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Aboriginal Land Grant (Jervis Bay) Act, 1986 (Cth)—legislated a small land grant made in favour of the Wreck Bay Aboriginal community.

Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987 (Cth)—vests ownership of the respective areas in Aboriginal Corporations. Half of a square kilometre of land at Lake Condah is vested in the Kerrup-Jmara Elders' Aboriginal Corporation and 11 square kilometres of land at Framlingham Forest is vested in the Kirrae Whurrong Aboriginal Corporation. The Corporations can transfer land to another Aboriginal Corporation but it cannot be otherwise disposed of.

Aboriginal land management—what we perceive as 'natural' landscapes in Australia (at least with regards to their plants and animals) are to a substantial degree cultural landscapes that have been (at least in part) created by and sustained by Aboriginal peoples. Aboriginal land management practices helped to maintain high levels of species diversity by establishing and maintaining complex mosaics of communities in different stages of succession. Where Aboriginal fire regimes have been absent from the landscape, biodiversity generally has been reduced, and some species have been put at risk of extinction by the massive wildfires that occur there in the absence of regular small-patch burning—often devastating huge areas and thus depriving animals of both feed and cover—and by other ecological changes associated with the loss of the mosaics of vegetation systems that were sustained by small-patch burning.

Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 (NT)—(ALRA) the first, and most significant, land rights legislation in Australia. The purposes of the Act were: to grant traditional Aboriginal land to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory; to recognise traditional Aboriginal interests in, and their relationships to, land; and to provide Aboriginal people with effective control over activities on their land. By this Act, Land Councils were established in the Northern Territory as statutory authorities; the roles and responsibilities of the Land Councils were set out; government-owned Reserves were granted to Aboriginal ownership; and a right to traditional hunting was defined (it may be proscribed where species are particularly endangered, after consultation with the Land Council). In effect, the ALRA ensures that all the decisions concerning Aboriginal land are made by traditional Aboriginal owners in accordance with Aboriginal law. The Commonwealth government retains the power to make laws for the Northern Territory, and can override laws of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly. However, the Act carried a provision to extinguish the right of the Mirrar people to withhold their consent to mining of uranium at Ranger.

Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW) -  was established to provide a mechanism for compensating Aboriginal people for loss of their land. The Act states that land was traditionally owned and occupied by Aboriginal people and that it is accepted that as a result of past government decisions, the amount of land set aside for Aboriginal people has been progressively reduced without compensation. The Act attempts to redress the progressive loss of land to Aboriginal people through the creation of Aboriginal land councils, establishing a system whereby land councils can claim land. The Act granted freehold titleto the Aboriginal Land Councils over existing Aboriginal reserves. Furthermore, the Act allows for claims over unalienated Crown lands, and for the right to negotiate terms and conditions of agreements to allow mining or mineral exploration on Aboriginal land. The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 has recently been amended to make it more accessible to Aboriginal people in NSW and to increase accountability within Aboriginal land councils.

Aboriginal Land Tribunal (Queensland)—was established under the Aboriginal Land Act 1991 (Qld) to hear and make recommendations on claims by Aboriginal people to land that has been made available for claim.

Aboriginal Lands Act 1970 (Cth)—the first act to recognise Aboriginal people’s entitlement to land in the state of Victoria. Under this Act the deeds of reserve land at Lake Tyers and Framlingham were transferred to the communities under trusts established for this purpose. In the 1980s, land rights claims were issued for 1000 acres of the Framlingham Forest surrounding the Lake Tyers reserve. This continued from 1980 through to 1987 when land was handed over to the A Kirrae Whurrong Aboriginal Corporation at Lake Condah and Framlingham, in Victoria’s Western District.

Aboriginal Lands Act 1987 (Cth)—grants inalienable freehold title over Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest to the traditional owners. The Victorian government requested the Commonwealth to legislate on its behalf, and the Act was made under the Commonwealth’s races and acquisitions powers in the Australian Constitution. Ownership is vested in an Aboriginal Corporation for each area, with powers over mining and community government.

Aboriginal Lands Act 1991 (VIC)—authorised three grants of inalienable freehold title over burial grounds in former mission cemeteries at Coranderrk, Ebenezer, and Ramahyuck. These grants are subject to the condition that the land must be used for Aboriginal cultural and burial purposes.

Aboriginal Lands acts —the legal basis for Aboriginal lands claims. Each state or territory has its own Act, detailing the management of the lands that are successfully claimed.

Aboriginal lands claim—a legal claim to unalienated Crown land that can be made by the various Aboriginal tribes, on behalf of an entire group or tribe of Aborigines. Such a claim is examined in the light of two critical criteria: the unbroken inhabitation of the land under claim, and the preservation of traditional Aboriginal ties to that land. At the Commonwealth level, the Kakadu management of Aboriginal land was the first model developed. Under the Kakadu Plan of Management, traditional hunting is preserved but may be proscribed where species are particularly endangered, after consultation with the Land Council. Each state has affected similar measures to balance preservation of native flora and fauna against ownership rights.

Aboriginal Lands Trust—(ALT) a body corporate comprising a board of members, all of whom are Aboriginal. The Trust is empowered to take, instigate or support any action that may be required to ensure the most beneficial use of the land. Where land is granted following a traditional land claim, the title is held by an Aboriginal Land Trust 'for the benefit of Aboriginals entitled by Aboriginal tradition to the use or occupation of the land concerned'. Aboriginal land is held by a land trust in fee simple , and it cannot be sold by the land trust holding title to it. The land held is for the benefit of all the traditional owners as inalienable freehold title. The minerals and petroleum on or under land vested or held by the Aboriginal Lands Trust remain the property of the Crown. Explorers and miners seeking to enter these reserves, if not themselves Aboriginal people, are required to obtain a permit from the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority. The Aboriginal Lands Trust was formed by the Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority Act 1972 (WA) , Section 23. Land trusts act on the direction of the local land council, and they are responsible to the Minister for Indigenous Affairs. Each land trust has an overall responsibility to ensure that it acquires and holds land for the benefit of Aboriginal people.

Aboriginal language group—all Aboriginal languages can be classified as either Pama-Nyungan or non-Pama-Nyungan. The Pama-Nyungan language group covers nine-tenths of the continent. All languages in this group can be shown to be related. The non-Pama-Nyungan group exists in a relatively small area in northern Australia, and is made up of some twenty distinct language families. The language someone spoke was the main way of telling which group they belonged to. Many people use the word 'tribe' to describe the language groups, but each language group did not all live together in the same place at the same time, because they shared their country, or their traditional land. They travelled and hunted in traditional family groups, coming together with other people for ceremonies. Marriages and promised marriages would be arranged with other clans and language groups. Prior to European settlement, it was common for a husband and wife to speak different languages, and most people would speak three or four languages as well as their own.

Aboriginal languages—before European settlement, there were between 200 and 250 Aboriginal languages spoken, with many different dialects, producing up to 700 varieties. This makes Aboriginal Australia one of the most linguistically diverse areas on the planet. Within the space of 80km you can still pass through the territories of three languages 'less closely related than English, Russian and Hindu.' (The Oxford Companion to Australian History, 1998). In the year 2000, it was estimated that more than 100 languages had become extinct since European settlement. However, in the Kimberley, Goldfields, Central Reserves and Western Desert regions of Western Australia, Aboriginal people still speak their native languages, using English as a second language.

Aboriginal law—traditional rules of social conduct based upon the knowledge of, and ritual pertaining to, the sacred sites. All aspects of the welfare of Aboriginal society depend on this preservation of sacred sites through traditional ritual. Knowledge of correct behaviour is preserved and passed down through Dreaming stories. Because the Dreaming underlies every aspect of the universe, it defines the framework of human action, linking people and place.

Aboriginal missions—(hist.) an Aboriginal settlement that may or may not have been a religious institution. Aboriginal missions were promulgated as a way of “saving” the Aboriginal people, but their ultimate purpose was assimilatio. People were sent compulsorily to missions at places such as Doomagee , Yarrabah , Mona Mona, Palm Island and Woorabinda . In many instances, the attempts to aid and protect Aboriginals were genuine, but the consequence was the near-destruction of Aboriginal culture. Native languages died out, tribal traditions were lost and family ties were disrupted. The name derives from the original purpose of many Aboriginal settlements, i.e., as a mission of one of the various Christian denominations. The name was often retained when management was assumed by the government (or later, the community). The appellation of 'mission' was also applied to Aboriginal communities that had never had any church affiliation. These institutions have been very significant as places both of oppression and of cultural survival. Within missions, people were offered refuge from the violence of the frontier; often, however, the price of safety was cultural oppression, especially of aspects of culture such as language and ceremony. Missions often provided the place where numbers of Aboriginal people were congregated together, thus unintentionally preserving cultural and community identity against the assimilationist intentions of the majority society.

Aboriginal nation—an Indigenous Australian people or tribe, as distinguished by the language groups to which they belong. There are about 250 Aboriginal nations in Australia. All the tribes within a nation share a common language and similar culture. The special relationship between a particular tribe or clan and its land was recognised by other tribes or groups within the relevant local native system and was reflected in differences in dialect over relatively short distances. Most tribes are small of necessity, due to the scarcity of food, and generally consist of family members. As a result of this genetic closeness, marriage is possible only outside the tribe, and often only outside the tribal group. Relationships within the tribe are very clearly defined and strictly controlled. Also, it is largely as a result of this cross-tribal marriage that most Aboriginals could speak two or three languages.

Aboriginal people—(see: Aboriginal Australian).

Aboriginal people and the cattle industry— during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many cattle stations employed only a handful of white people—all the essential tasks and services were performed by local Aboriginal men and women. Many station lessees conceded that the stations could not survive without Aboriginal labour. Aborigines became sought-after workers, especially as stockmen and as mounted messengers. Motivation varied among clans: from a desire to stop fighting, to ensure community survival, to maintain access to their land, to acquire new products, or to 'help out' the lonely white man. In Queensland, around 55% of the pastoral workforce was black in 1886 and by 1901 at least 2000 Aborigines were employed as stock workers and domestics, with many more working in the industry. By around 1937, 3000 Aboriginal people were employed on Northern Territory cattle stations. Aboriginal men and women worked in every aspect of stock work. Before World War II, Aboriginal workers in the Northern Territory and Western Australia were usually paid only in clothing, equipment and rations, with occasional pocket money. Up to 1968 it was against the law to pay Aboriginal workers more than a specified amount in goods and money. They were housed in corrugated iron humpies with iron shutters for windows, without floors, lighting, sanitation, furniture or cooking facilities. Social welfare payments were paid to the pastoral company together with a Federal Government subsidy for the worker's dependents. In March 1966, the Conciliation and Arbitration Commission handed down a decision which put Aboriginal employees in the NT on the same basis as non-Aboriginal employees. However, the Commission also accepted the argument put by pastoralists that introduction of award wages should be delayed until December 1968 to allow them to prepare for the change. Aboriginal stockmen and domestics on Newcastle Waters station were upset by the delay and went on strike in May 1966. Soon after 200 people, mainly Gurindji, left the Wave Hill station and camped on traditional land at Wattie Creek (Daguragu). The strikes and walk-offs by the Gurindji supported not only the equal pay case but also voiced concern over the importance of land rights and the exploitation of women by white employees. The Gurindji strike was not the first demand by Aborigines for the return of their lands, but it was the first one to attract wide public support within Australia for land rights. However, the substantial loss of employment arising from equal pay in the pastoral industry was devastating to many Aboriginal communities. Whole communities were forced or 'persuaded' off the stations. Many pastoralists refused to employ them under the changed conditions and a large number of Aboriginal workers not only lost their jobs but also the right to stay on their own. The displacement was made worse by diminishing employment opportunities due to rural recessions, low beef prices, increased fencing and technology and the introduction of road-trains and helicopter-mustering. hard work. Despite the dislocation associated with this major change, and the often exploitatitive nature of their employment, many older Aboriginal people look back with pride on their work in the cattle industry and sadness at the loss of much of this sort of work.

Aboriginal Preservation and Protection Act, 1939 (Qld)—repealed the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act legislated in 1897, and its 1934 Amendment Act. These two Acts had established, respectively, the position of the Chief Protector and an increase in the powers accruing to that office. Those powers were transferred to the Director of Native Welfare, under Queensland’s Protection Act of 1939. This Act remained in place until 1965, when repealed by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Act.

Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld)—established the positions of regional Protectors, and later, Chief Protector of Aborigines in the colony of Queensland. The Chief Protector was empowered to remove Aboriginal people onto and between reserves, and to hold children in dormitories. Repealed by the Aboriginal Preservation and Protection Act, 1939 (Qld).

Aboriginal Protection Board (NSW)—established by the State in 1883 to manage the Aboriginal reserves into which some 9000 Indigenous people had been herded, up to that time. By the 1890s, the Aboriginal Protection Board had developed a policy of segregation. Armed with growing legal control over the lives of Indigenous people, the Board sought to remove children of 'mixed-descent' from their families. The Aborigines Protection Act 1909 gave the Board power 'to assume full control and custody' of the child of any Aborigine, if the court found the child to be neglected. It also allowed the Board to send Indigenous children aged between 14 and 18 years to work. Five years later, the Board told all station managers that all 'mixed-descent' boys over 14 years must leave the stations to work. Girls over 14 years either had to work or be sent to the Cootamundra Training Home where they were trained in domestic service. In 1937, the state governments met with the Federal Government to discuss a national assimilation policy. The New South Wales government responded by replacing the Aboriginal Protection Board with the Aboriginal Welfare Board. Assimilation would now take place under welfare laws.

Aboriginal Protectorate—a legal scheme under which Protectors (of Aborigines) in different States controlled their individual Aboriginal populations, as they saw fit. The Protectorate both acquired and yielded its near-absolute power by means of individual protectors, as appointed under the Aboriginal Protection boards empowered by the laws of each state.

Aboriginal Quarry—a site where Aboriginal people took stone from rocky outcrops to make chipped or ground stone tools for many different purposes. Not all types of stone were suitable for making tools, so an outcrop of good stone that could be easily quarried was a valuabl eresource. Aboriginal people quarried different types of stone, each with its own special value and use. Stone tools were made from greenstone, silcrete, quartz, quartzite, basalt and chert. Pigments were made from quarried ochre, and grinding tools were made from sandstone. Some quarries are small, consisting of just a single protruding boulder. Other quarries incorporate manyout crops and areas of broken stone that cover thousands of square metres.

Aboriginal rangers—preserve cultural as well as natural values of parks and wildlife reserves. Practical skills are taught in the TAFE Caring for Country program. These include map reading, site surveys, animal and plant field skills, visitor facility management, first-aid and office management. An ecological component includes vegetation management and feral animal control, as well as traditional knowledge. Archaeological and anthropological knowledge and techniques are gained in class as well as in the field. The diploma-level course runs for four years. Aboriginal rangers now work for Aboriginal communities and in some government agencies, such as the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, looking after rainforest and sea country.

Aboriginal reserves—places of confinement set up in the 1920s by government and mission authorities in South Australia , Western Australia and Northern Territory . There were two types of reserves. 'Managed reserves', also called stations, were usually run by a manager and provided education, rations and housing. 'Unmanaged reserves' were under police control and only provided rations. In effect, this came to little more than the institutionalised confinement of an Aboriginal population, and control over every aspect of their lives. Aboriginal reserves still exist in most Australian states, where they have served as a basis for making and granting land right claims. The reserves are increasingly being managed by Aborigines on behalf of their own communities. The largest of these are in Central Australia and Arnhem Land , the last strongholds of traditional Aboriginal life. Upon the enactment of the ALRA in 1976, former Aboriginal reserves were converted to Aboriginal control, and Aboriginal people could make claims to unalienated Crown land on the basis of their traditional relationship to that land. After more than twenty years, approximately forty-two percent of the Northern Territory is Aboriginal land. This land is held by Aboriginal Land Trusts for the benefit of all the traditional land-owners as inalienable freehold title.

Aboriginal settlement—the term now used for what were previously known as Aboriginal reserves and missions.

Aboriginal smoking ceremony—(see: smoking ceremony).

Aboriginal stockmen—when white settlers took up land for grazing, the Aboriginal people who lived there eventually were employed on the station. The men proved to be excellent as stockmen and drovers. Originally hunters, their tracking abilities were legendary—and ability that proved to be very useful in finding strays. Nowadays, there are Aboriginal-owned stations. The seasonal mustering of cattle on horseback is still very important in the bush. A newer method is racing around with a "bullcatcher", usually a battered Toyota four-wheel drive without a roof but with reinforced bumpers all around, and used to nudge stray bulls in the right direction. On some larger stations even helicopters may be used. But the essence of stockwork is still the stockman on his horse, driving a large herd of cattle in the bush.

Aboriginal Stockmen's Strike (WA)—on the 1st of May, 1946, an estimated 600 Aboriginal stockmen throughout the north of Western Australia refused to work until they had been guaranteed a minimum wage of thirty shillings a week. Some had previously been receiving food and clothing but no pay; others had been paid up to twelve shillings a week. It was organised by Dooley Bin Bin, with his friend Don McLeod acting as consultant. The people knew that the police and pastoralists could and would arrest them, that they would be brought back chained together by their hands and necks to the back of the station trucks and put to work again, and that they would have repeat this cycle until there was some change. Don McLeod was also tried on seven occasions, sometimes for counselling Aborigines, sometimes for being within five chains of two or more Aborigines. The strike continued for a year, and in the end the stockmen won their demands.

Aboriginal tracker—it is claimed that the "tracker" was able to hunt out people lost in the scrub. Also in the bush and the desert, and even follow them over patches of bare rocks and over alluvial ground which had, to all appearance, been washed clear of footprints. In an official account of the Aborigines of Australia published by the government of Victoria, one reads that the Aboriginal not only notices the faint marks left on the bark of a tree by the claws of a climbing possum, but knows whether the marks were made today or yesterday.

Aboriginal trade routes—great trading routes of Aboriginal Australia followed permanent waterholes of the Cooper , Georgina and Diamantina Rivers , with goods being trading over thousands of kilometres. From the north came sea shells and pituri (narcotic); from the south came grinding stones and ochre; shields, axeheads, boomerangs and spears came from the east and north-east. Trade and exchange routes criss-crossed the entire continent, linking Aboriginal groups into a complex social and economic network. In many cases, reciprocal gift-giving would also take place. Stories and songs, often with an accompanied pantomime accompaniment, were performed by each group. It has been postulated that during the summer Bogong moth feast , when groups gathered together in Ngunnawal and Ngarigo land, a great deal of trade and exchange took place. Trade provided an avenue for settling disputes between fractious groups, meeting to discuss Dreaming laws . Trade also enabled members from different language to share aspects of the Dreaming. Specific cultural knowledge and practices were shared and reinforced during meetings. Dreaming trails or trade routes would not always be fully travelled by Aboriginal peoples of one specific area. For example, shells to be traded from Cape York area may have travelled down trade routes of the east coast of Australia then inland through a variety of language group area and cultural regions. Eventually they would be traded with special ochres from the south-west, and these would then be traded over and over again along the Dreaming Trail to those in the Cape York area.

Aboriginal tribal lands/grounds—the defining of exact tribal grounds can be quite complex, and the rules vary from tribe to tribe. For example, when a child was born amongst the Yuin , its father pointed out geographical boundaries to the men and women there present as being the bounds of his child's country: i.e., the boundaries of the tribal area. A girl-child amongst the Yuin inherited her mother's country as well as that into which she was born (as defined by her father's tribal affiliations). Additionally, however, the father of a boy-child was entitled to claim as his own the country in which his child was born, if different from his own; and likewise the mother took that of a girl-child (i.e., that of her husband). Such an inheritance brought rights and duties: the right to water and food available within an area, as well as the duty to maintain the region in which he/she was permitted to live/hunt/ fish and access water supplies.

Aboriginal tribes—at the time of European contact there were about 126 "tribal" groups who had all or most of their territory in the Northern Territory , with an estimated total population of 35,000. These people were hunter-gatherers who lived in small family groups of 15 to 30, this being the basic economic unit. Groups of bands formed larger social units, often referred to as "tribes" and "clans". Within these social networks, people frequently co-operated to exploit abundant resources during good seasons or to share scarce resources during drought or flood. The links between groups were based on kinship and marriage ties, common ceremonial affiliation and shared ownership of, or responsibility for, sacred sites and objects. The geographic distribution, density and mobility of the Aboriginal population were closely related to the availability or water, food and other resources. Generally, the size of the bands did not vary as much as the extent of the tract of land (called the range) needed by each group for its survival. In the desert regions of the Centre , population densities as low as one person per 100sq km reflected Aboriginal adaptation to a far harsher environment.

Aboriginal Trust—(see: Aboriginal Lands Trust).

Aboriginality—1. the quality of being an Aborigine. 2. the culture of the Aboriginal people.

Aboriginals Ordinance 1911 (NT)—granted the Chief Protector greater powers in the care, custody or control over Aboriginal 'half-castes' wherever and whenever he judged it necessary. Administrators were empowered to declare any place a prohibited area for Aborigines and half-castes. In 1932 this power was used to require fingerprinting in the Darwin area, and to require Aborigines to carry an Identification disk with them to allow them into picture shows and to withdraw money from trust accounts.

Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939 (Qld)—repealed the 1897 and 1934 Acts. Established the position of Director of Native Affairs in place of Chief Protector, with increased powers. The Director of Native Affairs became the ‘legal guardian of every aboriginal child under 21’. Director could ‘execute agreements between or on the part of aboriginals in the State for the legal custody of aboriginal children by aboriginals or other persons who in his opinion are suitable persons to be given legal custody of such children’. Director could cause any ‘aboriginals’ who are camped near a town to ‘remove their camp to such other place as he may direct’. Director could cause any ‘aboriginals’ to be ‘removed from any district to a reserve and kept there for such time as may be ordered’ or to be removed from one reserve to another. This power did not apply to ‘a half-blood child living with and supported by a parent of such child who is not subject to this Act’. Regulations could be made for the ‘care, custody and education of the children of aboriginals’ and prescribing the conditions on which ‘aboriginal’ children may be apprenticed or placed in service. Repealed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Act 1965.

Aborigine—Australian Aborigines are the indigenous peoples of Australia. Their ancestors probably arrived in Australia just over 50,000 years ago, although the date remains uncertain. Some researchers put the date of arrival at close to 100,000 years ago, but the case for very early occupation presently rests on a single archeological site of uncertain date. Aboriginal Australians are known to have occupied this continent for between 40 and 60 thousand years. At the time of first contact with the European colonists in the late 18th century, most Aboriginals were hunter-gatherers with a complex oral culture and spiritual values based upon reverence for the land and a belief in the Dreamtime. There were a great many different Aboriginal groups, each with their own individual culture, belief structure, and language (approximately 200 different languages at the time of European contact). These cultures overlapped to a greater or lesser extent, and had evolved over time. Lifestyles varied a great deal. In Victoria, for example, there were two separate communities with an economy based on fish-farming in complex and extensive irrigated pond systems (one on the Murray River in the state's north, the other in the south-west near Hamilton), and trade with other groups from as far away as the Melbourne area. The Aboriginal population was decimated by British colonization which began in 1788. A combination of disease, loss of land (and thus food resources) and outright murder reduced the Aboriginal population by an estimated 90% during the 19th Century and early 20th Century. A wave of massacres and resistance followed the frontier. The last massacre was at Coniston in the Northern Territory in 1928. In spite of the decline in their numbers throughout the 19th century, Aboriginal men, women and children became a very important source of labour to the large sheep and cattle stations which came to dominate northern Australia. They were also employed in other northern industries, such as pearling. Aborigines in northern Australia were often forced to work, and the term slavery has been used in regard to their employment. They were usually paid only in food and other basic items. This labour system lasted until the pastoral industries began to decline in the late 20th century. During the first half of the 20th century, native welfare boards were established in the various states. These instituted a policy of separating children from their parents based upon racial stereotyping. Pale-skinned children were forcibly removed, and Aboriginal parents often darkened their children to keep them. This aspect of Aboriginal history is often referred to as the Stolen Generation. Many Aborigines now live in towns and cities around Australia, but a substantial number live in settlements (often located on the site of former church missions) in what are often remote areas of rural Australia. The health and economic difficulties facing both groups are substantial (for instance, life expectancy of Aboriginal people is often 20 years shorter than the wider Australian population).

Aborigines Act 1897 (WA)—abolished the Aborigines Protection Board, and removed the requirement to spend 1% of gross revenue on benefiting Aborigines. Established the Aborigines Department to replace the board.

Aborigines Act 1905 (WA)—established legal guardianship over all Aboriginal children and 'half-castes' under the age of 16 to the office of Chief Protector , and prohibited co-habitation of Aborigines and non-Aborigines.

Aborigines Act 1910 (VIC)—addressed some of the problems created in Victoria by colonial policies and laws affecting Aboriginal people. John Murray, a grazier from the Western District who had been very critical of the inhumane measures implemented by the Board for the Protection of Aborigines, initiated it in 1909. Murray was State Premier and Chief Secretary and, in his role of Chief Secretary, he chaired the Board for the Protection of Aborigines. He insisted that assistance be given to Aboriginal people outside the reserves and in this Act ensured that the differentiation of Aboriginal people of partial European parentage was abandoned. With the Aborigines Act 1910, Victoria took a step away from the extreme control over Aboriginal people established in the 19th century. The Act represents a major step in the constitutional shaping of society in Victoria, affecting the relationship between government and people. In this sense the legislation sits midway between the Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 (Vic) and the Aboriginal Lands Act 1970 (Vic).

Aborigines Act 1971 (Qld)—abolished the ‘assisted person’ designation; established the Director of Aboriginal and Island Affairs; made it an offence to be on a reserve unless entitled under the Act to be there; made provision for a permit of residence to be revoked (thereby ejecting Aborigines from reserves) either by the Aboriginal council established for that reserve or by the director; and ordered visits by justices once every 3 months to reserves to be followed by reports to the Director of Aboriginal and Island Affairs. Further constraints by means of regulation were made under the Act, with respect to the development, assimilation, integration, education, training and preservation of Aborigines, and the care of children other than those placed with the Director of Children’s Services. The Aborigines Act 1971 (Qld) was repealed by the Community Services (Aborigines) Act 1984 (Qld).

Aborigines Act 1984 (Qld)—short name for the Community Services Act 1984 (Qld).

Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (Land Holding) Act 1985 (Qld)—This document, enacted on 24 June 1985, introduced a new regime of land dealings and services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with another law, the Community Services (Aboriginal] Act Amendment Act 1986. Under this Act, not even the Crown had power to grant leases of Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) land to unqualified persons, thus reversing a long-standing colonial process of segregation, surveillance and exploitation. During the 1960s and '70s, the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islander Affairs (DAIA) had remained the most intransigent against reform of any of the government agencies dealing with ‘native affairs’ issues in Australia. By the early 1980s, the mounting tide of protest against paternalistic racial legislation, emanating from Aboriginal activist groups and white supporters, had forced a reassessment of the situation whereby Aboriginal reserves and missions remained under authoritarian white control. In 1982, the Queensland Government decided that Aboriginal reserve and mission land should be handed over to the control of Aboriginal councils in the form of a Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT). This granted an estate in fee simple to local Aboriginal councils who could operate as trustees for the Aboriginal inhabitants of that settlement. The Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (Land Holding) Act became law in June 1985 and the first deeds were issued in October. Initially these were granted to all 15 of the Torres Strait Islands where people lived, save for Murray Island, the subject of the case being fought by Eddie Koiki Mabo and others before the High Court. Granting DOGITS to Aboriginal settlements (as reserves and missions were now called) on the mainland proved more problematic. Considerable difficulties over policing the settlements also occurred, with the Queensland Police pleading budgetary restraints to law enforcement servicing (under the guise of self-management) to many of these regions. This made worse the already pressing problems of crime, violence and domestic instability in these impoverished communities.

Aborigines Protection Act 1869 (VIC)—established the Aborigines Protection Board in Victoria. It contained very few substantive provisions, but instead authorised the making of regulations on a wide range of subjects. As regulations do not attract the kind of Parliamentary scrutiny and publicity that occurs with proposed statutes, major decisions about the treatment of Indigenous children went unnoticed. One of the regulations made under the act allowed for the removal of any Aboriginal child found to have been neglected by its parents, or ‘left unprotected'. They were removed to a mission, an industrial or reform school, or a station. Another regulation allowed the board to remove any male child under 14 years and female child under 18 years living on reserves and relocate them elsewhere. These regulations were used to separate Indigenous children from their parents and house them in dormitories on the reserves at Lake Hindmarsh, Coranderrk, Ramahyuck, Lake Tyers and Lake Condah. If families refused to consent to the removal of their children, they were threatened with expulsion from the station and the denial of food rations. Victoria was the first colony to enact a comprehensive scheme to regulate the lives of Aboriginal people.

Aborigines Protection Act 1883 (NSW) - established the Aborigines Protection Board in New South Wales, which remained in effect until repealed in 1969.

Aborigines Protection Act 1886 (Qld)—established the Aborigines Protection Board in Queensland, which concerned itself primarily with employment relations.

Aborigines Protection Act 1886 (VIC)—often referred to as the 'half-caste' Act, as it required all 'part-Aborigines' aged 34 and younger to leave the stations and their families. This was largely accomplished through the control of the Board for the Protection of Aborigines. Copies of the act were posted at police stations throughout the state, and police were regularly requested to remove so-called half-castes from reserves. The children of mixed descent were forcibly placed into schools or work. When an Indigenous child turned 13 they were sent to work or apprenticed—the males usually worked as farmhands, the females as domestic servants. Once they left the reserve, they were not allowed to return without official permission, nor to communicate with their families. This policy was justified by the widely held belief that the Aboriginals were a ‘dying race’ and in this way, the children would be saved. In fact, the board was seriously short-funded, and the plan was to reduce expenses by reducing the numbers of people left on reserves. The aim was to ultimately close down all reserves. Between 1886 and 1923, the number of reserves in Victoria dropped from six to one. After 1924, all Aboriginal people who still qualified for subsistence-level assistance from the board had to move to the Lake Tyers Reserve.

Aborigines Protection Act 1909 (NSW)—reconstituted the Aboriginal Protection Board, which had operated since 1883 without any legal basis. The Inspector General of Police acted as ex officio Chairman presiding over not more than ten other members appointed by the Governor. Their stated duty was "to exercise a general supervision and care over all matters affecting the interest and welfare of Aborigines and to protect them against injustice, imposition and fraud". The Act empowered the board 'to assume full control and custody' of the child of any Aborigine if the Court found the child to be neglected. It also allowed the Board to send Indigenous children aged between 14 and 18 years to work. The Protection Board was abolished in 1936, but re-constituted under the Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act of 1940, and its name altered to the Aborigines Welfare Board. Its ultimate goal was the assimilation of Aboriginal people. The Act was again amended in 1963. The sections amended were those pertaining to the powers to remove Aboriginal people to reserves and from the vicinity of townships or to expel them from New South Wales, along with the prohibition of alcohol. The 1909 Aborigines Protection Act was repealed in 1969.

Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act, 1915 (NSW) - made legal provision for the removal of Aboriginal children from their parents, a practice which had started in the 19th century. Under the changes of 1915 it could be carried out because the children were being neglected or determined by the Court to be in the interest of their moral and physical welfare.

Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act, 1936 (NSW)—expanded the invasive nature of the the Aboriginal Protection Board, enabling it to: inspect the residence of any Aborigine; order Aboriginal people to return to their home state, if they were living in unsanitary or undesirable conditions; deny medical examinations and treatment, or if provided, to determine where it was to be provided; and to summarily terminate the employment of any Aboriginal.

Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act, 1940 (NSW)—reconstituted the Aborigines Protection Board, its name being altered to the Aborigines Welfare Board. The Under Secretary of the Colonial Secretary's Department was appointed Chairman, and provision was made for ten other members, of whom one was to be a full-blooded Aborigine and one either a full-blooded Aborigine or having an admixture of blood, to represent their people. The policy of the Board was to encourage the assimilation of Aborigines into the general community.

Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act, 1943 (NSW)—granted the Aborigines Welfare Board two important new powers: to acquire and dispose of land, and to exempt selected Aborigines from provisions of the Act. It also provided for the inclusion of two persons of Aboriginal descent (one full-blood, one mixed) on the Welfare Board. Their duty would be to assist with the cultural assimilation of the various Aboriginal communities.

Aborigines Protection Boards—in 1886 the administration of Aboriginal affairs was removed from the Colonial Secretary and entrusted to an Aboriginal Protection Board in each State. These boards oversaw the activities of the Protectors of Aborigines, individuals appointed by the Governor or by the board under the various Aborigines Protection acts.

Aborigines Welfare Act 1957 (VIC)—replaced the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines with the Aborigines Welfare Board. For the first time in Victoria’s Aboriginal affairs legislation, the board was given no specific power in relation to Aboriginal children. However, the stated goal remained the same: the destruction of Aboriginal communities and assimilation of Aborigines into the general community. The people at Lake Tyers resisted all attempts to close their community under this law, and one result of their campaign was the formation of the Victorian Aboriginal Advancement League. The campaigns of the people for community control at Ramahyuck and the work of the league were eventually successful. In 1971, this act granted the 4000-acre reserve to about 40 members of the community under communal freehold title. The Framlingham community also received communal title to 500 acres under the act.

Aborigines Welfare Board (NSW)—replaced the Aborigines Protection Board and was the main NSW state government agency responsible for implementing and administering the legislation and policy affecting Aboriginal people throughout the state. The Welfare Board comprised six members appointed by the Governor of New South Wales , with the Inspector General of Police as chairman. Beginning in June of 1883, the Welfare Board held weekly meetings at which recommendations concerning the general protection of the state's Aboriginal population were considered. This Board functioned without any statutory power until 1909, when the Aborigines Protection Act was passed. The records of the Board are important because its activities had a major impact on the lives of the state's Indigenous population, in particular the 'Stolen Generations' ', who were removed from their families and communities. The Board's principal expenditure was for rations, clothing, and huts for the accommodation of Aborigines. The Board held its final meeting on 29 April 1969 and was replaced by the Aborigines Welfare Directorate, Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare (later the Aboriginal Services Branch, Youth and Community Services).

Aborigines Welfare Board (VIC)—resulted from the McLean Report, which recommended the assimilation of Aborigines into the wider community. One of the first steps taken by the new board was a survey of the Aboriginal population, which concluded that Victoria had a population of 1,400 Aborigines, of whom less than 20 were full-blood. The Aborigines Welfare Board existed for only 10 years. In its final report, it claimed that although the number of part-Aboriginals whom it had identified in Victoria had grown to 3,500, it claimed that there were not more than 12 river bank shacks, pickers' huts or other rural slums still occupied by Aborigines.

Aborigines' protection legislation—the key statutes are: Aborigines’ Protection Act 1909 (NSW); Aborigines Protection Act 1869 (Vic); Aborigines Protection Act 1886 (Vic); Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld); Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939 (Qld); Cape Barren Island Reserve Act 1912 (Tas); An act to prevent the enticing away the Girls of the Aboriginal Race from School or from any Service in which they are employed 1844 (WA); Aborigines Protection Act 1886 (WA); Aborigines Act 1905 (WA); Aborigines Act 1911 (SA); Northern Territory Aboriginals Act 1910 (SA); Aboriginals Ordinance 1911 (NT).

abortion—total failure: e.g., The architect designed an abortion of a house.

above ground—alive; not dead: e.g., Any day above ground is a good day.

above (oneself)—1. conceited; smug; e.g., He's a bit above himself since he made his fortune. 2. extremely excited or elated: e.g., He's going to be above himself when he hears about his big win in the lottery.

ABS—Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia's official statistical organisation.

abso-bloody-lutely—positively; emphatically yes.

absolute majority—in Parliament, 50% plus one of the total formal votes cast.

absolute pardons—(hist.) allowed convicts to return to England, as their sentences were totally cleared. These pardons were often earnt but the Governor could grant the pardons for several reasons. From 1791 to 1810, absolute pardons recorded name, date of pardon and number, but later registers contained more details.

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