Study notes 3: Land and rights

Study

Investigation
Read documents i and ii, which report incidents of conflict in the Western District. What evidence do they contain to substantiate their claims? In particular, how convincing do you find the allegations in document i when one of them seems to have been based on false reports?

Discuss these reports in relation to the comments made in correspondence between Superintendent La Trobe and Governor Gipps about the situation in the Western District. (See documents iii, iv and v.) Answer the following questions:

• What recommendations are made about the treatment of Indigenous people before the law?
• Why was there a concern about the use of physical force?
• Why does La Trobe insist that Aboriginal people being pursued are to be treated ‘the same as white men’?
• Why do you think that La Trobe wrote to all police magistrates in the Port Phillip District about the treatment of Aboriginal people?
• What affect was this likely to have on the role the Native Police Corps was expected to perform?

Reflection
Correspondence from La Trobe to Gipps dated 29 January 1842 (document v) raises the issue of co-existence on the land for Aboriginal people and white settlers.

• What is the nature of his comments?
• To what extent were these comments respected?
• What was the role of the colonial government in protecting the right of Aboriginal people to maintain access to their land?
• What rights did settlers have to Crown land?
• What rights did settlers have to land they had purchased?

Extension/Research
Explore and research subsequent debates about rights to land in the area that was then the Western District area of the Port Phillip District, and in other areas of Victoria, over time.

Documents