Stolen Generations

By Joel brennan

  • Aborigines Protection Act

    The Aborigines Protection Act (Vic) creates an Aborigines Protection Board in Victoria, giving the Governor power to order the removal of any child from their family to a reformatory or school

  • NSW Aborigines Protection Field

    The NSW Aborigines Protection Board is established to manage the lives of 9,000 people

  • The Aboriginal Protection Act (Qld)

    The Aboriginal Protection (Qld) allows the Chief Protector to remove local Aboriginal people. The Director of Native Welfare is the legal guardian of all 'aboriginal' children whether their parents are living or not until 1965.

  • The Aborigines Act (WA)

    The Aborigines Act (WA) is passed. Under the act, the Chief Protector is made the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and 'half-caste' child under 16 years old.

  • Aborigines Protection Act (NSW)

    The Aborigines Protection Act (NSW) gives the Aborigines Protection Board power to full custody of the child of any Aborigine if a court found the child to be neglected under the Neglected Children and Juvenile Offenders Act 1905 (NSW).

  • Aborigines Act (SA)

    The Aborigines Act (SA) makes the Chief Protector the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and 'half-caste' child. The Chief Protector is replaced by the Aborigines Protection Board in 1939 and guardianship power is repealed in 1962. The Northern Territory Aboriginals Ordinance (Cth) gives the Chief Protector power to assume custody of any Aboriginal or 'half-caste' if it is deemed 'necessary' or 'desirable'.

  • The Aborigines Protection Amending Act (NSW)

    The Aborigines Protection Amending Act (NSW) gives power to the Aboriginal Protection Board to separate Indigenous children from their families without the need to establish neglect in court.

  • Infants Welfare Act (Tas)

    The introduction of the Infants Welfare Act (Tas) is used to remove Indigenous children on Cape Barren Island from their families.

  • The first Commonwealth/State conference

    The first Commonwealth/State conference on 'native welfare' adopts assimilation as the national policy.

  • Aboriginal children under the policy of 'protection'

    By 1969, all states have repealed the legislation allowing for the removal of Aboriginal children under the policy of 'protection'. In the following years, Aboriginal and Islander Child Care Agencies are set up to contest removal applications and provide alternatives to the removal of Indigenous children from their families.

  • The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle

    The Aboriginal Child Placement Principle is introduced in the Northern Territory, aiming to ensure that Indigenous children are placed with Indigenous families when adoption or fostering is necessary. This is followed in NSW (1987), Victoria (1989), South Australia (1993), Queensland and the ACT (1999), Tasmania (2000) and Western Australia (2006).

  • Commonwealth Government

    The Commonwealth Government establishes the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families.

  • The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission

    The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) presents 'Bringing Them Home', its report on the findings of the 'National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families to the Commonwealth Government'. The report made 54 recommendations, including a formal government apology, monetary compensation and other reparations to members of the Stolen Generations. The parliaments and governments of all states and the ACT issue apolog

  • HREOC releases the 'Social Justice Report'

    HREOC releases the 'Social Justice Report', which includes a summary of responses from the churches, and non-Indigenous community to the Inquiry's recommendations, and an 'Implementation Progress Report'. The National Archives of Australia launches its Bringing Them Home indexing project to identify and preserve records about Indigenous people and communities. The National Sorry Day Committee is formed to organise an annual National Sorry Day on 26 May to commemorate the history of forcible re

  • Corroboree 2000 “Sorry" Walk

    Over 250,000 people participate in the Corroboree 2000 “Sorry" Walk across Sydney Harbour Bridge on 28 May. Similar walks are held in the other State and Territory capitals. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expresses concern about the Australian Government's decision not to make a national apology or consider monetary compensation and criticises its inadequate response to recommendations from Bringing Them Home. An inquiry into the Federal Government's implementat

  • Commonwealth Government establishes a memorial to the Stolen Generations at Reconciliation Place in Canberra.

    The Commonwealth Government establishes a memorial to the Stolen Generations at Reconciliation Place in Canberra.

  • National Day of Healing for All Australians".

    The National Sorry Day Committee announces that Sorry Day will become a “National Day of Healing for All Australians". The first official Sorry Day ceremony outside Australia is hosted in Lincoln Fields, London, on 25 May.

  • The Tasmanian Government

    The Tasmanian Government sets up Australia's first Stolen Generations compensation scheme through the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Children Act 2006 (Tas).

  • Prime Minister Kevin Rudd

    Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the Australian Parliament, makes a historic national apology to the Stolen Generations.