First Aboriginal Homesteads / Stations / Reserves in Victoria

In 1840 four stations or homesteads were established for the 'Protectors of Aborigines' to offer asylum to Aboriginal people from the conflict and with plans for removing people to them.

"The homesteads for the Assistant Protectors are intended to serve as centres of operation for their district, and as asylums for such of the aboriginal natives as are disposed to settle... unless coercion be used in retaining the tribes of each district within the limits of the res-pective reserves, this scheme will also prove a failure. In short, anxious inquiry and some experience has fully satisfied the author in his creed, that— First.—Only a systematic separation of the children from their parents can ever promote the chance of a civil and religious education, which must, in itself, be founded upon habits of industry, to bring forth fruit either in youth or manhood. Second.—That collision and extermination can only be prevented by confining the natives in the reserves appropriated for their use."

This was following the "Black War" in Lutruwita, a genocide at the end of which there was an attempt to establish a reserve for survivors - "Mr Robinson's success among the aborigines of Van Diemen's Land pointed him out as the person best fitted to superintend this mission, and his experience was also unfortunately con-sidered sufficient to render the whole immediately effective."

EXTRACT FROM ARDENS " LATEST INFORMATION WITH REGARD TO AUSTRALIA FELIX." (1840, December 26). The Australian (Sydney, NSW : 1824 - 1848), p. 2. Retrieved February 5, 2026, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36851361

Colonial violence including acts of genocide.