ABSTRACT
In the second half of the nineteenth century, there was a rapid expansion of colonial frontiers into the farthest reaches of Australia. The indigenous population was declining rapidly and it was assumed that they were doomed to extinction. Governments, it was argued, had a duty to protect Aboriginal people in their last days and, at the end of the nineteenth century, the policy of restricting them to selected areas was adopted, based on the belief that Aboriginal people became degraded on contact with non-Aboriginal society.
