Letters show level of government control in Queensland

Under the Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939, the Queensland Government exercised extreme control over the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the state. They controlled aspects of life such as where people lived and how they managed their money, including their government payments.

These letters from 1963 reveal examples of this at Mapoon and New Mapoon on Cape York Peninsula. The letters are between Alex Cox, Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS) in Brisbane, and HJ Goodes, Director-General of DSS in Melbourne.

History of forced relocation

One way the Queensland Government controlled Aboriginal people’s lives was by forced movement or relocation, which they called ‘transfers’ in these letters.

The government had first pushed Aboriginal people to live at a mission at Mapoon, established in 1891 on the lands of the Tjungundji people. Throughout the early 20th century, the government removed many Aboriginal and South Sea Island people and relocated them to the mission.

Then, in the 1950s, the government gave the land to a mining company without consulting the community (Kidd 1997:192–208). To clear the land, the government began to move people to other communities, including some to New Mapoon, over 200 kilometres north.

In the early 1960s, conflict in Mapoon intensified as residents resisted moving away. State government authorities began to stop resources and rations reaching the community. In mid-1963 authorities began to ‘redirect’ government payments of people who resisted moving from Mapoon (Kidd 1997:221).

Incentives to move and ongoing financial control

At the same time, the Queensland Government authorities tried to offer financial incentives to people to move to New Mapoon.

This file shows, for example, that people who moved to New Mapoon were supposed to get the full amount of their federal government payments directly. Previously, government payments were made to the mission who managed the money, often using most of the amount as revenue.

Even so, state government officials still had lots of control over the community’s money. The Brisbane DSS Director wrote that state authorities managed people’s bank accounts and audited their spending. At New Mapoon, he said all trading was done at the local store, which was also overseen by Queensland state authorities.

Forced and violent removal of people at Mapoon

By the time these letters were written in April to June 1963, most people had been moved away from Mapoon. Those who didn’t comply with the government’s ‘transfers’ were forced to leave. In November 1963, the Director of the Queensland Department of Native Affairs sent police to physically remove people who didn’t want to move and to burn down their houses (Jimmy in Gilbert 1977:279–280; Wharton 1996).

These letters and other sources from Mapoon and New Mapoon show the government’s ongoing control of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lives, including their finances and where they lived.