AustLit logo
BlackWords Historical Events Calendar
Significant Dates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
(Status : Subscribers Only)
Coordinated by BlackWords Team
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
  • 1880-1919

    1881

    Protector of Aborigines is appointed in New South Wales.

    1883

    New South Wales' Aborigines Protection Board established. In 1915, the Board is empowered to remove and apprentice Koori children without a court hearing. This power is repealed in 1940. The board is renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board, and later abolished in 1969.

    1888

    The phrase 'White Australia' appears in William Lane's Boomerang in Brisbane, Queensland.

    1890

    Jandamarra (or Pigeon), an Aboriginal resistance fighter, declares war on white invaders in the West Kimberleys, Western Australia, and prevents settlement for six years.

    1897

    Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act (Qld). The Chief Protector can remove Murri people on to and between reserves and hold their children in dormitories.

    1897

    1 April: Resistance leader Jandamarra of the Bunuba people is killed in WA.

    1905

    Aborigines Act (WA). The Chief Protector is made legal guardian of every Aboriginal and 'half-caste' child under 16.

    1909

    Aborigines Protection Act (NSW): is introduced making it illegal for ‘half-castes’ [terminology used at the time] to live on reserves. In 1915 and 1918 amendments to the Act gave the NSW Aborigines Protection Board greater powers to remove children from their families for training as domestic servants. Children removed in the Act are known as the Stolen Generations.

    1911

    Aborigines Act (SA) The Chief Protector is made legal guardian of every Aboriginal and 'half-caste' child under 21 with control over the child's place of residence. The Chief Protector is replaced by the Aborigines Protection Boards in 1939. Guardianship power is repealed in 1962.

    1918

    New South Wales Aboriginal Protection Board establishes the Kinchela Training Institution for Aboriginal boys.

You might be interested in...

X