User:Keepitshort/TasmanianMartialLaw

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Martial and other Law(s) in Tasmania, 1804-1876 Draft in progress[edit]

This is a draft of Martial law in Australia being worked on before adding to Martial Law

Feel free to comment if you happen to see it Keepitshort (talk) 14:46, 17 June 2009 (UTC)


1804: 19 February: Lt-Governor David Collins arrives with settlers and convicts: "The Natives are very numerous, and undaunted, even at the explosion of a musket, but are very friendly to small parties they meet accidentally, though they cannot be persuaded to visit the Establishment."[1]

  • 1810: 29 January: Lt-Governor David Collins issues order re violence (cited in 1828 Proclamation). "WHEREAS, at and since the primary Settlement of this Colony, various acts of aggression, violence and cruelty have been, from different causes, committed on the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Island by Subjects of His Majesty. AND WHEREAS, for the preventing and punishing such sanguinary and Wicked practices, it was by a certain General Order made by Colonel David Collins, then Lieutenant Governor of this Island and its Dependencies, at Government House, Hobart Town on the 29th day of January, 1810, declared, -- " That any person whatsoever who should offer violence to a Native, or should, in cool blood, murder, or cause, any of them to be murdered, should, on proof being made of the same, be dealt with, and proceeded against, as if such violence had been offered, or murder committed on a civilized person."
  • 1824: 23 June: Lt-Governor George Arthur's Proclamation that Aboriginal people are under the protection of British law. (cited in 1828 Proclamation with date of 29 June). [2]
  • 1826: 29 November: Lt-Governor George Arthur's Notice authorising use of all necessary force against Aboriginal people under any of six conditions (cited in 1828 Proclamation) [3]
  • 1827: 29 November: Lt-Governor George Arthur's Notice reminding authorities of 1826 Notice (cited in 1828 proclamation) [4]
  • 1828: 15 April: Lt-Governor George Arthur's Proclamation banning Aboriginal people from settled areas and allowing forcible removal. [5]
  • 1828: 1 November: Lt-Governor George Arthur's Proclamation of Martial Law in settled areas. [6]
  • 1830: 1 October: Lt-Governor George Arthur's Proclamation of Martial law in whole Island. [7]
  • 1833: 24 October: Lt-Governor George Arthur's Proclamation ending Martial Law, [8]


Underneath the last, after a report on some of George Augustus Robinson's work, Lt-Governor George Arthur reports: "Only one tribe consisting of eighteen individuals, now remains in the woods, these have lately been seen at Emu Bay, and they are supposed, to be roving in the settlement of the Van Diemen's Land Company, they are not, it is believed, disposed to be unfriendly to the settlers, while therefore every necessary caution is recommended by the local Government, His Excellency trusts he shall not be disappointed in the hope, that wherever they are met with by the white inhabitants, they will be treated with kindness."

  • 1876: 8 May: Death of Trugernanner.[9] (From the Hobart Town Mercury, May 9.) TRUCANINNI, or Lalla Rookh, as she was sometimes called, the last of the aborigines of Tasmania, passed away to her eternal rest yesterday afternoon ... The death of this last scion of a once numerous race is an event in the history of Tasmania of no common interest; and and it may well serve to "point a moral and adorn a tale" on the question of the gradual but certain extinction of the aboriginal races of these southern lands."


Keepitshort (talk) 15:07, 11 June 2009 (UTC) Updated by Keepitshort (talk) 10:56, 13 June 2009 (UTC) Updated by Keepitshort (talk) 08:37, 14 June 2009 (UTC)Keepitshort (talk) 13:35, 14 June 2009 (UTC)Keepitshort (talk) 15:38, 14 June 2009 (UTC)Updated Keepitshort (talk) 11:17, 16 June 2009 (UTC)


References cited in discussion[edit]

  1. ^ Report at National Library of Australia [1]
  2. ^ Proclamation 23-JUN-1824 at National Library of Australia [2]
  3. ^ Government Notice 29-NOV-1826 at National Library of Australia [3]
  4. ^ Government Notice 29-NOV-1827 at National Library of Australia [4]
  5. ^ Proclamation 15-APR-1828 at National Library of Australia [5]
  6. ^ Proclamation 01-NOV-1828 at National Library of Australia [6]
  7. ^ Proclamation 01-OCT-1830 at National Library of Australia [7]
  8. ^ Proclamation 24-OCT-1833 at National Library of Australia .[8]
  9. ^ Report at National Library of Australia .[9]