A O Neville

When he was appointed Protector in 1915, Neville took over a system which was already more or less segregated. The whites, originally not too shy about creating a mixed race population, now had a better ratio of males to females, and had decided to shun their darker skinned relatives.

Neville did not set out to actively harm full blood Aboriginals, though he certainly did neglect them.

I suspect what he saw was that although full blood Aboriginals were supposed to disappear through a process of natural selection, the half-caste population was not likely to disappear: The ‘problem’ would not go away and must be dealt with. He set out to make the most of the segregation already in place, perhaps believing assimilation would be preferable to annihilation.

While no state can reasonably claim that its hands are clean, Western Australia was the most blatantly racist in its determination to take mixed race children from their families.

As part of his plan for miscegenation, Neville closed ration depots, cutting funding to missions so they would concentrate on religion rather than providing accommodation or education.

Perhaps as a side effect of Neville’s focus on half-castes, pastoral stations became de facto ration depots and welfare bodies for any Aboriginals not targeted for assimilation.

Pastoralists were not required to pay wages, nor was their treatment of Aboriginals properly monitored.