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.

978-0-522-84744-4