
In South Australia, the protection of the Aboriginal people was mostly left to missionaries from 1856 to 1881, when another Protector was appointed. In 1912, the Aborigines' Office became the Aborigines' Department, initially a change in name only. In 1918, an Advisory Council of Aborigines was appointed under powers given by the Aborigines Act 1911, to take control of the existing missions. The Aborigines Act Amendment Act 1939 abolished the office of Chief Protector of Aborigines and the Advisory Council, and created the Aborigines Protection Board, of which Charles Duguid was a founding member.
The Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910 was an Act of the South Australian parliament, after having made no legislative provision for Aboriginal people in the NT for 47 years, soon before the NT was transferred to federal control. It was repealed by the Aboriginals Ordinance 1918 on 13 June 1918, which combined and replaced the Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910 and the Commonwealth Aboriginals Ordinance 1911. These Acts established the Northern Territory Aboriginals Department and created the office of Chief Protector. The department was responsible for the control and welfare of Aboriginal people in the Territory, and under the Act, the Chief Protector was appointed the "legal guardian of every Aboriginal and every half-caste child up to the age of 18 years", and had the power to confine such children to an Aboriginal reserve or institution. The 1939 version of the Ordinance, intended to give effect to the change in policy, did not allow for self-determination either.
Impact
The Aboriginal reserve laws gave governments much power over all aspects of Aboriginal people’s lives. They lost basic human rights like freedom of movement, custody of children and control over property. In some states and the Northern Territory, the Chief Protector had legal guardianship over all Aboriginal children, ahead of the parents. These policies were at their worst in the 1930s. "In the name of protection", suggest the authors of the 1997 Bringing Them Home report, "Indigenous people were subject to near-total control". The forcible removal of children from their families led to what became known as the Stolen Generations.
Examples
South Australia
Several Aboriginal missions, including Point McLeay and Point Pearce became Aboriginal reserves, as recommended by the Royal Commission on the Aborigines. Included in the recommendations was that the government become the legal guardian of all Aboriginal children upon reaching their 10th birthday, and place them "where they deem best". Seven years after the Final Report of the Commission, the Aborigines Act 1923, in order to allow Indigenous children to be "trained" in a special institution so that they could go out and work.
Before the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, various religious organisations had established a number of mission stations, and the Colony of Queensland government had gazetted small areas as reserves for Aboriginal people to use. Once the Act was passed, all Aboriginal reserves became subject to the Act. For several of these reserves, Superintendents were appointed to carry out the provisions of the Act, and missionaries who had been running Aboriginal settlements also became Superintendents. However, the majority of reserves in Queensland were never "managed" reserves; they had no Superintendent and were usually controlled by the Local Protector of Aborigines.
