ABSTRACT
The 1834 Colonization Act3 and the subsequent Royal Proclamation contained in the Letters Patent of 1836 are the markers for the formation of the colonial Province of South Australia. Collectively, the documents set out the geographical boundaries of the colony, determine the establishment of the Colonization Commissioners to oversee the founding of the colony and provide for various other economic, social and political directives including the recognition of Indigenous people’s proprietary rights to land. In their First Annual Report, the Colonization Commissioners devote two pages to the ‘treatment of Aborigines’.
