Dear Loudmouth,

It appears I have left an 'f' off the end of my link to the document from which I quoted. Thus I conclude this is the reason you present as possibly not having read it and are therefore making the assumptions that you are.

The full link is here;

http://archive.aiatsis.gov.au/removeprotect/24778.pdf

In the absence of evidence you and I are free to make what ever assumptions we like within the bounds of reason. That is not the case here. We have the exact words of the Chief Medical officer of the colony of Victoria, some of which I have furnished earlier.

He also wrote of Coranderrk in the same link above;

“It appears by Mr. Ogilive's report that in 1875, with a population of about 150 people, 31 deaths took place – one out of every five human beings in one year perishing from the disease. This awful mortality was doubtless exceptional, an epidemic of measles having been prevalent in the early part of the year; but this epidemic prevailed all over the colony, causing a considerable increase in the general mortality; yet when the mortality of the whole colony, about 17 per 1,000, is compared with that of Coranderrk, the discrepancy is appalling, the latter amounting to 193 per 1,000, or, in other words, for every person out of the general population who died, 11 deaths occurred at Coranderrk. Two out of the 31 deaths were caused by measles directly, but 4 others caught cold after measles; and 14 cases of pleuro-pneumonia and chest disease point but too surely to the draughty walls and roofs and to the damp floor of the huts as their cause. People attacked by such diseases scarcely have a chance of surviving in such hovels.”

Cont..

Cont..

I think we should give proper weight to the observations and conclusions of the Chief Medical Officer, who examined the mission first hand, and place it well above the Board's perspective. And if you forgive me, above your own assumptions.

Given the waste, the neglect, the attitude of the Board and its intransigence, and given the condemnation from Dr McCrea I feel the only conclusion that is possible was that these missions were about a 'final solution'.

Again I would ask you circumspect about creating the impression that these were actually good times for native peoples, actually I'm going to request you to do more than that, I'm asking that you recognise the deep injustices which occurred to the indigenous people in Victoria during that period and to condemn them.

You wrote of it being 'complicated'. No it wasn't. The good Dr. McCrea knew that. This was criminal neglect that resulted in an insanely high mortality rate and nearly saw off Victoria's indigenous population.

I invite you to acknowledge that fact.

Hi C. Steele,

I'm quite willing to condemn any injustices against anybody, including Aboriginal people in Victoria.

I'm not sure what you mean by:

"I think we should give proper weight to the observations and conclusions of the Chief Medical Officer, who examined the mission first hand, and place it well above the Board's perspective. And if you forgive me, above your own assumptions."

Sorry, what assumptions ? Are you referring to a possible lack of immunity of Aboriginal people to measles ? That disparity is amazing. It killed many people over here too, right into the 1940s.

And the poor quality of housing would have been responsible for a high proportion of the death-rate - small, one-bedroom places for a dozen people, no running water or sewerage system, wood-fires, etc. would have aggravated any chest complaints. No, it certainly wasn't all beer and skittles. But it also wasn't all that different from the hovels of Redfern or Collingwood of the time.

As for 'complicated', I was talking about the ins and outs of why Coranderrk was sold off and Lake Tyers bought.

Thanks,

Joe

You blokes seem to give a lot of credence to statements and reports by government officials.
Surely back then they just as sneaky as they are today.
People lived and they died it was a harsh land and a harsh time so who really cares. I can't find anybody in my peer group at the RSL.
Sorry its all academic at best.

Hi Chris,

Do you have evidence of how sneaky you say people were (surely they couldn't have been as sneaky as some people are now?!) ? Or is it just your gut feeling ? i.e. belief without evidence ? (which is called .... prejudice ?)

Cheers,

Joe

Dear Loudmouth,

You asked;

“Sorry, what assumptions?”

Well tell me if I am wrong but I gave a quote (in answer to your point about disease immunity) from Dr McCrae which he asserted the following;

“I enclose a printed copy of the report I made on that occasion, in which I pointed out the sanitary defects which, in my opinion, were the cause of excessive mortality.”

You did not acknowledge his message but went on to list “the many reasons why people died” including TB, polio, bloodpoisoning, accidents, snake-bite, horse rolling on them, marasmus, malnutrition, adulterated food, and grog.

I'm just wondering why you felt the need to make that point/those assumptions? I gave you the words of a medical professional, a man who had personally visited an aboriginal mission with the express purpose of ascertaining the reason for the horrendous death rates being experienced therein, who proceeded to give his professional opinion of the fundamental cause of these deaths, namely the totally unsanitary living conditions, and who then, with great clarity, gives a list of actions that needed to be followed to address the issue.

They included modifications to the huts, drainage, a hospital for contagious cases, better medicines on hand and better provision of medical services, and changes to the diet

These were attended to by the board in a most cursory manner and more lives continued to be lost as a direct result of their wilful inaction.

These poor unfortunate people died from neglect.

I accept you have offered an implicit condemnation of “any injustices against anybody, including Aboriginal people in Victoria”. I am wondering if you could afford us an explicit condemnation of the Victorian Board for the Protection of Aboriginals during this period?