COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
NORTHERN TERRITORY MEDICAL SERVICE
DARWIN 11th December 1933
His Honour,
The Administrator of the Northern Territory,
DARWIN
WARRAMUNGA ABORIGINAL RESERVE, TENNANTS CREEK
With reference to telegram from Department of the Interior dated 4th December, 1933. I have to advise that I have already submitted my views on the matter of the proposed variation of the boundaries of this reserve on 19th September 1933*.
A reserve for aboriginals may be designed to serve one or more of a number of purposes.
- It may be a limited area reserved for camping purposes in proximity to centres of white population where it is desired to exclude other races from access to the aboriginals’ concentration camp. A reserve of this nature being designed solely as a residential area for aboriginals employed in township and in receipt of wages or their equivalent, it is not required to be one where game and native food supplies abound nor need it include any ceremonial centre. Such a reserve is the Aboriginal [Kahlin] Compound at Darwin.
- It may be a camping reserve of larger area to which aboriginals casually or permanently employed may return for periodic holidays there to live in a native fashion without the restraints imposed by the pastoral holdings as safeguards to water and stock. A reserve of this nature must carry abundant supplies of native food, should be of sufficient area to permit migration and should include as far as possible the principal ceremonial centres of the tribe or tribes in the neighbourhood. There are number of such reserves in the Territory and for the most part they appear to have been made from vacant crown lands after large areas in the neighbourhood had been taken out for pastoral purposes. They are, therefore, largely of a sort classified as poor pastoral country but are not necessarily on that account less valuable for purposes of aboriginal reserve.
- It may be an extensive reservation of unoccupied country including the tribe districts of a large number of aboriginal tribes and set apart as a sanctuary in which the aboriginal is left to live his own life in accordance with age old custom wholly protected from any extraneous social or economic influence. Such reserves are the South-Western Reserve and the Arnhem Land Reserve.
- It may be an area set aside for the pastoral, agricultural and industrial education of the aboriginal secure from alien interference and enduring until he is fitted for adsorption as full citizen into the white community.
Direction is required as to the policy of the Commonwealth in respect of the future aboriginal before any determination can be made as the utility of such reserves and before any modification of principle which may appear expedient can be considered. It must be determined whether the Commonwealth proposes to continue a protection policy which I have described as ‘a veil more or effectively screening exploitation and repression until the aboriginal become extinct’, whether a policy is to be evolved which will ensure the survival of the aboriginals as a subject race retaining its old characteristics and social organization, or whether the aboriginal is to be lifted to the white standard of citizenship like the Maori of New Zealand and the Negro of America. Many very important, contingent, social and economic problems beset the application of each of these policies but they are of a nature which do not immediately concern this memorandum although I think it opportune to recommend here that the whole question should be thoroughly discussed at a conference of Chief Protectors.
Specifically one cannot with confidence advise upon the question of the Warramunga Reserve without a definition of Commonwealth policy on the above lines. If the Warramunga Aboriginal Reserve is intended to be solely a tribal hunting ground for the aboriginals in the neighbourhood, it might be urged that there is no objection to the granting of an extended area to the east in exchange for the mineral bearing area. Even on this score, however, there is ground for opposition in that it sacrifices the security of aboriginal reservations. As already stated a reserve of this nature should be sufficient area to permit migration, should be adequately supplied with native food and should include some at least of the ceremonial centres. Granted originally on the assumption that it was of no value to the white man, if it be subsequently cut down, varied in area and in position in response to a new appreciation of its economic value, the original attributes of the reservation must be lost and its purpose defeated. Continuance of this principal through the years, concomitant with the alienation of valuable crown land, must mean the ultimate eliminations of the reserves.
If on the other hand the aboriginal as a result of change in policy is to be adsorbed to full citizenship, the mineral, pastoral and other wealth contained in his reserves should be exploited to his advantage to that end. The principle enunciated by Mr. Bell is consistent only with the policy which contemplates the rapid and easy passing of the aboriginal into extinction. It is true of the Warramunga Reserve that the extension recommended by Mr. Bell might improve the reserve in the direction of permitting the eventual establishments of a small aboriginal colony running herds of cattle and goats and there by advancing one step towards qualifying for full citizenship but I am concerned here rather with the principle involved for until a definite pronouncement is made as to the Commonwealth’s policy in respect of the aboriginals, I am not in a position to recommend such a development of this area or of any other reserve.
I have no recollection at any stage of my conversation with Mr. Bell of giving him any ground for attributing to me the views expressed in the first paragraph of the second page of his memorandum of 17th. October, 1933. As far as I can learn very little is actually known as to the mineral wealth of that portion of the Warramunga Reserve referred to but I gather that some at least of the gold there is alluvial. I have yet to learn that the aboriginal is incapable of working alluvial gold in his own interests. Mr. Bell is of opinion that the retention of this gold bearing area in the Aboriginal Reserve will place the Commonwealth in a ludicrous position should very heavy gold bearing ore be located and worked within the vicinity of the boundary. The quality of being ludicrous is purely relative depending upon the individual’s standard of values. Personally I think the Commonwealth, having granted a reserve for aboriginals would appear quite ludicrous in hastily eliminating from it a supposed gold bearing area if it were subsequently shown that the values did not warrant exploitation by the white man. Action in this direction should in my opinion be delayed at least until gold values are proved to be so high as to warrant exploitation. When it is subsequently proved that the aboriginal is incapable of exploiting it, then steps may be taken to exclude this area from the reserve. Pending finality on the 3 questions of policy above detailed I suggest that the present problem could be met by temporizing and I recommend:
- That the Warramunga Aboriginal Reserve be extended as recommended by Mr. Bell.
- That permits to enter the aboriginal reserve be granted to bona fide miners to work certain claims on that reserve.
- That such persons pay substantial royalty to the Aboriginal Branch in respect of all gold won on the aboriginal reserve
It must not be supposed that I favour the principle involved in these recommendations believing as I do that the gold of this reserve is the property of the aboriginals and should be worked by them. It may, however, be the intention of the Commonwealth in the national interest to apply a policy of euthanasia in respect of the aboriginal. I submit this expedient as an alternative only to be adopted should this in fact be the case. I am not in agreement with Mr. Bell’s statement that accession of wealth must necessarily mean disaster to the aboriginal as this could very readily be avoided by proper control. Nor do I concur with him in his assumption that the failure of Government mining activities in the past has necessarily been due to the circumstance that the mines were owned and managed by the Government.
(C. E. Cook)
Chief Protector of Aboriginals
*This memo of 19 September 1933 has not been located in NAA files