Aboriginal History Timeline
Aboriginal History Timeline
1. 1918
§ The Northern Territory Aboriginal Ordinance Act "ensured that Aboriginal
people could not drink or possess or supply alcohol or methylated spirits,
could not come within two chains of licensed premises, have firearms, marry
non-Aboriginal people without permission or have sex across the colour line".
§ The Ordinance also forbids mining on Aboriginal Reserve Land.
2. 1920
§ Groote Eylandt, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, is named an Aboriginal Reserve.
A number of missions have been established there.
§ Aboriginal population is estimated to be at its lowest at 60,000 - 70,000. It is
widely believed to be a ‘dying race’. Most Australians have no contact with
Aboriginal people due to segregation and social conventions.
3. 1925
§ The Church Missionary Society of the Church of England sets up a mission at
Oenpelli, Central Australia. The Aboriginal community later run a water
buffalo farm and sell X-ray style bark paintings.
§ April: Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association is formed in Sydney
to oppose New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board. Its inaugural
president is Fred Maynard.
4. 1926
§ Following the killing of a European in Dala, Western Australia, 11 Aboriginal
people are murdered in police custody; no prosecutions follow.
5. 1927
§ Federal law for family endowment excludes Aboriginal people and instead
payments go to Aborigines Protection Board. Aboriginal people are denied
maternity allowance and old age pension.
§ Aboriginal people are banned from central Perth until 1948.
6. 1928
§ Conniston Massacre in the Northern Territory. Europeans shoot 32
Aboriginal people after a European dingo trapper and a station owner are
attacked by them. A court of inquiry rules the Europeans’ action ‘justified’.
Aboriginal people are refused legal aid by the federal government.
§ Aboriginal activist and toymaker Anthony Martin Fernando (1864 - 1949)
is picketing Australia House in London. Pinned to his coat
are scores of small, white, toy skeletons and he’s wearing a placard
proclaiming: ‘This is all Australia has left of my people’.
7. 1929
§ Queensland Protector of Aborigines recommends to the federal government
that Aboriginal people be assimilated where they are in contact with European
society and that inviolable reserves be established for tribal people.
§ Aboriginal athlete Lynch Cooper is named World Professional Sprint
Champion after winning the 1928 Stawell Gift and the 1929 World Sprint.
8. 1930
§ Victorian Yorta Yorta man William 930: First stamp of
Cooper petitions the King to have an Australia showing a
Aboriginal representative in the federal reference to
Indigenous
House of Representatives, the main culture. Note the
chamber of the national Australian boomerang at the foot
of Captain Charles
parliament. A similar attempt is made in Sturt’s portrait.
NSW. They are unsuccessful.
9. 1934
§ Under the Aborigines Act, Aboriginal people can apply to ‘cease being
Aboriginal’ and have access to the same rights as ‘whites’.
§ The Arnhem Land Reserve is declared.
10. 1935
§ The Methodist Overseas Mission establishes Yirrkala, an Aboriginal
community on the Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory. It was later taken over
by the United Church in North Australia.
§ The introduction of the Infants Welfare Act (Tasmania) is used to remove
Indigenous children on Cape Barren Island from their families. From 1928
until 1980 the head teacher on Cape Barren is appointed as a special constable
with the powers and responsibilities of a police constable, including the power
to remove a child for neglect under child welfare legislation.
11. 1936
§ Western Australia Aborigines Act is amended to permit Aboriginal people
to be taken into custody without trial or appeal and to prevent them from
entering prescribed towns without a permit.
1. 1937
Assimilation policy
§ 21-23 April: Aboriginal Welfare - Conference of Commonwealth and
State Authorities called by the federal government, decides that the official
policy for some Aboriginal people is assimilation policy. Aboriginal people
of mixed descent are to be assimilated into white society whether they want to
be or not, those not living tribally are to be educated and all others are to stay
on reserves.
“In 50 years we should forget that there were any Aborigines in this country”.
—A.O. Neville, Western Australian Chief Aboriginal Protector [10]
9. 1948
§ The Commonwealth Citizenship and Nationality Act for the first time makes
all Australians, including all Aboriginal people, Australian citizens. But at
state level they still suffer legal discrimination.
§ Aboriginal children assimilate into NSW local schools, if all other parents
agree. This right of veto is removed in 1960.
12. 1951
§ The federal government convenes the Australian Conference for Native
Welfare, with all states and territories represented except Victoria and
Tasmania, which claim to have no Aboriginal ‘problem’. The conference
officially adopts a policy of ‘assimilation’ for Aboriginal people.
‘Assimilation means, in practical terms, that it is expected that all
persons of Aboriginal birth or mixed blood in Australia will live like
white Australians do.’
13. 1952
§ In a progressive decision, the Minister for Territories, Paul Hasluck,
earmarks all statutory royalties raised on Aboriginal reserves to be held in
trust for Aboriginal people. All royalties raised on Aboriginal land are
foregone by the Commonwealth and paid to a new institution, the
Aboriginals Benefit Trust Account (ABTA).
14. 1953
§ The Northern Territory Welfare Ordinance makes Aboriginal people wards
of the government, basically making Aboriginal adults and children, minors.
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timeline-1900-1969#ixzz4h9xbu0sV