1830 Tasmania: The Black Line.

Van Diemen’s Land 1830

...”Nearly one million sheep had been moved into prime grazing land that was also the native habitat of Aboriginal food sources like kangaroos and other native animals. The sheep destroyed local ecosystems and disrupted food and water sources.

In about 1824, the ‘Black War’ began. The most extensive conflict in Australian history, the Black War was extremely violent. Settlers drove Tasmanian Aborigines from their lands, murdering many. Tasmanian Aborigines also attacked and killed settlers and their families, raiding houses and farms for food and resources, and trying to drive out the British. 

Most of the frontier conflict was concentrated  on the traditional lands of four nations – the Oyster Bay, Big River, North Midlands and Ben Lomond peoples. The land in this region was extremely productive and was quickly occupied by European settlers. 

 http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/the-black-line

…”There were many massacres of both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, the majority of which were never recorded in writing, although oral histories were passed down. One massacre reported by George Robinson (1791–1866), the future Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip District, is known as the Cape Grim massacre. In February 1828, four shepherds killed 30 Pennemukeer people. In response, Governor Arthur banned Aboriginal people from entering the settled districts of Van Diemen's Land. He claimed that this would prevent conflict between the two groups. The following November [1828], Governor Arthur declared martial law against Aboriginal people , authorising the killing of Aboriginal people on sight. Although Tasmanian Aboriginal groups fought back it is believed that more than 60 per cent of the total Aboriginal population of Tasmania was killed in the 12 months after martial law was declared. Of the remaining Aboriginal population, many were moved into camps that have been compared to concentration camps, where conditions were so horrific that many did not survive.” https://www.myplace.edu.au/decades_timeline/1820/decade_landing_18.html?tabRank=2&subTabRank=4 

…”By winter 1829 the southern part of the Settled Districts had become a war zone and Aboriginal people later identified campsites where their relatives had been killed and mutilated. Several more incidents were reported in which Aboriginal people were raiding huts for food and blankets or digging up potatoes, but they too were killed. In an effort to conciliate Aboriginal people, Arthur arranged for the distribution of "proclamation boards" comprising four panels that depicted white and black Tasmanians dwelling together peaceably, and also illustrated the legal consequences for members of either race that committed acts of violence—that an Aboriginal would be hanged for killing a white settler and a settler would be hanged for killing an Aboriginal person. No colonist was ever charged in Van Diemen's Land, or committed for trial, for assaulting or killing an Aboriginal person. “ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_War

…”Vigilante gangs of soldiers and settlers avenged Aboriginal attacks by killng men, women and children. In 1830 [on 7th Oct.] a military operation known as the 'Black Line' was launched against the Aboriginal people remaining in the settled districts. Every able-bodied male colonist convict or free, was to form a human chain across the settled districts, moving for three weeks south and east in a pincer movement, until the people were cornered on the Tasman Peninsula.” http://www.indigenousaustralia.info/land/invasion/tasmanian-land-war.html