1788
European Invasion and settlement of Australia: Aboriginal people were dispossessed of land and rights. Groups were isolated from their lands and food sources faced extinction.
1803
European Invasion and settlement of Tasmania. Risdon Cove Massacre. (See Timeline of Aboriginal -European Contact -Tasmania, DEA 1996 )
1833
Aborigines negotiated a treaty with GA Robinson and went to Wybalenna Settlement.
1847
Some Aborigines returned to Oyster Cove.
1851
Gold discovered: large numbers of immigrants came from non-Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. 1861 Lambing Flat incident saw attacks against Chinese.
1847-1904
57 000 Kanakas were imported as indentured labourers from Pacific islands (often in circumstances of violence and deception) to work as virtual slaves in sugar plantations in Queensland. Without them it is doubtful that the sugar industry would have been established. European workers regarded their presence as a threat to their standard of living.
1901
Immigration Act: White Australia Policy Section 121 of Constitution: In reckoning numbers of the people of the Commonwealth..... Aboriginal natives shall not be counted. The difficulties in locating and counting Aborigines for census purposes were immense and the possibility that they might participate in the election process was not even considered. Naturalisation Act (1903) refused citizenship to non-Europeans.
1945 onwards
Populate or Perish policy: settlement of displaced people from Europe after World War II. Assisted immigration passages. Doctrine of assimilation applied to New Australians and Aborigines.
1958
Migration Act abolished the dictation test which since 1901 had been available to exclude certain people by requiring them to pass a written test in a specific language which did not have to be English.
1963
Eligibility for migration to be based on merits of applicants and not nationality: official end to White Australia Policy.
1967 Referendum:
Commonwealth Government acquired the power to make special laws for Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people have rights of equal pay, right to vote and be counted in census.
1969
Standard pastoral wages and unemployment benefits awarded to Aborigines.
1972
Tent Embassy established in Canberra.
1975
Noonkanbah station purchased by Aboriginal Land trusts for local communities.
1975
Racial Discrimination Act It is unlawful for a person to do any act involving a distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference, based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin, which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise on an equal footing, of any human right or fundamental freedom, in the political, economic, social, cultural, or any other field of public life.
late 1970s
Asian immigration increase and arrival of boat people.
1976
Truganini's remains returned to the Aboriginal community.
1990
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission established: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders empowered to participate in making decisions about the programs and policies which affect them.
1991
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report.
1992
Mabo decision refuted the legal fiction of terra nullius.
1993
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation established.
1996
Wik decision: native title can co-exist with pastoral rights.
1999
Wybalenna returned to Tasmanian Aboriginal Community.
Current situation in Australia
1998
Population of Australia: 18 311 500.
1996
372 100 Aboriginal people living in Australia. (Population Distribution, Indigenous Australians, ABS, 1996, p12 )
20% population either born overseas or have one parent born overseas.
1997-98
77 327 migrants. Main source countries: New Zealand (19%), United Kingdom (11.9%), China (5.6%), South Africa (5.5%), Hong Kong (4.1%).
Current situation in Tasmania
1998
Tasmanian population: 459 659.
1996
14 700 Aboriginal people. (Tasmanian Settlement Plan 1997-2001,p8 4 ABS op cit 4)
1998
2% Tasmania's population identify as Aboriginal. 5% state school population identify as Aboriginal.
10.2% Tasmania's population born overseas.
1997-98
369 migrants. Main source countries: New Zealand (53), Former Yugoslavia (63), United Kingdom (47), South Africa (16), Philippines (15). (Refugee and Humanitarian entrants: 108.)
1997-98
Tasmania had 0.5% of Australia immigrants (Source: Settler Arrivals 1997-98, Statistical Report 25, Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs).
