HIST106 S001717163 Tatiana Barbari

HIST106 – Assignment 3: Historical Essay

For most of the first half of the twentieth century, Western Australia had laws and policies
which segregated Aboriginal people from the non-Indigenous population and enforced
harsh restrictions on Aboriginal people’s freedom of movement. What were the impacts of
these laws and policies, and to what extent were Aboriginal people able to resist or
overcome them?

For most of the first half of the twentieth century, Western Australia had laws and policies that
segregated Aboriginal people from the non-Indigenous population and enforced harsh
restrictions on Aborigines freedom of movement. This essay will argue the impact of these laws
and policies and to what extent the Aboriginal people were able to resist or overcome them. It
will examine the restrictions of movement, employment, family and its impact on their lives. In
doing so it will reveal how just about every single part of an Aboriginal person’s life was
controlled and the life long impact it’s had on them.

In 1905, the “Aborigines Act” policy was created to take care of Aboriginal people in the Western
Australia.1 Chief Protector, Henry Charles Prinsep designed the Act out of concern, aiming to
protect and care for the Aboriginal population in Western Australia. 2 However, whether its aim
was achieved has been questioned over the years. Sean Gorman states that “officially it promoted
education, medical and housing concerns as specific provisions for Aboriginal Western
Australians” but in reality this “laid the basis for the development of repressive and coercive state
control over the state’s Aboriginal population . . . [the] Act drove a wedge between them and the
wider community and served to hamper efforts to make their own way of life”. 3
Gorman explains, due to this policy, the lives of the Aboriginal people began to be significantly
controlled by the Act, as their civil liberties disappeared. 4 Roma Loo from Badjaling in Western
Australia, born in 1936, expressed that during these times Aboriginal people “weren’t allowed to
go anywhere”.5 These laws took away their freedom, and they were force to stay at home while
non-Aboriginal members of the communities were enjoying their civil liberties.

One of the main restrictions of The 1905 Act on the Aboriginal people was their freedom in the
towns. Most non-Indigenous people weren’t happy with seeing “black faces” camping in available
spaces near the house or even seeing them around the town. 6 This resulted in the Governor

1 Sean Gorman, “Ugly Town,” Thesis Eleven 135, no. 1 (2016): 100.
2 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 100.

3 Anna Haebich, 1988, cited in: Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 100.

4 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 100.
5 Roma Loo with South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, “Roma Loo Talks About the Coolbaroo Club
Dances”, 8 June 2011, available from “Kaartdijin Noongar-Noongar Knowledge”, accessed 27/04/2017,
https://www.noongarculture.org.au/roma-loo-talks-about-the-coolbaroo-club-dances/, n.p.
HIST106 S001717163 Tatiana Barbari

declaring Perth a prohibited area for Aboriginal people between 1927 and 1954. 7 They were
restricted from spending time in the towns, affecting the people who lived and worked there.
Gorman explains that if the authorities saw an aboriginal person in a prohibited area and
suspected that an Aboriginal person was not going to work and they had no identification to
prove this, they would be arrested and jailed for months. When released, they would be retrained
in places such as Moree River Native Settlement and only then would be able to return to their
homes.8 As mentioned previously, Roma Loo stated that their freedom of movement was
restricted; this included simple outings such as going to the pubs and clubs. In order to overcome
this, the Coolbaroo Club was created in order to have a place were Aboriginal people could
socialise. She mentions that it was something she would really look forward to going, as it was
“very important to us because that’s the only thing we had going for us.” 9 Restrictions to
movement between towns had a major impact on Aboriginal lives, as they weren’t allowed to go
about their day-to-day lives in the towns. Although they were affected, some Aboriginal people,
such as Roma Loo, managed to overcome this and found other alternatives to there restricted
activities.

Along with freedom of movement, employment also became restricted to Aboriginal people in
Western Australia. The 1905 Act permitted the Aboriginal population to become part of the
economy at certain times but only could be hired by someone who was “entitled as natural born
British subject”.10 The British began to rely on using the Aboriginal’s for labour seasonally, due to
the animal husbandry and farming practices in the South. 11 However, this provided Aboriginal
people with a place to live. Anthony Connolly suggests the citizens saw this as an opportunity for
the Aboriginals to be far away from the non-Indigenous population but close enough for them to
use them for labour when required. He states that the community and authorities saw them as
“sub- human, with their only useful purpose or redeemable feature being how they could be
economically utilized”. 12 Therefore, this resulted in Aboriginal people working in slave-like
conditions of their employment.13 Sara explains that in 1947 she was sent away to Sisters Kates in
1947 to work at a farm. She expresses that boys and girls from a very young age were already

6 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 101.

7 Department of Indigenous Affairs, “Map of the Perth Prohibited Area 1927-1954”, no date, available from
“Kaartdijin Noongar-Noongar Knowledge”, accessed 27/04/2017, https://www.noongarculture.org.au/wp-
content/uploads/2012/07/ProhibitedMAP-final- new.pdf. n.p.

8 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 105.

9 Roma Loo with South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, “Roma Loo Talks About the Coolbaroo Club
Dances”. n.p.

10 Miss Y Quan, 1917, cited in: Sing Haskins, Victoria. "'The Privilege of Employing Natives': The Quan Sing
Affair and Chinese-Aboriginal Employment in Western Australia, 1889-1934." Aboriginal History 35 (2011):
150.
11 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 101.
12 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 101.
13 Victoria Haskins, and Anne Scrimgeour. "'Strike Strike, We Strike': Making Aboriginal Domestic Labor
Visible in the Pilbara Pastoral Workers' Strike, Western Australia, 1946-1952." International Labor and
Working-Class History 88 (2015): 88.
HIST106 S001717163 Tatiana Barbari

sent to work at the farms. The aim was to train them so they would obey the non-Indigenous
people unquestioningly, the girls as domestics and the boys as farm workers. 14 One of the people
that the Act impacted upon was Millicent, she was one of the many girls sent to work on a farm as
a domestic, however, the money she would earn would be given to Sisters Kate’s home. She
descries her visits to the farm as “terrifying” experiences. Millicent states her experiences with
the farmer, “I was raped, bashed and slashed with a razor blade on both of my arms and legs
because I - would not stop struggling and screaming. The farmer and one of his workers raped me
several times. I wanted to die”. When she went back home, she told the Matron but instead of
comforting her, they punished her for saying such things. These events had a significant impact on
her to the point were she began to distant herself from everyone. Although she tried blocking
such memories, she wasn’t able to, and so she tried to commit suicide by eating rat poison. Later
on, when Millicent left the Sisters Kate’s home, she tried to get her life together by putting the
past behind her, yet her experiences as a domestic left her lonely, shy and very emotional. 15 This
shows that due to the policies implemented in the first half of the twentieth century, Aboriginal
people experienced horrific and traumatising experiences. Although some may try their best to
get their life back on track, there experiences throughout the early stages of the twentieth century
will haunt them forever; some which may not be able to overcome them.

One of the policies that significantly impacted the Aboriginal community was the separation of
full blood and “half- castes” Aboriginal people.16 AO Neville saw Aboriginal people as a “growing
problem”.17 Therefore, Gorman explains that Neville tried to solve this through a social
experiment were the children with mixed heritage needed be away from Aboriginal people and
become part of the non-Indigenous community. In order to re-shape their social and cultural
practices, Neville brought awareness to Aboriginal people of the advantages of being part of the
non-Indigenous community and the social mores.18 The children with mixed heritage were taken
away from families and placed into government institutions, in order to be trained and transition
into the non-Indigenous population.19 As mentioned above, Millicent D was one of the people that
the Act impacted upon as both of her parents had mixed heritages, therefore her and her siblings
were taken away and placed into different homes. She states that the “The Protector of Aborigines
and the Child Welfare Department . . . said we would have a better life and future brought up as
whitefellas away from our parents”. Therefore she was taught how to live as a non-Indigenous,

14 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, “Sarah’s Story”, 1997 (updated 2001), available from
“Australian Human Rights Commission”, accessed 27/04/2017,
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-sarah-story. n.p.
15 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, “Millicent’s Story”, 1997 (updated 2001), available
from “Australian Human Rights Commission”, accessed 27/04/2017,
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-millicent-story. n.p.

16 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 104.

17 Anthony Moran. "White Australia, Settler Nationalism and Aboriginal Assimilation." Australian Journal of
Politics & History 51, no. 2 (2005): 175.

18 Gorman, “Ugly Town,” 104.

19 Anna Haebich,"Fever in the Archive." Thesis Eleven 135, no. 1 (2016): 85.
HIST106 S001717163 Tatiana Barbari

this included going up to three times to church in order to remove her Aboriginal cultural beliefs,
highly impacting her life. Millicent states, “All they contributed to our upbringing and future was
an unrepairable scar of loneliness, mistrust, hatred and bitterness.” She explains that impact its
had on her “Fears that have been with me all of life. The empty dark and lonely existence was so
full of many hurtful and unforgivable events, that I cannot escape from no matter how hard I try”.
These are the results of being deprived of one of the most important things in life to an Aboriginal
child, which are love and their family. 20 The lives of the Aboriginal children were significantly
impacted as they went through terrible experiences without having the love of their families to
get them through these hard times.

It is clear that for from the 1900s to 1950s, Western Australia implemented laws and polices that
separated Aboriginal people from the non-Indigenous population. This was done by controlling
almost every single part of their life, such as restricting Aboriginal people freedom of movement
around town. This highly connected with the restrictions to employment, as they would get sent
away from the non-Indigenous population to work as labourers and domestics. This resulted in
the removal of many Aboriginal children with mixed heritages from their Aboriginal families and
placed in homes in order to train them to be more non-indigenous, highly impacting their lives
short and long term.

20 Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, “Millicent’s Story”, n.p.

HIST106 S001717163 Tatiana Barbari

Bibliography
Primary Resources
Department of Indigenous Affairs, “Map of the Perth Prohibited Area 1927-1954”, no date,
available from “Kaartdijin Noongar-Noongar Knowledge”, accessed 27/04/2017,
https://www.noongarculture.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/ProhibitedMAP-
final- new.pdf.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, “Millicent’s Story”, 1997 (updated 2001),
available from “Australian Human Rights Commission”, accessed 27/04/2017,
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-millicent-story
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, “Sarah’s Story”, 1997 (updated 2001),
available from “Australian Human Rights Commission”, accessed 27/04/2017,
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/bringing-them-home-sarah-story
Roma Loo with South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, “Roma Loo Talks About the
Coolbaroo Club Dances”, 8 June 2011, available from “Kaartdijin Noongar-Noongar
Knowledge”, accessed 27/04/2017, https://www.noongarculture.org.au/roma-loo-talks-
about-the-coolbaroo-club-dances/

Secondary Resources
Gorman, Sean. “Ugly Town.” Thesis Eleven 135, no. 1 (2016): 99-114.
Haebich, Anna. “Fever in the Archive.” Thesis Eleven 135, no. 1 (2016): 82-98.
Haskins, Victoria. “’The Privilege of Employing Natives’: The Quan Sing Affair and Chinese-
Aboriginal Employment in Western Australia, 1889-1934.” Aboriginal History 35 (2011):
145-60.
Haskins, Victoria, and Scrimgeour, Anne. "'Strike Strike, We Strike': Making Aboriginal Domestic
Labor Visible in the Pilbara Pastoral Workers' Strike, Western Australia, 1946-1952."
International Labor and Working-Class History 88 (2015): 87-108.
Moran, Anthony. "White Australia, Settler Nationalism and Aboriginal Assimilation." Australian
Journal of Politics & History 51, no. 2 (2005): 168-93.