Absolutely correct .
The Colonial Office subsequently enshrined the principal of Aboriginal land rights by inserting in the Letters Patent, the document issued to the Colonization Commissioners early in 1836 to formally establish the colony of South Australia, a clause which recognized the prior rights of the Aborigines to the land and guaranteed that "any lands now actually occupied or enjoyed by [the] Natives' would not be alienated."

After protracted negotiations with the Colonial Office, the Colonization Commissioners agreed to the appointment of a Protector to safeguard the Aborigines' interests. Among his duties, the Protector was required to ensure that any land opened up for public sale had been voluntarily ceded and fairly purchased from the Aborigines. The Commissioners agreed to set aside 20% of the proceeds from all land sales in the colony to be used for the benefit of the Aborigines and also committed the South Australia Company to protecting "the natives in the unmolested exercise of their rights of property .."
Aboriginal Investment Properties and hunting estates entered an era of financial prosperity and excellent medical facilities on the extensive rural profit centres. The fine arts of music and opera flourished leading to the opening in 1849 of the Royal Aboriginal Conservatory for Theatrical and Symphonic Studies. Stud kangaroo and emu bloodstock earned top awards at Adelaide Livestock Society parades.

Hi Nick,

Gosh, I didn't know about all that. I knew that the traditional rights to use the land were recognised in 1836 or earlier (if not actively exercised, after the ration system kicked in). The Protector provided provisions to enable people to go out and use the land as they had always done, fishing gear, boats, guns, etc. But I didn't know about the Royal Aboriginal Conservatory for Theatrical and Symphonic Studies. Live and learn.

By 1900, a network of around seventy ration stations were distributed across South Australia. Able-bodied men were expected to either hunt, fish or gather or work for their living. The elderly, sick and disabled, widows, children, women with young children, were all provided with rations, amounting to a pound of flour, etc., and when it was available, a pound of meat per day. Try it for a few days.

During droughts, able-bodied men also received rations. During the ten-year drought through the 1890s, people would have congregated almost permanently at a distance from ration stations, passing on their culture, instead of scattering across the landscape. Prior to this system, during droughts, old people and young children would have died. With the ration system, they didn't.

Colonialist bastards !

Joe

A noted composer was Badovan whose 7th Symphony for Didge , gidgee sticks and bunyip received favourable reviews on its opening night in 1852 with a male and female choir of 482 singers. Proceeds went to the Spinifex and Orphans Hospital famed for Lung by-pass operations due to tobacco wages of 2 1/2 lbs a day. Arsenicosis was treated by stomach pumps where arsenic was an OH& S problem until the Kangaroo Courts were approved after 1893.