Birth of British Australia 1788-1829: What was impact of British settlement on Aboriginal people in Tasmania and NSW?

Question 1

How many Eora nation Aboriginal people were in the area of the first British settlement in NSW?

Answer 1

about 2,500

Question 2

What did Philips instruct convicts not to do in relation to the Aboriginal people?

Answer 2

steal from them

Question 3

What did Aboriginal people steal from convicts in retaliation for convicts stealing from them?

Answer 3

shovels, spaded and pick-axes

Question 4

When did Aboriginal people murder and then mutilate two convicts?

Answer 4

30 May 1788

Question 5

What instructions was Phillip given by British government in relation to the Aboriginal people?

Answer 5

Open discussions with them.
Encourage British to “live in amity and kindness with them”.
Punish British who didn’t do the above.

Question 6

How did Phillip try to demonstrate fairness of British justice to the Aboriginal people?

Answer 6

by flogging in their presence the convicts who had stolen fishing gear (but it didn’t work - Aboriginal people were more sympathetic to those being flogged)

Question 7

What caused about 50% of the coastal Aboriginal population of NSW to be killed in 1789?

Answer 7

smallpox

Question 8

What four theories are there about how Aboriginal people got smallpox in 1789?

Answer 8

1. deliberately brought over by British to kill them
2. transmitted from Makassans who came to trade with them
3. accidentally transmitted from clothing/goods on First Fleet (but no cases recorded on journey so not likely)
4. was virulent form of chickenpox not smallpox (and Aboriginal people would have had no immunity)

Question 9

What did Phillip do in response to being injured by a spear thrown by an Aboriginal individual?

Answer 9

nothing, as he didn’t want to stoke more violence

Question 10

In 1790s, what did Phillip organise in response to attacks on settlers?

Answer 10

two expeditions to find, attack and kill a few Aboriginal men (they failed)

Question 11

What was the Black War?

Answer 11

period of violent conflict between Aborginal people and settlers of Tasmania in the 1820s

Question 12

Why did settlers want to clear the Aboriginal people from Van Diemen’s Land?

Answer 12

to make way for farms to produce wool

Question 13

How did the Tasmanian settlers kill the Aboriginal people?

Answer 13

illness eg venereal disease
starvation
poisoning
shooting

Question 14

What did Governor Arthur declare in November 1828?

Answer 14

martial law against the Aboriginal people (ie military in charge and could effectively do what they liked)

Question 15

What was the declared aim of the 1828 martial law?

Answer 15

to find Aboriginal population and settle them in Settler Districts

Question 16

Why was violence against Aboriginal people so commonplace in Van Diemen’s Land?

Answer 16

Little food, relied on shooting kangaroo for food, so convicts had guns and used them against Aboriginal people

Question 17

How many sheep were there in Van Diemen’s Land by 1827?

Answer 17

over 400,000

Question 18

What was the 1828 Proclamation of Demarcation?

Answer 18

It restricted Aboriginal people in Van Diemen’s Land to living in the north-eastern corner (so as to protect the two groups from each other)

Question 19

How was the 1829 Proclamation to the Aborigines shared?

Answer 19

four-strip pictograms on boards pinned to trees

Question 20

Give two reasons why pictograms on trees were used rather than a written proclamation.

Answer 20

1. one of the traditional methods of communication for Indigenous peoples: the leaving of drawings on the bark of trees was a tradutional Aboriginal method of communication.
2. Most Aboriginal people and many convicts could not read.

Question 21

What were the two key messages in the 1829 Proclamation to the Aborigines?

Answer 21

1. All are equal.
2. All acts of violence will be punished.