Aboriginals - Timeline

Australia was colonized by the English

The first battle between Aboriginals and the British.

Most of the Cumberland Plain west of Sydney is occupied by colonists. The Eora people are being dispossessed of their land.

Aboriginal people begin to be moved onto mission stations where they can be taught European beliefs and used as cheap labour. Settlers try to control growth of the Aboriginal population with a policy of absorption.

There are a number of large scale killings as conflict over dispossession of land and erosion of hunting rights continues.

Aboriginal people in Tasmania are forcibly removed and settled on Flinders Island. The living conditions lead to many deaths.

The Dunghutti people of north coast NSW are now confined to 40 hectares of land on the Bellwood Reserve, near present

19 February: King William IV recognises the continued rights to land for Aboriginal people in South Australia’s founding document, the Letters Patent. It was the first ever recognition of Aboriginal rights granted in Australia’s colonial history. But the promise of legal entitlement to the land was never kept.

The policy of protection for Aboriginal people marks the beginning of involvement of the Catholic Church in missionary work and the establishment of schools for Aboriginal children.

The Board of National Education, established in NSW, states “It is impractical to provide any form of education for the children of blacks”.

A six year period of resistance known as the 'Black Wars'