The Birth of British Australia - Topic 4.2

Question 1

How many Aboriginies were living in Australia before British arrival?

Answer 1

There were at least 300,000 to somewhere between 750,000 to one million in 1787. There were around 1500 Aboriginies in the direct vacinity of Sydney in the beginning; 3 people / m².

Question 2

What happened to the Eora people during Governor Phillip’s tenure?

Initial contact → Settlement → Disaster

Answer 2

Initial Contact:

• Friendly meetings took place
• 2500 Eora in the area
• Phillip ordered that no one should steal from the locals; this was largely ignored by settlers

Settlement:

• With the settlers stealing, the Aboriginies stole back which eventually turned to violence
• Two convicts were murdered by the local Aboriginal peoples and their bodies mangled and butchered
• Phillip demonstrated fairness and order that convicts be flogged in precense of the Aboriginies who had stolen fishing gear. The Aboriginies turned their backs and showed sympathy for those who were being punished

Disaster:

• Most likely transported by the First Fleet, a smallpox outbreak struck the local population, while the settlers were fine, in 1789.
• It is estimated that half of the coastal population died from smallpox, and heavily depopulated the area significantly

Clashes between the settlers and the natives continued into the 1790s despite Phillip’s fascination and non-aggressive policy with the Aboriginies. Phillip refused to order reprisals when he was injured by a spear, but did order punitive expeditions in response to attacks on settlers, with subsequent governors doing the same.

Settler action denied Aboriginies access to traditional fishing grounds, and the population was destroyed.

Question 3

How many Aboriginies were living in Tasmania before British arrival?

Answer 3

There was somewhere between 3000-4000 Aboriginies living in Van Diemen’s Land in 1803, just before settlement began.

Question 4

What was the effect of the Black War on Tasmanian Aboriginals?

1823-1832

Answer 4

Disease took its toll in the form of veneral disease and the usual viruses, of which the natives had no immunity too, were first brought by whalers in 1803.

Tasmania interior was set aside for woolling and so the Aboriginies in the area were hunted, starved and poisoned until they were wiped out. The authorities did nothing to check this and when the Aboriginies began to resist settlement, Governor Arthur declared martial law with the purpose to find the Aboriginal population and “settle” them in Settled Districts.

Because of the starvation threats early on, guns were handed to the settlers to kill kangaroo, and with this, a class of armed and uncontrollable bushmen was born. Early governors instructed that settlers shouldn’t persecute the local population but when the white population grew, retaliatory raids began on the settlers, breeding hysteria.

Efforts at the start of the war were to keep the locals in districts in the north-eastern part of the island, but when this plan fell apart, Governor Arthur issued martial law and the complete extinction of the local population by 1876.