Biography
Book Details

Black Robinson

Protector of Aborigines

Vivienne Rae-Ellis

Controversial study of George (‘Black’) Robinson, first Chief Protector of Aborigines in Australia.

Opinion

‘. . . a man who rose from the slums of London’s East End to become rich and feted as the saviour of savages-a man who, in fact, betrayed the trust placed in him.’ Mercury, Hobart

About this Title

A GREEDY, VAIN AND UNSCRUPULOUS MAN BENT ON SELF-AGGRANDISEMENT

This controversial study of George (‘Black’) Robinson, first Chief Protector of Aborigines in Australia, reveals a man long held to be the worthy civilizer and Christianizer of Tasmanian Aborigines to have been a monster of deceit and a betrayer of those it was his role to protect—a man who made perhaps the most repellent contribution of all to what was to become the decimation of Tasmania’s Aborigines.

Table of Contents

Preface; Notes on Sources; THE FUGITIVE; 1 Child of the East End; 2 Steerage to Van Diemen’s Land; 3 The Conciliators; 4 The Mesmerist; THE FRIENDLY MISSION, VAN DIEMEN’S LAND; 5 Journey to the West Coast; 6 First Captives; 7 Elimination of Competitors; 8 Reports and Rumours; 9 Second Expedition to the West Coast; 10 Rewards; THE FLINDERS ISLAND FRAUD; 11 The Aboriginal Settlement in Bass Strait; 12 The Commandant of Wybalenna; 13 Vice-regal Inspection; CHIEF PROTECTOR OF ABORIGINES; 14 Christianizing and Civilizing; 15 Sydney 1838; 16 Arrival at Port Phillip; 17 The Assistant Protectors; 18 La Trobe and the Chief Protector; 19 The Port Phillip Tribes; 20 The Van Diemen’s Land Aborigines at Port Phillip; 21 Progress of the Protectorate; 22 The Traveller; 23 The Family Man; 24 Return to Europe; Epilogue: the Missing Manuscripts; Appendix: Robinson’s Mainland Expeditions 1840–1849; Abbreviations and Conversions; Notes; Select Bibliography; Index

About the Author

Vivienne Rae-Ellis had a wide variety of working experience as a professional actress, newspaper columnist, radio script-writer and public relations officer before she began writing books. Among her many published titles are biographies of Trucanini and Louisa Anne Meredith.

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978-0-522-84744-4