Impact of British Settlement on the Aboriginal people in Tasmania and New South Wales 1788-1829:

Question 1

Describe the Aboriginal People:

Answer 1

Lived for around 50000 years in Australia, lived a hunter gatherer lifestyle based off of harmony with the environment, complex nation systems, had fishing materials and canoes.

Question 2

How many Aboriginals is it estimated lived in Australia when the British arrived?

Answer 2

Between 300k and 1 million.

Question 3

What was significant about Captain Cook claiming Australia for the British?

Answer 3

He was told to get the ‘consent of the natives’. By not doing so, he showed they didn’t value the Aboriginals as the rightful people. He claimed Terra Nullis.

Question 4

How many people in Eora nation where New South Wales was founded?

Answer 4

Around 2500 Aboriginals.

Question 5

How did relations with the Aboriginals initially develop?

Answer 5

Initially there were some friendly meetings but tensions developed when settlers starting stealing from Aboriginals and they stole in return which led to violence.

Question 6

Example of violence between Aboriginals and settlers?

Answer 6

1788 - 2 convicts murdered by Aboriginals and their bodies were mangled.

Question 7

How did Phillips attempt to better relations with the Aboriginals?

Answer 7

He flogged those who stole from Aboriginals in front of them, although the Ab. showed sympathy as they turned their backs and shed tears rather than any gratitude to Phillips.

Question 8

What began in 1789 that destroyed the Aboriginal Population? Example?

Answer 8

Smallpox epidemic - it wiped out around 50 percent of the coastal population as it was around 35 - 50% mortality rate in the 18th century.

Question 9

What could have possibly brought the small pox to Australia? List 4 possibilities.

Answer 9

1) Biological warfare e.g. by Surgeon White who travelled with the first fleet.
2) Transmission from Makassan sailors from further north.
3) Accidental transmission from goods aboard the first fleet.
4) A more aggressive form of chicken pox.

Question 10

How many convicts died from the smallpox?

Answer 10

Only 1 - Phillips quarantined the original cases.

Question 11

Describe Phillips attitudes to the Aboriginals in the 1790s:

Answer 11

Showed interest in them and also favoured non-aggression mostly: He took Bennelong back to England when he left and didn’t order retribution when he was injured by and Ab. spear. However, he did carry out punitive expeditions in the 1790s when his settlers were attacked.

Question 12

Significance of the location of New South Wales for the Ab. population?

Answer 12

It blocked them from their traditional fishing grounds. This combined with small pox and settler action meant their population was almost completely destroyed.

Question 13

Discribe the similarities for reasons of Ab. genocide in Van Diemens Land to NSW:

Answer 13

Both were exposed to disease and viruses. Both were eliminated by settler action but for slightly different reasons.

Question 14

What was the motivation behind genocide in Van Diemens Land from 1803?

Answer 14

Settlers wanted to clear land for farms and wool production and saw Ab. as a threat to this. They were poisoned, hunted and starved.

Question 15

Describe attitudes by the authorities in VDL to the Aboriginal people:

Answer 15

It was not stopped by authorities until Ab. started to resist against the settlers. In 1828 Governor Arthur declared martial law against them to put them in settler districts.

Question 16

What was a settler district?

Answer 16

A place to remove the Ab. people to ‘for their protection’ away from VDL.

Question 17

How many Ab. people in VDL when the British first settled?

Answer 17

Around 4000.

Question 18

Describe attitudes by convicts to Ab. people:

Answer 18

Due to the early years of near starvation of the colony, the convicts were given guns and weapons to hunt animals but convicts often killed natives as they saw them as vermin. “Armed Bushmen”.

Question 19

To what extent was the genocide of the Ab. people the responsibility of the authorities in NSW and VDL?

Answer 19

In NSW the Phillips had much more control over his people than in VDL. The decision to give convicts weapons and freedom to hunt was detrimental to the natives. In earlier years in VDL, some governors such as Collins instructed settlers not to persecute them, but in the 1820s with a huge increase in the settler population, settlers carried out revenge raids against the aboriginals and destroyed their food supplies which meant Arthur had to move them to settler districts which was also detrimental.

Question 20

How were settler districts a disaster for the Ab. people?

Answer 20

It led to the complete extinction of the Tasmanian native people as they were taken away from their farmlands and their way of life. The last died in 1876.