Treaty making in Van Diemen's Land

The aim of this thesis is to analyse the Aboriginal crisis in Van Diemen's Land with a view to establishing what effective efforts were made in the late 1820s and early 1830s towards realising a treaty between the colonial administration and the Aboriginal tribes of Van Diemens Land. The idea is not a new one. In 1995 Professor Henry Reynolds' published Fate of a Free People in which he argues that for a number of prominent Aboriginal leaders, at least, a de facto peace treaty was negotiated with the Colonial Government. Reynolds focuses primarily on roles played by the Aborigines in bringing their people in and their interpretation of how the crisis was concluded. This thesis does not challenge Reynolds' claims. Instead, it attempts to evaluate the Aboriginal-settler clash from the perspective of the Colonial Government, and Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Arthur in particular. Specifically it seeks to determine to what extent Arthur participated in a treaty-making process, even if he did not ultimately conclude a treaty with the Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land. This thesis examines British policies towards the Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land from the time of its official settlement in 1804 through to the effecting of the Treaty of Waitangi in January 1840. While it focuses in greatest detail on relations between the colonial government and the Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land in the 1820s and early 1830s, the study of colonial relations is broadened both chronologically (to 1840) and geographically-north to mainland Australia, and east to New Zealand-to include brief accounts of the negotiations of the Batman treaty and the Treaty of Waitangi, so as to provide a wider context by which to evaluate Governor George Arthur's efforts with treaty-making in the Van Diemen's Land.