Thread: Sadly our history has some very dark parts

It is possible that your mother is taking things she was told when young by her mother as her own experience. I would have thought that 1940-50s was too recent; I do not believe that the original aboriginal lifestyle was current anywhere in Victoria that late, they had all been killed, died from introduced diseases, or moved in to reserves by the 1920s.

I refer you to the Myall Creek Massacre near Moree which was in 1838.

AFAIK it was the first massacre where the perpetrators were convicted of murder.
This of course put somewhat of a brake on future massacres.
So certainly in NSW this was one of the last massacres.
It is ancient history.
I have visited the site of the massacre and been given a lecture on it by Moree's major Black historian.

Inside History magazine | The Myall Creek massacre re-examined.

There was a series by Joe Hilderbrand where he bought some Indians to Australia to learn about the disgraceful history. They were surprised to hear that the perpetrators had been convicted ( and Hanged -historian's words) . They were later chased by a group of Aborigines in Alice Springs into their hotel and the foyer trashed much to my ROTFL.
Regards Philip A
BTW I once met an old lady who was a child on the Diamantina Station next to The Duracks. She told me that there was a billabong there that she was swimming in one day when she dived and came up with a baby's skull. The station had a benevolent attitude to The aborigines and used to have the tribe camp by a billabong and issue them weekly with TSF ( tea , sugar, flour) and a six monthly ration of clothing etc. The elders used to force the tribe to go walkabout in the hottest part of summer which tended to purify the tribe as all the old and maim died on the trek.

This all changed when the government forced equal wages and they could no longer afford to maintain the whole tribe.

I also refer you to Wlliam Buckley's biography. The aboriginal tribes massacred more of their own than the whites it appears.
https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-life-and-adventures-of-william-buckley

The Frontier Wars have been mapped.

New map records massacres of Aboriginal people in Frontier Wars - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Things were VERY different in the 1800's to what they are now and post WW2.
In the 1800's it wasn't ONLY the Aboriginals that copped a pineapple, The poor people in Europe AND Australia were treated abysmally as well.
I put it to you that the early convicts forced to Australia for in many cases minor crimes that were usually committed due to the abject poverty at that time were treated just as badly as the native population and most likely in many cases much worse.

The Aristocracy at that time had little concern about the welfare of the poor, the misguided and the Aboriginal and treated them ALL rather badly Not only in Australia but in what at that time was considered to be the "Civilised World", America is a perfect example of this.
Why is it that when these types of discussions start nearly everyone seems to forgets the atrocities committed by the Aristocracy upon the Poor, the Chinese, The South sea islanders and many other peoples that had been forced or lured to Australia in its formative years and solely focus upon the hard times the Aboriginals faced.
During the 1700's, 1800's and the early part of the 1900's the vast majority of ALL the peoples of Australia faced a pretty dismal future of servitude, abuse and violence.

To my knowledge the last known sanctioned massacre was in the NT in 1928

Coniston massacre - Wikipedia

Unsanctioned or secret massacres would have occurred later than that.

Originally Posted by trout1105

Things were VERY different in the 1800's to what they are now and post WW2.
In the 1800's it wasn't ONLY the Aboriginals that copped a pineapple, The poor people in Europe AND Australia were treated abysmally as well.
I put it to you that the early convicts forced to Australia for in many cases minor crimes that were usually committed due to the abject poverty at that time were treated just as badly as the native population and most likely in many cases much worse.

The Aristocracy at that time had little concern about the welfare of the poor, the misguided and the Aboriginal and treated them ALL rather badly Not only in Australia but in what at that time was considered to be the "Civilised World", America is a perfect example of this.
Why is it that when these types of discussions start nearly everyone seems to forgets the atrocities committed by the Aristocracy upon the Poor, the Chinese, The South sea islanders and many other peoples that had been forced or lured to Australia in its formative years and solely focus upon the hard times the Aboriginals faced.
During the 1700's, 1800's and the early part of the 1900's the vast majority of ALL the peoples of Australia faced a pretty dismal future of servitude, abuse and violence.

Let them eat cake.

Those four words pretty much sum it all up Mate
I don't think that the aristocracy were all bigots or racists, They treated EVERYONE with contempt

It was not even that simple. I have just finished reading "Rounding the Horn" by Dallas Murphy. This covers the history of Cape Horn, including the interaction between the "Canoe Indians" and Europeans. The first mission to these started about 1850, with the best of intentions, and at considerable financial and personal cost to quite a few aristocrats and upper middle class Englishmen. By 1900 the culture of the Canoe Indians was virtually extinct and the numbers down to a few hundred. By 1930 there were none left. While there were a few massacres (from both sides!), the main reason for their extinctions was disease - principally measles, and destruction of their way of life.

There have been similar results from clash of cultures throughout history, although best documented over the last five hundred or so years. You can't just blame the aristocrats.