Auber Octavius Neville (20 November 1875 – 18 April 1954) was a British-Australian public servant who served as the Chief Protector of Aborigines and Commissioner of Native Affairs in Western Australia, a total term from 1915 to 1940 and his retirement from government.

He believed that Aboriginal Australians needed to be assimilated and could eventually be absorbed into the larger European population through mixed marriages.

[1] Since the late twentieth century, Neville has become an infamous historical figure in Australia for his role in creating the Stolen Generations and conducting a genocide of Indigenous Australians.

After living for ten years in Victoria, British Columbia with his parents, Neville moved as a young man in 1897 to Western Australia, where his brother was practising law.

[3] After arriving in Western Australia, Neville joined the Department of Works as a records clerk; he quickly rose through the ranks due to his efficiency.

[6] During the next quarter-century, Neville presided over the controversial policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families, especially if they were of mixed race, for education and assimilation to mainstream Australian life.

In northern Western Australia, Neville wanted to take control of missions and transform them into self-reliant cattle stations with Moola Bulla in the Kimberley as his model.

Neville believed this was a way to save government money, but it would also give Aboriginal residents on the missions work to do.

[7] In 1934, the WA government set up the Moseley Royal Commission to examine the state of Aboriginal people with regard to the role of Chief Protector.

The result was that the Chief Protector was given more authority over the lives of Western Australian Aboriginal people which, some say, only increased their suffering.

[3] Neville represented WA at the Conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Authorities held in Canberra from April 21 to 23, 1937.

[11] Neville was one of the most influential delegates at the conference,[12] and declared: Are we going to have one million blacks in the Commonwealth or are we going to merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there were any Aborigines in Australia?

'[14] Speaking at the Moseley Royal Commission, he defended the policies of forced settlement, removing children from parents, surveillance, discipline and punishment, arguing that: "[T]hey have to be protected against themselves whether they like it or not.

"[15]In 1947, following his retirement, he was invited to represent the State of Western Australia on discussions regarding Aboriginal Welfare in connection with the Woomera Test Range, prior to its establishment.

Neville was also featured as the public face of assimilation policy in the 2002 film Rabbit-Proof Fence (in which he was played by Kenneth Branagh).