Issue Details: First known date: 2018... 2018 [Review] ‘Me Write Myself’: The Free Aboriginal Inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land at Wybalenna
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'As Leonie Stevens points out in her introduction, there is already an extensive historiography on the Aboriginal settlement named Wybalenna, on Flinders Island off the coast of Van Diemen's Land (VDL), which lasted from 1832 to 1847. The community, established to hold in one place the remaining and seriously threatened Indigenous population of VDL, was never large. It reached a peak of between 150 and 200 people in 1834, and although the settlement was occasionally augmented by later arrivals, the dramatic excess of deaths over births meant that by 1847, when the settlement closed, its population had dropped to forty-three. This population decline, which continued when the community was removed to Oyster Cove on the VDL mainland, led observers at the time and since to see this as a case of human extinction in the face of colonisation. It has been quite common to see the story of the Aboriginal settlement on Flinders Island, then, as one of demoralisation and despair, of a people awaiting their relentless decline and inevitable demise.' (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Australian Historical Studies vol. 49 no. 2 2018 14080229 2018 periodical issue

    'This May 2018 issue of Australian Historical Studies brings together varied but fresh approaches to the study of Australia's past, including from early career scholars. It also features the winning entry in the Ken Inglis Postgraduate Prize, which is for the strongest paper presented by a graduate student at the annual Australian Historical Association Conference and then submitted to AHS for review. The prize, named in honour of the late Ken Inglis who passed away in December 2017, attracted entries from an enthusiastic cohort of doctoral students, and judges Penny Edmonds and Kate Fullagar had a challenging task due to the high quality of the field. We congratulate the 2017 winner of the Ken Inglis Postgraduate Prize, Rowan Light.'  (Introduction)

    2018
    pg. 268
Last amended 18 Jun 2018 11:32:46
268 [Review] ‘Me Write Myself’: The Free Aboriginal Inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land at Wybalennasmall AustLit logo Australian Historical Studies
Review of:
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X