Robinson, George Augustus (1791-1866), a Methodist lay preacher and former bricklayer, sought to preserve the Aboriginal peoples of Tasmania during early British settlement there. Many Aboriginal Tasmanians died during British colonization. However, their culture and identity survived on islands in the Bass Strait among descendants of Aboriginal women and European seal hunters. The Bass Strait lies between Tasmania and the mainland of Australia.
Robinson was born on March 22, 1791, in London, England. In 1824, he immigrated to Hobart, Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania). Around that time, many European settlers were arriving in Van Diemen’s Land to farm and cut lumber. Conflict developed between the settlers and local Aboriginal people. Lieutenant Governor George Arthur, a British official, declared war on the Aboriginal Tasmanians in 1828. Any Aboriginal Tasmanian seen in settled districts was arrested or shot, and many were killed.
From 1829 to 1834, Robinison convinced many of the remaining Aboriginal Tasmanians to leave their land and relocate to the Wybalenna settlement on Flinders Island. He gathered about 200 Aboriginal people from the Tasmanian mainland, where nearly 4,000 had been killed within 31 years of British settlement. At Wybalenna, the Aboriginal people were to be “civilized” and Christianized. Under the control of Robinson, they declined rapidly. Disease, hunger, and despair led to the deaths of about three-fourths of the Aboriginal people during their first few years at the settlement.
In 1839, Robinson and 15 Aboriginal Tasmanians moved to Port Phillip, in what is now Victoria. There, Robinson took the post of protector of the Aboriginal people. In December 1849, this post was eliminated. In 1852, Robinson returned to England, where he died on Oct. 18, 1866.
See also Tasmania (Aboriginal resistance); Truganini.
