Copies or Extracts from the Despatches of the Governors of the Australian Colonies, with the Reports of the Protectors of Aborigines, and any other Correspondence to illustrate the Condition of the Aborigines. London: House of Commons, 1844. Folio. pp. [i]–viii (Schedule) + 1–437; 6 folding maps and plans by Arrowsmith, all with original hand-colouring, comprising: Map of New South Wales & South Australia shewing the correspondence districts; County of Wellington land grants plan; Wellington Valley Mission buildings plan; Map of Southern Dialects of Australia; Plan of the Native Forest Establishment, Rottnest Island; Map of Western Australia.
Important British Parliamentary Blue Book, compiled in 1844 at the direction of the House of Commons, gathering all official correspondence between the Colonial Office in London and the governors of New South Wales, South Australia, and Western Australia concerning the condition and treatment of Aboriginal peoples in those colonies.
The volume is organised by colony, following a detailed Schedule that lists every dispatch by number, date, sender, recipient, and subject. The three colonial sections are substantially different in character:
New South Wales, covering the period 1839–1844. The correspondence is primarily between Governor Sir George Gipps and successive Secretaries of State — Lord Normanby, Lord John Russell, and Lord Stanley. The subjects covered are extensive: the establishment and performance of the Port Phillip Protectorate; the Wellington Valley mission run by the Church Missionary Society; the Native Police establishment at Port Phillip; legal questions about the status of Aboriginal people as British subjects and their admissibility as witnesses in colonial courts; specific incidents of violence and reprisal; and the financial costs of the protection system. Also included are papers printed by the NSW Legislative Council, returns of expenses, and trial records.
South Australia covers the Murray River protectorate, the trial of Aboriginal men for murder at Port Lincoln, annual reports from the Protector of Aborigines, and correspondence about land purchase money and reserves.
Western Australia covers Governor Hutt’s correspondence with Lord John Russell about the nature of Aboriginal–settler relations on the frontier, Captain Grey’s suggestions for Aboriginal policy, and critically, the legislation constituting Rottnest Island as a legal prison for Aboriginal offenders — together with the plan of the Native Establishment there.
The Map of New South Wales and South Australia is a substantial administrative map showing the districts and sites referred to throughout the NSW and SA correspondence — missions, stations, protectorate divisions, and specific locations where incidents occurred. It is one of the most detailed administrative maps of the colony at this date.
The County of Wellington plan documents land grants in the Wellington Valley region, naming individual proprietors (Montefiore, Cohen, Raymond, Aspinal Brown & Co.) alongside the Aboriginal reserve and mission. It is simultaneously a record of colonial land alienation and of the mission establishment — the two forces in direct tension throughout the NSW correspondence.
The Wellington Valley Mission buildings plan is an architectural survey of the Church Missionary Society establishment — rooms, outbuildings, and functions annotated in the plate.
The Map of Southern Dialects of Australia is one of the earliest printed thematic maps of Aboriginal Australia, attempting to chart the geographic distribution of language groups across the continent. The linguistic data underpinning it was gathered by the protectors and missionaries whose reports fill the volume.
The Plan of the Native Forest Establishment, Rottnest Island documents the physical layout of what was in effect a colonial prison for Aboriginal men from Western Australia. Rottnest — Wadjemup in Noongar — functioned as a place of incarceration from 1838 and the legislation regularising this is printed in the Western Australia section of the volume. The plan is the primary cartographic document of the early establishment and has been reproduced in historical literature on Rottnest.
The Map of Western Australia is a detailed administrative map of the settled districts of the Swan River Colony, showing county boundaries, roads, and the extent of European occupation at 1844.
