April 1999

Genocide site handed back

AN 1830s "genocide" site, Wybalenna on Flinders Island, was recently handed back to Indigenous people by the Tasmanian Government, settling the nation's oldest Indigenous land claim.

Tasmanian Premier Jim Bacon, who went to the island to announce the settlement, described the area as a "site of genocide".

"While we can't change history and what happened at Wybalenna, we can attempt to redress past injustices," he said.

Between 1833 and 1847 about 250 Aboriginal people were rounded up and shipped to Wybalenna, for all intents and purposes a concentration camp. When it closed in 1847, only 44 people were still alive.

Aboriginal people all over Tasmania today can trace their ancestry to people buried at Wybalenna.

Wybalenna Aboriginals had first petitioned Queen Victoria for the land in 1845.

FAIRA Aboriginal Corporation
Phone +61 7 3391 4677 • Fax +61 7 3391 4551 • email letterbox@faira.org.au
Post Office Box 8402 Woolloongabba Q 4102 Australia
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