Part B.

Mount Wellington and Hobart Town from Kangaroo Point by John Glover 

[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Van Diemen’s Land 1830

…”A rapidly growing British population in Tasmania and the ongoing destruction of Aboriginal tribes by disease, dispossession and violence led to intense conflict between the two groups. Tasmanian Aborigines were vehemently opposed to British expansion and its impact on their home and communities.

…On 7 October 1830, more than 2200 settlers, military, police and convicts, reported to seven prearranged locations across the settled districts. The largest force ever mobilised against Aboriginal people anywhere in Australia, the line represented about ten per cent of the European Tasmanian population. …The small population of about 200 Tasmanian Aborigines who remained in the settled districts after the line were gradually removed to Wybalenna, a settlement on Flinders Island in Bass Strait run by Robinson. Confined to poor accommodation, exiled from their homes, suffering emotional trauma, plagued by disease and severely malnourished, most of those at the settlement died within a few years.”  http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/the-black-line

…”Tasmania is constructed from the precepts of the Black War, a period of  cross cultural conflict initiated by British official occupation from 1803 that intensified by the 1820s, resulting in the Government managed Black Line campaign of 7 Oct – 24 Nov 1830 that culminated in a purported 3500 armed ‘settlers’ and military, supported by £30,000 of Government expenditure, attempting to militarily force, over a period of six weeks, Aboriginal people remaining at large in the ‘settled districts’ onto the Tasman Peninsula. Although this campaign logistically failed, it is believed that it led to the surrender of the remaining openly adversarial Aboriginal people and resulted in their subsequent exile to Flinders Island, located off north eastern Tasmania.” Black War ~ Van Diemen’s Land CSO 7578 

Shortly following the end of  the Black Line campaign an address from the inhabitants of the district of Richmond was delivered to Governor Arthur. The deputation included George Armitage (son-in-law of Thomas Peters) and several of  Thomas Peters’ neighbours. There were 167 signatures appended, including those of Thomas and Richard Peters.

Image Left ~ Bock, Thomas 1790-1855: Manalargena, a chief of the eastern coast of Van Diemen's Land. [between 1830 & 1835] Reference Number: A-031-006 http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=27020

 …“In the early 1830’s, authorities exiled 134 Tasmanian Aborigines to Wybalenna on Flinders island in Bass strait, about 50 kilometres north of the Tasman mainland. The people worked to keep their culture strong, but their sense of loss was profound.

Mannalargenna was the leader of the Cape Portland people from north-east Tasmania. He had negotiated with George Augustus Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines, for his people to remain in their country in return for assisting Robinson. In about 1834, Mannalargenna  and his people were exiled to Flinders Island. Although Mannalargenna  had kept his word, Robinson had not.” 

http://www.nma.gov.au/encounters_education/community/flinders_island