William Thomas (Protector)

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William Thomas (* 1793 in Westminster , England , † December 1, 1867 in Brunswick ) was an Assistant Protector of the Australian Aborigines , who gained trust through his attitude and care among the Aborigines. Assistant Protectors were subordinates of the Chief Protectors and were supposed to protect the Aborigines from the British colonizers.

Early years

William Thomas had French parents and his father was an army officer. He spent a year in Spain for school education and he opened a civil school on Old Kent Road in London . In 1837 he was selected by a committee in England to be one of the four Assistant Protectors for the Aborigines in Australia in the Port Phillip District. For this he received a salary of £ 250 and free ship passage with his wife Susannah and family.

Australia

He reached Sydney on August 3, 1838, and arrived in Melbourne a year later . He worked with Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson and settled with Narre Warren, where he lived in a primitive house. Thomas was responsible for the Warwoorong ( Yarra ) and Boonwoorong Aborigines. He kept detailed records of Aboriginal life and was characterized by a high level of humanity.

The role of the Protectors in Australia was scheduled to run until 1849, but Governor Charles La Trobe hired Thomas to take care of Bourke , Mornington and Evelyn from January 1850. Subsequently, he was the chief advisor to the government on Aboriginal affairs until his death and was very influential in the selection of committee members for the Committee of the Legislative Council on Aborigines . In 1860, politics installed the Aboriginal Protection Board .

He lost his sight two months before his death on December 1, 1867, at his Merri Ville Lodge home in Brunswick, Victoria.

Simon Wonga

When Simon Wonga , who was one of the tribal leaders of the Wurundjeri Aborigines and the son of Billibellary , injured himself seriously in his foot while hunting in 1840, William Thomas and his wife Susannah nursed him to health for two months. During this time Thomas and Wonga got to know each other better and through him Wonga learned to understand European society. This understanding helped Wonga later in life when his people wanted to use parts of their traditional land with white permission. Thomas also supported him in a financial dispute with an innkeeper.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Australian Dictionary of Biography , accessed July 19, 2009
  2. ^ Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen: People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days , pp. 32-33, Merri Creek Management Committee, 2001 ISBN 0957772807
  3. ↑ Simon Wonga in the State Library of Victoria. State Library of Victoria , accessed July 19, 2009 .
personal data
SURNAME Thomas, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION last male "thoroughbred" Tasmanian
DATE OF BIRTH 1793
PLACE OF BIRTH Westminster
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1867
Place of death Brunswick