John Green, Manager of Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, but also a ngamadjidj? New insights into His Work with Victorian Aboriginal People in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

As a result of recommendations from the New South Wales Legislative Council Select Committee appointed in June 1849 to assess the success or failure of the Aboriginal Protectorate system in Port Phillip, the protectorate was dismantled in late 1849. The abolition of the Protectorate heralded a decade of laissez faire policy and neglect of Aboriginal people in Victoria. William Thomas, the assistant protector responsible for the Melbourne or Western Port Protectorate District, was retained and given the title of “Guardian of Aborigines,” but he concentrated on Aboriginal people living in or visiting Melbourne. For Aboriginal people in Victoria, the 1850s can be characterized as one of continued depopulation due to venereal and respiratory diseases, substandard nutrition, and falling fertility rates. Traditional sociopolitical structures were collapsing, and depleted family units were camped either on European stations, where they received seasonal employment, or on the fringes of small townships. Throughout this decade Aboriginal people received minimal government assistance. In 1858 a select committee of the Legislative Council of Victoria was appointed to inquire into the condition of Aborigines and the best means of alleviating their wants. The Select Committee recommended that reserves be formed for the various tribes on their traditional hunting ranges where they would be able to combine agriculture and the grazing of livestock.