On 1 January 1911, the Northern Territory was transferred from South Australia to federal government control.
Each of these laws gave the state the power to place children in institutions, which contributed to the situation of people later dubbed part of the Stolen Generations.
[1] On 1 January 1911, the Northern Territory was transferred from South Australia to federal government control.
[3] The Act allowed for regulations to be made for the "care, custody and education of the children of aboriginals".
The Act was the first and only legislation passed in South Australia which related to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory.
[4][5] Many of the provisions of the 1910 Act carried forward into the 1918 Ordinance, including the power to transfer Aboriginal children into institutions.
[6] Between 1918 and 1921, large areas of the Territory and adjacent states were classified as Aboriginal reserves and sanctuaries for remaining nomadic populations who had hitherto had little contact with white Australia.
Namatjira appealed against the conviction to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory (with his defence supported by the Council for Aboriginal Rights in Victoria[12]).
The High Court of Australia refused an application to appeal, and there was widespread sympathy for Namatjira and negative publicity about the operation of the Ordinance both at home and abroad.
[10] The law was never properly debated in Parliament, and only finally lost its force after Aboriginal people gained franchise rights in both Commonwealth and Northern Territory in 1961.