ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 analyses the failure of the Protectorate against the background of the clash of the two related Enlightenment visions of improvement, where one focused on the improvability of humankind, as a whole, while the other advocated the amelioration of what was known as “waste lands”. Then it dwells on the progress of the scheme and the “civilising” activities of the protectors, beginning with their departure for the allocated districts and concluding with the official abolition of the Protectorate in the late 1840s. While paying particular attention to the civilising methods adopted by the protectors, the chapter analyses the causes that led to the abolition of the Protectorate, which occurred despite a general softening of squatters’ attitudes towards the Aborigines, who were seen by Europeans as being in a state of irreversible decline.
