Early child removals 1788-1908
The lack of records during the period 1788 to 1908 makes it difficult to determine what, if any, laws or policies governed the removal of Aboriginal children from their families during this period. However, from the earliest years of the colony, Government practices resulted in children being separated from their families.
Children were removed in the early years of colonisation by ‘prominent evangelical Christians’ and placed into homes, often viewed as objects of curiosity (). Children were also removed to be ‘used as guides by early settlers and explorers’ (). There is also evidence that Aboriginal children lived with Europeans following the death of their parents in the frontier wars or from disease ().
From 1814 Aboriginal children were removed to be educated and ‘civilised’. Many children were exploited and passed from one family to another. They were treated as a ‘criminal’ population who required moral reform ().
The colonial government did not officially attempt to ‘reform’ Aboriginal children until Governor Macquarie’s establishment of the Native Institution at Parramatta in 1814, where children were institutionalised to become ‘civilised’ () (see SUB0102).
Until 1909, laws relating to the ‘protection’ of children applied on their face to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. The offence of neglecting a child within your care (which was a later ground for removal – see SUB0087) was introduced by the Children's Protection Act 1892 (NSW) (). This Act was replaced by the Children's Protection Act 1902 (NSW) ().
Later, the Neglected Children and Juvenile Offenders Act 1905 (NSW) further defined what ‘neglect’ meant in the eyes of the law (). This included where a child:
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had no visible means of support or no fixed abode
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slept in the open air
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was not provided with sufficient and proper food, nursing, clothing, medical aid or lodging
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had parents who were ‘habitual drunkards’, or
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who was living under such conditions as to indicate that the child was ‘lapsing into a career of vice and crime’.
Research has shown that the child welfare laws listed above were used to remove Aboriginal children from their families during this time ().
The APB did not have the power to remove children but they could refer a child to the State Children’s Relief Department. This Department could remove the child from their family where an order was made by the NSW Children’s Court ().
The APB often used threats and persuasion to force Aboriginal families to give up their children (). Changes to the law were sought by the APB to allow them to specifically remove Aboriginal children from their families. These changes were made in 1909 (see SUB0087).