Relationship with the Aboriginal Protectorate

The Aboriginal Protectorate was established in 1838 by the British Government in London. A letter from Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Glenelg to Governor George Gipps provides details of how the Protectorate was supposed to ensure the 'protection and civilization' of the Aboriginal people of the Port Phillip District. The Aboriginal protectors were given very wide-ranging responsibilities. They were to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical needs, education and religious instruction to those under their care. They were also to act as the defenders of Aboriginal people whenever their well-being, life and property were threatened. The officer in charge of this government body was Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson, who was aided in his duties by four Assistant Protectors: Edward Parker, William Thomas, Charles Sievwright and James Dredge.

The British Government created the Protectorate in response to the disasters that had befallen the Aboriginal people in the other Australian colonies and the looming prospect of similar tragedies taking place in the Port Phillip District as settlement gathered pace. With its limited resources, the Protectorate was expected to compensate for the massive displacement of Aboriginal people from their land, the disturbance of their traditional way of life, and the suffering and death inflicted upon them through disease and violence.

In practice, the Protectorate proved to be a very mixed blessing for the Aboriginal people it was meant to help. From the start, its officers encountered strong resistance from settlers and the press. The proper functioning of the Protectorate was also made difficult by a chronic shortage of government funding and a series of scandals involving some of the Assistant Protectors. The authority became largely ineffective many years prior to its abolition in 1849. Some officials, like Commissioner of Crown Lands Frederick Powlett, openly expressed disdain for the Protectorate and saw it as a failure in so far as it was supposed to 'civilise' the Aboriginal people. In Powlett's view, the Native Police had proven to be the more successful experiment in this regard.

Shortly after his appointment, the Chief Protector expressed an interest in reviving the Native Police. In 1839 the Protectorate recruited five Aboriginal constables whose task it was to aid the Assistant Protectors in controlling the Aboriginal people they were assigned to administer. This short-lived arrangement for a 'domestic police' was far less ambitious than either the earlier attempts to establish a Native Police under the command of Christiaan de Villiers between 1837 and 1839, or the later Native Police Corps under Henry EP Dana between 1842 and 1852.

In their daily activities from 1842, officers of the Protectorate often had dealings with Dana's Native Police. For some, such as Assistant Protector Thomas, this included regular visits by the Native Police returning from their annual expeditions to Thomas's headquarters and the Protectorate school at the confluence of the Merri Creek and Yarra River (in present-day Fairfield). The differing purposes and roles of the Native Police and the Protectorate often led to tensions and antagonism between their respective office-holders. In particular, although Chief Protector Robinson and the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales had exchanged letters in 1841 expressing a preference to use persuasion rather than force in dealing with Aboriginal people, the Native Police under Dana often resorted to aggressive means when carrying out orders. The two main stories featured in this online exhibition, Western District Clashes and Captive White Woman, describe some of the conflicts that occurred.

Assistant Protector William Thomas was a vocal critic of the methods employed by Dana's Native Police. On a number of occasions he made serious complaints against Dana. In 1843 he raised allegations of wanton violence by Native Police troopers in the Western District clashes. Later, in 1845, he objected to Dana's severe punishment of two Aboriginal boys caught stealing imported rams and enquired into rumours of further slaughter in the Western District. In defending himself against Dana's angry responses to these allegations, Thomas referred back to the letter he had received from Lord Glenelg in 1839, which stated that officers of the Protectorate were to defend Aboriginal people 'from acts of cruelty, oppression, or injustice, and faithfully represent their wants, wishes, or grievances'.

Another criticism made by Thomas about the Native Police was that they often acted in the interests of their own clans, who were mainly the Woiwurrung and Boonwurrung people and related clans of the Kulin nation. This meant that they were more inclined to act effectively, as far as European aims were concerned, when they were dealing with people who did not belong to their own clan or to directly neighbouring clans with whom they had a cultural bond.

Thomas was not hostile to the idea of a Native Police Corps as such. His criticisms need to be seen in the context of his support for such an institution. At the beginning of his appointment as Assistant Protector he had in fact declared that there was a dire need for a Native Police Corps capable of intervening in conflict situations between settlers and Aboriginal people. Though often paternalistic, Thomas's voice was one of the more humanitarian amongst the Protectorate officials.