Early white history

1770
Invasion and wars
29 April: Captain James Cook claims possession of the whole east coast of
Australia for the British Crown. Many history classes and books start teaching
Australian history from this point on.
1788
25 January: Captain Phillip raises the Union Jack at Sydney Cove to start a penal
colony. Aboriginal resistance flares within a few days of arrival of the tall ships. 29
May: The first conflict between the First Fleet arrivals and Aboriginal people takes
place near Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. Two convicts are killed.
November: Governor Phillip captures two Aboriginal men - Bennelong and
Colebee. Colebee escapes but Bennelong is kept at Government House for five
months.
1790
The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars between Aboriginal people and white invaders
start in NSW. Led by Pemulwuy and his son Tedbury, Aboriginal people raid
stations or assault sheep and cattle because the growing number of colonists
occupied more and more land. Many times they used firesticks to set the bush on
fire, destroy buildings, and burn crops. The guerrillia-like wars continue until 1816.
1792
Bennelong and a boy named Yemmerrawanie are taken to England by Phillip. They
perform the first Aboriginal song to be heard in Europe. Bennelong meets George
III. Yemmarrawanie dies in England. In 1795 Bennelong returns to Australia.
1795
The Richmond Hill battle is considered to be the first recorded battle between
Aboriginal people defending their country against the British. Aboriginal man Tom
Rowley sails to Calcutta, Madras and New Ireland. He returns in 1796 to Australia.
1799
Beginning of a six-year period of resistance to white settlement by Aboriginal
people in the Hawkesbury and Parramatta areas. Known as the Black Wars.
1816
Attacks on farms by Aboriginal people on the edge of Sydney. Macquarie sends a
punitive party to arrest offenders. They attack a camp near Appin at night and
14 Aboriginal people are killed including Carnabyagal. 4 May: Macquarie
announces a set of regulations controlling the movement of Aboriginal people. No
Aboriginal person is to appear armed within a mile of any settlement and no more
than six Aboriginal people are allowed to lurk or loiter near farms.
1822
There are a number of large scale killings as conflict over dispossession of land
and erosion of hunting rights continues.
1830
Port Phillip District Wars rage in Victoria (then administered by New South Wales
and known as Port Phillip district) from 1830 to 1850. The Indigenous Koorie
population resists the large influx of immigrants and settlers who bring large
herds of sheep and cattle into the state.
1835:
October: John Batman attempts to make a treaty with Aboriginal people for Port

Phillip Bay, near present day Melbourne by buying 243,000 hectares with 20
pairs of blankets, 30 tomahawks, various other articles and a yearly tribute.
Governor Bourke does not recognise the treaty and the purchase is voided. This
is the only time colonists attempt to sign a treaty for land with Aboriginal owners.
10 June: The Myall Creek Massacre occurs. 12 heavily armed colonists rounded
up and brutally kill 28 Aboriginal people from a group of 40 or 50 people gathered
at Henry Dangars Station, at Myall Creek near Inverell (NSW). The massacre was
believed to be a payback for the killing of several hut keepers and two shepherds.
But most of those killed were
women and children and good relations existed between the Aboriginal people
and European occupants of the station.
Seven stockmen are eventually hanged for murder. This outrages the colonial
press and parts of the public who cannot understand why anyone should hang for
murdering Aboriginal people.
Reports of poisoning of Aboriginal people on Tarrone near Port Fairy, West
Melbourne and Kilcoy north-west Moreton Bay. Flour is poisoned and left in
shepherds huts on Kilcoy in the expectation that Aboriginal people now
dispossessed of hunting grounds would take it.
1857
Aboriginal people attack settlers on the Dawson River, Queensland, leading to
reprisals by local squatters and police.
1861
The pearling industry in Western Australia begins with Aboriginal divers. After the
employment of Aboriginal people is banned, Javanese, Timorese and later
Japanese divers are used.
Aboriginal people kill 19 settlers near Emerald, Queensland. About 170 Aboriginal
people are killed in reprisal.
1863
A government station is established at Somerset, on the tip of Cape York
Peninsula, marking the beginning of the impact of European settlement on the
Torres Strait Islands. Missionary settlement follows, bringing disease and
disruption to traditional lifestyles.
1868
The first Australian Cricket Team to tour England leaves Australia for England; the
team is all Aboriginal. Some of the team find it difficult to adapt to the climate and
have to return home. One team member dies.
150 Aboriginal people are killed resisting arrest in the Kimberley, Western
Australia.
1869
Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines is established. The Governor can
order the removal of any child to a reformatory or industrial school. The Protection
Board can remove children from station families to be housed in dormitories.
Later similar legislation is passed in other colonies: New South Wales (1883),
Queensland (1897), Western Australia (1905) and South Australia (1911). The
Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance makes the Chief Protector the legal
guardian of every Aboriginal and half-caste person under 18. Boards are
progressively empowered to remove children from their families.

1870
In the early 1870s the first Aboriginal children are enrolled in the public schools in
NSW. By 1880 there are 200 Aboriginal children in school in NSW.
The Kalkadoon Wars in Queensland last from 1870 to 1890. About 900 Kalkadoon
people are killed as they fight to protect their land. The war culminates in the
battle of Battle Mountain in 1884. In 1972 Minister for the Army Bob Katter Snr.
names an army helicopter Kalkadoon at a ceremony with Kalkadoon people in
Mt. Isa in recognition of their fighting spirit.
1876
8 May: Truganini dies in Hobart aged 73. Against her wishes the Tasmanian
Museum displays her bones. 100 years later members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal
community cremate and scatter them onto the water. The Tasmanian government
does not recognise the Aboriginal heritage of people of Aboriginal descent and
claims the last Tasmanian Aboriginal person has died. A falsehood many still
believe today.
1877
The Hermansburg Mission is established on the Finke River, Northern Territory by
the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia and the Hermannsburg Mission
Society of North Germany.
Settlers in the Daintree River Area of Queensland are killed by Aboriginal people.
1879
The Torres Strait is annexed by Queensland. Torres Strait Islanders are not
dispersed from their homelands like Aboriginal people.
1881
A Protector of Aborigines is appointed in NSW. He has the power to create
reserves and to force Aboriginal people to live there.
1883
The Aboriginal Protection Board is established in NSW. Aboriginal people at Maloga
Mission on the Murray River are moved to Cumeroogunga. By the end of the
1880s several reserves have been established in NSW. Reserves are set up far
enough from towns to limit contact with Europeans. Segregation is a key part of
Aboriginal protection policy.
White parents object to about 16 Aboriginal children attending a public school at
Yass. The Minister for Education, George Reid, stops the children from attending
school stating that although in general creed or colour should not exclude a child
cases may arise, especially amongst the Aboriginal tribes, where the admission
of a child or children may be prejudicial to the whole school.
1884
Massacre of Aboriginal people on the McKinlay River, Northern Territory. The
perpetrators are exonerated by an official inquiry.
1885
Royal Commission appointed in Queensland to investigate the recruitment of
South Sea Islanders for plantation work finds there have been widespread
kidnappings. Queensland Parliament prohibits the recruitment of South Sea
Islanders from the end of 1890. The Act is later suspended due to the economic
depression and outcry from plantation owners.
1886
Protection and control policy

The Victorian Aborigines Protection Act excludes half-castes from their definition
of an Aboriginal person. As a result nearly half the residents of the missions and
reserves have to leave their homes.
Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines is empowered to apprentice
Aboriginal children when they reach 13. Children require permission to visit their
families on the stations.
Western Australian Aborigines Protection Board is established.
1888
The phrase White Australia Policy appears in William Lanes Boomerang
newspaper in Brisbane.
Aboriginal population reduced by 220,000 Australia-wide to an estimated 80,000.
1890
Jandamarra, an Aboriginal resistance fighter, declares war on European invaders
in the West Kimberley and prevents settlement for six years. For eight years the
Western Australian conflict rages in Western Australia.