Rations, coexistence, and the colonisation of Aboriginal labour in the South Australian pastoral industry, Robert Foster
IntroductionBy the close of the nineteenth century Aboriginal people were the principal source of labour in the South Australian pastoral industry. The value of their labour derived from the unique type of relationship that developed between Europeans and Aborigines on pastoral stations. This paper examines the contribution of two hitherto neglected aspects of government policy in the shaping of these relationships: the systematic distri bution of rations, and the protection of Aboriginal customary rights on pastoral lands. That pastoralists considered these factors significant is demonstrated in the final sec tion, which examines how they successfully resisted government attempts to regulate the employment of Aboriginal people and disturb the status quo.
The significance of Aboriginal labourWhen the colony of South Australia was planned, the possibility that Aboriginal people might be a significant source of labour was never seriously contemplated. It was, after all, a colony based on Wakefieldian principles where labour would be imported along with capital.1 It was Aboriginal land that the colonists wanted; if Aboriginal labour proved valuable, then this was a bonus, but it was not an expectation.2 There was, how ever, an expectation that Aborigines would learn 'habits of useful industry'. Children at the Native Schools in Adelaide were given vocational training, with boys taught agri cultural skills and girls instructed in the domestic arts. Some attempts were made to put young men trained at the schools into apprenticeships, and girls into service, but most found the isolation unappealing and preferred to return to their communities. These early attempts at 'training' Aboriginal people had more symbolic than practical worth. The first serious engagement of Aboriginal people in the colonial economy occurred during the Victorian gold rush of the early 1850s when a massive labour exo dus created an unexpected demand for Aboriginal labour. Where pastoralists had been driving Aboriginal people off their runs, they now offered them good rations and some times even wages, if they would shepherd their sheep. For a period of time during the 1850s many pastoralists, particularly in the southern parts of the colony, were heavily reliant on Aboriginal labour.4 By the end of the 1850s, as European labour returned and fencing reduced the demand for shepherds, the need for Aboriginal labour diminished. Henceforth, the significance of Aboriginal labour in the southern settled districts was marginal; not only were their numbers small, but they competed with a much larger pool of European workers.The story was very different in the north and west of the colony. In these areas, where European labour was more difficult to attract and the economic viability of the industry was more marginal, Aboriginal labour grew steadily more important until, by the 1890s, most observers agreed that it had become essential....
