Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
spiritual relationship with the land and intimate knowledge of story, ceremony and season
would be irrevocably damaged within a few short years.
As European settlement fanned out through Victoria, and the city of Melbourne trans-
formed from pastoral outpost to a heaving, gold-flushed metropolis in scarcely 30 years,
the cumulative effects of dispossession, alcohol and increasing acts of organised violence
resulted in a shocking decline in Victoria's Indigenous population. From the earliest days,
the colonial authorities evicted Aboriginal people from their traditional homes. By the
early 1860s the Board for the Protection of Aborigines had begun to gather together sur-
viving Aboriginal people in reserves run by Christian missionaries at Ebenezer, Framling-
ham, Lake Condah, Lake Tyers, Ramahyuck and Coranderrk. These reserves developed
into self-sufficient farming communities and gave their residents a measure of 'independ-
ence' (along with twice-daily prayers and new boots at Christmas), but at the same time
inflicted irreversible damage.
Around 25,000 people in Victoria have Aboriginal heritage, including about 15,000 in Melbourne and
5000 in the Shepparton region.
