A History of Woorabinda Aboriginal Community 1927-1990
by
Therese Forde
Being a thesis submitted to the University of Queensland in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours, 1990. TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page Number
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS t
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS M
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER ONE "DISPOSSESSION BY LEGISLATION: A MORE EFFECTIVE METHOD OF ACQUIRING THE LAND." 12
CHAPTER TWO: THE 1930s: "THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLE CAME FROM EVERYWHERE, REALLY, AND IT WAS A PUNISHMENT PLACE." 25
CHAPTER THREE: THE WAR YEARS: "THEY WAS JUST DYIN' AWAY LIKE A FLY." 38
CHAPTER FOUR: 1946-1964: "THE WHITE MAN'S PARADISE..." 58
CHAPTER FIVE: 1965-1971: "THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT TODAY IS THE DISGRACE OF AUSTRALIA." 78
CHAPTER SIX: 1971-1990: THE CARPETBAGGERS 89
CONCLUSION 113
ENDNOTES 119
BIBLIOGRAPHY 136 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many people have given me advice and guidance throughout the year. Firstly, I would like to thank those people who were busy with their own projects and still found time to give me some assistance with mine, especially Libby Connors, Joanne Watson and Helen Taylor. I would like to express my thanks to the staff of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the National Library in Canberra, Fryer Library at the University of Queensland, and FAIRA. Many thanks also to Alan Dale, at Griffith University, who allowed me to read his unfinished PhD thesis, and provided me with some helpful advice for my visit to Woorabinda. My sincere thanks to my Supervisor, Dr Raymond Evans, who provided invaluable advice and assistance throughout the year. I also thank Professor Geoffrey Bolton, who guided me through first Semester, and assisted me with my difficulties with the Department of Family Services. My sincere thanks also to the Aboriginal people at Woorabinda, Rockhampton, Mackay and Brisbane who gave their time and recalled some of their often painful memories of life on Woorabinda. I would also like to thank my family, for their support and interest in my project. Finally, I thank Michael Hurst for his love and assistance throughout the year. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
AIM Aboriginal Inland Mission AWF Aboriginal Welfare Fund CCC Civil Construction Corps CCG Concerned Citizens Group CDEP Community Development and Employment Scheme DAIA Department of Aboriginal and Island Advancement or Department of Aboriginal and Islanders Affairs DNA Department of Native Affairs DCS Department of Community Services DFS Department of Family Services DOGIT Deed of Grant in Trust WAC Woorabinda Aboriginal Council LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Page Number*
MAP 1: Location of Government Settlements, Church Missions and Torres Strait Island Reserves. 16
TABLE 1: Taroom: Removals, Births, Deaths, Total Population 1912-1925 17
TABLE 2: Woorabinda: Removals, Births, Deaths, Total
Population 1935-1938. 25
"Order for Removal of Aboriginals and Half-Castes". 26
MAP 2: Some of the Places of Origin of Woorabinda
Residents. 26
MAP 3: Some of the Tribes represented on Woorabinda. 26
"Application for Permit" to employ an Aborigine. 29
"Permission for Celebration of Marriage". 32
"Exemption" from the Aboriginal Protection Act. 36
Social History Card. 36 MAP 4: Journey of the Cape Bedford Aborigines to
Woorabinda, 1942. 42
Picture: "Sunday School Children at Woorabinda" 43
TABLE 3: Comparison of Wage Rates on Woorabinda 88
TABLE 4: Deaths/10 000 Population per year 104
* All except Tables and picture appear on the page following the page number given. A total institution may be defined as a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life. Prisons serve as a clear example, providing we appreciate that what is prison-like about prisons is found in institutions whose members have broken no laws.
Erving Goffman INTRODUCTION
The history of race relations in colonial Queensland has been we11-documented through the work of Raymond Evans, Henry Reynolds, Noel Loos and CD. Rowley 1, but in terms of major works, markedly less has been written about the experience of Queensland's Aborigines since 1897. Significant contributions do exist, however. In The Remote Aborigines.^ Rowley looks at the Aboriginal labourer in the Queensland pastoral industry, and in Outcasts in White Australia-^ he investigates aspects of Queensland policy and legislation since 1897. Frank Stevens' chapter in his Racism: the Australian Experience (Volume 11)^ examines parliamentary attitudes to Aboriginal Affairs which includes an insight into the 1965 Act in Queensland. Also in this book, a chapter by A. and R. Doobov outlines the oppressive nature of Queensland's 1965 Act and its regulations. Articles which have looked specifically at government legislation since 1897 include Raymond Evans' examination of Aborigines under the Labor government in Queensland^ and the study by Evans and Walker of Eraser Island, which follows the history of the Eraser Island Aborigines through the frontier period to the effects of government legislation.^ William Thorpe's study of Archibald Meston gives an insight into the man who shaped Queensland's legislation on Aborigines;^ Suzanne Welborn compares politicians and Aborigines in Queensland and Western Australia from 1897 to 1907;8 and Colin Tatz discusses the injustices of the Queensland Acts and their application on government settlements in Queensland.^ Paul Hasluck's Shades of Darkness^Q examines the motives behind legislation on Aborigines in Australia, and Andrew Markus' new book. Governing Savages, looks at Federal government control of Aborigines in the Northern Territory in the twentieth century.H Another book published this year, Mr Neville, by Pat Jacobs, is a study of A. O. Neville, Chief Protector of Aborigines in Western Australia, and the longest serving administrator of Aboriginal policy in Australia. Mister Neville provides a critical insight into the administration of Aborigines in that State.^^
Undoubtedly, the most valuable source on race relations in Australian history has been the Aborigines themselves. In recent times, oral histories of the experience of Queensland Aborigines have revealed far more of an intimate nature than many previous studies. Jackie Huggins' article on Aboriginal women Domestic servants in the inter-War years analyses the experiences of six such women through their own words/^-^ whilst Bill Rosser's Dreamtime Nightmares examines the experiences of some of Queensland's Aborigines under the Aboriginal Protection Acts in a similar manner.^^ Oral history has also played a significant role in the writing of the history of reserves and missions in Queensland. One such book is Reaching Back, which includes the recollections of twenty former residents of the Yarrabah Mission in North Queensland.^^ Similarly, Book I of the Mapoon series was written by "The Mapoon People'. Books II and III of this series look at the role of the Church, the government and mining companies in Mapoon's history.^^ Reverend Howard Pohlner's Gangurru^^ is a history of the missionaries and Aborigines on Cape Bedford, which became Hope Vale after World War II. This valuable history includes recollections written by Aboriginal residents.
A significant omission to the historiography has been a conclusive history of a government settlement in Queensland. To date, Gerard Guthrie has done some work on Cherbourg, notably a study of authority on that reserve, and an overview of the effect of government legislation on Cherbourg's Aborigines.^^ Klaus-Peter Koepping has viewed Cherbourg as an "asylum' in his study entitled "How to Remain Human in an Asylum".^^ Bill Rosser's This is Palm Island^Q described the author's experiences and observations during a visit to Palm Island in 1974 and is a shocking indictment of administration and living conditions on government settlements in Queensland in the 1970s, and a statement about the racism in Queensland society as a whole.
Although there has been work done in the area of Queensland government settlements, then, no histories of the whole period of such settlements have yet appeared, except Evans and Walker's study of Eraser Island, which overviews "Eraser Island as a closed institution' from 1897 to 1905.^1 It seems that this imbalance is to be redressed in the near future as two such works are presently in progress. Joanne Watson is working on a history of Palm Island, and Thom Blake on a history of Cherbourg.
There have, however, been histories of reserves in other states written. Peter Read's A Hundred Years War is a history of the Wiradjuri people of the eastern-central area of New South Wales, and their relationship with the state throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.22 Anna Haebich's For Their Own Good looks at Aborigines and the Government in the Southwest of Western Australia from 1900 to 1940.^3 Another important work on areas interstate is All that Dirt^ edited by Bill Gammage and Andrew Markus, which examines the condition 8 of and legislation relating to Aborigines in Australia in 1938, concentrating on New South Wales, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.24 contributors include Peter Read, Anna Haebich, Coral Edwards, Andrew Markus and Ann McGrath. Bain Attwood's The Making of the Aborigines, which concentrates on Victoria, analyses the destruction of Aboriginal society and culture from the frontier period, through to the coming of the missionaries, and then the "legislative' period.25 Attwood's work is in a similar category to that of Ann McGrath and Marie Eels.26 AS Attwood states:
Both these historians have pointed to a considerable degree of compatibility between the two cultural systems and uncovered the dual consciousness which developed among stockworkers and the native police. Both conceive acculturation as an innovative and active process for Aborigines rather than as a retrogressive and passive one, while earlier historians have regarded such Aborigines as collaborators...27
Attwood concurs with this view, and concludes that Aborigines "were not merely acted upon by these productive forces and relations but were themselves historical agents.'28 Despite Attwood's assertion, the fact remains that Aborigines on reserves were generally powerless against the administration, as this thesis will show. Although there were forms of sub-cultural protest, such as gambling, on Woorabinda, the fact remains that Aborigines were gaoled for trifling offences such as swearing and gambling without a trial, they could be forcibly removed from their family for any reason nominated by the Supervisor, - the list of oppressive treatment and conditions goes on. Attwood's reticence to use oral sources may explain his theory of Aborigines as "historical agents'. Like the Australian soldiers who survived Japanese prisoner-of-war camps, and the Jewish people who survived the concentration camps, some Australian Aborigines who survived the Government Settlement suffer symptoms such as guilt, because they survived where many others did not, and worst of all, many of the more elderly Aborigines have rationalised to themselves that their treatment at the hand of Supervisors and Overseers was "not so bad' or "they were strict, but we had a clean settlement'. Fortunately, unlike many ex-P.O.W.'s or Jewish people, some Aborigines are able to speak about their experiences on Government settlements. Perhaps studies which suggest that Aborigines were not victims but "agents' would benefit from talking to some of them.
This thesis provides an overview of life on Woorabinda Government Settlement from 1927 to 1990. As such, it constitutes the first completed history of a Queensland Government Aboriginal Settlement. Original sources which have been used include oral sources and archival research in the Department of Family Services (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Division). The difficulty which I encountered in gaining access to the material, and the attempted censorship of photocopies which I obtained would indicate both the significant nature of the material, and the fact that it has not been used in any other historical accounts. Currently, this material is in the Queensland State Archives under a 120 year "no-access' rule. Other primary research included Parliamentary debates. Acts of Parliament, Annual Reports of the Chief Protector (who later became the Director of Native Affairs, and then Director of Aboriginal and Islanders Advancement and so on), and newspaper sources.
A factor worth noting as far as oral sources are 10 concerned is the reticence of ex-residents to talk about their past experiences at Woorabinda. The degree of "openness' was almost directly related to the informant's current geographical distance from Woorabinda. (For example, a resident in Rockhampton was not as open as one in Brisbane, but was more open than one still residing at Woorabinda). This would indicate that these Aborigines are still (perhaps subconsciously) afraid of the repercussions of complaining or speaking out about their condition, clearly a carry-over from the days of their institutionalised way of life on Woorabinda. Another problem with primary sources was encountered in the Annual Reports. As will be demonstrated in Chapters 1 and 2, the statistics in these reports were somewhat unreliable, because of an apparent discrepancy in the population figures from one year to another (taking removals, births and deaths into account). For example, in 1937, the figures left as many as seventy Aborigines on Woorabinda unaccounted for.
Although Gerry Langevad of the Department of Family Services opposed inclusion of the names of white officers and ex-officers of that Department, no such omissions have been made, because these people were not victims, but agents of the process of dispossession. Some Aboriginal names have been withheld at the request of the informant (in the case of oral sources), or in text which examines the incidence of venereal diseases (in the case of written documentation).
The main thrust of the material is the time at which certain conditions prevailed, or certain attitudes were held. Previous studies have sometimes failed to emphasise how recently ethnocidal, or even genocidal attitudes towards the Aborigines were held in Queensland, and have also failed to 11 emphasise some of the racist provisions inherent in the legislation into the 1980s. The last two chapters demonstrate that the process of dispossession and institutional racism in Australia was openly supported by prominent members of the community until recent times in Queensland, and that the Aborigines of Woorabinda still suffer the effects of this on-going process today. In presenting this material, two aims have been kept in mind. The first is an attempt to counter-balance the view presented in the Annual Reports of the Department in charge of Aborigines regarding life on an Aboriginal Reserve in Queensland. The practice of painting a picture of good health and economic "development' on the communities continues in the glossy magazine-style Annual Reports even today. Secondly, it is hoped that Queensland historians who haven't already recognised the importance of discovering and attempting to write the whole truth about the history of race relations in Queensland's history will see the importance of doing so. 12 CHAPTER 1
"Dispossession by Legislation: A More Effective Method of Acquiring the Land."
One could begin a history of Woorabinda Government Settlement by tracing the pattern of frontier relations in that region through to the establishment of the Settlement at Woorabinda. Because Aborigines were forcibly removed from many different corners of the State to Taroom Settlement, and then to Woorabinda, however, it is necessary to examine not only the local area, but to provide a brief overview of the frontier period throughout Queensland.
By the 1850s, the area which became Queensland was a scene of constant warfare between the indigenous peoples and the invading whites. The diaries or reminiscences of whites who lived on the frontier in Queensland in the latter half of the nineteenth century, such as Tom Petrie, Rosa Campbell- Praed and Oscar de Satge^ paint a picture of constant fear on the part of the white settlers. By the 1860s, entire tribes within Queensland had been decimated. An area in Queensland where frontier violence was particularly vehement and concentrated was Central Queensland, from the Taroom region, by the Dawson River to the area West of Rockhampton in the vicinity of the Comet River. At Hornet Bank Station in 1857 and Cullin-la-Ringo station in 1861, the only pre-meditated mass murders of whites by Aborigines in the history of the frontier in Australia were committed.2 The terrible retribution exacted by the invading whites in this area resulted in the virtual extinction of the Jiman Tribe from the Dawson River area and the deaths of hundreds of other Aborigines in a murderous campaign that raged from the time of 13 the Hornet Bank massacre until after the Cullin-la-Ringo massacre, but which was most concentrated from 1857 to 1862. Although mass extermination of Aborigines had occurred before the 1857 massacre, frontier violence intensified following this attack against the white family who lived on Hornet Bank. Posses of station owners frequently set out on murderous expeditions. As Lack and Stafford have pointed out, retribution following the massacre of the Eraser family at Hornet Bank was "swift and merciless':
The squatters turned out en masse from every station on the Dawson and Burnett and detachments of native police converged from the various camps in the Rockhampton district. Avenging hunters ran down and cornered small mobs of blacks over a wide area and the innocent were punished along with the guilty in the orgy of slaughter which followed.-^
Similar patterns of violent confrontation were in operation in many areas of colonial Queensland.
In order to rationalise their invasion of the land and subsequent genocide of the occupant tribes, the whites tended to stereotype and dehumanise the Aborigines. John Rex points out that: ,,
...the encounter between the frontier groups is marked by tension and by the emergence of stereotypes and belief systems that govern the interaction of members of one group with those of another.^
The white settlers not only brought a racially stereotyped view of the Aborigines with them to the frontier, but also a stereotyped pattern of dispossessing the Aborigines.^ The stereotype of the Aborigines as inferior beings "emerged as the major raison d'etre for racially prejudiced attitudes and responses towards the libelled native."^ Edward Kennedy remarked that: 14
There is not a redeeming point in their whole character...it is a fact that there is no savage so thoroughly low and degraded as the Queensland Black.^
Other rationalisations for murdering Aborigines included the belief that "it was necessary to keep the blacks in submission' and the claim that they were "hostile savages'.^ Dehumanization of the Aborigines to the status of "niggers', "gins' and "picaninnies' provided a justification for wholesale murder in the minds of many white settlers.
Frontier violence continued in Queensland for most of the late nineteenth century. In 1897, the government employed a more effective method of acquiring the land - government legislation which enabled the forced removal of Aborigines to government-controlled settlements. Raymond Evans aptly refers to this action as "The Last Round-Up'^, indicating that it was a continuation of the pattern of dispossession begun on the frontier. At these institutions Aborigines (both men and women) were exploited for their labour, and the women from the Settlements who were forced to work in the pastoral industry were often raped, or forced into a position of concubinage. Meanwhile, white society in Queensland awaited their "inevitable decline'. Queensland's "Aboriginal Protection Acts' inducted a new and more efficient form of genocide.
The Aboriginals' Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897 was based on a report written by Archibald Meston, a former Member of Parliament, in 1896. Meston's report was strongly paternalistic. He gave little consideration to any solution other than to remove Aborigines to reserves. Although Meston was most critical of the missions in the Cape York Peninsula, ostensibly his policy was IS basically similar to that of the missionaries - that is, that Aborigines were to be "protected' from the vices of civilization by excluding them from towns, controlling employment and restricting the supply of opium. Although Meston seems to have become interested in the "protection* of Aborigines by the 1890s, some of his previous writings and actions in parliament would indicate that Meston had very little interest in improving their lot. In 1879, Meston, writing in the Ipswich Observer, applauded the actions of the Native Police "dispersing' twenty-four Aborigines in the Cooktown region. In parliament, he "remained singularly unmoved, and even hostile' to suggestions that the State should spend money on Aboriginal welfare. •'•^ William Thorpe points out that Meston seemed to have a contempt for Aborigines who lived in cities or towns whom he described as "tame town blacks'.^^ The distinct preference which Meston showed for "tribal' Aborigines, Thorpe states, rested in part upon homoerotic idealisations of the male body.^2 Meston, he states, was invariably attracted to strong men, and Aborigines especially. Meston's views on Aborigines seem to have been that Aborigines should be regarded as fine, anatomically flawless objects rather than human subjects capable of determining their own lives. ^-^ His attitude was not merely protectionist, therefore, but racist. His "strong aversion' to the "intermixture' of racial groups is further evidence of this.14
This brief insight into some aspects of the personality of the man who shaped the 1897 legislation, and then became Chief Protector of Aborigines clearly indicates, if nothing else, that the 1897 legislation was not shaped purely out of 16 concern for Queensland's Aborigines. As will become evident, Queensland government legislation served the interests of white society by successfully completing the process of dispossession of Queensland's Aboriginal population which had begun on the frontier.
The major emphasis of this thesis, then, is an overview of life on Woorabinda Government Settlement from 1927 as a demonstration of the effect of Queensland government policy and practice on some of Queensland's Aboriginal population, Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement was established in 1927, after approximately 300 Aborigines were moved en masse from Taroom Government Settlement, so a brief overview of life on the Taroom Settlement precedes the discussion on Woorabinda Settlement.
The Taroom Aboriginal Government Settlement was established in 1910, nine miles east of Taroom on the Dawson River, (see Map 1). Aborigines were forcibly removed from many areas of Queensland to this settlement. Although it is difficult to establish exactly how many different tribal groups were removed to Taroom, documented and oral evidence would indicate at least thirteen.-'-^
Deaths outnumbered births following the initial establishment of the Taroom Settlement, but the population continued to increase because of the number of removals.^^ Between 1912 and 1923, for example, 447 Aborigines were removed to Taroom^^, but at the end of 1923, the population of Taroom was only 3231^, indicating an extremely high death rate. By 1925, the population of Taroom had decreased to 265^^, despite a continuing flow of removals to the Settlement. Table 1 and the following explanation attempt to BOIGU \S^ -SAIBAI IS. DAUAN IS.A YAM^PARNLEY IS. MABUIAG IS.A ^B '*^9?,' -OCKHART RIVER MISSION GULF •KTOWN CARPENTARIA VYARRABAH ISSIC" ,/ANTOME IS. ^PALM IS. •ETTLEMENT Location of Government Settlements, Church Missions and Torres Strait Island Reserves shown k. 17 explain the reasons for this apparent discrepancy. Table 1. Taroom: Removals. Births. Deaths. Total Population 1912-1925, Year Removals Births Deaths Population 1912 38 15 180** 1913 49 5 19 220 1914 57 3 16 246 1915 42/47* 12 14 233 1916 35 1917 46 1918 36 13 30 1919 18 4 37 1920 31 16 8 1921 71 225 1922 8 246 1923 18 248 1924 18 250 1925 10 265 Total *Discrepancy between Chief Protector's figures and Superintendent's. **Figure excludes those out working on pastoral stations under labour agreements. Blank spaces denote no figures for that year. Source: Chief Protector's Annual Reports. 1912-1925. Obviously, the figures noted in this table are somewhat affected by the absence of statistics on numbers working in the pastoral industry from Taroom, because the sum of the previous year's population and the number of removals (taking into account the birth and death rates) does not always equal IB the new population figure. This lack of attention to statistics is another symptom of the low priority afforded to Queensland's Aborigines by the government. Despite the omissions and discrepancies, it becomes apparent that the reason why an increasing number of removals was not accompanied by a concomitant rise in population figures is the high death rate, caused by poor diet, sanitation and living conditions. The aim of the government was not to "preserve the race as long as possible', but to exploit the Aborigines for their labour until they eventually "inevitably* died out. As Orlando Patterson has pointed out, "slaves are always recruited from among persons menaced with death."20 Usually, the main causes of death in Taroom were venereal diseases, bronchitis, pneumonia and "senile decay'.21 Because of their living conditions and their low immunity to European diseases, the Aborigines were also very susceptible to epidemics of diseases such as influenza. In 1919, the global influenza epidemic swept through Taroom, causing thirty-two deaths22^ including that of the Superintendent. This high death rate, coupled with a sharp decline in the birthrate, which was the pattern on most Aboriginal reserves at the time,23 caused concern among government officials. The Governor of Queensland, Macgregor, reported in 1914 that: The most remarkable fact in connection with all the camps I have seen is the paucity of children...This is very regrettable for several reasons, but more especially because it will become much more difficult to work the North-West stations when there are no more natives to assist.24 It seems that the Governor's main concern regarding Aboriginal health was a depletion in the pool of unfree labour for Queensland's pastoralists. The government itself was also benefitting from Aboriginal labour on the settlements. The 19 system of punishment on Taroom settlement may also be partly blamed for the bad health of the community. In 1915, Chief Protector Bleakley reported that Loafers and malingerers are punished by the stoppage of rations and other privileges; but something more drastic is required to effectively deal with all these troubles...25 The fact that Bleakley perceived rations to be a "privilege' and that he did not consider forced starvation to be too "drastic' a punishment for such minor offences gives an early indication of the injustices and racism to which Queensland's Aborigines were to be subjected on the settlements. The forced removal of Aboriginal children from their mothers at birth was also a well-established practice by 1915. Bleakley declared that: In addition to the orphan children maintained at homes, quadroon children, often showing little trace of aboriginal blood are sometimes found in camps, and as soon as possible, removed. It is very desirable that such children should be as early as possible rescued from the aboriginal atmosphere and brought up by the State Children's Department as Europeans.26 By this time, then, the pattern of dispossession had spread beyond the commodity of land to children and extended families. Many Aborigines had been separated from their ancestral lands and their tribal group upon being removed to Taroom. Once there, they often lost their children to disease, the State Children's Department, or the local pastoral station.27 By 1920, the Aboriginal tribal system was further broken down because of the growing concern about mixed-race Aborigines and the perceived vices of this comparatively new section of the population. Chief Protector Bleakley's Report of 1919 warned white society about the "dangers' of the 20 half-caste' evil: It is estimated that one half the Aboriginals of this State are half-castes, which indicates that they have already suffered a twenty-five percent infusion of white blood, and it is indisputable that the European population must, in the process, have also been contaminated to an extent sufficient to warrant serious reflection.28 The Report also stated that: The native is very susceptible to all the physical and moral ills of our civilisation, and it is only by complete separation of the two races that we can save him from hopeless contamination and eventual extinction, as well as safeguard the purity of our own blood...The alternative to segregation is their eventual absorption by the more numerous and more virile race, a prospect not to be viewed without some misgivings.29 As a result of this report, a "half-caste camp' was established at Woodford, one hundred kilometres north-west of Brisbane. Many Aborigines of mixed-blood descent who had been living on government settlements were removed to this "camp* in an attempt to "safeguard the purity' of the "more virile race'. At this early stage, the kinship systems of the Aboriginal people on Taroom had already been devastated. Attitudes of influential people such as the ones demonstrated above continued to be voiced until well into the 1960s.^0 in October 1925, Godfrey Morgan, the Country Party member for Murilla stated in Parliament (without encountering disapproval from either side of the House)^l; Some persons say that we should perpetuate the race. I am not one of those who think it would be advisable to do so. The time is rapidly drawing nigh when the race will become extinct...the blacks, like the native birds and animals will...eventually disappear...Speaking broadly I do not know that it would be beneficial to the blacks themselves at present or in the future if we assisted them to multiply.^2 Although the Country Party were not in power at this time, the 21 lack of an unfavourable reaction from Government members to such a racist statement would indicate an attitude amongst the decision-makers in Queensland that the Aborigines were going to die out, and that this was not of any great concern. By 1926, it had become apparent that the Taroom Settlement might be able to serve a more useful purpose as part of the proposed Dawson Irrigation scheme.^3 A new site for the settlement was found near Baralaba in Central Queensland, so an advance party consisting of the Superintendent, H.C. Colledge, a Farm Assistant and Aboriginal labourers had previously commenced clearing and fencing the property, without the assistance of transport or machinery. The remaining Aborigines, numbering over 200, were forced to walk a distance of approximately 160 kilometres to the new settlement at Woorabinda, while their belongings (and the white staff) were transported by motor lorry34 or horse and buggy. Incidentally, the Dawson River Irrigation Scheme never went ahead. Although people were living on Woorabinda from 1926, the settlement was not officially gazetted as an Aboriginal Reserve until 27th October, 1927.-^^ The settlement was divided into two sections; the "officials' area, which included the boys and girls dormitories, and the area where Aboriginal families (and some single men) lived. After the hospital was built in 1932, the hospital and the store were a type of "intermediate' area between the "officials part' and the humpies where the Aboriginal families resided. Tim Kemp, an Aboriginal resident on Woorabinda from 1926, describes the rules relating to the segregated areas: All the white officials were in one area plus the girls 22 dormitory and the boys dormitory...then there was a hospital and a store sort of in-between and we lived beyond that. We weren't allowed up in that area - other than to go to the hospital or the store - we weren't allowed past that...If we wanted to go up beyond the white officials' homes, we had to go right around by the creek, or right around by the swamp.-^^ Anyone who attempted to flee the settlement was arrested, brought back and imprisoned. In addition, if the escapee had a bank account, he or she had to incur the expense of his or her capture.37 Another characteristic of the establishment of Woorabinda settlement was the presence of missionary activity. The Aboriginal Inland Mission (A.I.M.) was first established nine miles from the settlement in 1927. The Church of England began to hold church services in 1928, and a Catholic Church was built at the "white end' of the settlement in 1933.38 ^g was the pattern throughout Australia, and most of the colonized world, the missionaries served the white power structure by interfering with tribal customs to the extent of breaking down many elements of tribal law. As Tony Scanlon has pointed out. The missionaries of Northern Australia made a concerted effort to break down the marriage customs of the Australian Aborigines on the ground that these customs were offensive to European sensibilities.-^^ Mr Reg Dodd, who had followed Catholicism while under the Aboriginal Act recalled some of the teachings of the missionaries: They even tell us - if you don't throw that culture away, you're serving satan - put the fear into you and all that...40 Missionaries generally also tried to impose their sexual repression on their Aboriginal "adherents'. As Evans has pointed out. 23 Sexual repression, as we know, runs in a deep vein throughout Western society - the Judeo-Christian religion, puritanism, the protestant ethic, the regulation and channelling of human energy to meet the demands of burgeoning Western capitalism and industrialization - all lead towards the conversion of the human body into an instrument of sensory denial and constraint, of mass production and reproduction and, on colonial and class frontiers, into an instrument of domination and aggression as well...when white men depicted Aboriginal women as being dirty, sinful, animalistic, ugly and so on - it was really their own repressed sexuality they were describing - the projection of their shadow selves that they were detecting.41 In the main, missionaries actively supported government policies, as well as acting as "instruments of domination and aggression'. Tony Scanlon points out that ...many missions were active in supporting such moves as the collection and housing at mission stations of "half-castes', as suggested by Bleakley...42 The missionaries played an essential role in the government's efforts to gain control of the land. They assisted the process of dispossession by undermining tribal law on the settlements. As Gary Foley, paraphrasing an old African saying, has pointed out: When the white man came, we had the land and he had the Bible; now we've got the Bible, and he's got the land.43 This ongoing process of cooperation between the Church and the State is best explained by Robert Reid of Mapoon, who stated in 1975: They were all working together. Everything the Church tells you is all Department of Native Affairs...When you come to an argument with the Church, they report you to the Department. They are all working together.44 This brief overview of the first few years at Woorabinda displays a pattern similar to that on most other government 24 settlements. A rigid power structure was established; removals of tribes from other areas to Woorabinda continued at a steady rate; living conditions for the majority of the Aboriginal residents were miserable; and Christianity had established itself as another force contributing to the breakdown of Aboriginal society. 25 CHAPTER 2 ^su>!^^ .. c. ^^^ The 1930s "The Aboriginal people came from everywhere really, and it was a punishment place." Maudie B. Forced removals to Woorabinda increased during the 1930s, with Aborigines being removed not only from their tribal areas, but also from the other government settlements, Cherbourg and Palm Island. The population increased quite rapidly from 298 in 1927 to 692 in 1938.^ Table 2 concentrates on the 1935 to 1938 period, primarily because this is one of the few periods for which statistics are complete. This Table also demonstrates the vast discrepancy in population statistics in the Annual Reports. Table 2. Woorabinda: Removals. Births^ Deaths, Total Population 1935-1938. Year Removals Births Deaths Population Discrepancy 1935 25 18 19 579 1936 20 29 19 581 -28 1937 14 24 32 657 +70 1938 13 20 24 692 +26 Source: Chief Protector's Annual Reports. 1927-1938. The fact that the population figures are an overestimation in some years and an underestimation in others, would indicate that factors other than numbers working on pastoral stations were involved, because this statistic did not alter drastically from year to year2 until the War period. 26 although there was a move to curb the use of Aboriginal labour in the pastoral industry during the depression. From 1927 to 1938, the number of deaths exceeded the number of births (by 257 to 229)3, ^nd this pattern continued until after World War II.4 The increase in population of almost four hundred in this period is therefore not explicable by a high birth rate. One possible explanation would be that 422 (i.e. the sum of the population increase and the difference between the number of deaths and the number of births) removals to Woorabinda occurred during this eleven year period. However, Chief Protector's reports from this period totalled removals at only 217. It is evident, then, that either the number of Aborigines removed to the settlement was much greater than indicated (accompanying children may not have been included); or substantial numbers moved by choice, or were removed by force without formal removal orders.(See overleaf) As a result of the forced movement of Aborigines between government settlements, some Aborigines who eventually resided on Woorabinda had come from as far afield as the Torres Strait Islands and Mornington Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria to the north, Mt Isa in the north-west, and Thargomindah and Talwood (ten kilometres from the New South Wales border) in the south and south-west. Members of the Birri tribe, from the Townsville region, the Gungaloo and Goreng Goreng tribes from Central Queensland, and the Wakka Wakka tribe from the Burnett region^ were among the members of tribes from an estimated sixty different locations^ represented on Woorabinda throughout its history. (See Maps 2 and 3). In the 1930s, Woorabinda was perceived by many of Queensland's Aboriginal population to be a "punishment N Order N'o , " The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Acts, 1897 to 1934." Schedule.; ORDER FOR REMOVAL OF ABORIGINALS AND HALF-CASTES. To all Officers and Constables of Police, Prison Officers, and Others Whom it May Concern. WHEREAS by Section 9 of "The Aloriginah Protection mid Restriction of the Sale of Opi^im Acts, 1897 to 1934," and Sections 21 and 25 of "The Ahoriifnuds Protection andjfeslriction of the Sale of Opium Acts Amendment Act of 1934," it is enacted that the Minister may cause Aboriginals or Half-castes within any Disti'ict to he removed to any Resoive, Institution, or District, or from any Reserve, Institution, or District, to any otiier Reserve, Institution, or District, and to be kept there for such i)criod as the_ Minister may direct: NOW THEREFORE, I, the Honourable , Minister for Health and Home Affairs of the State of Queensland, the Minister administerinfj the ahovemeutioned Acts, do hereby order that the Aboriginals or Half-castes hereinafter named he removed from in the District of to the _ (Iiitcfl Name of Uc«er«c or InklilulioM.) for the causes stilted in connection with their names respectively, and lx> ke|)t within the limits of the said Reserve or Institution, in siich manner and subject to the eonditiims i»rescril)ed hereunder, for the periods si)ecified against their respective names:— PERIOD OF OPERAnON NAME. SEX. OFFENCE OR OTHER CAUSE FOR REMOVAL. OF ORDER. \ 1 .. ' 4 . QivKN under my hand, at Brisbane, this. (Iny of.. 103.. MinisUr In- Health nt H« Afliln. ThLs Order shall be retained by the Officer or otiicr person accompanying the aboriginal or aboriginals named herein, and wlien nuch aboriginal or aboriginals have been handed over to the Superintendent or to the person in charge of the RcHcrve or Tnirtitiilion to which the said aboriginal or aboriginals «re removed he shall lU-liver this Order to such Siiiieriiitondcnt or Officer in Charge. Siieh Siipcrintciidunt or otiiur Odiccr Khali notify the Cliii-f I'rotertor of Alrarigiuals of the date on which the aboriginal or aboriginals iiniiied herein are received at the Reserve or institution. Ue shall also retain this Order during its currency, and shall report any breach thereof. GonrsBMt riiaUc. Briikut. MAP 2 Some of the Places of Origin of Woorabinda Residents, ^ Denotes removed to Taroom first. A Denotes removed to Woorabinda. MAP 3 Some of the Tribes represented on Woorabinda Source: Tindale, N. "Results of the Harvard-Adelaide Universities Anthropological Expedition, 1933-1939. Distribution of Australian Aboriginal Tribes: A Field Survey", Transactions of the Royal Society of Snntb Australia Volume 6A, Number 1, 1940. ~ ' 27 centre'^. Many single women were removed there in the 1930s and virtually imprisoned in the girls' dormitory. One such woman was Maudie B , who was removed to Woorabinda from Cherbourg in the mid-1930s. She recalled that Another girl and I were sent there because she was pregnant too and we were put in a dormitory..-where girls were kept...They were very strict because a couple of young girls ran away from the dormitories and when they came back, they had to have their hair shaved right off and the sugar bag was cut [and placed over their head] and they had to chip out on the footpath - that was the punishment for running away.^ Other Aborigines recalled beatings, head-shavings, and the forced wearing of a potato sack or a hessian bag as punishment for trifling offences.^ Two major pieces of government legislation which were passed in the 1930s, the Aboriginal Protection Acts of 1934 and 1939, only served to extend the powers previously held by the government over Aborigines. New provisions under the 1934 Act included the outlawing of all extramarital sex for Aboriginal women, the power to order compulsory medical tests for Aborigines, the power to imprison "uncontrollable' Aborigines without a trial, and the inclusion of all non-Aboriginal "half-castes' under the Act. Measures which had been carried over from the 1901 Act included the provision that the state could remove indigenes to reserves, inmates on a reserve had to obey all staff orders, the Reserve superintendent could censor an inmate's mail. Aborigines could earn less than the minimum wage, and Aboriginal women needed the State's permission to marry. ^"^ The most far-reaching provision, included in all the Acts until 1971, was the provision that the State may manage indigenes' income, property, wills and so on. This section of m the Act, which originally appeared in 1897 enabled the establishment of the Trust Fund system, which legally permitted Queensland's Aborigines to be deprived of their wages for over eighty years. (Even after the 1971 Act, a district officer could "undertake and maintain management' of an Aborigine's property.)^^ Mr Ted Mitchell, an ex-resident of both Taroom and Woorabinda, worked on stations in Queensland from the age of ten years. He recalls the indispensability of Aboriginal, labour in the pastoral industry in Queensland in the 1930s: Before the war, there wouldn't be a station around this district that didn't employ Aboriginals because Aborigines were the mainstay as far as work as a stockman went...-'-^ Mr Mitchell also recalls the wages he received as a stockman during this period: We were on 2 and 6 a week in those days, that was our wages. They got 2 shillings and we got sixpence. That's the government system...There was no banking account, you didn't know how much money you had in the bank,..^-' Tim Kemp, who also worked on pastoral stations during the 1930s, referred to the pay he actually received as "pocket money': Most the wages in those days were 30 shillings a week out on stations - that's for adults. But when you were young, the first job I went out to, I got 7 and 6 a week; 2 and 6 in my pocket...I got 2 and 6 in my pocket and 5 shillings went to the government...My father worked nearly all his life on cattle stations; when he died, I don't think my mother got anything. She never got a cent as far as I know-^^ Mr Kemp also recalls people coming down from the stations to choose Aborigines to work on their stations: They used to line the kids up at school - twelve and 29 thirteen-year-olds and the graziers used to come and say "I'll take that chap there'. They'd just look at you, you know, and say "I'll take this one, I'll take that one'. If you were big enough to ride a horse or big enough to do a bit of work around the farm, they used to look at your size and say "I'll take him'.^^ This selection process, reminiscent of the slave trade in Southern America, (but outlawed in the U.S.A. by this time) continued in Queensland well into the 1940s^^, and was fully sanctioned by the government, who issued the work permits to Aborigines. The government also screened the applications from the station owners for permits to employ Aborigines, which were required by the Aboriginal Protection Act.(See overleaf) It should be pointed out, however, that poor treatment of labour was not restticted to Aborigines in Queensland, but was also a feature of the earlier Melanesian indentured labour system, contract workers, and other manual casual and itinerant workers who were unprotected by unions at the time. Aboriginal women also played an integral role in the pastoral industry at this time, usually as domestic servants or cooks. Like the men, they were sent out to the stations on six month or twelve month "work contracts'. As has been pointed out, both the men and women were paid meagre wages, and they were punished back at the settlement if they returned before their work contract had expired. •'•^ Cheap forced labour was not the only feature of Woorabinda government settlement which was reminiscent of a penal institution at this time. The punishment for staying out after the ten o'clock curfew was five or six weeks in gaol.^^ Tim Kemp remembered that: They used to ring a bell at ten o'clock and you had to be in your house...you couldn't go wandering around the street after ten o'clock. •^^ Fonn A. T 'THE ABOBIOINALS PROTECTION A.VD RESTKICTION OK THE SALE OF OPIUU ACT, 1»»J." APPLICATION FOR PERMIT. 1, THE UNDERSIGNED, hereby apply for the grant of a Permit to employ the* , particulars of whom axe hereunder written :— PARTICULARS OF* 1. Nnmo: 2. Sex: 3. Approximate A^: i. Diitriot where Bom : fi. Natuie of Employment: 0. Period of propoeed Employment: 7. Propoaed rate'of wage per wcuk : SHPLOYER. 1. Nomo: i, Bea^deuoe: J A S. Oocupation: -^ .1 DAIXO tt the day of _ * "Abon(iiiml"or "HmU^Mlr." ^^ N.B.—ApplioaoU who do not wish to wtga^ aay paniculmr oatiw known to thatn. but d«ira tho •onriDM "of ft natiTO for oortsin work, kc., ar« ftdvued to ivply to tba inquiriea iodkated by Noo. S; 3. 6, 6. and 7, nbovo, and to oomplato ibo form uodar tbe hoading of " Einployar," and forwai4 it to ibi naanat Protaotor of Aborigioalai ^. ' or 6upariat Maudie B described the situation in the girls dormitory at this time: You were escorted everywhere really, and at night in the dormitories the lights were out, or they only had the hurricane lights...they were put out about 7 o'clock and if you had a child, you just had to feel around in the dark...20 Another offence punishable by a term of 21 days in the settlement gaol was waving to someone of the opposite sex (including relatives). Ted Mitchell recalled that Aborigines were imprisoned If you spoke up for yourself, if you disagreed with them - with anyone... [and] you weren't allowed to swear or throw rubbish around...^1 Similarly, Tim Kemp remembered that If you waved to the girls from down in the camp area, they'd put you in gaol.^2 There was a separate system of punishment in operation in the girls' dormitory. Maudie B stated that: They had a woman, she was very cruel. When I say cruel, I mean we were locked up in a room, not big, with bars around it. Her and her husband used to give the punishment if you did anything wrong. We were just locked up in this room, and given damper and water.23 Aboriginal women were escorted to the dance hall by "blacktrackers'. The men could only walk half-way to the dance hall with the women, and no physical contact during this time was permitted. Once in the dance hall, as Maudie B recalls: The girls, or the women, sat on one side, and the men on the other side, and they'd come and ask you for a dance. But they had to bring you back, you couldn't sit with them or anything like that...They wouldn't let you do 31 anything.24 To disobey any of the rules governing the morality of the inmates was to contravene State law, under the Regulations of the Aboriginal Protection Act which provided that "inmates on reserves must obey all staff orders'.25 "offences' were punishable by a minimum of twenty-one days imprisonment in the settlement gaol, a corrugated iron construct with minimal ventilation and a ring and chain on the floor.26 As Ted Mitchell describes it: In my time they had a place about 10' by 8'. It had two sections made of corrugated iron and if you were in there in the summer you knew you were in there, I'11 tell you that. There was not even a peep hole.27 Power relations on the settlement were further reinforced by the use of "blacktrackers' as a form of "bodyguard* of the Superintendent. Like the Native Police on the frontier, they were Aborigines which the whites had chosen to be part of the process of oppression against other blacks. Tim Kemp cited an incident which occurred quite frequently on Woorabinda. He is quoted at length to demonstrate the absolute power which the administration on the settlement held over the lives of the Aborigines. Speaking about Superintendent Colledge, Mr Kemp stated. He used to have two blacktrackers standing at the door up on the steps on the veranda. You had to go and pass them before you could go and see the Superintendent. And they'd say to you: "What do you want?" And you'd say "Oh, I want to see the Super". They'd walk in and say "So-and-so out there wants to speak to you." And he'd say "Tell him to wait there." And you'd have to wait there all day. Lunchtime would come and he'd go out the back door and shoot through to home for lunch and you'd be still standing there. Next thing you'd see him out on the road walking home. You couldn't go after him because you wasn't allowed up in that area. So you'd go away and come back after lunch, and the same thing would happen till 5 o'clock...He used to go off and leave people standing there.28 32 One day, Mr Kemp pushed aside the "blacktrackers', and forced his way into Colledge's office. Colledge informed Kemp that he had not been sent for, and that he did not want to see him. Kemp recalled that "He had a lot of people scared of him... chaps my age wouldn't come over, even my brother was very scared of him."29 In addition to the degrading treatment already examined, government legislation also provided for an unmitigated invasion of the privacy of Aborigines on the settlement. By law, they needed permission to marry (See overleaf), their mail was subject to censorship, and their belongings were subject to a search at any time. As Tim Kemp recounts: Under Colledge, they used to go through all your belongings when you came home for Christmas or came home from the end of a job. You had to throw your port or your swag down and black-trackers would go through it and have a look and see what you had in your swag or port...They'd go through your belongings - girls or boys - just throw all your stuff out on the floor and leave it there for you to pack into your bag.^^ Erving Goffman would see this ritual, along with the ritual issue of rations and blankets, for instance, as part of the process of property dispossession. He explains that Once the inmate is stripped of his possessions, at least some replacements must be made by the establishment, but these take the form of standard issue, uniform in character and uniformly distributed...Periodic searches and confiscations of accumulated personal property reinforce property dispossession.-^^ The system of power and dispossession on Woorabinda was aided and abetted by the appalling diet and health and sanitation conditions which existed. As Steven Biko pointed out when referring to the struggle of the Black African people: Xo •The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Acts, 1897 to 1934." Permission for Celebration of Marriage X, Chief Protector (or Protector) of Aboriginals, iiaving been duly authorised under Si'ction 9 of "The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act, 1901," to give pcrnnssion, in writing, for the celebration of the niarriage of female aboriginals with persons other than aboriginals, hereby givr iK'rniis.sion for tlu- celebration of the marriage of the female aboriginal with who is of. nationality. Dated this day of In the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and C'liirf l'rol«>ctor of Aburi|(iiialr. cm. I'riiitfr, Drii-bonc. 33 When people are starving, unemployed and exploited, food, work and social security are higher priorities for them than individual liberty.^2 Although Biko was referring to the struggle of a different people in a different country in a different time, his statement bears relevance to the people of Woorabinda. Because the lives of these people, like the Black Africans, were preoccupied with day-to-day survival, any fight for "individual liberty' against the system of oppression and process of dispossession was virtually impossible. "The system'33 ensured that poor dietary and health conditions remained the major concern for Aborigines on Government Settlements. Maudie B recalled that "We never got much food, sometimes there was only damper and a cup of black tea or something like that...",34 while Tim Kemp remembered: They used to give you more rice than you could poke a stick at, but you had nothing to eat it with, you had no sugar, you had no beef - you had to eat rice...They used to give you split peas by the bagful, but nothing to eat it with...they used to give you a fair amount of sago, but if you didn't have milk, sugar or anything, there was no way you could cook it, you just had to eat it raw.35 The Hospital was built in 1932, but there was no doctor residing at Woorabinda. The Visiting Medical Officer usually came once a month, for one and a half hours, and he did not make a trip out for emergencies.36 The Hospital Matron's monthly reports from 1935 to 1939 would indicate a need for much better and more frequent medical attention. Common causes of death among infants were gastro-enteritis and congenital syphilis. Among young adults, tuberculosis seems to have been the most common cause of death, while asthma and pneumonia were also prevalent. In 1938, there was an epidemic of whooping cough which mainly affected young children. Most aged 34 people were recorded as having died from "senile decay'. (One such case, in June 1937, also happened to have double pneumonia, and suffered heart failure).37 The appalling situation regarding medical treatment will be further dealt with in the next chapter on the War years, when the death rate from preventable diseases reached alarming proportions, and people were imprisoned or issued with removal orders because of their medical condition. At the same time, attitudes among the decision-makers in the white community continued in their self-congratulatory mode, while keeping alive the concern about the so-called "half-caste problem'. By 1934, no permits were granted for "mixed marriages'.38 As Evans has pointed out, concern about the "half-caste problem' had reached its zenith by this stage: The increasing alarm over racial and sexual "contamination' reached a peak in 1934, a factor reflected in both administrative concern and legislative action taken during that year. In August, a memo from the under-secretary of the Home Secretary's department to the Governor of Queensland remarked: "Inferior races will have to go, and in my opinion Governments sooner or later will have seriously to consider the question of sterilization of the half-caste.' The Governor, however, disconcertingly replied, "...I cannot believe that any Government would be Jbrave enough to legislate in that direction.'39 Ironically, the Governor who made this statement. Sir Leslie Wilson, was honoured for his great contributions to the welfare of Aborigines by the Bush Children's Home in Yeppoon, who named their boarding hostel for underprivileged Aboriginal children the "Sir Leslie Wilson Home'. Although Sir Leslie was right, and the Labor government was not "brave' enough to legislate for the sterilization of the "half-caste', the attitudes of this administration were equally as frightening. E.M. Hanlon, the Secretary for Health and Home Affairs, urged 35 his fellow parliamentarians to "realise that when this country was invaded by the white race the aboriginal was about a million years behind the European."40 Hanlon thought that if only white society were a "little patient' the Aborigine would eventually "bridge the gap of a million years'. Frank Nicklin, Member for Murrumba, and future Premier, advocated what he thought would be an effective method of "breeding out' the "half-caste': ^^ Q^ ^^^ . vnH\ I believe that it might be of great help in eliminating almost entirely the half-caste problem of this State if we adopted the principle that is in operation in the Dutch East Indies. There it is no social crime for the Dutch people to inter-marry with the natives. In fact, many such marriages have been eminently successful, and the further intermarriage of the Dutch with the quadroons has had the effect of gradually eliminating the half-caste. No doubt, if the half-castes were allowed to assimilate with the white people here it would lead to a much better condition than we have at present.41 At this stage in Queensland's history, then, it seems evident that almost every decision-maker in Queensland was of the opinion that European society had to rid itself of Aborigines of mixed-race origins. The high death rate on Woorabinda settlement during this period would indicate a degree of success for the Queensland government in this regard. From 1931 to 1935, there were 118 deaths out of a population of approximately 500; from 1936-1940, there were 134 deaths from a population of approximately 700. Throughout the 1930s, the death rate exceeded the birth rate. Despite these high death statistics, and the generally appalling conditions under which the inmates of Woorabinda and the other Reserves suffered, the State's leaders remained convinced that "the Government are doing the right thing by the Aboriginals.(sic)"42 jt was on this pretext that the next Act affecting Aborigines was instituted with few changes to the 36 original legislation of 1897. In 1939, the new Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act came into effect. The Chief Protector was renamed the Director of Native Affairs, and provision was made for Aborigines to be exempted from the Act on a parole-like basis (See overleaf). Most Aborigines referred to their exemption as "being christened with the dog ticket', or to hold a "dog licence'.43 Ted Mitchell recalled that They'd give you two years leave from the settlement, and if you got into any trouble, they'd ship you back in. You had to keep in touch with the police, the police at every town near to where you were..If you went in every six months, or passing by, you had to call in and notify them.44 Apart from the limited freedom afforded to a few Aborigines under the exemption system, the 1939 Act did nothing to improve the lot of Queensland's Aborigines. A long list of what constituted a crime on an Aboriginal settlement was published. Aborigines had to obey orders, be orderly and clean, and could only dance and carry out other "native practices' with permission. Residents could be ordered to work without pay for thirty-two hours per week on the Reserve. The strict controls over the mobility of Aborigines were continued; permits were necessary to leave the settlement, or to enter another settlement.45 The year 1939 also saw the introduction of Social History Cards on Aborigines under the Act. (See overleaf). These cards provided the government with centralised intelligence on most of Queensland's Aboriginal population. Information contained on the Social History cards often included personal medical records, the "breed' of the Aborigine, and the names and "breeds' of his or her parents. CHIEF PROTECTOR OF ABORIGINALS. QUEENSLAND. -.granted Exemption fran the provisions of the Aboriginal Protection Act. Address- Certificate No. Date Issued by .. Relative file Date of Birth Married or Single Nationality of Parents:— Father Mother Savings Dank A/c :— Balance Disposal Exempt Half caste _ RECORD SINCE GRANTED EXEMPTION. ^»ttiBIMliMti(i)thifiiti I'I \\ jj-.^^ ^iiiiriiiinii n . .•-••- -^I'-njuja^ii ' >, •, ---I'li i ~ UMBE R Z I '•'. S > H 9>B 1 Z ^ E D z ;> ' S B 3 NAM E T O m • ) CH I LDRE N 1 1 NAM E H. r Z Z IT K e c (D > 6 m cr V o e 3 »3d -^ CQ" M 3 z I-* 9L -4 HUSSAN O lONALIT Y BREE D (/) j Wher e loo d cr 1 X *a 73 > CD -o 1 -1 • (D 1 0 3. (/) s CD O R fr o z O R 3 Remov a -*• < BREE D WIF E RELIGIO N Ad . e r D -K ID 0 Q. -1 o -•• 0 0 1 o 0) F -n n. •^ 3 Q. 1 -1 O Q. -V -»• ^^ 1 c; ID ^ ^ -r n O ' O 3 ^^ O •A p" -1- >UB S o 1 c* O • 1—• o CD 3" o a n> > HER' S n 3 s 1 H m CO •o >• o* ^nc u m • cr m e Qi O 1—• O •o •fi m OQ o •1 3 LAR S O H QI AM E CD «< !-•• sAR R Z o z CD to ff> Qi 1 o cr P Qj Wsl »-• \ ? • •A CD AJI St O •^ m ^--^ -^ oIGIN i O « KO o^ W to H> z cr m 6 Z > QtoI % ^ I z ^r- ADMISSIO N CD CO eptem b o tow n a PLAC E influ e DISCHARG E PLAC E • O F B 8 O l Z 3 F ne e D IRT H (A MARRiA ( e ID m 0 7» -J. 3 3* m vo •sd VjJ (p ; U1 O CH c ec W>l 3* g BR E r . CD CD CP S r ^ • -^ H5 O 5 3 vo => O O 0) V71 -r QI S C+ o^ rO m H* X zH •< CD OD I flL .a E 8 V e m --/^' 37 These initial years on Woorabinda, then, saw the establishment of a power structure that would continue there for sixty years. Government legislation in the intervening years ensured that life remained fairly static for the inmates. The basic themes of life on Woorabinda during the 1930s were an institutionalised way of life, poor living conditions and health, and a large degree of governmental control over the inmates' lives. The legislation enacted at the end of the 1930s, and the concomitant introduction of Social History Cards reinforced the power structure and the existing process of "dispossession by legislation'. 39 for one skin, and I said "I'm going to go and get two skins in one day and get 16 shillings, and here I only get 15 shillings for one month'.^ As has been indicated, the trust account system ensured that Aborigines only received a portion of their wages in any case. The 1910 amendment to Regulation 12 of the Act meant that the government had a great deal to gain by placing a large percentage of Aborigines' wages in "trust'. As Frances Lovejoy, writing in 1972, noted: This amendment of the Regulation paved the way for the current system whereby a portion of the aggregate balance is held as liquid reserves and the rest is invested by the Department for interest rates higher than savings bank interest.^ For over sixty years, then, Queensland's public purse made a direct profit from the earnings of Aborigines. After 1945, the surplus return on investment was transferred to the "Welfare Fund', ostensibly for Aboriginal benefit. The absence of any such fund prior to 1945 would suggest that returns from the interest on Aboriginal wages was not used for their benefit. The issues of overriding importance in this matter, though, are that Aborigines had very little say in what their money was used for; they had to apply for permission to withdraw their own money, and provide a reason that would satisfy the Superintendent for doing so. After many Aborigines were granted their exemptions, they were informed that despite years of hard labour on settlements or stations, for which they had to date seen little pay, all the funds in their trust account had been used for their "welfare'.^ Although it has been very difficult to trace exactly where all this money may have gone, an example of the kind of items for which Aborigines were charged was found in some 40 correspondence from a government file entitled "Woorabinda - Medical Accounts Due by Settlement Natives."^ In 1943, the Director of Native Affairs sent a letter to the Undersecretary of the Department of Health and Home Affairs outlining which Aborigines had "sufficient funds' in their trust accounts to meet their hospital bills, and which Aborigines did not. The Aborigines who had incurred expenses at the hospital and did not have "sufficient funds' in their trust accounts were exempted from paying their accounts, but there were five Aborigines who were obliged to pay for their hospital care, because there was enough money in their trust accounts. The crucial factor is that these fees were incurred at Baralaba Hospital, a public hospital, where everyone was entitled to free treatment. In another letter, dated eight days later, the Director of Native Affairs wrote to the Superintendents of Palm Island and Cherbourg settlements, seeking Aborigines who owed fees to the Baralaba Public Hospital, stating: The following natives who were at Woorabinda incurred hospital fees at the Baralaba Hospital and in order that such accounts may be finalised, will you please advise if any of these natives are now on your settlement and if so the amount of their Savings Bank Accounts.1° It is evident, then, that Aborigines with money in their trust accounts were not entitled to free treatment in a public hospital, while Queensland's non-Aboriginal population was. In 1942, there seems to have been some conjecture over whether or not Aborigines should be paying such fees^^, but clearly, by 1943, this had become an established practice. During the War Years, removals continued to dislocate Aboriginal family ties, and the trust accounts system continued to systematically rob Aborigines of their livelihood, while the Aboriginal Protection Act continued to 41 rob them of their freedom and their dignity. But the most important concern for Woorabinda's Aborigines during this period was health and living conditions. The high death rate during this period was partly attributable to the forced removal of approximately 300 people from Cape Bedford to Woorabinda, partly to gross mismanagement by the government, and partly to the nature of administration and medical care on Woorabinda itself. The "Cape Bedford' people, as they were then known, were removed to Woorabinda in 1942. They had come from what became known as Hope Vale Mission in the post-war years, near Cooktown in North Queensland. The Cape Bedford Lutheran Mission was run by a Superintendent of German descent, who was regarded with a high degree of suspicion by Army Intelligence. When local whites also claimed that the Aborigines were disloyal, the army moved in. At dawn on the morning of 17 May, 1942, a convoy of trucks arrived at the mission to remove the Aborigines and take the missionary into internment.^2 The mission itself was levelled; crops of maize, sweet potatoes and fruit were flattened, and the R.A.A.F. built an aerodrome and runway on the site.^-^ Some of the elderly people were removed to Palm Island, but the majority, about 300, were taken over 1000 kilometres south by steamer, train and cattle truck, to Woorabinda. At 9am, the Cape Bedford people and Missionary Schwarz were loaded onto the steamer "Poonbar' and transported to Cairns. They were not fed all day. They arrived in Cairns that night, and were immediately loaded onto a waiting train. As Howard Pohlner wrote: When the gangplanks were let down the soldiers filed them straight into train carriages, like cages many had never seen before. But they saw their formerly strong, beloved missionary being escorted away, handcuffed. There was no opportunity for speeches.^4 4a On Tuesday the train stopped at Cardwell, and the people were fed for the first time since Sunday morning. At Townsville, the more elderly people were separated from the main group and sent to Palm Island.(See Map 4) The main group continued by train to Baralaba, where trucks were waiting to take them to Woorabindal5^ They arrived at 4am, in Winter, dressed suitably for North Queensland's weather, and consequently many of them died shortly afterwards from pneumonia. This forced removal of a large number of Aborigines by the State is reminiscent of the removal of the Fraser Island Aborigines to Yarrabah in 1904.(See Map 1) In 1903, after Captain Herbert Kent had found that the 168 inmates of the Fraser Island reserve "had relapsed into a state of lawlessness and degradation',^^ Chief Protector Roth and E.R.B. Gribble for the Anglican Board of Missions decided to "abandon the project'.^^ As Evans and Walker explain: It was now decided that a large number of the "most promising', according to the Missionaries' judgement, would be transported north to Yarrabah; others would be sent to Durundur Reserve, near Caboolture; and those who remained of the original Fraser Island people would be left to their own devices at the derelict site. One hundred and seventeen of the Fraser Island Aborigines were subsequently shipped to Yarrabah, a journey which took more than three weeks, where most of them perished. By 1911, approximately ten remained.^^ Similarly, the people of Mapoon and Weipa were removed en masse to Bamaga and Yarrabah in the late 1950s and early 1960s, so that the Comalco Mining Company could mine these areas.^^ These two examples serve to indicate that the Cape Bedford people were not the only large group of Aborigines to suffer this kind of traumatic upheaval in Queensland this century. For the Cape Bedford people, like the Fraser Island people, the suffering lrna«\C\ MAP U Journey of the Cape Bedford Aborigines to Woorabinda, 194-2. CaSpt, 5cel(ord Cherloooro ^ ^ ' MODE OF TRANSPORT — Steamer ('Poonbar') — . — . — .— Train — Cattle Trucks 43 continued long after their arrival at their destination. For some, the removal to Woorabinda meant a reunion with relatives who had been removed to other areas from North Queensland in the 1920s. As Reg Dodd, who had previously lived on Strathmore Station recalls: See, all the people from Strathmore Station - we were divided. Some were sent to Yarrabah, some to Cape Bedford and some to Barambah...And when the Cape Bedford mob came down, they were my relations, talking lingo1 Same lingo as me!^^ A similar reunion awaited the Flinders family: As a truck pulled in a native policeman called out, "Is Bob Flinders on board?' "Yes,' he responded. "Well, you and your family come down. Your sister Hope is waiting for you. She has a place for you to stay.' He couldn't believe his ears. Could it be true? The Flinders family got down all right. At the house they both broke down in tears. They hadn't seen each other since 1916.2-^ Despite a limited number of family reunions, it seems that the "Woorabinda people' and the "Cape Bedford people' remained two distinct groups^S from 1942 until 1949, when they were eventually returned to the mission. Pohlner claims that the Cape Bedford people "unanimously decided to remain loyal Lutherans'2-^ despite the presence of the A.I.M., and the Catholic and Anglican Churches at Woorabinda. ,.ys)S,«i&'»l;^..-v ^.T "Sunday School Children at Woorabinda" Source: Pohlner, Gangurru, Plate 14. 44 For the majority of the Cape Bedford people, their time at Woorabinda was miserable. When the Cape Bedford people arrived in the cattle trucks, many of them had not been wearing clothing on the upper part of their bodies, and the women with children were carrying their babies in bark. Some Woorabinda people ran over to them and wrapped blankets around them, but the accommodation in which they were subsequently placed ensured that many of them died anyway. In a Health Department Report written in 1943, D.W. Johnson, a microbiologist with the Health Department, found that ...the housing was inadequate, and the buildings cold and draughty. Many aboriginals slept on the ground in winter, and the blanket issue was insufficient.^4 Although the death statistics for this period are generally conservative (many deaths do not seem to have been accounted for), it would seem that at least seventy of the Cape Bedford Aborigines (a high percentage of whom were children) perished in their first year at Woorabinda.25 jn January 1943 alone, there were 31 deaths at Woorabinda, the majority of which were Cape Bedford people. The main causes of death were gastro enteritis and pneumonia, both of which are preventable by an adequate diet and adequate living conditions. D.W. Johnson attributed the high death rate to four main factors: (i) Exposure for the first time to new infections; (ii) Change of diet, causing impaired nutrition; (iii) Contamination of milk supply, the milk probably not being boiled before consumption; (iv) Contamination of water supply. The creek water is liable to bacterial contamination.26 An epidemic of measles exacerbated these problems in December 1942. Cape Bedford and Woorabinda men had been arrowroot 45 digging at Coomera, and a number of them contracted measles. The men were separated; some were returned to Woorabinda and some were sent to Cherbourg, triggering a measles epidemic at both of these settlements. Johnson recorded thirty-three deaths from measles in the following two months at Woorabinda, but this only includes people who died in the settlement hospital. As Johnson himself points out, ...many aboriginals(sic) could not be admitted to the Settlement Hospital, but were cared for in the camp or in the dormitories.^7 Johnson recorded twenty-four deaths in January from measles. Of the previous figure given for deaths in January, thirty- one, only one of these people is recorded as having died from measles. If the figure of twenty-four, who are known to have died from measles is added to this figure, it becomes apparent that over fifty people may have died in the space of one month at Woorabinda in January 1943. The results of the measles epidemic at Cherbourg settlement were equally as devastating, and one may well question the government's motives in dividing the men who were initially affected and sending them to two different settlements. Incidentally, the Annual Report of the Director of Native Affairs for 1943 had one paragraph on Health, which read as follows: Generally the health of the aboriginals has been satisfactory. The only serious epidemic occurred at Lockhart River Mission where 25 deaths resulted from an outbreak of measles with complications.28 Evidently, fifty deaths in one month at Woorabinda was not considered to be a "serious epidemic' by the Sub-Department of Native Affairs. Two further complications to health conditions at 46 Woorabinda were tuberculosis and hookworm infestation. The Commonwealth Health Laboratory in Rockhampton found that thirteen children at Woorabinda in July 1942 were suffering from hookworm. By March 1943, five of these children had died, because the Visiting Medical Officer had not administered any treatment for the disease.29 Such gross negligence was not restricted to the Visiting Medical Officer. A case study of the treatment of an Aboriginal child suffering from burns demonstrates a disturbing lack of concern on the part of many members of the administration. On 28th July, 1941, Berlin Murray, an Aboriginal child aged 14 years, was severely burned on the thighs, back, abdomen and chest when her dress caught fire. She was immediately taken to the Hospital Matron, Matron Peatey, who seems to have suffered from grave mental instability. For instance, as D.W. Johnson recorded in his report on the incident, "...she had been known to have convulsive seizures if annoyed or reprimanded. "•^^ Matron Peatey telephoned Dr Blackburn, (the Visiting Medical Officer) when the incident occurred and he gave directions for treatment which included the administration of morphia to the patient and the application of tannic acid to the burnt areas. These applications of tannic acid were continued by the Matron for over seven months, until March 1942. By this time. Miss Murray's wounds had healed while she was in an unusual position (i.e. lying on her side in an attempt to ease the pain of the burns), and this caused deformities. Dr Blackburn stated to Johnson that he had not noticed the deformities, and that Matron Peatey did not direct his attention to them. As a result. Miss Murray's right hip protruded, and her right leg had been shortened, because the muscle had contracted.^^ 47 The fact that two such negligent individuals were in the employ of the State government department controlling Aborigines once again demonstrates the low priority afforded Aborigines by that Government. D.W. Johnson's report also reveals similar characteristics in the Superintendent, and two other officers of the Department on Woorabinda. He states that Mr Colledge, who is 62 years of age, is an uncouth individual, fond of complaining, and does not appear to have the interests of the aboriginal at heart at all times. Mr Blair is honest and capable, but has no desire to leave the Settlement to improve himself. I have reason to believe that Colledge, Blair and Thomas are rather addicted to alcohol...Dr Blackburn, although interested in tuberculosis, does not appear to be very interested in aboriginals. He is very keen on military duties. He is not on cordial terms with the Superintendent.^2 Johnson's findings on the character of Superintendent Colledge are supported by Aborigines who lived on Woorabinda during his administration. Comments which they made included: "He was a bit of a pig in a way..." and "In those days, we thought he was a mongrel" and "He was the biggest drunkard going. And he was interfering with a lot of the girls... "-^-^ Because of the degree of government control invested in officers of the Department in charge of Aborigines, Colledge and people like him at Woorabinda held the lives and freedom of Aborigines in their hands. The appalling conditions and high death rate on Woorabinda in the early 1940s may be 48 attributed, at least in part, to three officers of the Department who were too fond of drinking, a mentally unstable Hospital Matron, and a professionally negligent Visiting Medical Officer.-^4 None of the personnel involved were dismissed as a result of this report. In fact, in 1944, Dr Blackburn was in charge of the Westwood Sanatorium in Rockhampton. -^ ^ The final, and for some the most devastating aspect of the deleterious health conditions on Woorabinda during the War years, was venereal disease. It was during these years that venereal disease reached epidemic proportions on the three government settlements in Queensland, partly because of the degree to which the Aborigines were moved around in this period, and partly because of the presence of American Servicemen in Queensland. J. Blackburn, who was still the Visiting Government Medical Officer to Woorabinda, despite his negligence in the Berlin Murray case, expressed concern to the Director of Native Affairs about the problem of Venereal Disease on Government Aboriginal Settlements. He wrote: I understand that there are Allied Service Camps at Murgon, and it is a well-known fact that the incidence of the disease is very high among them. Being in close proximity to Cherbourg, I take it that this is the reason for there being so many cases there. Woorabinda is well isolated, but it is quite possible that, in the near future, with the men returning from Bundaberg and other places, some will carry back the disease.-^^ Although Woorabinda was the least affected of the three Government Settlements by venereal diseases,-^^ by 1944, venereal disease had become a problem there as well. All V.D. cases were immediately removed to Fantome Island Hospital, part of the Palm Island Settlement, for treatment. Naturally, this meant a traumatic separation from the family at 49 Woorabinda, and V.D. patients removed to Fantome Island for treatment sometimes died there. The Aborigines' removal order stated "Venereal Disease' as the reason for removal in such cases.38 The Acting Medical Officer on Palm Island seemed to be primarily concerned with the speed in transferring patients to Fantome Island, and the morals of the sufferers: With respect to V.D. cases, there seems to be undue delay in other Settlements from the time slides are taken and the transfer of positive cases to Fantome Island and the patients themselves say they receive no treatment in the meantime. This is a very serious matter for especially with halfcastes, their morals are of the fowlyard variety and they are propagating the disease during the time they are waiting to be transferred from other Settlements.-^^ (my emphasis) The Director of Native Affairs, C. O'Leary, conveyed the Acting Medical Officer's concerns to the Superintendent at Woorabinda. Colledge "solved' the problem, and informed the Director that "If they show definite symptoms they are made to sleep in the lock up."40 in addition to the trauma of contracting venereal disease, and being imprisoned for it. Aborigines were also subject to questioning by the Superintendent to ascertain when and with whom they had had sexual contact. The names of the "contacts' and "suspects'41 were subsequently sent to the Superintendents of other settlements, setting in motion a form of "witchhunt' for infected people. In 1943, the Director of Native Affairs, C. O'Leary, wrote the following to the Superintendent at Fantome Island, concerning a removee from Woorabinda: The Visiting Medical Officer, in advising the Health Department that the above was a sufferer from Venereal Disease, stated that the source of the infection was probably three women at Cherbourg Settlement. The names of such were not ascertained before N was sent to your settlement, and it is asked that he be interviewed in an endeavour to obtain the names of these women.^2 50 The results of medical tests were also recorded in government reports, and the name of the Aboriginal sufferer and the disease from which they suffered was included. It seems that during the War years, however, the Aborigines were not the only people who suffered such deprivations of liberty when they became infected with venereal disease. The general state of "moral panic'43 in Queensland, and the rest of Australia, from 1942 to 1945 led to the proclamation of the National Security Regulations (Venereal Diseases and Contraceptives) in September 1942. As Kay Saunders and Helen Taylor explain: The new regulations empowered each state's Chief Health Officer to compel any person whom he had "reasonable grounds' to suspect was suffering from a notifiable venereal infection to undergo a medical examination. If the suspect did not comply, the police would issue a warrant to enforce it. If found to be infected, the person could be detained in a stipulated hospital or "suitable place'. No citizen wrongfully detained or examined could take action against the Commonwealth.44 From this it would seem evident that although whites could not be forcibly removed away from their families to a hospital hundreds of miles away (as Woorabinda's Aborigines were removed to Fantome Island), both whites (primarily women) and Aborigines infected with venereal diseases during the War period suffered fundamental deprivations of liberty under the new National Security Regulations. The difference for the Aborigines during the War Years was that their whole way of life represented a fundamental deprivation of liberty. In addition, the practices related to the treatment of venereal diseases, such as sending out lists of "contacts' continued for the Aboriginal sufferers beyond the end of the Second World War. (See Chapter 4: the most recent evidence found of this practice was 1968). 51 By 1945, leprosy was also prevalent on Woorabinda, and sufferers were similarly transferred to Fantome Island. For example, in June 1945, of thirty-nine Aborigines tested for leprosy on Woorabinda, "11 were contacts, 4 were very suspicious cases, and the remainder mildly suspicious.'45 Venereal diseases and leprosy continued to plague the Aboriginal people of Woorabinda well into the late 1960s.^^ Ironically, Queensland's Aborigines came under the control of the Department of Health throughout this most unhealthy period on Queensland's Government Aboriginal Settlements.47 Another important feature of life on Woorabinda during World War Two, which, again, was characteristic of all three Government Settlements in Queensland at this time, was the invaluable nature of Aboriginal labour to the pastoral industry in Queensland. Most able-bodied men and women from Woorabinda spent the war fulfilling twelve month or two-year contracts on surrounding stations. Because the Commonwealth Government deemed it "neither necessary nor desirable'48 to have Aborigines or "persons not substantially of European origin or descent'49 in the armed forces, no Woorabinda men joined the Army,50 although some joined the Civil Construction Corps.51 The C.C.C. was created in April 1942, as part of the Allied Works Council.^2 Most of the Aborigines involved in the C.C.C. were engaged in the pastoral industry. In addition, most of them seem to have been volunteers, because it is unlikely that the compulsory enlistment of men enacted later called upon Aborigines to join, because of the general discrimination against Aborigines regarding their exclusion from the armed forces at the time. Another reason why Aborigines were engaged in the C.C.C. was because they were entitled to civilian award rates (although these would have 52 been paid into a trust account). They did not, however, qualify for army entitlement, such as dependants allowances or repatriation benefits.^3 By far the majority of Aborigines who were working during the war, whether part of the C.C.C. or not, were working in the pastoral industry. By 1945, approximately 3500^^ Aborigines in Queensland were engaged in the pastoral industry (compared to 2300 in 1939)55^ a significant proportion of whom came from Woorabinda.^^ In 1942, six hundred Aboriginal men from Woorabinda, Palm Island, Yarrabah and Cherbourg were sent to Atherton to pick corn.57 Willie Thaiday, at this time attached to Palm Island, but later removed to Woorabinda, was in Atherton with this group of labourers for four years. Thaiday worked for Mr Harold Collins, the Minister for Agriculture and Stock. Collins had five hundred acres of corn, and three Aboriginal labourers worked this property for the duration of the war. As Thaiday recalls, "It was very hard work. No tractors then, only horses.'58 jn the same year. Aboriginal labour was keeping the sugarcane industry in Bundaberg viable. As O'Leary, the Deputy Director of Native Affairs at this time wrote: In response to urgent request for aboriginal labour, 140 men were sent from Cherbourg and Woorabinda Settlements as field workers and cane-cutters in the Bundaberg District.59 In July 1942, the Director General of Manpower demanded a list of names of Aborigines under the control of the Aborigines Welfare Board from the Chairman of this Board because, as he explained: ...there is a great demand for rural labour and I am anxious to know whether full use is being made of male 53 aborigines in the various Stations under the control of your Board...At the present time there should be no difficulty in finding full time work for any of these people who are willing to work or who could be forced to work...As you are aware under the Man Power Regulations I have power to direct unemployed persons to work and I would be prepared to exercise this right in suitable cases.^0 Although the Welfare Board was only in control of Aborigines in New South Wales, the resolve of Man Power to have all available Aborigines working in the pastoral industry is clearly demonstrated in this statement. Under Queensland's legislation, though, the 3500 Aborigines who came to the rescue of Queensland's pastoral industry during the labour shortage received very little pay for their efforts. The 200 Cape Bedford men who were working on Foleyvale station (part of the Woorabinda settlement) in 1944, went out on strike over their poor living conditions and insufficient rations.^! Superintendent Naggs ensured that the Cape Bedford people received better potatoes, but as a whole, their condition did not improve greatly. Another pastoral industry in which Woorabinda Aboriginal labour was substantially involved during the War Years was Arrowroot digging. Each year from 1942 to 1945, approximately seventy men from Woorabinda (including Cape Bedford men) harvested the Arrowroot crop at Coomera. The labour shortage in the pastoral industry both during and after the war may provide a partial explanation for the delay in returning the Cape Bedford people to their mission. The recollections of Leo Rosendale, one of the Cape Bedford Aborigines, would indicate that the Cape Bedford people played an important role in the pastoral industry as part of the Woorabinda work force at this time: 54 When the war was over it was alright again, and I was shifted around. I, with some others, joined the homeland army, helping farmers with their crops wherever and whenever they wanted us. The first job we got was cotton-picking at Biloela and gathering pumpkins, and then we had to go back to Woorabinda. The next call was from Pimpama Island chipping grass. Then we shifted to Mt Tambourine near Oxenford, in amongst bananas and making dumps for flying-foxing bananas from dump to dump and down to the truck at the bottom of the hill, from where the bananas were crated to Brisbane, to Mr George Chester's deep freezer. When that was done we all went back to Woorabinda. Then Mr Les Theiss wanted some men to work on road works, and I was picked with four others from Woorabinda and went to Peak Downs, where we did the road from Peak Downs to Capella. I worked four months up there...^2 Evidently, the Cape Bedford Aborigines were utilized in a similar manner to the permanent residents of government settlements at the time. As a labour force, they were forcibly removed from one pastoral station to the next. Aborigines were also engaged in cotton farming, droving, cane-cutting and peanut-picking. In 1944, for example, sixty Woorabinda men assisted in the cotton harvest at Biloela, 150 Cherbourg and Woorabinda men harvested the peanut crop in the Kingaroy district, and 105 Aborigines were employed canecutting at Bundaberg.^3 According to the Annual Report for that year, "The earnings of these mobile gangs for the year totalled £62000.^4 Most of this money was "held in trust' by the government, though, and the Aborigines never received it. By 1944, over £300 000 of hard-earned Aboriginal money was in trust accounts controlled by the Queensland government. The role of Aboriginal women in the pastoral industry during this period was virtually ignored by the Annual reports, yet the demand for Aboriginal women as domestic servants, housemaids and cooks also increased during this period. In fact, at the end of the War, the Superintendent of Woorabinda, Richard Naggs, reported that "the demand for 55 female labour for domestic purposes is greatly in excess of supply'.65 Maudie B worked on the peanut farm of a future National Party Premier of Queensland in Kingaroy during the War as a cook. She recalled the conditions for the labourers on this property at the time: What I didn't like about Bjelke-Petersen, he used to get the aboriginals from Barambah settlement. They'd walk from there to Kingaroy, and pick his peanuts...they•d do all the work there. And all he paid them - he'd give them bread and brown sugar, and tobacco. No money. And they'd walk every day and walk back.^^ The £62 000 "earned by mobile gangs' in 1944 evidently did not include some of the Aborigines who harvested the peanut crop at Kingaroy. The increased control over Aboriginal labour enacted by provisions during wartime not only benefitted Queensland's pastoralists, but also the government, who set about exploiting Aboriginal labour on the settlements to a greater degree than before. In 1944, a citrus orchard was established on Woorabinda, and vegetables were produced in such quantities that a surplus was distributed to Baralaba Hospital and Westwood Sanatorium, saving the government substantial costs. At the same time, the cost of fruit comsumed by Aborigines on the settlement was taken out of their trust accounts. So produce grown by Aboriginal labour was sold back to the Aborigines on the settlement as a revenue-raiser for the state government. Foleyvale property, which was also run by Woorabinda Aborigines, provided beef for Woorabinda and Cherbourg, produced grain for fodder, and sold some of the stock raised. Sales revenues went into the "Welfare-fund* for use in the costs involved in running the government settlements. Basically, the Welfare Fund consisted of the 56 wages of Aborigines, and the profits made from their labour. It was the government who controlled the Welfare fund, however, and it was not only used for projects which helped Aborigines. As pointed out earlier, houses for Europeans on the settlements were built with monies from this fund. The "white man's burden' had become a money-making venture for the "white man'. In 1946, the Queensland government sold 400 cattle from Foleyvale Station. T. Foley, the Secretary for Health and Home Affairs (after whom Foleyvale Station was named), claimed that: Had we not sold them they would have died on the settlement; owing to drought conditions we had to sell them in order to ensure feed for the remaining few.67 Ostensibly, the cattle were being bred to feed the Aborigines at Woorabinda and Cherbourg, but where the £2000 from the sale of those 400 cattle went is not clear. In any case, what is clear is that Aborigines working on government settlements were earning less than one-fifth of what they were paid on stations.68 in addition. Aboriginal wages purchased the land on which to fatten the cattle. A parliamentary debate from 1946 makes this fact evident: Mr Sparkes (Opposition, Member for Aubigny): At this very moment this Government are paying the aborigines 15s. a week to do stock work; they pay no land taxes in competition with the man next door (the pastoralist), but they ask him to pay in the vicinity of 4 pound a week to the same man. Who is doing the sweating? The State or the individual? Mr Smith (Labor Member for Carpentaria): Where are they working for the State Government? Name one place. Mr Sparkes: Woorabinda. Only this morning the Minister, in outlining this Bill, gave the number of cattle sold and proceeded to say they had bought 20 000-odd acres of country on which to fatten their cattle... Mr Smith: That is their own money.^9 57 This example provides yet another explanation of where Aboriginal money was going - straight into the pockets of Queensland's pastoralists or the Queensland Government as payment for land to which they were moved against their will in the first place. The Aborigines then fattened and slaughtered the cattle, which had been purchased with Aboriginal money, and it was sold back to Aborigines on Woorabinda or Cherbourg, through money being taken out of their trust accounts. The practice of making profits from Aboriginal settlements was continued by successive Queensland governments, well into the 1960s. The War Years on Woorabinda may be described as a time of change and continuity. Changes occurred in health and living conditions - both deteriorated. Continuity occurred in the pattern of dispossession. Aboriginal labour was exploited to a greater degree than previously, forced removals between settlements became commonplace, administrative control over the life of Aborigines increased, and the Government's Annual Reports continued to paint a rosy picture of life on a Queensland Government reserve. 58 CHAPTER 4 1946-1964 "A White Man's Paradise..."^ In 1946 the Aboriginal Protection Act was amended again. The amendments added the Aboricrinal Regulations of 1945 to the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act of 1939. Essentially, these regulations tightened administrative controls over the lives of Queensland's Aboriginal population. They provided for the revocation of a certificate of exemption, and a set amount from each Aborigines wage was to go directly into the "Welfare Fund'.2 Every Aborigine on a reserve was still required by law to obey all lawful orders of the protector, superintendent or other officer of the reserve, settlement or mission. One provision which had a devastating effect for the residents of Woorabinda in particular, because of Superintendent Naggs' almost obsessive abhorrence of gambling, was Regulation 22, which stated that: A protector or superintendent shall have power to prohibit, in writing, the playing of any game, whether played with cards or otherwise howsoever (hereinafter called a prohibited game) on the reserve, settlement, or mission reserve under his supervision; any person found guilty of playing any such game shall be guilty of an offence.3 As will be demonstrated in later chapters. Regulations which were made by Managers on individual Reserves after the 1965 legislation tightened these controls even further. The changes made to legislation regarding Aborigines in Queensland in 1946 were the last significant changes for a period of almost twenty years. The next important changes came with An Act to Promote the Well-being and Progressive Development of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the State and of the Torres Strait 59 Islanders of 1965. fmmKiQ^i^iX D£ lll^ilDKy The experience of Aborigines on Woorabinda remained basically unchanged in the period from 1946 to 1964 for two major reasons: the absence of any legislative change affecting Aborigines, and the fact that Richard Naggs remained the Superintendent throughout this period. So, both legislatively and administratively, life on Woorabinda remained fairly static. The only change throughout this period seems to have been in the awareness of the wider Australian community of life on a Queensland Government Aboriginal Settlement. The mid to late 1960s saw a great increase in the number of news articles about these Settlements, and the terrible conditions endured by the Aboriginal residents on them. Because Woorabinda remained a closed institution, governed by its own uniquely discriminative laws, however, the awareness in the wider community made little difference to the lives of Woorabinda's Aboriginal population. Usually, awareness can promote change if the government is prompted by community outrage to make internal reforms. Yet community outrage remained minimal during this period (although it increased in the late 1960s) and the lack of legislative changes for almost twenty years would indicate that there was no effective response from the government. The life of an Aborigine on a Government Settlement bore no relevance to life in "the outside world' (i.e. the white community) because of the closed nature of the institution. As Erving Goffman pointed out, "the barrier that total institutions place between the inmate and the wider world marks the first curtailment of self."^ Laws which applied to Aborigines on Woorabinda did not apply to white Australian society; therefore increased 60 awareness amongst members of that society did not immediately make any difference to life in the closed institution. Anna Haebich's account of Aborigines and Government in the Southwest of Western Australia provides an accurate insight into institutional life on a Government Settlement.^ Referring to the Moore River Settlement in Western Australia, Haebich states that: Like inmates of other total institutions, the Aborigines lived physically isolated from the rest of the world and any communication with the outside world was strictly limited. Controlled by a small but powerful white staff they worked, played and slept within the confines of the settlement reserve and many were born and died there. The young people sent out to employment were poorly trained and accustomed to an institutionalised way of life and the prejudices of white society often caused them to lead lonely and unhappy lives. Many returned to Moore River to establish their families, thereby creating an enduring institutionalised community.6 Haebich's description of life on the Moore River Settlement could easily be a description of almost any Government Settlement in Australia at the time. The evidence already presented of the nature of life on Woorabinda would indicate that the picture which Haebich paints of the Moore River Settlement as a total institution directly applies to Woorabinda. The complete lack of legislative change during this period further reinforced the "enduring institutionalised community'. Because of the absence of any form of change to life on Woorabinda during this period, this chapter, instead of being a chronological account, follows four basic themes through the eighteen-year period. Hopefully, this method more effectively demonstrates the ongoing powerlessness, exploitation and process of dispossession suffered by Woorabinda's Aboriginal population than a chronological account which would become 61 repetitive. The major themes reviewed are official attitudes, living conditions and health, administrative power and the system of justice and punishment, and the continuing exploitation of Aboriginal labour, both in the pastoral industry and by the State Government on the Settlement. Throughout this period, official attitudes in Queensland remained convinced of the biological inferiority of Aborigines, and the governments (both Labor and Liberal/ Country Party) remained self-congratulatory in their opinion of measures taken in the field of legislation affecting Aborigines. On Woorabinda itself, health and sanitation remained fairly static: venereal disease, hookworm, measles and gastro-enteritis continued to be the most prevalent illnesses. The administration of Woorabinda improved slightly with the succession to the position of Superintendent of Mr Richard Naggs, who had formerly been the farm overseer. Naggs was described by some informants as "a justice man'7, because upon coming to power on Woorabinda, he granted quite a few of the men who had been working on the stations exemptions from the Act. However, his authoritarian behaviour (sanctioned by law) in other areas (such as gambling and working on the Settlement) meant that for those who remained, punishment for trifling offences (actions which were not illegal in white society) continued to be harsh and unjust.^ Also during this period, a high proportion of the removals to Woorabinda were from Cherbourg and Palm Island.9 Towards the end of the 1950s, limited press coverage of life on government settlements began to bring to light the concentration camp conditions under which Queensland's Aborigines suffered, but virtually no action resulted.^° 62 In 1946, racist attitudes continued to abound within the walls of the decision-making chamber in Queensland. In 1946, the Labor government continued to congratulate itself for its treatment of Queensland's Aboriginal population. Alfred Smith, the Labor member for Carpentaria stated that: I have found that this Government are doing all in their power for the betterment of the Australian native. Certainly they are doing more than is being done in the Northern Territory in which the aboriginals are still in the primitive state of cannibalism. Speaking with 30 years' experience of the aboriginal in Queensland I can say that he is being well cared for.H In the same debate, L.J. Barnes tried to convince his fellow parliamentarians that the whites did not introduce venereal disease into Australia, and that, in fact, venereal diseases were somehow a symptom of immorality. He states that: The coloured people were unmoral(sic) long before the white people ever came near them. There is no proof in history that white men contaminated coloured people; on the contrary, the good that is in the native came from the white man...12 E.P. Decker added that: We have evidence that over the years there has been a gradual decline and that eventually the race will disappear. The best we can do is to preserve the race as long as possible and we do this on our settlements.13 Decker was wrong on two counts. Obviously, the "doomed race' has survived, but most importantly, the treatment of Aborigines on government settlements in Queensland would not suggest a policy of attempting to "preserve the race as long as possible'. Decker also stated that "I do not think the aboriginal will ever have the mentality to reach the same standard as we whites have attained..."14 In 1956, similar attitudes were evident in the Annual 63 Report of the Director of Native Affairs. Referring to education, the Director contended: It is a different matter when one is compelled to deal with a people who through no fault of their own are backward comparable with those with whom they live. Thus situated is the Queensland Aboriginal.1^ By the end of the 1950s, the Annual Reports had taken up the task of congratulating the Government on its treatment of Aborigines. The Report for 1959 asserted that: Nothing which has been adduced in discussion, correspondence or debate can justify any major alteration of Queensland Government Policy with respect to its aboriginal and half blood peoples.^^ In 1960, the Report again stated that: Proof that the Government's efforts towards assimilation is progressive is revealed in the standard of education, both scholastically and in domestic and trade training on Government Settlements, the good housing conditions under which family groups live, the provision of hospitalisation, maternal and child welfare care and community entertainment centres, all of a standard equal to those available to white communities of comparative population.17 Such untruths were usually supported by a photo, such as one in the 1956 Report, with the caption "Native Residence, Woorabinda'. Oral evidence would suggest that this high-set wooden house was not actually inhabited by Aborigines.18 The Report also failed to point out that most Aborigines on Woorabinda still resided in the dormitories or in the sub-standard housing in "the village' at this time.19 Countless examples of such ethnocentric, ethnocidal, and at best, paternalistic, attitudes can be found in all forms of government publications throughout this period. These attitudes should be borne in mind when trying to explain the following overview of life on Woorabinda from 1946 to 1964. 64 In 1947, two Aboriginal "inmates' of Woorabinda Settlement wrote a letter to the Director of Native Affairs, complaining about the prison-like conditions under which they lived. This letter demonstrates the feelings of despair and hopelessness experienced by Aborigines residing on government settlements: We are getting a bad deal. The Superintendent, Mr Naggs is not giving us justice. The Trackers can assault the public and when we hit back we get fourteen to twenty-one days, it is not fair. One of the Trackers struck two persons with a Nula Nula and raced a horse almost on top of a chap. Nothing was done to the Tracker...This is worse than Boggo Road, we can't call our soul and home our own. The Trackers can walk into our home as they like. Mr Naggs ought to be satisfied, he got the job unknown to the public of Woorabinda.20 Ten years later, one of the residents complained again, this time to the Minister for Health and Home Affairs, Frank Nicklin. The letter stated that: On behalf of my situation, we are not getting a fair deal...Woorabinda Settlement is a white man's Paradise. They get the best of our meats, we get what you would throw to a dog...The white staff have got yard-men working, cheap labour, for two ounces of tobacco a week. I thought slavery was done with. I'd like to know why the Superintendent won't let our coloured people into Woorabinda at Christmas time. I think they are entitled to come and see their people. White people can come in this settlement and stop up to two or three weeks, and nothing is said about them (fair go!) We go out of this Settlement for a few days or a week and we've got to pay 15/- for our own trucks. I wonder if a white man has got to pay or if he had a free ride on our trucks...21 Evidently, this system of injustice continued on Woorabinda throughout this period. The lack of justice for Aborigines on the settlements was not merely the consequence of an authoritarian Superintendent, as it was sanctioned and supported by State law. For instance, under the 1945 Regulations, any Aborigine who had been granted an exemption. 65 but still had relatives on Woorabinda, had to apply for permission each time he/she wished to re-enter the Settlement. As was demonstrated in the above letter, such permission was often refused. Provisions in the 1945 Regulations also meant that the Superintendent on the settlement constituted the court. In addition to having no legal training, the Superintendent also knew the defendant, their previous record of conduct and so on. As Colin Tatz observes. They are arbiters of what behaviour and conduct is in the best interests of their institution...As settlement officers, they may report an offender for breach of the rules: as judges they make decisions based on their own reports.22 Another feature of the justice system on Woorabinda (and the other settlements) was the high percentage of "guilty' pleas. In 1956 at Woorabinda, of 177 charged, only 16 pleaded not guilty. Seemingly, Aborigines were resigned to the fact that they would be gaoled despite any protestations of innocence. Aborigines on Woorabinda did not receive legal representation, and when visiting justices were eventually incorporated into the system of justice, the Superintendent often did not leave the office when Aborigines were being interviewed by the visiting justice. As Tatz discovered, "Aboriginal interviewees appear nervous and fearful of reprisals for having complained."23 The following examples of Court Cases from 1961 show the types of infringements which could earn an Aborigine (including minors) a gaol term on Woorabinda: (1) 10 April 1961. Accused aged 14. Breach of the (Woorabinda) Settlement Rules in that you broke out of the Girls' Dormitory at night on the 8th April, 1961, with the intention of absconding. Plea: guilty. Convicted and sentenced to 14 days imprisonment. Released on bond of good behaviour as from 10.4.61 for 66 28 days, after serving two days imprisonment. (2) 23 October, 1961. Accused aged 15. Breach of the (Woorabinda) Settlement Rules in that you arranged to receive a male person (or persons) in the Dormitory for Girls during the night. Plea: guilty. Convicted and sentenced to 3 days imprisonment and released to be punished by the Dormitory Matron in accordance with Dormitory practice.24 Infringements such as these which meant imprisonment for Aboriginal children would have been punishable within the home in the wider white community. Regulation 29 states that imprisonment of children under sixteen is forbidden, anyway. As will be demonstrated, however, the system of justice on Woorabinda did not always follow the Regulations. For instance, many Aborigines on Woorabinda did not even receive a trial prior to their imprisonment. Heather Fisher, who resided on Woorabinda throughout the 1960s, recalls the punishment for breaking the curfew: They rang bells at night; one at nine-thirty, that was the warning bell. Everybody that was out had to get back home. If you were caught outside after the ten o'clock bell we went straight to gaol - 21 days in gaol. We did 21 days for everything that we did wrong.25 Carol Duncan recalled being imprisoned for talking to her parents whilst on a school excursion: ...if any of the kids saw there(sic) mother or father and would talk to them, they would get the strap when they got back to the dormitory then put in the jail down the back for three nights without a light in the jail, sometime without food...26 At this time on Woorabinda, there were also separate schools for white children and black children. Carol Duncan recalls her time there in the early 1960s: ...they would make us wear long dresses down past our knees and if our hair grow(sic) past our shoulders then they would cut it up to our ears. At school the white school teacher would put black kids together and white 67 kids on the other side of the room...and if the white kids started a fight the teacher would give us the cane, but not the white kids. At lunch time all the black kids had to play in a different yard than the white kids...and if we had lices in our head they would put this white stuff in our hair that would burn our head and if we washed it out they would not let us out for two weeks with the other black kids or talk to them or sit with them at the food table, and they would not give us the same food as the other kids...27 This recollection of life in the girls' dormitory and at the segregated school strongly contradicts the claims in the Annual Report for 1960 (cited above) regarding the "standard of education' and "child welfare care'. Once again, systematic injustice on Woorabinda during this period was aided and abetted by poor dietary, sanitary and health conditions. In 1953, for instance, the waste drain from the hospital, which "often contains faecal matter' was running into Mimosa Creek, the water source for Woorabinda.28 It would seem that the Department of Native Affairs' Annual Report from 1952 was incorrect in its forecasts about the new water supply system at Woorabinda: With the exception of the installation of the pumps to operate the treatment plant, this work has been completed and delivery of the pumping plant is expected within the next month. Apart from the construction of a 40-foot high concrete water tower with a 30 000 gallon capacity and filtration plant, the scheme embraced a completely new reticulation system.29 Over a year later, Woorabinda residents were still drinking unfiltered water from Mimosa Creek. In the meantime, the Visiting Medical Officer complained about the lack of vegetables and fresh meat made available to the Aborigines. He attributed poor health to the lack of dietary nutrition.30 in 1961, a report to the Director of Native Affairs from a member of the white staff on 68 Woorabinda31 would indicate that sanitary conditions remained appalling for many years. This unsolicited report on the Girls dormitory stated that: ...I was shocked at the dirty condition of the place. When I went in, unoccupied beds were "made', certainly, but on examination I found there were wet soiled sheets beneath the covers...There is no proper supervision of the preparation of food and the serving of meals to the children is beyond imagination. Pediculous32 heads were very prevalent. The store room was dirty - boxes, cartons and rubbish, when moved, disturbed hundreds of cockroaches. A case of bananas were almost black and none had been taken from the case for the children...The general condition of the health of dormitory children under five years is poor. Loss of weight practically every week, with little or no gain, points to malnutrition... This report was not requested but I am very concerned about the health of these children.33 The writer also noted that the children from the "camp' houses were generally in much better health than the dormitory children. Writing in 1975, Carol Duncan recalled her childhood in the dormitory at Woorabinda during the 1960s: The food we used to eat was rat shit. For milk we only get half a cup to drink and for bread only two slices of bread with jam on it for dinner, only one plate of bread for six girls and one bottle of milk for six of us. For tea was a bit butter one plate of soup and one cup of milk and four slices of bread.34 The above evidence indicates little improvement in dietary nutrition since the earliest days at Woorabinda. Once again, though, the Director of Native Affairs attributes the poor condition of Aborigines to some biological inadequacy, rather than a symptom of the process of dispossession: ...there is no denying that the aboriginal child finds difficulty in retaining theoretical knowledge and more readily responds to practical work. However, with the existing facilities for better health, home life, moral training, sporting activities and general welfare, the time must come when the child's aptitude for study will advance.3 5 The preceding evidence clearly casts serious doubts upon the 69 claims about "facilities for better health' and so on outlined in this Annual Report. Due to factors such as the sewerage system and the dietary inadequacies outlined above, poor health remained an overriding concern for Woorabinda's residents. The first major health problem in this period was the after-effects of the epidemic of venereal disease of the War years. By 1948, there were many still-births on the Settlement, mainly due to syphilis.36 Eighteen months later, some tests were finally carried out amongst the Aborigines on Woorabinda, and thirty-five of those tested showed positive results for syphilis or yaws. At the same time, there was an epidemic of whooping cough, which resulted in one death.37 The year 1953 saw both a measles epidemic38 and a high degree of hookworm infestation. Of 353 Aborigines tested for hookworm, 48 tested positive. J. Bailey, the Acting Superintendent, while admitting that a possible source of infection was the "faecal matter' which was drained into Mimosa Creek from the hospital, listed his first reason for the high incidence of hookworm as follows: The incidence of infection is greatest where the natives are domiciled who are indifferent to the ordinary habits of hygiene. These people go to great lengths to connive at stratogems to disguise and hide their filthy habits.39 Although attempts were made to blame the Aborigines for their living conditions, the deplorable sanitation conditions which existed would indicate that the housing, sewerage system and dietary inadequacies were the major causes of the high incidence of sickness on Woorabinda, not the Aborigines' attempts "to disguise and hide their filthy habits'. 70 In 1955, hookworm flared up again, and the rate of still-births and infants dying a few hours after birth^O would indicate that congenital syphilis was still a problem. Tests made in 1956 proved that the hookworm infestation was worsening, not improving. 173 out of the 655 tested in this year were found to be suffering from hookworm or ascaris lumbricoides (a type of roundworm which mainly affected children).41 The tests conducted in 1953 had shown that 13.59 percent of those tested showed positive results; in 1956, the percentage was 26.41 - almost double. There were seventeen suffering from Ascaris lumbricoides, 116 suffering from hookworm and five suffering from both. In the second round of tests, (after treatment) thirty-five tested negative.42 such a high incidence of hookworm had a significant effect on an already-devastated community. People infested with hookworm suffer from symptoms such as anemia, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, apathy and malnutrition. In children it also causes underdevelopment. The medical evidence would also point to the fact that on Woorabinda, the hookworm disease would have been contracted by most through the faecal matter in Mimosa Creek: The eggs of hookworms are deposited on the ground in the feces(sic) of people suffering from the disease. The eggs develop into larvae that are able to penetrate the skin of any person who comes into contact with them; infection is most commonly caused by walking barefooted in contaminated areas or by handling human feces as fertilizer...It can be prevented by sanitary measures, including the disposal or disinfection of feces, the avoidance of contaminated areas, and the wearing of shoes.43 This evidence would support the claim that bad sanitation and not the "filthy habits' of the Aboriginal residents was to blame for the high incidence of hookworm infestation. The three preventative measures outlined above were not carried out on Woorabinda. Faecal matter from the hospital, as already 71 explained, was drained into Mimosa Creek. Mimosa Creek was the water supply to Woorabinda at this time, and continued to be until the mid-1980s. In addition, most of the Aborigines washed their clothing in it.44 Because of the lack of an efficient sewerage system, there was faecal matter on the ground in many places on the Settlement, and most of the Aborigines did not wear shoes.45 Another outbreak of venereal disease occurred in late 1957. As usual, the names of those affected were sent to the Director of Native Affairs, along with the names of "contacts', and these people were held in isolation for up to two weeks before tests could be run.46 The Superintendent, Richard Naggs, also wrote to the Superintendent of the Rockhampton General Hospital: [A] has reported that he is suffering from this disease and has given as his contact [B] who in turn gives [C] as her contact. Mr Sheppard interviewed the Sister in Charge of Out Patients stating that he would be sending a girl over suspected of being a V.D. contact for the purpose of taking a smear for the Commonwealth Health Laboratory. Mr Sheppard then sent [B] over to the Hospital...47 This practice of naming Aborigines suffering from venereal diseases in public documents continued throughout this period. The last evidence found of such a practice was a letter in 1968.48 since there were no provisions to cease this practice in the Act of 1971, or its Regulations of 1972, this practice may have continued even beyond this time. The new decade, the 1960s, ushered in a new era of hope and change in European society within Australia. For Woorabinda's Aborigines, it ushered in a severe outbreak of gastro-enteritis. This outbreak affected a large percentage of 72 Woorabinda's residents, and among the infants, it caused at least eight deaths in the first two months of 1960.^^ A major cause of this outbreak seems to have been a sharp increase in fly breeding in the area, caused by insanitary conditions. The rate of infant deaths was also high in late 1961, because of an outbreak of pneumonia. In October 1961, fifteen children between the age of 6 months and 2 years were suffering from "stomach upsets and vomiting turns with temperatures of up to 105.'50 Because of the inadequate medical facilities on Woorabinda, many of the children had to be transported to Rockhampton Hospital, a distance of approximately one hundred and forty miles. By 1963, diarrhoea had become a serious problem on Woorabinda. A Report entitled Outbreak of Illness at Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement attempted to look at possible reasons for the outbreak, but instead reverted to the typical departmental tactic of locating who had first contracted the disease and had thereby allegedly spread it to the rest of the Settlement. The Report found that "sanitation at Woorabinda was generally good', and pointed the finger at three family groups from different areas who may have "introduced the infection'.51 This fundamental unwillingness to find fault with conditions on the Settlement itself, due to inadequacies in both government policy and administrative practice on Woorabinda meant that the health problems confronting Aborigines were never properly addressed during this period. The one occasion on which the administration and the Department sprang into action was in April 1963 when a hepatitis outbreak occurred amongst the white staff on Woorabinda (which did not result in any deaths.)52 This brief overview of health on Woorabinda during 73 1946-1964 period demonstrates the continual suffering of Aborigines from easily-preventable diseases. Another characteristic of earlier periods which was perpetuated was the exploitation of Aboriginal labour, both on the pastoral properties and on the Settlement itself. At the beginning of this period, in 1946, Aboriginal labourers under contract on the stations were earning four pounds per week; while on Woorabinda they were earning fifteen shillings per week.53 of course, the Aborigines never received a large percentage of these payments, because of the trust fund system which confiscated Aboriginal wages and placed them in a savings account from which the owner of the wages could not withdraw his or her own income without permission from the Superintendent or the Director of Native Affairs. In November 1946, the Queensland Guardian gave wage rates at Woorabinda as follows: Natives employed as ordinary labourers at the Woorabinda Government settlement in Central Queensland receive a flat rate of 10/- in cash a week, plus free foodstuffs. For skilled men, the rate rises to 30/-. Housemaids are generally paid 5/- but sometimes they get only 2/-.54 The wages of Aboriginal pastoral workers were laid down by the Department of Native Affairs.55 The only fact which the Guardian failed to mention was that the Aborigines were deprived of these meagre wages by the trust fund system. Yet the report did point out that: Natives going out to work on a station have a wage of £3/12/- a week. Of this, 25/- is paid to them and the remainder is banked. In the slack period, they work on the station for five days of five hours each week, drawing no pay but being given the free issues.56 On Woorabinda, the free foodstuffs included 7 pounds of flour 74 per week for an adult (3 for a child), vegetables grown on the station, 21b of rice, and "a bit of tea and sugar'. Two to three pounds of meat was provided, and a weekly tobacco issue of 20Z.57 As was previously pointed out, though, the Aboriginal population of Woorabinda purchased 20 000 acres of land (the Foleyvale property), and most of their "free' foodstuffs were produced by Aboriginal labour. The government had purchased both the land and the cattle with Aboriginal money, and the yield from this was sold back to the Aborigines.58 Oranges, for example, which were not provided "free', were sold back to the Aborigines on Woorabinda for 2/- per dozen. The Aborigines owned both the land and labour which had produced these oranges, but they still had to pay for them.59 The profits went to the State Government. In the late 1940s, "Cape Bedford' Aborigines still represented a significant proportion of the labour force at Woorabinda. In 1948, there were thirty Cape Bedford men working on Foleyvale, and as Reverend Wenke from the Hopevale Mission noted, "...the officials at Woorabinda are very much against our natives leaving...'60 The Cape Bedford population at Woorabinda had become an integral part of the workforce at Woorabinda, and for the Lutheran Missionaries, the fight to get "their Aborigines' back to Cooktown was a long and drawn-out one. The Cape Bedford people were eventually returned to Hopevale Mission in 1949, their lives being once again disrupted by the white system. Yet from the available evidence it seems that most of the Cape Bedford had always been unhappy on Woorabinda, and welcomed the move back to the Mission, which was located closer to their tribal lands.^1 Rather than the expected decrease in the use of 75 Aboriginal labour in the pastoral industry following the end of the War, the numbers thus engaged increased dramatically. Queensland's pastoralists had realised, through being forced to use Aboriginal labour due to a manpower shortage during the War, that Aboriginal labour was not only at least as competent as white labour, but it also cost next to nothing and usually was not affiliated with a union. At the end of the War, approximately 3500 Aborigines had been engaged in the pastoral industry. By 1956, this number had grown to 4500. In addition, there were 1300 Aborigines in the employ of the State Government working on Government Settlements, and on Missions and in the Torres Strait Islands.^2 in that same year, over £804 164 of Queensland Aborigines' wages was deposited in trust accounts controlled by the State Government. Of this total, £15 116 belonged to Woorabinda Aborigines. Purportedly, £783 755 was withdrawn from Aboriginal accounts for the benefit of Aborigines.^3 AS has been demonstrated, this money purchased both the means of production and the products. For example, Woorabinda's Aborigines purchased land and cattle, and the yield from this, the meat, was sold back to them. Meat which had been bought and raised by Woorabinda Aboriginal labour was also sold to Cherbourg Aborigines. The Aborigines not only supported themselves and provided cheap labour for both the pastoralists and the government, they made profits for the State's public purse. The 1956 Annual Report also claimed that "Every facility is provided for aboriginals(sic) to withdraw, within reason, against their savings bank accounts.'^^ This is simply quite false. Countless examples of Aborigines attempting to withdraw their own money and being denied the ability to do so may be found. For example, Shirley Andrews cited the example of two men who had been Aboriginal 76 stockmen in North Queensland for 15 years: Although they should have had plenty of money in their accounts, they had experienced difficulty in getting even small amounts paid to them. One of them was down in Cairns for hospital treatment for an injury received when thrown from a horse in the course of his job, and for which he had not received any workers' compensation. When he applied to a protector in Cairns for a few pounds of his own money, he was given 1 pound and told in an arrogant fashion that this amount was sufficient.65 In another example, a young girl was told by a policeman- protector that one petticoat was enough for an Aborigine - she didn't need two.66 Financial control over Aborigines' lives was further reinforced by Departmental control of all community facilities except education (after 1962) and the main health facilities.67 The Education Department took over the Woorabinda Settlement Native School in 1962. This Department also provided a one-teacher "provisional school' for about seventeen white children on the settlement.68 yet the issue of segregationalist education on Woorabinda was not challenged until 1969, after a group of Federal Members of Parliament had visited the Settlement. The period examined above, 1946 to 1964, as has been demonstrated, contained few changes for the Aboriginal residents of Woorabinda. Health and sanitary conditions remained appalling, exploitation in the pastoral industry and on the Settlement continued, and racism was further reinforced by the segregation of schooling. The legislative changes in 1965 reinforced racism and dispossession, and the unhealthy living conditions continued. Although the mass media finally decided that such disgusting living conditions on Aboriginal Settlements were newsworthy, little changed for the Aboriginal 77 people of Woorabinda. As was previously pointed out, Woorabinda was a closed institution, and its residents lead "an enclosed, formally administered round of life'6^, virtually independent of outside forces. In 1964, after all that had happened to Queensland's Aborigines in the preceding years, P.J. Killoran, the Director of Native Affairs stated in his Annual Report that: ...today the Queensland native community in general is a healthy and thriving one. Since early legislation a major step forward has been gained in that now and for a number of generations, both the Aboriginal and the Islander, have been contacted and settled in their Government Settlements, Church Missions and island communities.70 The evidence cited in this chapter casts serious doubt upon Killoran's claims about a "healthy and thriving' Aboriginal population. Historical falsification such as the claim that the Aborigines had been "contacted and settled' rather than hunted down and herded onto the Settlements demonstrates the deliberate untruths being fed to Queensland's general public by the Government regarding the Aboriginal population. This conspiracy was continued by the legislation of 1965, when access to Government Settlements for the wider community was further restricted. 78 CHAPTER 5 1965-1971 "The Queensland Government Today is the Disgrace of Australia"^ In 1965 the Queensland Government passed An Act to Promote the Well-being and Progressive Development of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the State and of the Torres Strait Islanders. Most of the injustices inherent in previous legislation were continued by this act. The usual racist overtones were present, including a definition of a "part-Aborigine'", and a biological explanation of the different "Categories of Aborigines", "Categories of part-Aborigines", "Categories of Islanders" and so on.2 Essentially, the system of administration on the Settlements continued as before. White Superintendents and other officials continued in office (but the Superintendent was renamed the "Manager'), and every contract, agreement, permit and removal order issued under the old Act remained valid under the new. In fact, the main emphasis of this Act seems to have been upon name changes. The Department controlling Aborigines was renamed, so the Director of Native Affairs became the Director of Aboriginal and Island Affairs; and "protected' Aborigines became "assisted' Aborigines. Part II of the Act, which dealt with administration, gave the Minister, Director, Deputy Director, District Officers and Managers wide powers, and provided for Justices to visit reserves periodically. Parts III and IV merely redefined the total control which the Director, judges, magistrates and District Officers held over the lives of Queensland's Aborigines. Parts V and VI deal 79 separately with Aboriginal Affairs and Islanders Affairs and purport to establish forms of self-government on reserves and islands. However, the Regulations brought down in 1966 set out in detail how the communities were still to be controlled by the white administration on the settlement. The By-Laws on each community, for example, had to be approved by the Manager. Each Aboriginal Council consisted of four Aborigines; two appointed and two elected. The Council was controlled by the Manager, however, so control of the Community was still in the hands of the white administration and the government. Regulation 19 stated that "The Director may remove any members of an Aboriginal Council.3 Regulation 20 stated that "...every By-law, resolution and order so made by a Council shall receive the approval of the Director before it shall have force or effect.4 Regulation 31(1) stated that "The Manager may at any time by notice in writing suspend any resolution or order of a Council, either for an indefinite period or for such a period as he may specify.5 These Regulations clearly point to the fact that the Aboriginal Councils had absolutely no control over their communities, and that the real power lay with the Director and the Manager, that is, the State Government. During this period, the fate of Welfare Fund and Trust Fund monies also became apparent, because the use of these funds was spelt out in the Auditor General's Report. Manfred Cross explained that: Most of the money is invested in Queensland Public Hospitals. Under the Act, the Director [of Native Affairs] can invest these funds as he sees fit. Of course, there are restrictions on this power. He can only invest the money in Government projects, in Gilt edged Securities or in Government Bonds. But the fact remains that Aboriginal Trust Fund Monies are being used io for general - not Aboriginal - Government Public Works in Queensland.6 Clearly exploitation of Queensland's Aborigines by the State Government was to continue throughout this period. Yet in 1969, an amendment to the Regulations of 1966 stated that The Aborigines Welfare Fund...shall be controlled by the Director and maintained for the general benefit of persons having a strain of Aboriginal blood.^(xay emphasis) Although past evidence has shown that Government policy was not always the same as Government practice, at least some recognition of the fact that Aborigines' wages should be used for their own benefit was made, at long last, in 1969- Also, in 1966, for the first time. Bank books stating the amounts that Aborigines had in their trust accounts were issued to Aborigines.8 The trust account system continued, though. Under Section 27 of the Act of 1965, a district officer of the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs (DAIA) in Queensland could "...undertake and maintain the management of the property of any assisted Aboriginal who usually resides within the district of such officer."9 Section 28 empowered that officer to: ... if he is satisfied that the best interests of such assisted Aborigine...recjuire it...take possession of, retain, sell or otherwise dispose of any such property.10 These two Sections clearly continue the provisions in past Acts which effectively robbed Aborigines of control of their own money. This Act, and subsequent Acts to 1971 were clearly in violation of several Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For example: 81 Article 1. All human beings are born free and ecjual in dignity and rights... Article 2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion political or other opinion, national or social origin... Article 7. All are equal before the law and are entitled without discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination...11 The 1965 Act was clearly in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Although countless examples of such contraventions readily spring to mind, the most blatant one would seem to be the By-Laws on each Settlement, which provided for Aborigines to be gaoled for offences which were not even considered a crime in white Australian society. The By-Laws on Woorabinda were purportedly produced by the Council, but were actually subject to the approval of the Manager, Richard Naggs, who, as has been demonstrated, had an obsessive dislike of "gamblers'. Section 9 of the Woorabinda Community By-Laws stated that: It is an offence for any householder to allow gambling to take place in or at his household or dwelling place. Where a dwelling place is being used as a gambling school (i.e. where a number of persons who are recognised gamblers are congregated, and/or where doors are locked or bolted to prevent the entry of the police) the householder will be charged with keeping a common gaming house. In effect, a group of three or more "known' gamblers could not congregate without fear of being arrested and imprisoned (usually for twenty-one days); nor could residents lock their doors, in case the police paid a visit and could not gain entry. Aborigines were also gaoled for fourteen days for trifling offences such as swearing and drinking.12 Heather 82 Fisher recalled her experience of this rigid and unjust system: You didn't have freedom. Even in your own home, you couldn't have visitors, because I was a known gambler, so if I went to visit anybody, the house owner and myself would go to gaol...my friends were all gamblers, but if I was seem with them - not only me, but if the gamblers were seen together, they were charged with gambling.^3 Usually, gamblers on Woorabinda were the people least inclined to accept authority. As such, gambling constituted a protest in the form of a sub-cultural activity which created solidarity amongst the inmates of Woorabinda. Superintendent Naggs may have recognised the solidarity among these "known gamblers' which constituted a threat to his authority. Subsequently, he punished their activities heavily, usually by imprisoning them for twenty-one days. The gaol had not improved since the 1930s. Heather Fisher describes it as it was in the 1960s: ...it was a terrible gaol. You couldn't see your hand - you couldn't see anything. The whole thing was airtight - closed up. There were bars there, but they were so high up. It was dark in there.14 Conditions in the gaol improved in the late 1960s, not because of any concern on the part of the Government, but because the old one burned down.15 Conditions in the gaol was just one issue raised by a group of five Labor Federal parliamentarians who visited Woorabinda in 1969. The group consisted of Bill Hayden, Gordon Bryant, Bert Milliner, Doug Everingham and Manfred Cross. The visit proved to be an enlightening experience for the group, and the complaints they made set in motion an extensive media 83 campaign. The major findings of the group were summarised by Everingham in a letter to the "Administrator' of Woorabinda, Mr Butler. The complaints were grouped as follows: 1. Housing - In a state of dilapidation, no wall or roof linings. 2. Furnishings - In some cases furnishings were limited to stretchers with mattresses, a table, a few food shelves, a meat hook in the fireplace, a tin dish of sullage on the floor, a single indoor water tap... 3. The prison cell - The cells were about 8ft scjuare with a concrete floor, roof and walls with a peephole flap the size of a thumb. 4. The need for some social work training for some of the staff. 5. Hospital - Inadequate treatment, high degree of worm infestation, and bad drainage. 6. Nutrition - poor nutrition amongst the children. Also many suffer from nasal discharges. 7. The retail store profits go to State funds, as do the proceeds of cattle raising. 8. Racial segregation at the schools. Also no Aboriginal tradesmen trained on the settlement.1^ This basic summary of the major complaints raised by the group of Parliamentarians was subsequently taken up by the media. An issue of great significance here is the vastly different reports in the Queensland media compared to those in other states. Queensland's Newspapers, mainly through articles produced by journalists Peter Allen and Peter Hall attempted to reassure the Queensland public that all was well on Woorabinda, and they apparently succeeded, because no great changes arose from the complaints of the Federal Parliamentarians. In the Sunday Mail. Peter Allen attempted to justify the Court system, the segregated schooling, and the appalling rates of pay for Aborigines on Woorabinda. He also wrote: The aboriginal children are less healthy than the average white child. Six aboriginal babies died there last year. But the problem of bridging centuries difference in culture isn't all that easy.17 Allen was merely continuing the century-long tradition in S4 Queensland of blaming the Aborigines' "cultural backwardness' for the state of their health. Peter Hall in the Telegraph wrote an equally-misleading report under the headline "No "Hell-Hole' 387 Aborigines well-fed, generally content".1^ Hall then proceeded to list the characteristics of life on Woorabinda, such as the fact that the gaol was five degrees cooler than the Manager's office, and that white children were borrowing school books from the "better equipped native children', and the presence of a new pre-school. In the same issue. Hall also wrote a story on "TV lounges, films and fresh food' at Woorabinda.19 Brisbane's third major newspaper, the Courier Mail, ran the most biased article of all. The by-line reads "from a Staff Reporter', and the headline "Woorabinda's Greatest Tragedy: Ignorance'. The sub-heading reads "Mothers to blame if babies die'. The fact that Aboriginal women had been rearing their children in Australia for thousands of years was ignored by this "staff reporter'. The first few paragraphs of the story read as follows: Twenty dusky babies came into the world on the Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement last year and six of them died before they were nine months old. Shocking statistics which would seem to be a terrible indictment on the settlement and the men responsible for running it. But the saddest thing about the babies' deaths was that they were almost inevitable. Everything possible had been done by the authorities to educate mothers in home care - every facility for keeping a baby healthy was available. Food, experienced medical help, post-natal facilities - all were there for the asking. But the big killer was not disease, starvation or epidemic. It can best be summed up as maternal incompetence.2 0 This process of "blaming the victim' was evidently still being perpetuated in the Queensland press. These attitudes in the media were also reflected among influential members of m Brisbane's wider community. In the same year, prominent figures in Brisbane, including academics and medical doctors, were involved in a debate (through letters to Ministers and Editors of the major newspapers) on how and why the Aboriginal population should be reduced. Professor John Francis of the University of Queensland wrote to the Courier Mail in February 1969 to express his concern about the reduction in infant mortality among Aborigines, and the fact that a concomitant decrease in the birth rate had not occurred. He described the "ideal conditions' under which Queensland Aborigines lived, and forecasted a "Population Bomb'-type scenario for Australia: There are perhaps 40 000 aboriginals(sic) in Australia and if they all lived under the above ideal conditions this would give a separate and distinct aboriginal population of 360 million by the year 2200.21 Dr L.J.J. Nye, a prominent Brisbane doctor from the "Brisbane Clinic' on Wickham Terrace expressed concerns similar to those of Professor Francis in a letter to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, V.B. Sullivan: Professor Francis draws our attention to the serious menace the increasing aboriginal population is to the future of Australia. I have been interested in aborigines for many years. In former times when they had no child or unemployment grants, the average aboriginal family was only one or two and their numbers were slowly declining. Now they are breeding to get money to spend on beer etc. and in the North their birthrate is in the ratio of about 8 aborigines to one white...I hope you will awaken your staff to the seriousness of the situation and start without delay on measures to control this menace to the population of Australia.22 Dr Nye also wrote a letter to the Editor of the Courier Mail in which he stated that: Not only are they having much larger families than our intelligent and provident Europeans and Asian citizens 86 but they start their uncontrolled procreation in their teens and therefore have a more rapid turnover of generations than our more intelligent people who control their breeding... 23 A short note from a J.B. Wilkinson24 appeared in the Government file on "Complaints and Investigations'. Wilkinson wrote to the Director of Aboriginal and Island Affairs, P.J. Killoran, enclosing a copy of Nye's Letter to the Editor. It read as follows: I agree wholeheartedly and I am sure you do, for like you, I have seen the terrifying increase in aborigines in the North. As he (Nye) says they need birth control, no money hand-outs and discipline and discipleship. Without these our Australian race will be contaminated with inferior humanity.25 Evidently, Darwinist notions of racial superiority were alive and well amongst influential members of Brisbane's community in 1969. The press in the Southern states and the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin were a little more outspoken against the living conditions and the system of administration on Woorabinda. The Rockhampton Morning Bulletin ran a story entitled "Distressing Conditions at Woorabinda", which outlined the complaints made by the Federal parliamentarians, such as the sub-standard housing and the segregated schooling.26 The Sunday Truth also ran stories entitled "Stifling lock-up for Aboriginals" and "Soaring Death Rate: Aboriginal Conditions a Shocker."27 The Sun in Sydney contained an editorial entitled "A disgrace to Australia",28 in which the editor described Woorabinda as "something of a First Fleet slave camp'. He goes on to call Woorabinda A place where the most expensive building is the gaol, where the penal system is medieval, where black and white children go to separate schools. A place where all 87 the profits are siphoned away and nothing is spent on rehousing...The Queensland Government today is the disgrace of Australia.29 The Australian reported on the complaints of the five parliamentarians,30 and also on the reaction of the Queensland government. Premier Bjelke-Petersen had refused to conduct an inquiry into conditions on Woorabinda. As the article stated: The Premier said that although he did not know the details of the situation at Woorabinda, the Government had done a tremendous amount for Aboriginals since it took office 12 years ago.31 The Queensland government's tradition of congratulating itself on its treatment of Aborigines was evidently still prevalent. The government also continued to make profits from its Aboriginal settlements. The retail store which had been established on Woorabinda - at this stage operated by a member of the Public Service - was a profit-making venture for the State government32^ as the beer-canteen was to become later. The procedure of cattle raising, by which Aborigines bought, raised and slaughtered the cattle also continued to make profits for the State government. Wages for Aborigines on Woorabinda continued to be well below award rates, while rates of pay for the white staff were substantially higher. Table 3 compares some of the wage rates of whites and Aborigines on Woorabinda. Although the white staff member was usually classified as the superior officer, the same tasks were being performed by whites and Aborigines. 88 Table 3 Occupation Aboriginal wage range* White's wage* Carpenter $8.40 - $31.50 $57.15 Pliimber $8.40 - $27.30 $57.15 Sawmiller $8.40 - $27.30 $51.05 Hygiene $8.00 - $27.30 $73.00 *weekly rate. Source: DFS file 5A/34, lists of Community Wage Rates and Public Service (Staff) Rates, 13th February, 1969. Clearly, the government was saving large amounts of money by using underpaid Aboriginal labour on Woorabinda. In addition to the figures given above, the Manager received $100.45 per week, and the Administration Officer $93.55. Other white staff employed on Woorabinda included a Clerk/ Storekeeper, Temporary Clerk, Temporary Clerk/Typist, Male Liaison Officer, 2 Female Liaison Officers, Temporary Residential Supervisor, Overseer, General Overseer, and so on. Clearly, the wider Queensland community was also benefitting from employment on Aboriginal communities. The following Chapter, entitled "The Carpetbaggers', explores this concept further. The primary significance of this chapter and the following one is how recent the oppression, exploitation and legal discrimination against Woorabinda's Aborigines and all other Aborigines on Government Settlements in Queensland has been. 89 CHAPTER 6 1971-1986 "The Carpetbaggers" "...And they strode the dusty roads and streets of the exhausted Southlands, their mouths tightening greedily, their eyes everywhere, searching, calculating, appraising the values that were left behind in the holocaust of war."-*- In introducing the debate on the Aborigines Act of 197l2, N.T. Hewitt, Member for Mackenzie and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs espoused the views which had become characteristic of governments in Queensland: defending past policies of the government, and denying the attempted genocide of Queensland's Aborigines. Speaking about those past policies, he stated. Protection now is an outmoded policy, and one that has been subjected to contemporary criticism. It must, however, be remembered that both Roth and Meston were men of brilliance. Roth particularly so. Both were perceptive and sensitive to the needs of Aboriginal people, and were far ahead of their time. Protection, with all its now perceived shortcomings, was, however, the only rational contemporary policy, and it is due to this, and to the dedication of men like these, to their few officers, and to the devotion of missionaries, that the Aboriginal people of this State have been able to regain their former strength.3 On the genocidal actions of the European invaders, Hewitt states: ...smallpox was almost certainly the mass killer of Aboriginal people, and however much some of us might lust for murderous forebears, whose sins we might repay in an orgy of self-abasement, the blame must be substantially allocated to their bacteria rather than to their muskets.4 Australia-wide, smallpox probably did kill more than muskets, but not, it would seem, in Queensland.5 An additional point m is that disease is an invariable concomitant of colonial warfare. Acting on false premises such as the ones outlined above, the Queensland Government once again continued the patterns laid down in the 1897 Act.^ As Gerard Guthrie has pointed out, "The institutional nature of the system is still fundamentally the same as in 1897.'7 Although there were important changes, (outlined below) Guthrie's point that the institutional nature of life on reserves remained is a valid one. The major important changes were that Aborigines were now permitted to leave the Reserves if they wished, and that the Aborigines who did choose to leave the Reserves were no longer governed by the Act. The following brief examination of the provisions of the 1971 Act refer only to Aborigines on Government Settlements. For the Aborigines who remained on Woorabinda and the other Government Settlements, nothing had changed. Initially, many did not realise that they were allowed to leave, and stayed for many years, having not been aware of the implications of the new legislation.^ Some may have stayed because of the new provision which required Aborigines to acquire a permit before being able to return. During this period, the Aboriginal Councils on the Settlements were jokingly compared to "toy telephones',9 which would indicate that they effectively held no important powers at all. The Reserve By-laws and Regulations remained intact, as did the trust fund system. As Renfrey Clarke noted. Like their predecessor, the 1971 Acts leave intact the potential for the arbitrary and unjust treatment of those charged under reserve by-laws and regulations. The Aborigines Act leaves up to the administration every decision pertaining to the constitution, jurisdiction, procedures and appeal provisions of the courts.10 91 Aborigines on Woorabinda were still tried, convicted and sentenced by government appointees who had no legal training. They could also still earn less than the minimum wage, and it was illegal for Aborigines on reserves to possess liquor. In addition, the State could still order compulsory medical tests for Aborigines on reserves. The 1971 Act also continued the tradition in Queensland of legislation affecting Aborigines being in contravention of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.11 The Aboriginal Regulations of 1972 basically followed the pattern set by the Regulations of 1966, within the provisions of the 1971 Act. The major new regulations were related to permits to visit and stay on Reserves. Any relative of a resident of Woorabinda, for example, who was no longer under the Act could be fined up to two hundred dollars if he or she entered the Reserve without a permit, and ten dollars per day for every day he or she stayed. Another important Regulation was Regulation 29, which provided that the Minister could approve mining on a Government Reserve.12 Within the framework of this legislation, the white power structure on Woorabinda continued to be racist and oppressive. In 1971, the Manager of Woorabinda, Agostini, wrote to P.J. Killoran, who was still the Director of Aboriginal Affairs. He complained about the behaviour of the European policeman stationed at Woorabinda, Sergeant Osbourne, who indulged in drunken behaviour, loud arguments with members of the Community, and "abusive tirades' towards members of the white staff. Agostini reported that: He made statements that he was not going to be told what 92 to do by a mob of blacks, meaning the Chairman and the Council, and that the Chairman and the Justice of Peace..-who was at his home were drunk.13 The Manager spoke to the Chairman and concluded that the Chairman was not drunk. Agostini also recalled an earlier incident involving Sergeant Osbourne and the Chairman of the Council: Apparently when the Chairman was at the Dawson River near Baralaba with a fishing party on Saturday 18th, the Sergeant had an argument with the Chairman regarding visitors to and from the Community. The Sergeant informed the Chairman that he was a nothing and that he could not tell the Sergeant what to do. He the Chairman might think he was something and that he might think he was running the Community but he was not going to tell him what to do.14 The Manager had also "heard him use some of the most derogatory terms when speaking of the Community residents.'15 Sergeant Osbourne was transferred from Woorabinda. Two years later, in 1973, it became evident that his successors were equally as racist and also frequently intoxicated whilst on duty. H.J. Michel, the Acting Manager, complained to Director Killoran about Sergeant Murray Neale and Sergeant Tom Capel. Of Neale, he stated that "...his greatest asset is his consumption of alcohol."1^ In a four-page letter, Michel recounted Sergeant Tom Capel's behavioural patterns which included the use of the settlement vehicle for excursions to public bars in Duaringa, illegally supplying Aborigines with alcohol, and also drink-driving. One night, Michel and another staff member had to go on a search for the Land Rover which Mr Capel had taken to Duaringa earlier that day. Michel and the other staff member located a very drunk Capel and a vehicle full of intoxicated residents of Woorabinda, and followed the Land Rover back to Woorabinda. Michel recalls that: 93 He would have been driving at approximately 20 miles per hour, from one side of the road to the other, over the white line and back, and very nearly put the vehicle over an embankment. I said to Gerry, "We will head him off and I will take him out.' This did not prove necessary for as soon as I had said this, he pulled up on the side of the road, and forthwith got out of the vehicle and relieved himself. I walked up to him and said, "Tom, you are not driving this vehicle', and he said, "Who says so'...17 Clearly, the tradition of professionally negligent people being employed on Woorabinda was still prevalent. In 1980, more than eighty residents at Woorabinda signed a petition for the removal of yet another unsatisfactory police officer. Sergeant O'Shea. On the weekend of 7-10 March, 1980, O'Shea arrested approximately twenty-five people on Woorabinda for drunkenness and possession of alcohol. Some were detained for forty-eight hours, in the deplorable conditions in the watchhouse. All twenty-five were crowded into the tiny watchhouse where they were forced to sleep on bare concrete floors, with no mattresses or even blankets. Meals consisted of tinned bully beef, and no drinks were provided. On Sunday the toilets became blocked, and the prisoners were ordered to clean up the whole reserve under O'Shea's supervision. Bail was refused for those who said that they could pay it. On Monday, they appeared before the "Court', and all were convicted and fined $15 to $40, with imprisonment being set for default on payment of the fines. Officers of the Aboriginal Legal Service were attempting to approach the Woorabinda Police Station to ask about investigating conditions at the watchhouse, when they were confronted by Sergeant O'Shea who threatened to remove them physically from the reserve. He also prevented them from taking any photos and threatened to summons them for walking on a road in "the white end of town.'^^ 94 The Police Department continued to post professionally negligent, or even criminal police officers at Woorabinda. As recently as 1989, Sergeant David Marr, stationed at Woorabinda, was charged with planning a $40 000 payroll robbery from the D.C.S. office. Marr was also charged with having stolen a police firearm, and he had engaged two other men to assist him in robbing a cigarette van at Woorabinda on more than one occasion.19 This succession of police officers on Woorabinda, most of whom broke the law, and only one of whom was finally prosecuted in 1989, two years after his crimes were committed, serves to demonstrate the low priority which the Queensland Government afforded the Woorabinda Aboriginal Community when assigning its police officers. The type of policemen assigned would indicate the low priority afforded to Aborigines in Queensland, which allowed for continuing corruption on Woorabinda. The appointment of Managers to Woorabinda conformed to this pattern. In 1979, Manager Ray Bennett was accused of using a spot light to shoot kangaroos on one of the properties attached to Woorabinda, which was an illegal activity.20 Bennett's excuse was that he would "usually shoot five or six kangaroos, skin them, and check the intestines for worms'.21 Director Killoran chastised Bennett, and told him to cease the practice,22 but no charges were laid. The documentation of this episode, however, and all documentation "relative to the actions and activities of Mr Bennett' was put on his personal file.23 The actions of the white community on Woorabinda (staff and their families) at the time ensured the continuing 95 ill-treatment and process of injustice against Woorabinda's Aborigines. In a letter to the Inspector of Police in Rockhampton in February 1973, Sergeant Thomsen, who seems to have been doing his duty, complained that the European Administration Officers and their families were alleging that an exempted area existed on Woorabinda in which they could consume alcohol, and which Aborigines were not permitted to enter. Thomsen expressed his concern to the Inspector: I would respectfully point out Sir that one could understand the criticism which would be directed at a Police Officer here at Woorabinda who permitted a Beer Party to be held amongst European people here in this alleged area at Woorabinda, should that Police Officer attempt to inforce(sic) the Law in respect of Aboriginal people holding a Beer Party in a similar manner only several yards away.24 Killoran replied that whites were indeed permitted to drink alcohol on Woorabinda in this manner, and that it "would be expected that they would behave themselves"; He pointed out that the beer canteen would be opened for Aborigines soon, anyway.25 This ruling would indicate that the Regulation regarding the consumption of alcohol on Reserves applied only to Aboriginal residents, and thus was overtly racist within the reserves, as well as in general Queensland society. Five years later, the administration on Woorabinda had not improved at all. In 1978, a hearse carrying the body of a Woorabinda resident to Woorabinda for a funeral was stopped by the Manager, Harry Topham and the Policeman, Sergeant O'Shea about twenty-four kilometres from Woorabinda. As Doug Everingham reported, The occupants were ordered to burn all their possessions. One was a sister of the deceased, accompanied by her grandson. The third passenger was a young woman returning to the settlement following an operation in Brisbane.26 Apparently, the driver, Woorabinda resident Hubert D , had been instructed by the Manager not to bring any passengers back in the hearse, but in Rockhampton he was given orders to the contrary, either by an Officer of the DAIA27^ or the funeral director.28 The conflicting evidence in this case clearly indicates an attempted cover-up by members of the administration. The Driver was asked by the Manager to sign an affidavit stating that: I misunderstood something said by the Sergeant O'Shea about cloths (sic) being burnt. I sat down and lit a fire to keep warm and then decided I was not happy about my clothes having been in the back of the Hearse with the coffin and decided to burn my clothes and belongings. The other passengers followed my example. In view of my opinion that circumstances warranted it and also my superstitions I burnt my own personal belongings of my own accord.29 Apparently, the driver who signed this affidavit was unable to read or write, and the Manager had attempted to persuade others to sign similar statements. The only statements which appeared in the Department file on this case were the statements which were favourable to the Manager and the Sergeant.30 clearly, in 1978, Woorabinda's Aboriginal residents were still greatly oppressed by the white administration. On 18th May, 1979, Thomas Moore died in custody at Woorabinda, "apparently by hanging'.31 viner, the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, claimed that "Reports indicate that there were no suspicious circumstances".32 The incident was shrouded in secrecy, and very little correspondence on the matter exists. This death in custody represents one of the earlier incidences of what has become a relatively common occurrence in gaols throughout Queensland, 97 and subsequently the subject of a Royal Commission. One example of the kind of statements being made by the State's leader during this period may serve to explain, to a degree, the attitude towards Aborigines on reserves in the late 1970s, and the almost complete lack of concern for their welfare. Addressing the Aurukun Council in 1978, Bjelke- Petersen stated that: Another thing I want to say...in relation to when you say it's your land. Never let us forget that if it was not for the Australian people and the Americans, the Japs would have taken us in the last war and it wouldn't have been yours anyway. This sort of thing happens all over the world. There is no country without it. This country's been taken by this country. Germany has been taken by this country. Russia has taken this country. You can't claim it's yours.33 This statement, although characteristically nonsensical, serves to demonstrate an attitude which was fairly predominant in Queensland at the time: that Aborigines were somehow "lucky' that the whites had invaded Australia, and that they were fortunate to be here under any condition. This attitude remained a rationalization for the continuing process of dispossession within Queensland at the time. The age-old companion of the government in dispossessing the Aborigines, the Church, returned to Woorabinda in this period. Two Catholic Sisters of Mercy were transferred to Woorabinda in 1977. One of the Sisters, Patricia Crowley, deviated somewhat from the traditional role of the church on Aboriginal communities, however. She encouraged Aborigines at Woorabinda Council Meetings to attend Land Rights meetings, and she was also involved in the push to remove Sergeant O'Shea from Woorabinda.34 Not surprisingly, in 1981 both of the Sisters were transferred from Woorabinda and replaced by 98 two others who are still in residence at Woorabinda today. The fact that Sister Crowley was transferred from Woorabinda would indicate that the Catholic Church, at least, was still serving the interests of the government at this time. As Bjelke- Petersen had already demonstrated his refusal to grant land rights. Sister Crowley was working against the aims of the government in a small way at Woorabinda, and was therefore removed from this role. This period on Woorabinda also witnessed the continuing exploitation of Aborigines, and profits for the Government resulting from this. In a telling paragraph in the 1979 Annual Report, Killoran stated that: It is a matter of great regret on the part of the Department and frustration on the part of residents that...councils have spurned the concept of partnership in favour of a course chiefly identified to date by rhetoric, conflict, confusion and inaction. Such a course is unlikely to provide the opportunity for a council to gain experience and confidence, or encourage the state government to view it as capable or worthy of exercising local responsibility.35 This passage clearly indicates that the State Government held control over the actions of the Councils. By law, the State Government had the ability to abolish individual community councils - which it has done in some cases - and keep the books of accounts of the councils.36 in addition, the Aboriginal police were under the control of the Reserve Manager. In 1979, the Federal Government looked at how Queensland Government legislation affecting Aborigines contravened its Racial Discrimination Act of 1975. The three main issues were the issue of Community councils having no real control over their Communities; the fact that there was no right of appeal 99 against refusal of permission to visit, and the fact that Aborigines were still subjected to forcible removal from their homes and territories, they were prevented from associating with the general community, they were controlled in their behaviour and lifestyle, and they were forced to adopt alien standards appropriate to western culture. The Report found that the Manager held effective control on the Reserves, and that Aborigines in Queensland were subjected to racial discrimination.37 An example of how the State Government attempted to disguise Managerial control of the Settlement was raised at a meeting at Woorabinda in 1978. It became apparent at this meeting that the cheque for the money allocated to Woorabinda by the State Government was made out to the Council, which would suggest that the Council controlled the funds for the community. Only the Manager could withdraw the money from the account into which it was deposited, however, which meant that the white Manager decided how funds allocated to Woorabinda were spent.38 In 1986, Aboriginal labourers on Woorabinda were still being paid under-award wages. In many cases, the workers were being paid up to $100 below award rates, thus saving the State Government an estimated $4.5 million over the 1976-1986 period.39 in addition, it seemed that money from the Welfare Fund (that is. Aboriginal wages), was not directly benefitting Aboriginal Communities, but was remaining in the Department of Community Services. Also in 1986, Terry Munns, Council Chairman at Woorabinda, claimed that the DCS were mustering and selling off the cattle from Foleyvale station at Woorabinda, prior to the hand-over of the Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT). Munns stated that: 100 Now with self-management imminent the DCS have been mustering and selling of the cattle on our station...This could set the community back ten years in trying to set up a viable cattle enterprise returning profits that can be used for the benefit of the 800 or so people who live on the reserve...We said [to the Queensland Government] that we didn't want to have to restock the property and start again especially since the money's been going back to the Government all these years into what they call the Aborigines Welfare Fund. We've been trying to get details on the contributions Woorabinda had made to the Welfare Fund, but they have refused to give us any information or tell us what contributions we are getting back.^0 Bob Katter, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs claimed that the cattle "could have been gone for a number of years', and the head of the Australian Cattleman's Union claimed that they "probably died during the drought'. A spokesperson for the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs asserted that the Woorabinda people did not own the cattle, anyway, despite that fact that Woorabinda trust funds had purchased the land and the cattle, and Woorabinda Aboriginal labour had raised the stock. Spokesperson for the Department, Ms Karen Grayden, stated that the Woorabinda property was stocked with cattle bought from the Aboriginal Welfare Fund, and that the cattle legally belonged to all Queensland Aborigines. She also said that "The Woorabinda Council seem to think the cattle belongs to them and its their right to own them."41 in addition to "losing' over $300 OOo42 worth of stock, prior to the handing over of the Deed of Grant in Trust, the Woorabinda Council were directed to pay $611 000 for the 17 000 hectare cattle property which the council had accumulated during the past twenty years. This land had already been purchased by the State Government with the wages of Aborigines, the Welfare Fund. Neville Harper, the Justice Minister, pointed out that: Cabinet was not asking for payment on the main reserve property at Woorabinda, but the cattle property had been bought with funds from the Department of Aboriginal 101 Affairs (now the Department of Community Services) and required reimbursement. Before those lands can be transferred by Deed of Grant the Woorabinda community has to repay the welfare fund.43 What the Justice Minister failed to mention however was that Woorabinda's Aborigines had been forcibly contributing to the Welfare Fund since its inception in 1945. The State Government was not the only "carpetbagger' making money from Woorabinda and its residents at this time. For example. Hotel owners in Rockhampton and other towns in the region made considerable profits from them. At a Law Reform Commission hearing in 1981, Mabel Edmund, President of the Aboriginal Legal Service in Rockhampton cited one example: There used to be a hotel on the north side where I always thought there would be a murder there one night. There has been attempted murder and - you know, people almost dead anyway at that place. This woman used to run it and she just used to take their cheques off them and they would drink until they had finished it - you know. She would take the cheque and she would just give them what she thought was left of it. She made a fortune out of them. She built the great big hotel out here at Westwood, the great big place she has got out there now. That is all Aboriginals' cheques.44 Other local businesses who are contracted by the Government to do work on Woorabinda (such as constructing the new sewerage system) also prosper from Woorabinda Community. The town which primarily profits from this is Baralaba, the nearest town, but businesses from other centres such as Duaringa and Yeppoon45 also profit. Ironically, in spite of the fact that many local cement works, plumbing businesses and other enterprises make some of their living from Woorabinda's Aborigines, personal experience would indicate that the white residents in these rural centres are some of the most racist people in Australia. As in every other period of Woorabinda's history, once 102 again, the health and living conditions of Woorabinda's Aborigines exacerbated all the injustices suffered by the Community. In 1972, a group of researchers from the University of Queensland conducted nutrition and health tests on approximately 400 residents at Woorabinda. Of the children, forty-five percent had headlice, twenty-seven percent had ingrained dirt on the skin, and twenty-nine percent had active impetigo (a contagious skin disease). Of the ninety-eight people examined, only forty-three percent were normal; nineteen ears were perforated; twenty-two had signs of middle ear infection, and a further fifteen were scarred, suggesting old disease.46 The researches then related living conditions and personal health to school performance, and found "the presence of factors other than "intelligence' which affect school performance".47 They concluded that "...nutrition, school absences and a measure of personal hygiene all have a significant effect on school performance.'48 Oral evidence from Colleen Farren, the Liaison Officer on Woorabinda from 1982 to 1984 would indicate that this situation continued for some years. Referring to the High School students, she stated that: They were still going to Baralaba High School when I was there, but there were big problems. The children were dirty - at home they weren't able, or didn't have the facilities to clean themselves, so we used to make the...building available and a lot of the girls used to come up there in the morning and have a shower and get dressed there and catch the bus to go to Baralaba. But even then the road was so bad that by the time they got to Baralaba, a lot of them had to have a shower when they got to school, because they'd be covered in red dust. The attendance rate was very poor...49 Evidently, the research conducted by the group from the University of Queensland, although revealing of many health problems did not result in any discernible improvement in 103 health for Woorabinda's Aboriginal residents. In 1973, the situation worsened, with an outbreak of scabies and impetigo.50 in 1974, the hospital ceased to take in-patients, and they were taken by bus to Rockhampton or Baralaba. Urgent cases were flown to Rockhampton by aerial ambulance. Naturally, this did not help the poor health situation at all. In 1975, there was an outbreak of diphtheria.51 in 1978, evidence came to light of the problems for pregnant women caused by the closure of the in-patients facility of the hospital. At a council meeting in that year, at which Doug Everingham was present, Everingham stated: Some say mothers leave it till they are in labour to go to Rockhampton because the Base Hospital there won't admit them a fortnight before since the State has subsidized the OPAL hostel in Rockhampton for expectant mothers and convalescents.52 Reg Dodd, former resident of Woorabinda added that "...these people often have no money to pay board at the hostel. Some provision should be made for them.'53 Mr Dodd was able to cite several examples of births occurring along the road to Rockhampton from Woorabinda.54 Table 4 compares death rates on Woorabinda to those in the general Queensland Community in 1978. The statistics would indicate that for Aborigines at Woorabinda, the chances of dying were five to six times greater than in the general Queensland community. 104 Table 4 Deaths/10 000 population per year Cause of death Cardio Infection Accidents Other Total vascular & violence Woorabinda 125.7 121.9 44.7 103.6 395.9 Queensland* 39.1 0.4 6.9 30.9 77.3 *Includes all Queenslanders. Black and white. Source: Extracted from a Table in Lincoln, R. et al, "Mortality Rates in 14 Aboriginal Reserve Communities", The Medical Journal of Australia. April 16, 1983. p.360 The large discrepancy in death statistics listed in this table demonstrates the appalling health conditions on Woorabinda, many of which continue today. One major cause of this was the water supply. As Dr. Adrian Sleigh found in 1986: Water at Woorabinda was always a problem. For over 30 years, the town received water pumped from galleries in the creek adjacent to the settlement. Last year, due to inadequate and declining volumes and contamination with cattle and human faeces, the situation reached a crisis point.55 As previous evidence has demonstrated (See Chapter 3), the water situation at Woorabinda had been at or near "crisis point' for some time.56 The only reason something was done about the situation was that the Woorabinda Aboriginal Council commissioned Dr Sleigh to do this Report. In other words, at no stage did the Queensland Government ever consider the diseases and deaths caused by the water supply at Woorabinda serious enough to warrant an investigation. Sleigh also found that the new water source, the bore-water, had a salt content ten-times higher than in most of Australia's capital cities, and a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) content 105 approximately twenty times higher than that in Hobart, Sydney and Melbourne. The high incidence of deaths from cardio vascular disease may be attributed in large part to the high salt content in the water. Other common illnesses on Woorabinda were (and still are) blood.pressure, heart failure and some types of kidney failure, which may all be attributed to the excessive consumption of salt. In Woorabinda, in the late 1980s, it was impossible for a Doctor to put a patient on a low salt diet (2g/day), because the salt content in the water meant that people easily drank 1.5-3 grams per day.57 After consumption of food, then, their salt intake was far too high. In 1986, the life expectancy for many of Woorabinda's residents was 35 to 40 years of age.58 Venereal diseases also remained a problem during this period, the most common being syphilis. Up to 1984, the annual incidence of syphilis was ten percent of the adult population. In December 1986, the Aboriginal Health Worker pointed out that because of a shortage of medical supplies on most Aboriginal communities, diabetics were forced to share needles, arousing concern about the spread of AIDS. The medical supply shortage was much more acute on Woorabinda, because of the official favouritism shown to the nearest "white' township, Baralaba. Although the Baralaba township has less than half the population of Woorabinda, Baralaba received the inpatient Hospital, the Doctor, the QATB ambulance station and a vote on the Banana Hospitals Board. Woorabinda received a new outpatient clinic, a transient nursing staff, a community ambulance without a trained ambulance officer and no vote on the Hospitals Board even though two Board positions were unfilled.59 106 Drunkenness and unemployment compounded all the health problems on Woorabinda during the latter half of this period. In 1986, Aborigines on Woorabinda lived in overcrowded housing, they had a relatively short life expectancy, their children were malnourished, and diseases which were no longer a problem in the white community continued to plague them. The Queensland government continued to refuse to acknowledge the appalling living conditions on Woorabinda to the wider community. In 1986, Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen described Queensland's Aborigines as "the best looked-after people in the world'.^O 107 Epilogue Woorabinda Since 1986: Community Social Dysfunctional. Despite a series of delaying tactics by the State Government which lasted from 1984 until 1986, the Deed of Grant in Trust was finally handed over to the Woorabinda Aboriginal Council (WAC) on 27th October 1986.^2 The State Government had demanded payment for some land, cattle, and some of the housing before the DOGIT was handed over. This action was really the beginning of the process of "siphoning-off' of Federal government monies by the State government which has continued ever since. As Alan Dale explains: The DCS (Department of Community Services) departure however allowed the Federal Government Aboriginal affairs agencies the chance to step in with their full authority to begin to pick up the funding tabs that the DCS had left behind. Both the DAA (Department of Aboriginal Affairs) and the ADC (Aboriginal Development Commission) filled this role with great enthusiasm. The DAA provided the capital for a huge influx of community infrastructural developments, while the ADC was to take on the role of enterprise development to provide sources of self earned income form the community. It also grudgingly had to pick up the $611 380 price tag the DCS asked the Council to pay to reimburse the AWF (Aboriginal Welfare Fund) for past expenditure on the properties for stock purchases and land improvements.^3 This section looks at the reasons why Woorabinda has been in a state of "community social dysfunction' both preceding and since that time. Basically, the historical process outlined above is the explanation for the current state of dysfunction on Woorabinda. As Reg Shelley noted in 1986: Given the length of the destructive paternalistic process which has brought Woorabinda to its present dysfunctional state, with alcoholism, child neglect, widespread gambling, teenage pregnancy and high unemployment, the regenerative phase will very likely 108 extend over a substantial period.^^ A brief overview of life on Woorabinda in the period from 1986, when Shelley made this forecast, to 1990 demonstrates that his prediction was correct. The characteristics of life on Woorabinda which he found in 1986 still exist today. The two major barriers to development are: 1) The DCS, after years of managerial neglect of the properties had left the Council with a very degraded land resource from which to commence;^5 and 2) Low self-esteem, inferiority complex, and lack of managerial ability amongst community residents, caused by the long process of dispossession under which they had suffered, and their general state of health. In addition, the state government is still heavily involved with the community, as it allocates all funding. Under the 1984 Act, the budget was split between the DCS office and the Aboriginal Council. The butchery and retail store were still operated by the DCS, and income from the pastoral properties went into the Welfare fund. In 1989, the butchery and retail store were running at a profit, and purportedly, the profits were going back into the Community. In addition to the noticeable presence of the State Government on Woorabinda, Church groups still hold a degree of influence. Of the three Churches that exist in Woorabinda, the Catholic and Anglican groups demonstrate a certain amount of political autonomy. Both of these groups are pushing for conservative reform within the community. In 1989, ten to twelve of the Anglicans formed the Concerned Citizens Group (CCG) to provide public forum for the discussion of community issues such as alcoholism, police inefficiency, CDEP (Community Development and Employment Program) and the functions of the Council. After several meetings, the group 109 attracted wider support and has become an anti-council organisation, successfully forcing public meetings, informing politicians and bureaucrats and encouraging media coverage of certain issues in Woorabinda.^^ So, the two symbols representative of oppression on Woorabinda throughout its history, the Church and the Government, remain today. The fact that many Aborigines still look to these agents of oppression as the symbols of authority on Woorabinda has created a state of "Community Social Dysfunction' since 1986. Writing about Queensland's Aborigines, A. and R. Doobov point out that: They have been brought up under a system of absolute authority. Even the most trivial decisions were taken out of their hands. They have been forced to be idle and have seen their culture and way of life scorned and despised by the completely dominant white officials... These Aborigines have grown up believing they have no rights at all and that they must always obey their white masters in every respect.67 Reg Dodd, ex-resident of Woorabinda, believes that the Aborigines on Woorabinda still feel that they have no control over the operation of their community. He said: "You see the Aboriginal is still suffering from inferiority complex...They're not game to [ask about anything] because the management, the administration out there [Woorabinda] tells them to keep quiet - none of your business. But they go nowhere to complain about it. 68 It is apparent, then, that despite the fact of self-management since 1986, the Aborigines on Woorabinda continue to suffer under the injustices of a racist society. As Jackie Huggins noted, the DOGITs now in operation on reserves ...have made very little difference to the well-being and self-determination of Aboriginal people. Thus, a dependency syndrome on the State Government still remains.69 110 For example, allocation of funds both to and on Woorabinda are still tightly controlled by the State, and auditors from the Department of Family Services (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Division) are frequently called in by the WAC (at the direction of the Auditor-General).70 in addition, most residents continue to pay their rent to the Department, and the rest to the Woorabinda Aboriginal Council.^^ The process of dispossession and total demoralisation, along with the continuing pattern of forced dependency on government bodies is, as throughout Woorabinda's history, still exacerbated by poor living conditions and health. The Powder-Law Report from July 1987 indicated that the watchhouse was still in appalling condition at this time.72 in addition, the deleterious state of the water supply had still not been rectified73^ and the housing shortage problem was worsening. In August 1987, some two-bedroom houses on Woorabinda were accommodating more than twenty residents.74 The good news for that year was the claim that none of the diabetics had contracted the AIDS virus from the forced sharing of needles in previous years.75 On 28th March 1987 the "work-for-the-dole' scheme was instituted at Woorabinda. The Community Development and Employment program, as it was officially known, was a temporary success on Woorabinda. Approximately 95 percent of the residents turned up for work, and the incidence of alcoholism decreased. This was short-lived, however, and alcoholism remains a major problem for the community, while few residents still participate in the community work scheme. The CDEP scheme became another way for the State Government to Ill siphon-off Federal Government monies. The Federal Government pays the unemployment benefits, which the Aborigines spend on rent, food from the retail store, and beer from the beer canteen. A percentage of the proceeds from all three of these go to the State Government. Specific problems caused by the high degree of alcohol abuse on Woorabinda include vandalism, theft and rape. Non-drinkers are usually heavy gamblers. Until recently, gambling nights were held at the High School, and proved to be a popular social event. Attempts by the police to control gambling on the community resulted in the cessation of this practice, and they now operate in smaller groups in private houses.76 AS Alan Dale points out: This has created added health problems as people are now spending much of their time playing in damp and unsanitary houses rather than out in the open.77 It seems evident that although many of the oppressive conditions suffered in previous years no longer exist on Woorabinda, (such as the dormitories and the "white area'), many still do, and the quality of life is poor. The State Government continues to have an undetermined (and more to the point, unknown) degree of input into Woorabinda, primarily through financial control. The most disturbing element for Australian society as a whole is the public acceptance of these conditions for the Aboriginal population. The fact that Aborigines, and not whites, live under these conditions seems to be acceptable to the majority of the wider community. The stereotyping of Aborigines used on the frontier to rationalise dispossession continues today, for there seems to remain a sentiment in Australia that "European standards'78 are much higher than those of the Aborigines, who live in squalid 112 conditions on Reserves "by choice'. A head-line to a story about Woorabinda in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin in 1986 adequately sums up this perceived difference between black and white Australians. It read: "Whites horrified, but Aborigines call it home."^^ 113 CONCLUSION. "And yet the very secrecy with which Queensland shrouded her dark deeds, showed that she could not absolve herself in her own conscience, and the effrontery with which her public men rejected inquiry was in itself condemnation."! G. W. Rusden, 1883. In this quote, Rusden, writing during Queensland's frontier period, refers to the heinous deeds performed by certain white settlers upon that frontier. The fact that this passage seems also to be applicable to any period in Queensland history during this century would indicate a dominant continuity in the pattern of dispossession. Although the methods changed over time, the aim did not. Four overriding themes have dominated the history of Woorabinda: racist attitudes amongst the decision-makers in Queensland; total Government control over the lives of Woorabinda's Aborigines; pernicious health and living conditions; and the continuing exploitation of Aboriginal labour on Woorabihda and in the pastoral industry. Firstly, attitudes over the period will be surmised. The frontier period in Queensland, which saw heightened "stereo-typing' of the Aborigines as inferior beings, became a period of waiting for their "inevitable decline'. It soon became apparent, however, that the so-called "half-caste• problem constituted a threat to the "purity of our own blood', and a policy of "firmly discouraging miscegenation' was instituted. On Taroom and Woorabinda, Aboriginal mothers who gave birth to mixed-blood children had these children taken from them, causing a further breakdown of their culture which had already been devastated by the removals to the reserves. 114 The official attitude that the Aborigines were "thousands of years behind in development', and that they were "being well cared for' remained prevalent throughout Woorabinda's history. Even in the late 1960s, Social Darwinist notions of racial superiority among influential members of Queensland society continued to be publicised. The second theme, that of total government control over the lives of Aborigines was also first explored in Chapter One, in the description of the frontier period. On the frontier, the government sanctioned the settlers' use of force against Aborigines. By the turn of the century, this had developed into a more effective method of controlling the land: dispossession by legislation. The government was ably assisted in this process by the Churches. Although the Churches assisted the government in this process of breaking down Aboriginal culture primarily on the Missions, they also played a significant role in this process on the government settlements. The primary role of the Church seems to have been to get the Aborigines away from their tribal lands, into a situation of dependency on the missionaries. In this way, the Church could more easily indoctrinate the culturally devastated Aborigines with Christian ethics. This process aided and abetted the government in their aim of gaining control of the land. The 1930s was a time of great population growth on Woorabinda, due to the large number of removals, and the institutionalisation of the system of punishment. The penal institution style of administration on Woorabinda was sanctioned by government legislation, which provided that "inmates on Reserves must obey all staff orders'. Daily life 115 followed a regimented pattern, as in a prison or any other total institution; personal property was periodically searched, certain areas on the settlement were "out of bounds' for Aborigines, and a system of virtual "slave labour' included more and more Aborigines every year. In addition, it was during this period that centralised intelligence on Queensland's Aborigines was gathered and collated on "Social History cards' by the Department of Native Affairs. The Social History cards are still held by the State government today: in the Department of Family Services (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Division). The section on the War Years demonstrated the devastating effects of the government's wider powers under War Regulations on Aborigines. During this period, the State government also found many new ways in which to spend Aboriginal money, such as for settlement houses for members of the Department, and on fees for care in public hospitals. The government continued to send negligent or incompetent personnel from the Department controlling Aborigines to work on Woorabinda, with disastrous effects on the already poor health and general welfare of the Aboriginal inmates. The study of the post-War period until 1964 showed the continuity of the process of dispossession and exploitation on Woorabinda. The increased media coverage of Aboriginal affairs in this period created a mild amount of awareness within the general community, but prompted no significant action. Woorabinda remained a closed institution, and Aborigines continued to be gaoled without a trial. The Aboriginal Act of 1965, examined at the beginning of Chapter Five, attracted some attention from academics and the media. Frank Stevens 116 attacked the Act as "a truly Victorian situation'2, and A. and R. Doobov referred to Queensland as "Australia's Deep South'.3 The media addressed the issues raised by some Federal A.L.P. Parliamentarians who visited Woorabinda in 1968, but the media in Queensland fundamentally backed the Bjelke-Petersen Government's claim that Queensland's Aborigines were "the best looked-after people in the world'. Aborigines not residing on settlements were freed from the Act, but for those who remained, the fundamental injustices continued. Aboriginal Councils without any real power were established: the power to make decisions on the reserve was still in the hands of the "Manager', who was in the employ of the State government department controlling Aborigines. The third major theme explored was living and health conditions. Originally, the Aborigines on reserves in Queensland lived in squalid conditions, and were exploited for their labour, while white society in Queensland awaited their "inevitable extinction'. In what may seem to be an attempt to speed up this process, living conditions and sanitation deteriorated throughout Woorabinda's history: by the 1980s, the water source could no longer cope with the amount of faecal matter in it, and overcrowding continued to be a serious problem. Consequently, the general health of the Woorabinda community had seen no marked improvement for over fifty years. Throughout the period examined, health problems were inadequately addressed> because venereal disease was seen to be a "symptom of immorality', and the poor condition of the Aborigines was attributed to their "biological inadequacies'. The final major theme was the continuing exploitation of Aborigines in the pastoral industry. Although this had been a 117 feature of black-white relations in Queensland from the time of the frontier period, the War years saw a greater number of Aborigines forced into the pastoral industry than ever before. Following the War, the numbers exploited in the pastoral industry increased annually, as did the amount of Aboriginal money in the trust funds. Aborigines continued to be paid below-award wages for the majority of the period studied, and the control of their money was still in official hands. Of the four major themes examined, it has become apparent that the common thread throughout all of them is actually the same theme: total government control of the lives of Woorabinda's Aborigines. Confinement and control have characterised the lives of Aborigines on Woorabinda throughout its history. Another important theme, which emerged towards the end of the thesis, was how recently Queensland's Aborigines have suffered at the hands of the Queensland government. The period from 1971, examined in Chapter Six, was characterised by an "improvement' in the process of "siphoning' money from the Federal government to the Queensland government, through Woorabinda. Prior to the handing-over of the DOGIT, in 1986, the State government demanded over half a million dollars from the Woorabinda Aboriginal Council as payment for land and cattle, knowing full well that the council had no such funds at its disposal. Subsequently, the Federal government made this payment to the State government, and Federal government money is annually given to the State government to allocate to the Aboriginal communities. The primary aim of Chapter Six was to demonstrate that fundamental injustices (sanctioned by law) against Queensland's Aborigines are not ancient history, but a 118 very recent occurrence. In 1990, Woorabinda remains in a state of "Community Social Dysfunction'. Drunkenness and unemployment have become the symptoms of hopelessness and despair on Woorabinda, the end result of the historical process of dispossession in Queensland. In summing up his history of the Wiradjuri people in New South Wales, Peter Read states that: In the 1980s the struggle of survival had been won by the Wiradjuri, but another century might pass before the wounds would heal.4 Due to the fact that genocidal attitudes and policies continued in Queensland for a longer period than elsewhere in Australia, for the Aboriginal people of Woorabinda, the struggle for survival continues today. 119 ENDNOTES Introduction I. Evans, R., Saunders, K. and Cronin, K. Exclusion. Exploitation and Extermination: Race Relations in Colonial Queensland, Australia and New Zealand Book Company: Sydney, 1975; Loos, N. Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier. 1861-1897. Australian National University Press: Canberra, 1982; Reynolds, H. Frontier: Aborigines. Settlers and Land. Allen and Unwin: Sydney, 1987; Reynolds, H. The Other Side of the Frontierp Penguin: Victoria, 1982; Rowley, CD. The Destruction of Aboriginal Societv. Penguin: Victoria, 1972. (First published 1970). 2« Rowley, CD. The Remote Aborigines. Australian National University Press: Canberra, 1971. 3» Rowley, CD. Outcasts in White Australia. Australian National University Press: Canberra, 1971. 4. Stevens, F. (ed). Racism: The Australian Experience Volume 2. Australia and New Zealand Book Company: Artarmon, 1972. 5. Evans, R. "Aborigines:"The Duty We Owe...'", in Murphy, Joyce and Hughes (eds), Labor in Power. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia, 1980. 6. Evans, R. and Walker, J. "These Strangers, Where are they Going? - Aboriginal-European Relations in the Fraser Island and Wide Bay Regions 1770-1905", Occasional Papers in Anthropology Number 8: Fraser Island. University of Queensland: Brisbane, 1977. 7. Thorpe, W. "Archibald Meston and Aboriginal Legislation in Colonial Queensland", Historical Studies. Volume 21, Number 82, April 1984. pp.52-67 8. Welborn, S. "Politicians and Aborigines in Queensland and Western Australia 1897-1907", Studies in Western Australian History. Volume 2, 1978. pp.18-32 i* Tatz, C "Queensland Aborigines: Natural Justice and the Rule of Law", The Australian Quarterly. Volume 35, Number 3, 1963. pp.33-49 10. Hasluck, P. Shades of Darkness. Melbourne University Press: Melbourne, 1988. II. Markus, A. Governing Savages: the Commonwealth and the Aborigines 1911-1939. Allen and Unwin: Sydney, 1990. 12. Jacobs, P. Mister Neville^ Fremantle Arts Centre Press: Fremantle, 1990. 13. Huggins, J. ""Firing On in the Mind': Aboriginal Women Domestic Servants in the Inter-War Years", Hecate, Volume 13, Number 2, 1987-88. pp.5-23 14. Rosser, B. Dreamtime Nightmares: Biographies of Aborigines under the Queensland Aborigines Act,. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies: Canberra, 1985. 15. Thomson, J. (ed), Reaching Back: Queensland Aboriginal people recall earlv davs at Yarrabah Mission. Aboriginal Studies Press: Canberra, 1989. 16. Roberts, J. (ed). Mapoon - Book One: The Mapoon Story by The Mapoon People. International Development Action: Victoria, 1975; Roberts, J., Parsons, M. and Russell, 120 B. Mapoon - Book Two: The Mapoon Storv according to The Invaders. International Development Action: Victoria, 1975; Roberts, J. and McLean, D. Mapoon - Book Three: The Cape York Aluminium Companies and The Native Peoples. International Development Action: Victoria, 1976. 17. Pohlner, H. Gangurru, Hope Vale Mission Board: Brisbane, 1986. 18. Guthrie, G. Cherbourg: A Queensland Aboriginal Reserve. University of New England: Armidale, 1976 and Guthrie, G. "Authority at Cherbourg", Occasional Papers in Anthropology. Number 6, 1976. pp.1-11 19. Koepping, K-P. "How to Remain Human in an Asylum: Some Field Notes from Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement in Queensland", Occasional Papers in Anthropology, Number 6, 1976. pp.28-39 20. Rosser, B. This is Palm Island, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies: Canberra, 1978. 21. Evans and Walker, op cit. p.74 (Part IV) 22. Read, P. A Hundred Years War. Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1988. 23. Haebich, A. For Their Own Good: Aborigines and Government in the Southwest of Western Australia. 1900-1940. University of Western Australia Press: Nedlands, 1988. 24- Gammage, B. and Markus, A. (eds). All That Dirt: Aborigines 1938. Australian National University: Canberra, 1982. 25. Attwood, B. The Making of the Aborigines. Allen and Unwin: Sydney, 1989. 26. McGrath, A. Born in the Cattle: Aborigines in Cattle Country. Sydney, 1987; Fels, M. ""Good men and true': the Aboriginal police of the Port Phillip district," PhD thesis: University of Melbourne, 1986. 27. Attwood, B. op cit. p.138 28. ibid. p.150 121 Chapter 1 1. Petrie, T. Reminiscences of Earlv Queensland. Watson and Ferguson: Brisbane, 1904; Praed, Rosa Australian Life: Black and White. Chapman and Hall: London, 1885; Praed, Mrs Campbell, My Australian Girlhood. Sketches and Impressions of Bush Life. Fisher Unwin: London, 1902; and de Satge, O. Pages from the Journal of A Queensland Sguatter. Hurst and Blackett: London, 1901. 2. Reynolds, H. The Other Side of the Frontier. Penguin: Victoria, 1982. p.81 3. Lack, C and Stafford, H. The Rifle and the Spear. Fortitude Press: Brisbane, 1965. p.11 4« Rex, J. "The Concept of Race", quoted in Evans, R., Saunders, K., and Cronin, K. Exclusion. Exploitation and Extermination: Race Relations in Colonial Queensland, Australia and New Zealand Book Company: Sydney, 1975. p.32 5. Loos, N. Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier. 1861-1897. Australian National University Press: Canberra, 1982. p.xviii 6, Evans, R. op cit. 7, ibid. p.71,79. 8. ibid. p.51 9- ibid. p.118 10. Thorpe, W. "Archibald Meston and Colonial Legislation in Aboriginal Queensland", Historical Studies. Volume 21, Number 82, April 1984. p.58 11. ibid. p.59 12. ibid. p.60 13. ibid. 14. ibid, p.63 15. Shelley, R. "Aboriginal Ecopolitics: The Greening of Woorabinda", Capricornia Institute: Rockhampton, 1986. p.3; Oral History Interview with Mr Tim Kemp, 17th June, 1990; Oral History Interview with Mr Ted Mitchell, 16th June, 1990. Mr Mitchell cited Cunnamulla, Beaudesert, North Queensland, Surat and Toowoomba as some of the places of origin of Taroom residents. 16. Long, J.P.M. Aboriginal Settlements: A Survey of Institutional Communities in Eastern Australia. Australian National University, Canberra, 1970. p.108 17. ibid. p.109 18. ibid. 19. Chief Protector, Annual Report. 1925. 20. Quoted by Evans, R. ""Kings' in Brass Crescents. Defining Aboriginal Labour Patterns in Colonial Queensland," in Saunders, K. (ed), Indentured Labour in the British Empire 1834-1920. Croom Helm Beckenham: London, 1984. p.183 21. Taroom Deaths Register, 1918. (DFS files). 22. Annual Report. 1919. 23. Evans, R. ""Don't You Remember Black Alice, Sam Holt?' Aboriginal Women in Queensland History", Hecate, Volume 8, Number 2, 1982. p.16 24. ibid. p.17 25. Annual Report, 1915. p.8 26. ibid, p.9 122 27. For example, Ted Mitchell was sent out to work as a houseboy on a station in 1924, at the age of ten years. (Oral History Interview, 16.6.90) 28. Annual Report, 1919. p.5 29. ibid. 30. DFS file 5A/34, 13th February 1969; Courier Mail. 7th March, 1969 and 10th February, 1969. 31. Annual Report, 1926. 32. Evans, R. "Aborigines, "The Duty We Owe'", in Murphy, D., Joyce, R., and Hughes, C (eds) Labor in Power. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia, 1980. p.333 33. Quoted in ibid. p.334 34. Woorabinda News. August 1977. 35. Woorabinda News. June 1977. 36. Tim Kemp, (Oral History Interview, 17th June, 1990.) 37. QSA POL/J. 1917, 1920, 1927, 1930. 38. Kolijn-Vink, E. "Aboriginal Identity and Art as the Material Expression of Identity in Woorabinda: Central Queensland, Australia", M.A. Thesis in Anthropology, University of Leiden, The Netherlands, 1986. p.58 39. Scanlon, T. ""Pure and Clean and True to Christ': Black Women and White Missionaries in the North", Hecate, Volume 12, Number 1-2, 1986. p.94 40. Reg Dodd, Oral History Interview, 15th June, 1990. 41. Evans, R. ""Don't You Remember...?" op cit. p.10 42. Scanlon, T. op cit. p.101 43. Foley, G. "Teaching Whites a Lesson" in Burgmann, V. and Lee, J. (eds) , A People's History of Australia Since 1788. Volume 4; Staining the Wattle. McPhee Gribble: Victoria, 1988. p.201 44. Quoted in Roberts, J., Parsons, M., and Russell, B. Mapoon - Book Two; The Mapoon Story according to The Invaders, International Development Action: Victoria, 1975. p.79 123 Chapter 2 I, Long, J.P.M. Aboriginal Settlements: A Survev of Institutional Communities in Eastern Australia. Australian National University, Canberra, 1970. p.109 2» Annual Reports 3. Long, op cit. 4. See statistics in ibid, p.110 5. Kolijn-Vink, "Aboriginal Identity and Art as the Material Expression of Identity in Woorabinda: Central Queensland, Australia", M.A. Thesis in Anthropology, University of Leiden, The Netherlands, 1986. p.50; Long, ibid.. and oral sources. Norman Tindale (in his Distribution of Aboriginal Tribes) makes no reference to the Birri tribe. Oral evidence indicates that this tribe was from the Townsville region. 6. Shelley, op cit. p.3, and Dale, A. (In preparation). "Planning for Land Use and Rural Development on Aboriginal Lands in Eastern Australia: A Bicultural Perspective", PhD Thesis, Griffith University, 1990. p.10 7. "Woorabinda - It's becoming a home to be proud of at last". Aboriginal Development Commission News. Volume 5, Number 1, 1989. p.10 8. Maudie B , Oral History Interview, 24th May, 1990. Maudie's recollections are supported by evidence in Kolijn-Vink's Thesis, p.63. 9. Kolijn-Vink, E. op cit. p.63 10. The Aboriginal Protection Acts, 1901, 1934, 1939. II. Aborigines Act, 1971, Section 37(1) states that "Upon application made to him by an Aborigine who usually resides in the district of the district officer to whom application is made the district officer may, if he is satisfied that the circumstances of the applicant or of any member of his family who should be supported by him warrant it, undertake and maintain the management of the property of the applicant." 12. Ted Mitchell, Oral History Interview, 16th June, 1990. 13. ibid. 14. Tim Kemp, Oral History Interview, 17th June, 1990. 15. ibid. 16. ibid. 17. Oral Sources interviewed by author, and Huggins, J. ""Firing On in the Mind': Aboriginal Women Domestic Servants in the Inter-War Years", Hecate, Volume 13, Number 2, 1987-88. p.14 18. Tim Kemp, Oral History Interview. 19. ibid. 20. Maudie B , Oral History Interview. 21. Ted Mitchell, Oral History Interview. 22. Tim Kemp, Oral History Interview- 23. Maudie B , Oral History Interview. 24. ibid. 25. Craig, D. "The Social Impact of the State on a Reserve in Queensland, Australia" Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of California, 1980. (John Oxley Library). 26. Kolijn-Vink, OP cit. p.63 27. Ted Mitchell, Oral History Interview, 16th June, 1990. 28. Tim Kemp, Oral History Interview. 124 29. ibid. 30. ibid. 31. Goffman, E. OP cit. p.28 32. Woods, D. Biko. Paddington Press: New York, 1978. p.107 33. "The system' was a term used by Steven Biko which referred to the authorities in South Africa. 34. Maudie B , Oral History Interview. 35. Tim Kemp, Oral History Interview. 36. DFS file 5D/146 and QSA A/31710 37. DFS file 5D/4 - Monthly Report of Hospital Matron. 38. Evans, R. "Aborigines, "The Duty We Owe'", in Murphy, D., Joyce, R., and Hughes, C (eds) Labor in Power. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia, 1980. p.339 39. ibid. 40. QPD 19.9.39 p.453 41. ibid, p.456 42. Evans, R. "The Duty we Owe", op cit. p.350 43. Ted Mitchell, Oral History Interview and Clarke, R. "The Queensland Aborigines Acts Part 3: "Protection' and Control," Direct Action^ Number 125, 15th June, 1976. p.6 44. Ted Mitchell, Oral History Interview. 45. Guthrie, G. Cherbourg: A Queensland Aboriginal Reserve. University of New England: Armidale, 1976. p.10 125 Chapter 3 1. Reg Dodd, Oral History Interview, 15th June, 1990. 2. Removal statistics in the Chief Protectors Reports during this period did not differentiate between people removed from other settlements and people removed from their tribal lands. However, both oral evidence and archival sources (notably the Department of Native Affairs files) would indicate a great degree of mobility between settlements at this stage. In addition, large numbers of Aborigines were removed from Missions in the North such as Cape Bedford, Thursday Island and Hammond Island. 3. Reg Dodd, Oral History Interview, 15.6.90 4« ibid. 5. ibid. 6. Tim Kemp, Oral History Interview, 17.6.90 7. Lovejoy, F. "The Legal and Economic Status of Aboriginal Workers in Queensland 1897 to 1972", Department of Economic Statistics: University of New England, 1972. p.15 8« Oral Sources 9. DFS file 5D/14 (Woorabinda Medical). 10. ibid. 27th July, 1943. 11. ibid. Letters 9th September, 1942 and 19th August, 1942. 12. Hall, R. The Black Diggers; Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Second World War. Allen and Unwin: Sydney, 1989. p.116 13. South Australian Archives, Lutheran Mission Board file 1945-1948. 14. Pohlner, H. Gangurru, Hope Vale Mission Board: Brisbane, 1986. p.112 15. Bowen, George. Reproduced in Hope Vale Hotline. August 1974. pp.6-7 16. Evans, R. and Walker, J. "These Strangers, Where are they Going? - Aboriginal-European Relations in the Fraser Island and Wide Bay Regions 1770-1905", Occasional Papers in Anthropology Number 8: Fraser Island. University of Queensland: Brisbane, 1977. p.89 17. ibid. 18. ibid. p.90; and Thomson, J. (ed). Reaching Back: Oueensland Aboriginal Pecjple recall early days at Yarrabah Mission. Aboriginal Studies Press: Canberra, 1989. p.14 19. Roberts, J., Parsons, M. and Russell, B. Mapoon - Book Two: The Mapoon Story according to The Invaders^ International Development Action: Victoria, 1975. p.60 20. Reg Dodd, Oral History Interview, 15.6.90. 21. Pohlner, op cit. p.114 22. ibid. p.115 23. ibid. p.114 24. DFS file 5A/46. "Report on an Inspection of The Aboriginal Settlement, Woorabinda." p.17 25. ibid.. and 5D/4, Matron's Monthly Report, and "Summary of Cape Bedford Deaths since Arrival at Woorabinda". 26. ibid, p.13 27. ibid, p.14 28. Native Affairs, Annual Report. 1943. p.l 29. DFS file 5A/46. op cit. p.16 126 30. ibid. p.4 31. ibid. p.5 32. ibid, p.l 33. Tim Kemp, Ted Mitchell and Reg Dodd, Oral History Interviews. 34. D.W. Johnston concluded that "The Visiting Medical Officer deserves censure (or other appropriate action) for his failure to treat aboriginals with hookworm infestation, though he was aware of the existence of the disease in July 1942." (p.19) Johnson also says of Blackburn that "he was either indifferent or negligent".(p.6) 35. DFS file 5D/13. Blackburn to DNA, 20.4.44. 36. DFS file 5D/13. Medical Woorabinda - Incidence Venereal Disease Blackburn to Director of Native Affairs 20.4.44. 37. The high incidence on Palm Island was due primarily to the fact that all V.D. cases were removed to there; on Cherbourg, the main factor seems to have been the Allied Services Camp at Murgon. 38. DFS file 5D/13. Removal Order issued by C O'Leary (Director of Native Affairs) for Jack N . 39. DFS file 5D/13. Director of Native Affairs to Superintendent of Woorabinda 3.5.44 40. DFS file 5D/13. Colledge to Director of Native Affairs, 15.5.44 41. DFS file 5D/13. D.N.A. to Superintendent Fantome Island. 8.3.43 42. DFS file 5D/13. A Report on a Visit to Cherbourg and Woorabinda to Investigate the Incidence of Venereal Disease gave the results of the tests conducted, and then stated "For details of suspects and contacts, see Appendix B." 43. Saunders, K. and Taylor, H. ""To Combat the Plague': The Construction of Moral Alarm and State Intervention in Queensland During World War II", Hecate. Volume 14, Number 1, 1988. p.5 44. ibid. p.15 45. Visiting Medical Officer Burke-Gaffney, Report on a Visit to Cherbourg and Woorabinda to Investigate the Incidence of Venereal Disease, op cit. p.2 46. The latest documented incidence found was in DFS file 5D/13, 26.9.68. Undoubtedly the diseases, unlike the correspondence about them, continued for many years, but V.D. on Aboriginal Settlements was not acknowledged very often by 1970. 47. Aborigines were controlled by the Sub-Department of Native Affairs of the Department of Health and Home Affairs. 48. Australian Archives (Victoria), Enlistment of Aborigines and half-castes 1940. MP508/1 275/750/699. Secretary to the Military Board (Official statement of the Military Board). 6th May, 1940. 49. Australian Archives (Victoria), Enlistment of Aborigines and half-castes 1940. MP508/1 275/750/699. Prime Minister R.G. Menzies to the Premier of New South Wales, 16th October, 1940. This phrase was frequently used in correspondence relating to the enlistment of Aborigines, throughout both the Conservative and Labor administrations during the War. 50. I could not find any evidence that any Woorabinda men had joined up. This, coupled with the fact that four 127 Aboriginal men who applied from Barambah (Cherbourg) were rejected on the basis of their Aboriginality and oral sources who couldn't recall any Woorabinda men going to war, would strongly suggest that none did. 51. Tim Kemp and Maudie B , Oral History Interviews. 52. Butlin, S. and Schedvin, C War Economy 1942-1945, Australian War Memorial: Canberra, 1977. p.34 53. Hasluck, P. The Government and the People 1942-1945. Australian War Memorial: Canberra, 1970. p.117 54. Based on figures in the Annual Report which stated that there were 400 men in mobile gangs (e.g. cotton picking, peanut harvesting), and 3800 in other "various callings', the majority being engaged in the pastoral industry. Of this total of 4200, 3500 is a very conservative estimate of numbers of Aborigines engaged in the pastoral industry. 55. Annual Report. 1939. 1732 males and 571 females - total 2303. 56. In the 1946 Annual Report. Superintendent Naggs reported that demand for labour (both male and female) from Woorabinda exceeded supply, which would indicate that every able-bodied man and woman was engaged in work in the pastoral industry. The population at the time was 843. There was no breakdown of numbers working in the pastoral industry from each settlement in the Annual Reports. 57. Thaiday, W. Under the Act^ North Queensland Black Publishing Company; Townsville, 1981. p.24 58. ibid. 59. Australian Archives (Queensland) MP24/2, Manpower Directorate, General Correspondence Files. O'Leary to the Undersecretary of Health and Home Affairs, 22.9.42. 60. ibid. Director General of Manpower to S. Anderson, Chairman of the Aborigines Welfare Board. 4th July, 1942. 61. Bowen, G. op cit. p.7 62. "Leo Rosendale", Appendix 4 in Pohlner, op cit. p.175 63. Annual Report. 1944. p.l 64. ibid. 65. Annual Report. 1946. p.8 66. Maudie B , Oral History Interview. 67. QPD, 19.3.46. p.2039 68. The usual rate on stations was 4 pounds per month; on settlements it was 15 shillings/month. (QPD 19.3.46 p. 2033, and oral sources). 69. Oueensland Parliamentary Debates. 19.3.46. p.2033 128 Chapter 4 1, DFS file 5A/34. George Blair to Frank Nicklin, 25.12.57. 2. Aborigines not residing on a settlement were forced to contribute 5 percent of their earnings per annum if they had no dependents, or 2 1/2 per cent if they did have dependents. Aborigines residing on settlements or missions were forced to contribute 5 percent if they had no dependents, or 10 percent if they did have dependents. [Regulations 6 (1) (a) and (b), and 6 (2).] The Aboriginal Regulations of 1945. p.27 3* The Aboriginal Regulations of 1945. p.31 4, Goffman, E. op cit. p.24 S» Haebich, A. "For Their Own Good'; Aborigines and Government in the Southwest of Western Australia. 1900-1940. University of Western Australia Press: Nedlands, 1988. Chapter 6 of this book is entitled "Institutional Life." 6* ibid. p.200 7» Reg Dodd, Tim Kemp and Ted Mitchell. Oral History Interviews. a» Heather Fisher, Oral History Interview, 28th May, 1990. 9. Long, J.P.M. op cit. p.Ill 10. For example, the Brisbane Truth April 24, 1955. p.4 11. Oueensland Parliamentary Debates,, 19.3.46. p.2030 12. ibid. p.2035 13. Evans, R. "Aborigines;"The Duty We Owe...'", in Murphy, Joyce and Hughes (eds), Labor in Power. University of Queensland Press: St Lucia, 1980. p.333 14. Queensland Parliamentary Debates, op cit. p.2040 15. Annual Report. 1956. p.2 16. Annual Report. 1959. p.3 17. Annual Report. 1960. p.2 18. Heather Fisher, Oral History Interview; and Duncan, C "My Experience of the Queensland Act", The Black National Times. July 21-26, 1975. p.13 19. Oral sources, (ibid.) 20. DFS file 5A/34. George Blair and Raymond Cressbrook to the DNA, 22.9.47. 21. DFS file 5A/34. 25.12.57. In 1971, Aborigines were still paying for rides on settlement vehicles. A trip to Duaringa (for shopping) cost $3, and a trip to the Dawson River cost $1. These vehicles were purchased with Aboriginal money (i.e. the Welfare Fund). (5A/34, 2nd February, 1971). 22. Tatz, C "Queensland's Aborigines: Natural Justice and the Rule of Law", Australian Quarterly^ Volume 35, September 1963. p.37 23. ibid. p.40 24. ibid, p.41 25. Heather Fisher, Oral History Interview, 28th May, 1990. 26. Duncan, C "My Experience of the Queensland Act", The Black National Times. July 21-26, 1975. p.13 27. ibid. 28. DFS file 5D/17, Superintendent - Woorabinda Aboriginal Settlement to Deputy DNA. 24th September, 1953. 29. Department of Native Affairs, Annual Report. 1952. p.4 30. DFS file 5D/16. 16th March, 1949. 31. Many of the photocopies of files which I received from the Department of Family Services had been censored (by the use of liquid paper in blotting out 129 information - usually names of white officials). This made it very difficult to establish the origin of many letters, and my usual method of revealing this information failed me on this occasion. 32. Infested with headlice. 33. DFS file 5A/155, "Officer-in-Charge' to Director of Native Affairs, 22.9.61. 34. Duncan, C op cit. p.13 35. Annual Report. 1952. p.6 36. DFS file 5D/16. Acting Deputy Director of Native Affairs to Director General of Health and Medical Services. 15.10.48. 37. ibid. Visiting Medical Officer - Monthly Report. 15th May, 1950. 38. Annual Report, 1953. p.20 39. DFS file 5D/17. 40. Annual Report. 1955. p.22 41. Ascaris lumbricoides is one of the four roundworms that infest humans, especially children. It lodges in the intestines, sometimes working its way to other parts of the body. It measures 15 to 25 centimetres (6 to 10 inches) in length. Hookworm in humans is marked by anemia, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea. It also causes apathy, malnutrition, and in children, underdevelopment. 42. DFS file 5D/17. Bailey (Acting Superintendent) to Deputy Director of Native Affairs. 43. Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. Volume 13. Funk and Wagnalls: U.S.A., no date. p.190 44. Sleigh, A. Health at Woorabinda: Analysis of Key Problems and a Plan for the Future. NAIHO: September, 1986. Also Toil Murray, Oral History Interview 19.6.90. 45. This was still the case in 1969, as indicated in correspondence from that year. DFS file 5A/34, 4th February, 1969. 46. DFS file 5D/13. 7.11.57. 47. ibid. 48. ibid. 26.9.68 49. Woorabinda Deaths Register. 50. DFS file 5D/15. 17.10.61 51. ibid. 11.2.63 52. ibid. 17.4.63. 53. QPD 19.3.46. p.2031 54. Queensland Guardian. 22nd November, 1946. 55. Andrews, S. "Life in the Sunshine State - if your skin is dark". Smoke Signals. Volume 3, Number 2, p.4 56. ibid. 57. ibid. 58. Oueensland Parliamentary Debates. 19.3.46. p.2033 59. Oueensland Guardian. 22nd November, 1946. 60. South Australian Archives, Lutheran Mission Board File 1945-1948. Victor Wenke to Brother Reuther, 12th October, 1948. 61. Both the Lutheran Mission Board File and Oral Sources gave this impression, as did George Bowen's account (op cit). 62. Annual Report. 1956. p.6 63. ibid, p.8 64. ibid. 65. Andrews, S. OP cit. p.4 66. ibid. 67. Kolijn-Vink, OP cit. p.77-78 130 68. Long, J.P.M. op cit. p.112 69. Goffman, E. op cit. p.11 70. Annual Report. 1964. p.l 131 Chapter 5 1. The Sun (Sydney), 3rd February, 1969. (Editorial) 2. Aborigines' and Torres Strait Islanders' Affairs Act of 1965 (Short title). Sections (5) and (6), pp.293-295. 3* The Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders' Regulations of 1966. Regulation 19, p.5 4. ibid. Regulation 20, p.6 5. ibid. Regulation 31(1), p.7 6. Seminar on "The 1965 Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Legislation". Held in Brisbane, 1968. 7. The Aborigines' and Torres Strait Islanders' Affairs Acts, 1965 to 1967. Department of Lands, 27th March, 1969. (Attached to the 1966 Regulations, p.2) 8. Rowley, CD. Outcasts in White Australia; Aboriginal Policy and Practice - Volume II. Australian National University Press; Canberra, 1971. p.109 9. Stevens, F. "Lawful Injustice: Trust and Accounts System in Queensland", Aboriginal Quarterly. June 1969, p.12 10. Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Affairs Act of 1965. p.304 11. Nettheim, G. Outlawed; Oueensland Aborigines and Islanders and the Rule of Law. Australian and New Zealand Book Company; Sydney, 1973. pp.4-5 12. North Oueensland Register. 8th February, 1969. 13. Heather Fisher, Oral History Interview, 28th May, 1990. 14. ibid. 15. ibid., and Kolijn-Vink, E. "Aboriginal Identity and Art as the Material Expression of Identity in Woorabinda: Central Queensland, Australia", M.A. Thesis in Anthropology, University of Leiden, The Netherlands, 1986. p.63 Evidence about the burning down of the gaol is primarily oral. Some sources indicated that a man had died when the gaol burned down. It seems to have been an accident, although that is also unclear. 16. DFS file 5A/34, Everingham to Butler, 4th February, 1969. 17. The Sunday Mailp 9th February, 1969. 18. The Telegraph. 5th February, 1969. 19. ibid. 20. Courier Mail. 7th February, 1969. 21. Courier Mail. 10th February, 1969. 22. DFS file 5A/34, 13th February, 1969. 23. Courier Mail. 7th March, 1969. 24. The "short note' seems to be an inter-office memo, as it is not addressed, and it merely begins "Dear Mr Killoran'. This would suggest that J.B Wilkinson was an Officer of the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs, but the evidence for this is not conclusive. Manpower records for the Department only started in the early 1970s, so there is no record of employees for 1969. 25. DFS file 5A/34, 7th March, 1969. 26. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton) February 1, 1969. p.3 27. Sundav Truth. 2nd February, 1969, and 9th February, 1969. 28. The Sun. 3rd February, 1969. 29. ibid. 30. The Australian. 3rd February, 1969. 31. The Australian. 4th February, 1969. p.3 32. DFS file 5A/34, Woorabinda Staff - Public Service and Wages Employees. 132 Chapter 6 and Epilogue 1. Robbins, H. The Carpetbaggers. Anthony Blond: London, 1963. (Preface) 2. This is the short title for An Act to provide for the conduct of reserves for Aborigines and for the admission thereto of persons who wish to reside there; for the grant of assistance to Aborigines who seek it: for the repeal of certain provisions of law; and for related purposes. (No.59 of 1971). 3. Queensland Parliamentary Debates. 17th November, 1971. p.1916 4. ibid. p.1915 5* Evans, R., Saunders, K. and Cronin, K. Exclusion. Exploitation and Extermination; Race Relations in Colonial Oueensland, Australia and New Zealand Book Company: Sydney, 1975. 6. Guthrie, G. Cherbourg; A Oueensland Aboriginal Reserve. University of New England: Armidale, 1976. p.11 t. ibid. 5. Heather Fisher, Oral History Interview. 28.5.90 9* Clarke, R. "The Queensland Aborigines Acts: Part 1", Direct Action. Number 122, June 1976. p.8 10. Clarke, R. "The Queensland Aborigines Acts: Part 4", Direct Action. Number 126, July 1976. p.7 11. Nettheim, G. Outlawed; Oueensland Aborigines and Islanders and the Rule of Law. Australian and New Zealand Book Company; Sydney, 1973. 12. Aborigines Act. 1971, p.11 13. DFS file 5A/198. Agostini to Killoran, 20th December, 1971. 14. ibid. 15. ibid. 16. DFS file 5A/198, Michel to Killoran, 7th November, 1973. 17. ibid. 18. Mulligan, M. "Queensland Blacks Call for Cop's Removal", Direct Action, Number 296, 23rd April, 1980. 19. Courier Mail. 30th March, 1989. p.2. Also see Dale, A. (In preparation). "Planning for Land Use and Rural Development on Aboriginal Lands in Eastern Australia: A Bicultural Perspective", PhD Thesis, Griffith University, 1990. p.25 20. DFS file 5A/34, Shanahan (Director of Pastoral Activities) to Director of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs. 13th November, 1979. 21. ibid. Bennett to Killoran, 16th October, 1979. 22. ibid. Killoran to Bennett, 27th September, 1979. 23. ibid. Memo from Director to Officer in Charge, Records. 9th October, 1979. 24. DFS file 5A/198. Thomsen to Inspector of Police (Rockhampton), 6th February, 1973. 25. ibid. Killoran to Commissioner of Police. 28th March, 1973. 26. Warwick Dailv News. 12th August, 1978. 27. ibid. 28. DFS file 5A/34, Topham to Killoran, 14th August, 1978. 29. DFS file 5A/34, Hubert D , Statement, 4th August, 1978. 30. DFS file 5A/34. 31. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 21st August, 1979. p. 382 133 32. ibid. 33. Svdnev Morning Herald. 23rd August, 1978. 34. DFS file 5A/247, Extract from Council Meeting Held on 16th September, 1981, and Bernard Wallace (Bishop of Rockhampton) to Manager, Woorabinda, 17th November, 1981. 35. Quoted in Wilson, P. Black Death. White Hands. George Allen and Unwin; North Sydney, 1982. p.86 36. ibid. p.87 37. Office of the Commissioner for Community Relations, Racial Discrimination Act 1975; Oueensland Aboriciinal Reserve Policies. Administration and Discrimination. Canberra, 1979. 38. DFS file 5A/34, Record of Meeting 1pm 18th December, 1978 at Woorabinda Council, p.2 39. The Gladstone Observer. 27th June, 1986. 40. Aboriginal Employment News. Number 10, June 1986. p.9 41. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 24th July, 1986. 42. Katter estimated $197 000, and Terry Munns estimated $350000. 43. Morning Bulletin. (Rockhampton), 8th October, 1986. 44. Law Reform Commission, Aboriginal Customarv Law: Transcript of Proceedings 6th May, 1981. p.2317 45. There was no Aboriginal labour employed on the sewerage plant construction (that I could see) when I was at Woorabinda in July. The business from Yeppoon was Yeppoon Cement. 46. Dugdale, et al. "Special Supplement on Aboriginal Health: 4", The Medical Journal of Australia. Volume 2, Number 3, August 16, 1975. p.2 47. ibid. p.5 48. ibid. 49. Colleen Farren, Oral History Interview, 12th June, 1990. 50. Annual Report. 1974. p.14 51. DFS file 5D/15, Director of Aboriginal Affairs to Director General of Health and Medical Services, 6th February, 1975. 52. DFS file 5A/34, Record of Meeting 18th December, 1978 at Woorabinda Council, p.l 53. ibid. 54. Oral History Interview, 15.6.90 55. Sleigh, A. op cit. p.5 56. Although contamination of water supply was probably a problem from the beginning at Woorabinda, the earliest official complaint about it seems to have been in 1943, in Johnson's report for the Health Department (referred to in Chapter 3). (DFS file 5A/46, 18th March, 1943). 57. ibid. 58. Kolijn-Vink, OP cit. p.96 59. Sleigh, A. op cit. p.14 60. Shelley, R. Aboriginal Aspirations and the Deed of Grant in Trust; A Woorabinda Case Study. Capricornia Institute; Rockhampton, 1986. p.4 61. A term used by Reg Shelley in his paper, "Aboriginal Ecopolitics; The Greening of Woorabinda", Capricornia Institute; Rockhampton, 1986. 62. Dale, A. op cit. p.l 63. ibid. 64. Shelley, R. op cit. p.6 65. Dale, A. OP cit. 66. ibid. p.18 134 67. Doobov, A. and R. "Queensland: Australia's Deep South", in Stevens, F. (ed), Racism: The Australian Experience; Volume 2. Australia and New Zealand Book Company: Sydney, 1972. pp.159-160 68. Reg Dodd, Oral History Interview. 15.6.90 69. Huggins, J. ""Firing On in the Mind': Aboriginal Women Domestic Servants in the Inter-War Years", Hecate, Volume 13, Number 2, 1987-88. p.7 70. Oral History Evidence. (Colleen Farren and Marilyn Crosby), Interview 12th June, 1990. (Brisbane). 71. Dale, A. op cit. p.25 72. Powder, P. and Law, E. The Powder-Law Report on the Incidence of Rising Suicides by Aborigines on Queensland Communities Whilst in Custody. 29th July, 1987. p.20 73. Letter from Terry Munns to Premier Bjelke-Petersen, and to Prime Minister Hawke, concerning the water problem, 12th November, 1987. By this time, the cooling systems were breaking down because of the high salt content in the motors. (FAIRA). 74. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 19th August, 1987. 75. Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton), 7th July, 1987. 76. Dale, op cit. pp.25-26 77. ibid. p.26 78. Morning Bulletin. Rockhampton, 28th May, 1986. 79- ibid. 135 Conclusion 1. Quoted in Long, J.P.M. Aboriginal Settlements: A Survey of Institutional Communities in Eastern Australia. Australian National University, Canberra, 1970. p.91 2. Stevens, F. "Parliamentary Attitudes to Aboriginal Affairs", in Stevens, F. (ed). Racism: The Australian Experience. Volume 2^ Australia and New Zealand Book Company: Sydney, 1972. p.128 3. Chapter 11 in ibid. 4. Read, P. A Hundred Years War. Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1988. p.138 136 BIBLIOGRAPHY Primary Sources Books/Pamphlets Capricornia Institute, Life at Woorabinda 1986: Results of a Study. Rockhampton, 1986. Linnegar, G. and Ramm, K. The Woorabinda Aboriginal Community; Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Action. University College of Central Queensland; Rockhampton, 1988. Petrie, T. Reminiscences of Early Oueensland, Watson and Ferguson; Brisbane, 1904 Praed, Mrs Campbell, My Australian Girlhood. Sketches and Impressions of Bush Life. Fisher Unwin: London, 1902 Praed, Rosa Australian Life; Black and White. Chapman and Hall; London, 1885 Rosser, B. Dreamtime Nightmares; Biographies of Aborigines under the Queensland Aborigines Act. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies: Canberra, 1985. . This is Palm Island. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies; Canberra, 1978. Russell, C People in Our Community. James Cook University Union; Townsville, 1986 (?) de Satge, O. 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(All files are Woorabinda files) 5A/1 Duties of Staff 5A/3 139 5A/5 Complaints Miscellaneous 5A/34 Complaints and Investigations 5A/46 Report on an Inspection of The Aboriginal Settlement, Woorabinda 5A/80 Almost-white Girls on Communities 5A/83 Breach Aboriginal Act (Liquor) 5A/103 Proposed white school 5A/126 Hospital Inmates 5A/128 Breaking into Office Buildings 5A/143 Catholic Church 5A/155 Welfare - Control of Dormitory 5A/176 Regulations and By-laws 5A/195 Accomodation for State Children and Young Single Men. 5A/203 Country Women's Association 5A/247 Sisters of Mercy 5A/252 Magistrates Court 5D/4 Monthly Report - Hospital Matron 5D/13 Medical Woorabinda - Incidence of Venereal Disease 5D/15 Medical - Measles Outbreak and Gastroenteritis. Also Flu 5D/16 Monthly Report - Visiting Medical Officer 5D/17 Australian Archives (A.C.T.) A1608 Item D45/2/3, War 1939. Enlistment of Aborigines in the A.I.F. 1939-42. Australian Archives (Queensland) MP24/2, Manpower Directorate, General Correspondence Files 1946-1949, File Number 42/1/3568 140 Australian Archives (Victoria) MP508/1 275/750/1310, Aborigines Enlisted in the A.I.F. 1940-1942 MP508/1 275/750/699, Enlistment of Aborigines and half-castes 1940. South Australian Archives Lutheran Mission Board file 1945-1948. Oral History Sources Interviews Conducted by the Author Bell, M. 24th May, 1990. (Brisbane). (Aboriginal resicient on Woorabinda in the late 1930s) Bennett, R. 12th June, 1990. (Brisbane). (Manager of Woorabinda, 1977-80). Crosby, M. 12th June, 1990. (Brisbane). (Residential Supervisor on Woorabinda, 1972-1973). Dodd, R. 15th June, 1990. (Rockhampton). (Aboriginal resident on Woorabinda, 1940-42) Farren, C 12th June, 1990. (Brisbane). (Liaison Officer on Woorabinda 1982-1984) Fisher, H. 28th May, 1990. (Brisbane). (Aboriginal resident on Woorabinda 1960s to 1971) Hamilton, F. 18th June, 1990. (Rockhampton). 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