Natasha Ravanello: S00170598

HIST106: Australian Indigenous Peoples: Past and Present

Tutor: Leonie Stevens

HIST106- WRITTEN TASK 2

In what ways did governments fail to provide opportunities for Aboriginal people on
missions and reserves during the mid-19th century?

Section 1:
1. The Central Board provided little money and few rations, the men had to hunt for
several days a week and periodically work on adjoining properties to get money for seed,
stock and equipment. (p. 83)
2. The Victorian government refused to give the Kulin individual blocks or title to their
reserves, which created insecurity and dampened their radical hope. (p. 86)
3. The board refused to pay Aboriginal workers any wages during the 1860s, despite
improvements being made to the land (owned by the Board and not by them). (p. 86)
4. The loss of land and people had pushed them onto reserves and the settled life of
agriculture, where managers, who usually were missionaries, actively pursued the
Civilising Mission by means of work, schooling and even teaching them cricket. (p. 84)
5. Bureaucratic control increased with an 1869 Act that gave the Victorian Aborigines
Protection Board greater power over reserves, and control over work and wages, the
movement of adults and the removal of children. (p. 91)
6. Coranderrk and other reserves were by then in decline, as the 1886 Act ruins the
viability of these once-thriving settlements by removing their younger and able bodied
workers. (p. 94)

Section 2:
During the mid 19th century, it was evident that the governments fail to provide opportunities
for Aboriginal people on missions and reserves. The Central Board of the Victorian
Government placed high restrictions on the Aboriginal people, such as providing little money
to the men who in turn had to work during the week on adjoining properties in order to get
money for necessities. The women and men living at the reserve had to work even harder for
the settlement to remain alive. It was also a common occurrence for the Victorian
Government and the board to refuse requests of the Aboriginal people. The Kulin individuals
were refused entitlement to their reserves, which impacted on their radical hope to help other
members of the community. The board also showed its disapproval in paying any of the
Aboriginal workers in the 1860s, in spite of the improvements they made to the land, which
didnt belong to them and is instead owned by the board. It wasnt until the protests
 Natasha Ravanello: S00170598
HIST106: Australian Indigenous Peoples: Past and Present
Tutor: Leonie Stevens

conducted by Green and Kulin that the board finally agreed to pay a small wage to
supplement rations.
In other Victorian reserves, Aboriginal people were pushed onto lands of agriculture
and those who were usually acted as missionaries were instead pursuing the means of work,
schooling and teaching others how to play cricket. It also became apparent to the Aboriginal
people that the attack on Coranderrk and the Cummeragunja in Victoria and New South
Wales took a bureaucratic form. Under this circumstance, the Victorian Aborigines Protection
Board was awarded greater power over the reserves and also had significant control over
work and wages, as well as the movement of adults and the removal of the children on the
land. After the bureaucratic influence, the board further took away any profits for revenues
from Coranderrks economy. Furthermore, due to these reserves being in decline, the 1886
Act came into action by removing the younger generation children who are more physically
able-bodied from the settlements. After this movement, Coranderrk became a neglected
reserve with the loss of many of their settlers, and a limited amount of able-bodied men.