The Australian colonies in the nineteenth century created offices involved in managing the affairs of Indigenous people in their jurisdictions.
The role became established in other parts of Australia pursuant to a recommendation contained in the Report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes, (British settlements.)
On 31 January 1838, Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies sent Governor Gipps of NSW the report.
[citation needed] A. O. Neville was a notable Chief Protector of Aborigines and later Commissioner of Native Affairs in Western Australia, and was in office from 1915 to 1940.
It now reported to the colonial secretary, and had its purpose defined as being "to exercise a general supervision and care over all matters affecting the interest and welfare of Aborigines, and to protect them against injustice, imposition and fraud."
The remaining state responsibilities were then transferred to the new Aboriginal Services Branch which operated within the Department of Youth, Ethnic and Community Affairs.
[19][20] The first European charged with protecting the Indigenous people of NSW's semi-autonomous Port Phillip District was George Langhorne.
In 1916, the state's Chief Secretary (Premier) Alexander Peacock, asserted his authority as Chairman, and convened the board for the first time in two years.
[49][50][41] General Inspectors and Secretaries: Presidents and Vice-Chairmen: The Child Welfare Act 1954 was used by police to remove Aboriginal children,[75] without the involvement of the board.
In 1958, the board established the Rumbalara settlement near Mooroopna to provide transitional housing for people living in camps.
After severe criticism, in June 1964 the board lost its executive powers, and became an advisory body to the state government;[83] though it still continued to administer Aboriginal affairs.
In Adelaide's first year, 1836, its Province's first interim Protector was appointed by the Governor with the advice of his Legislative Council, and this practice continued for his replacements.
[100]In March 1838, in response to the killing of a Mr Pegler by one or more Aboriginal people, a committee was formed to advise the Protector on his protecting.
[103] On Moorhouse's retirement in 1856, the SA government decided that it could no longer justify the expense of having a dedicated "Protector", combining the role with that of the Commissioner of Crown Lands.
According to J. D. Woods in 1879, "With the cessation of the Protectorate of Aborigines as the function of a separate staff, all official interest in the native seems to have expired, and nothing is now done for them except periodically to give to them, through the mounted police, flour, tea, sugar, &c., and even this modicum of generosity is administered in a loose and perfunctory manner, owing to the pressure of more urgent duties on those who are in charge."
"There is a Sub-Protector whose duties are centred in Adelaide and are merely clerical [Edward Hamilton], and there is only one other in the Far North [JP Buttfield], who is also a Stipendiary Magistrate.
[149] At the role's creation, the Premier Stephen Marshall was quoted saying, "In creating this new position, we have established a highly visible and powerful champion for a segment of our community which has been consistently underrepresented in the past.
[154] For a long time, the Protector was typically also the chief medical officer, coroner and registrar of births, deaths and marriages of the NT.
About this time, the North Australian body became the Northern Territory's Medical Services, Health and Aboriginals Branch, and operated until 1939.
[198][199] This heralded a new approach to native affairs under the Lyons government's New Deal for Aborigines, with Ernest Chinnery implementing ideas he had used in a similar role in New Guinea.
[226] After Charles Duguid, South Australian social reformer and founder of the Aborigines' Protection League, had petitioned prime minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce,[227] Bleakley was asked in 1928 by the Commonwealth Government to conduct an inquiry into the welfare into Aboriginal people in central and northern Australia.
The report was the result of on interviews with informed people in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide,[228] including Ngarrindjeri man David Unaipon.
In 1882, the concerns of people like John Gribble led to the WA Government commissioning the Fairburn Report into the welfare of Aborigines.
[267] The Moseley Royal Commission was set up in 1934 to examine proposals to extend the powers of the Chief Protector, and the policy of removal of children from their parents.
Agitation by critics, and the resulting media coverage in London,[268] and locally,[269] had drawn attention to the welfare of Aborigines in the state.
A series of submissions detailed accusations of child slavery, abuse and mistreatment, and evidence was given by mothers of children who had been removed from them.
The commission produced a report citing problems with the current policy, and concluded that the recommendations of Chief Protector Neville be followed.
[292] In February 1831, it's member George Augustus Robinson was appointed to a paid position by the government "with a view of opening an amicable intercourse friendly communication with the whole of the black population of this Island.
"[293] This task soon became rounding up Tasmania's remaining indigenous population, and confining them to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island.
The Papua and New Guinea Act 1949 officially brought together the two colonies under a single administration, though they retained separate legal systems.