Reserves 1816-1882
From the early 1800s, land was reserved, or set aside, by the NSW Government for Aboriginal people to use and live on. Motivations for creating reserves were mixed. In some cases, the reservation of land was the result of advocacy by Aboriginal people.
Dispossession
Soon after colonisation began, the dispossession of Aboriginal people and their need for land was recognised in both New South Wales and Britain.
In 1837, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Aboriginal Tribes (British Settlements) wrote:
It might be presumed that the native inhabitants of any land have an incontrovertible right to their own soil: a plain and sacred right, however, which seems not to have been understood. Europeans have entered their borders uninvited, and, when there, have not only acted as if they were undoubted lords of the soil, but have punished the natives as aggressors if they have evinced a disposition to live in their own country ().
Early reserves and the law
Land was initially reserved on an ad hoc basis and intended to promote farming and agriculture by Aboriginal people.
Under Governors King and Macquarie, in the early 1800s ‘some tiny parcels of land were set aside under varying forms of tenure for individuals or small families of Aborigines, on which some agriculture was conducted’ (). In 1816, Governor Macquarie ordered grants of land and seed for ‘wheat, maize, potatoes’ to be made to Aboriginal people who were ‘inclined to become regular settlers’ ().
In 1840, the British Colonial Land and Emigration Commission outlined a policy of granting ‘moderate reserves’ which would enable Aboriginal people ‘to live, not as hunters … but as cultivators of the soil’ ().
The Sale of Waste Land Act 1842 (UK) was introduced to regulate the sale of land in the Australian colonies. It specifically allowed land to be reserved ‘for the use or benefit of the aboriginal inhabitants’ (). Many subsequent laws were enacted which included the ability to reserve land for ‘public purposes’ (for example, , , ).
In November 1849, Governor FitzRoy relayed the advice of his Executive Council (a group of appointed advisors) that ‘throughout the country lying beyond the settled districts, a suitable number of moderate reserves should be made for the use of the Aborigines’ (, ).
In 1850, 35 ‘square mile’ reserves in pastoral districts (land considered suitable for farming and animals) were created across NSW (). These portions of land were selected by the Commissioners for Crown Lands ‘based on a number of factors including requests made by Aboriginal people’ (). However, over time these reserves ‘slid into oblivion’ as the land was effectively shared between Aboriginal people and settlers who moved around looking for opportunities to farm ().
Motivations for creating reserves varied, and included:
- a desire to ‘civilise’ Aboriginal people ();
- to encourage self-sustainability and ensure access to traditional hunting lands ( and )
- to remove Aboriginal people from the vicinity of settler towns (); and
- to recognise the rights of Aboriginal people to their ‘own lands’ () and ‘native soil’ ().
Aboriginal activism for land
Between 1861 and 1884, 32 new reserves were established across NSW (, ). Of these, 28 ‘were created because Aborigines had demanded them or had already occupied the land and begun farming’ () and at least 12 of them were granted to ‘individual Aborigines’ ().
As pockets of land continued to be reserved, some Aboriginal people took the chance to return to land closer to Country. For example, in 1881, 42 men associated with the Maloga mission (see SUB0549) signed a petition calling for ‘a grant of land’. The petition stated that ‘all the land within our tribal boundaries has been taken possession of by the Government and white settlers’ and said the petitioners had been reduced to ‘beggary’ (). In 1883, the NSW Government reserved land across the river from the Maloga mission which became known as Cummeragunja (). Yorta Yorta families returned to this land and the reserve was expanded in 1893, 1899 and 1900 (, )
This early land rights activism laid the groundwork for the Aboriginal political movement which emerged in NSW in the 1920s (see SUB0061).
Aboriginal people lived on reserves for a number of reasons. Some people demanded land and actively chose to live there. Some people moved to these parcels out of necessity as a result of decades of dispossession, evolving Government policy which sought to segregate Aboriginal people and the continued destruction of or removal of access to traditional resources.
See SUB0273 for more information about the experience of Aboriginal people on reserves as they became managed by the Aborigines Protection Board.
Land was also reserved for use by missionaries. See SUB0549 for more information.