Beginning in the early 1800s, many Aboriginal people in NSW lived on reserves, areas of land set aside for use by Aboriginal people. New research from Towards Truth shows how NSW Government laws and policies about reserves were a determining factor in how and where thousands of Aboriginal people lived.
Reserves were initially created on an ad hoc basis by Colonial authorities, often as places for Aboriginal people to live as Europeans dispossessed their land. They soon became areas of segregation, control and forced assimilation, used to keep certain Aboriginal people apart from others and to relocate Aboriginal people away from European settlements to ‘civilise’ them.
The creation of the Aborigines Protection Board (the Board) in 1883 brought a marked expansion of the use of reserves. In 1883 there were 25 reserves in NSW. By 1897, there were 113 reserves, ranging from large sites of several thousand acres to reserves of just a few acres accommodating single families. In total, reserves occupied nearly 27,000 acres, roughly the size of NSW’s Conjola National Park today. In 1909, the Board was given ownership of all reserves.
Reserves continued to be under the control of the Board until its abolition in 1969, after which they were gradually transitioned to Aboriginal community management. Today, some First Nations people still live on these former reserves.
Why did people come to reserves?
Accounts show Aboriginal people came to reserves for different reasons. In some cases, reserves were created where people were already living, and early reserves were established in recognition of Aboriginal people’s right to the land.
Aboriginal people also actively campaigned for grants of land or reserves. In 1881, 42 Yorta Yorta and Bangerang men on the Maloga mission petitioned the NSW Government for land, saying ‘all the land within our tribal boundaries has been taken possession of by the Government and white settlers’ and that they had been reduced to ‘beggary’ to survive.
This reflects how reserves sometimes offered Aboriginal people greater control and resilience. The Board reported that some Aboriginal people farmed reserved land with great success. A 1908 report by Senior Police Sergeant Hogan describes a reserve at Forster:
‘The Aborigines have built several good cottages on this reserve, and fenced off nice gardens where they are now growing Lovely Potatoes, Cabbages, Etc.’
But many people were induced to live on reserves where they could access essentials like rations and clothing and services like schooling and training, sometimes delivered in segregated ‘special schools’ on the reserves.
From 1909 to 1963 the Board had the power to relocate certain Aboriginal people living close to European settlers or other reserves, to places controlled by the Board. NSW MP Mark Davidson said this infringed on the liberty of Aboriginal people and was ‘tantamount to putting [them] in gaol’. In 1940, this relocation power was expanded to apply to any Aboriginal person, if the Board held the opinion they should be placed under control.
Life and conditions on reserves
The standard of living on reserves under the control of the Board was mostly very poor. Accommodation was often inadequate and Aboriginal people suffered from sickness and malnutrition. Reserves were described in Board reports as ‘shanties’ where overcrowding was common: ‘Overcrowding exists on most, if not all, stations.’
Aboriginal man Roy Barker recalled his experience growing up on Brewarinna Aboriginal Reserve:
‘[There was] malnutrition, sicknesses of all descriptions, and so this was devastating to the people there.’
Some reserves, called stations, were directly overseen by a ‘manager’. Managers were empowered by law to exercise great control over the lives of First Nations people living on stations. On reserves without managers or Board officers, the Board would use police to exercise control over reserve residents and ‘act as its agents’.
Barker explained how this system of control impacted people living on stations: ‘You couldn’t go and come, as you like. You had to report to the manager if you went, you had to report to the manager again when you come back on the mission.’
Managers also had the power to refuse entry to people and could expel them from stations.
Reserve revocations
Throughout the 1900s, the NSW Government revoked reserves. This meant the land was no longer set aside for the use of Aboriginal people but could be used for other purposes or sold. Often reserves were revoked so the land could be used as farmland, for recreation, or to house former soldiers.
In its 1910 Annual Report, the Board wrote ‘every attempt on the part of Europeans to acquire these reserves for settlement purposes should be strongly opposed.’ But reserves were often revoked for precisely this purpose. Other reasons for revocations included securing land for recreation, such as golf courses and ‘better tourist access’ to beaches.
When a reserve was revoked, the Aboriginal people living on it were often relocated and moved away from places they may have been living for generations.
Between 1914 and 1920, land being revoked significantly outsized land being newly reserved for Aboriginal people. After 1920, the Board stopped publishing the amount of land being revoked, though historian Heather Goodall later reported that by 1927, more than 13,000 acres of reserved land initially set aside for Aboriginal people had been ‘completely lost by revocation’.
In the 1970s, the legality of these revocations was questioned, with the Crown Solicitor of NSW providing advice that revocations were ‘of no legal effect’. When the Aboriginal Legal Service mounted a legal challenge against the revocations, the NSW Government passed the Crown Lands (Validation of Revocations) Act 1983, retrospectively validating any invalid revocations. The Bill was described by some members of Parliament as ‘legislation for the retention of stolen property.’
Find out more
This research builds on already published information on housing on reserves. Find out about more Aboriginal reserves, revocations of reserves, Aboriginal Land Councils and Missions by heading to the Towards Truth website.
