Black Line
As Black Line (German: Black line ) refers to a human chain in 1830 for forcible expulsion of all Aboriginal people on the island of Tasmania was used. The British deployed 2,000 armed men over a period of five weeks in October / November 1830 under the command of George Arthur .
The Black War (German: Black War ), which had never been officially declared war and with the help of which the first European settlements were built on Tasmania, began around 1803 and reached its peak in 1820. The armed conflicts of the Black War took place with the Black Line came to a violent end, because with this measure almost all Aborigines of Tasmania were captured and deported. The Black Line was a human chain that consisted of 500 soldiers, 700 settlers and 800 convicts and stretched from north to south of Tasmania . Reports indicate that two Aborigines were killed in the process. With the help of this chain it was possible to drive the Aborigines from their ancestral tribal areas in favor of the British settlers. After the completion of the Black Line, 50 Aborigines were captured from December 1830 to February 1835, who returned to the traditional settlement areas and about 200 more Aborigines from other areas of Tasmania were deported to Flinders Island in the Bass Strait . Numerous captured Aborigines who were detained during this period died in the period between capture and deportation.
The war waged against them in Tasmania had drastic consequences for the Aborigines. In 1823 there were 2,000 Aborigines in the war zone. By 1831, 448 of them had been murdered.
In February 1835, the Chief Protector of Aborigines George Augustus Robinson reported to the colonial secretariat in Tasmania responsible for these measures that the entire population of Tasmania's Aborigines had been deported into exile to Flinders Island. With the deportation of the last Aboriginal family in 1842, the expulsions of the ethnic group ended.