Auber octavius neville biography of rory van

The Act also created the Department of the Native Affairs, of which the Commissioner was head, and extended the powers of that role. The Commissioner was the legal guardian of every Aboriginal child in Western Australia to the age of 21 years. Auber Octavius Neville, former Chief Protector of Aborigines from , was the first Commissioner for Native Affairs and a fierce proponent of assimilation policies.

In his favour he attempted to learn all he could about the Aborigines, by travelling all over the state, even exploring areas in the north that were still almost unknown. Thus he became known throughout the whole of Australia as an authority on the administration of Aboriginal minorities.

Chief Protector, it was his successors, in particular Auber Octavius Neville, who would extract the full potential of the Aborigines Act as an instrument of.

When he retired at the age of sixty-five both Aborigines and non-Aborigines paid tribute to his achievements. And was aware that their pitiful conditions were due to the attitudes and actions of their conquerors. He fought throughout his working life to change these attitudes, thus bringing upon himself many attacks in the state parliament and the newspapers.

Many of his attempts to help the Aborigines were thwarted by a series of penny-pinching governments. Neville was particularly worried by the plight of the increasing numbers throughout the state of the part-Aborigines, and was an advocate of taking them away from their families in order that they should have the benefit of a western- type education.

Educated Aborigines from the south-west, whose legal and social status plummeted as a result of his measures, saw Neville as their main adversary. Throughout his tenure, Neville travelled widely throughout the State to see Aboriginal people and the conditions in which they lived. His many photographs are held in the Battye Library.

Neville was succeeded in the post by Francis Illingworth Bray in Bray, who had been working in Aboriginal affairs in Western Australia since , was Commissioner until Middleton continued in the role of Commissioner of Native Welfare from