• John Batman attempts to make a ‘treaty’ with Aboriginal people for Port Phillip Bay, near present day Melbourne by ‘buying’ 243,000 hectares with 20 pairs of blankets, 30 tomahawks, various other articles and a yearly tribute. Governor Bourke does not recognise the ‘treaty’ and the purchase is voided. This is the only time colonists attempt to sign a treaty for land with Aboriginal owners.
• William Buckley met John Batman and his party at Indented Head.

• Saxe Bannister, the first Attorney General of NSW, first promotes the idea of an Australian treaty with Aboriginal people in a Submission to the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Aborigines.
• First Police magistrate (Foster Fyans) arrives in Geelong giving its settlement official colonial government recognition. Squatters complain to him ‘of attacks of the most determined character’ by Aborigines. Fyans complains of settlers killing blacks indiscriminately.
• Governor Richard Burke names Geelong, with the name derived from the local Wathaurong (Wadda Wurrung) Aboriginal name for the region, Djillong, which was understood to mean ‘tongue of land’.
• Foster Fyans orders Buckley to assemble Aboriginal people and his census of Aboriginal people in the Geelong region counts 297 Wathaurong within 30 miles of Geelong.
• Buckley resigns from working with the white authorities dismayed his engagement as translator is not working to the advantage of the Wathaurong.

Wathaurong are banned from the streets of Geelong. Police are given authority to keep Aborigines out Corio.

Truganini dies in Hobart aged 73. Against her wishes the Tasmanian Museum displays her bones. 100 years later members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community cremate and scatter them onto the water. The Tasmanian government does not recognise the Aboriginal heritage of people of Aboriginal descent and claims the “last Tasmanian Aboriginal person” has died. A falsehood many still believe today.

A judgement of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council finds that New South Wales, at the time of the arrival of the British, was in fact “a tract of territory practically unoccupied, without settled inhabitants or settled law” and that it was “peacefully annexed”. [1] The ruling goes on to become the skeleton of Australian law with no court daring to rule against it. [2]

All adult females in South Australia, including Aboriginal females, win the right to vote.

Segregationist practices continue until 1960s with separate sections in theatres, separate wards in hospitals, hotels refusing drinks and schools able to refuse enrolment to Aboriginal children. The governments in the 1930s said children had to be taken away from their parents because the influence of their own communities was immoral and they were in danger of abuse and neglect, but the real agenda then was to de-Aboriginalise them. — Michael Anderson, Aboriginal leader [1]

• World War II begins. Although Aboriginal people are not recognised as citizens, two Aboriginal military units are established and some Aboriginal people serve in other sections of the armed forces as formally enlisted soldiers, sailors or airmen. Aboriginal people serve in Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific and New Guinea.
• Aboriginal children continue to be removed from their families during the period 1939 to 1945, including children whose fathers are at war overseas.
• The first-ever mass strike of Aboriginal people in Australia occurs, called the Cummeragunja Walk-off. Over 150 Aboriginal people pack-up and leave Cummeragunja Aboriginal Station in protest at the cruel treatment and exploitation of residents by the management. They walk 66kms and cross the border from New South Wales into Victoria in contravention of the rules of the New South Wales Protection Board. The opera Pecan Summer tells the story of the walk-off.

The Child Endowment Act is passed but declares no endowment should be paid to dependent Aboriginal people.

• Formation of the Torres Straight Light Infantry Battalion. 880 men enlist, about 90% of the total male population of the Islands. Their discipline and work ethic sees them in high regard among fellow soldiers. In small groups they patrolled the islands close to Papua New Guinea monitoring the movements of Japanese forces. Yet, they only receive half of the wages of their peers.
• The NSW government passes the Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1943 which in Section 18c introduces Exemption Certificates that allow certain Aboriginal people to be exempted from the restrictive legislation and entitled to similar rights as non-Aboriginal people, e.g. to vote, drink alcohol and move freely and send their children to school. In return they “shall be deemed not to be an aborigine [sic]” which means they have to give up their cultural activities and contacts to family and community. The Act remains in force until 1969. Aboriginal people use the derogatory terms ‘dog tags’ or ‘dog licences’ to refer to the certificates. Giving up their traditional lifestyle is promoted to Aboriginal people as the only opportunity to overcome poverty, gain work and access to education and social welfare benefits.

The Commonwealth Citizenship and Nationality Act 1948 for the first time makes all Australians, including all Aboriginal people, Australian citizens. But at state level they still suffer legal discrimination.

Referendum to amend the Australian constitutions in ways that gave Aboriginal people citizenship rights, free movement, right to choose their government & have uniform laws made by the Commonwealth for all Aboriginals irrespective of the state that they lived in.

• Neville Bonner becomes the first Aboriginal Member of Parliament, filling a casual Senate vacancy. In 1972 he is elected on the Liberal Party ticket in Queensland. Senator Bonner continues to represent Queensland as a Liberal Senator until 1983.
• Aboriginal player Evonne Goolagong wins Wimbledon Women’s Singles title. Later receives Australian of the Year award.

• Racial Discrimination Act is passed in the federal parliament.
• Yorta Yorta man Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls is appointed Governor of South Australia. He is the first non-white person to serve as the governor of an Australian state, and is the only Aboriginal person to have held an official’s office. He retires due to ill health on 22 April 1977.
• Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) allows Aborigines to own traditional land & make claims for Crown Lands.
• Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency is established, rapidly achieving a 40% reduction in the number of Aboriginal children in children’s homes.

Land titles are granted to 15 Aboriginal Land Trusts in the Northern Territory.

Michael Anderson, the only surviving founder of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, becomes the first Aboriginal Australian to address the United Nations.

• Victorian Greens members elect Gunnai-Kurnai/Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe as the new (and first Aboriginal) Greens senator for Victoria.
• The Victorian government commits to create a truth and justice commission to “formally recognise historical wrongs and ongoing injustices” against Aboriginal people, the first state or territory to do so. [5] The commission will work in parallel with the treaty process already under way, and will be designed and led by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria.

The school celebrated its 100 years with 650 students