Second Dispossession & Indigenous Response

During the early years of Federation, humanitarians were more concerned about the morals of indigenous Australians than their property rights.

In New South Wales, under a philanthropic rationale of 'improvement', closure of the reserves became government policy.

But the aboriginal, or Koori people, saw this as a second dispossession, and in the 1920's organised a political campaign to protect the little land they had left.

During the 1930's, aboriginal people in four states organised civil and land rights campaigns.

And in the Northern Territory, the Commonwealth Government established the Arnhem Land Reserve in 1931, and this was to prove particularly significant in the history of aboriginal land rights.