ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 traces the genesis of the Port Phillip Aborigines Protectorate, perhaps the most grandiose state-sponsored “civilising” project, given its objectives, funding and duration, to emerge in the British Empire in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a manifestation of the post-abolition desire to redress the negative consequences of British colonial expansion, the measure sought to prevent the brutal treatment of Port Phillip’s indigenous people as well as to simultaneously Europeanise them. Before outlining how the scheme was conceived, the chapter describes pre-contact Victorian Aboriginal society and the government’s attempts to control pastoral expansion into the district. The chapter then proceeds to discuss the contributions of John Dunmore Lang and George Arthur towards the establishment of the machinery of the Protectorate. The chapter concludes with the analysis of the press coverage of the Myall Creek trials and the challenges and practical difficulties that were experienced by the protectors in trying to get the scheme off the ground.
