bout time ... seriously it is exactly like staying at Auschwitz ... no i am not overacting. With the settlement on the Swan River in 1829 there was a serious attempt to establish a colony on the island. By 1830 there were a few farmers on the island and in 1831 the town of Kingston was proclaimed. Thomson Bay is named after Robert Thomson who took up land on the island in 1831. The white settlement failed and by 1838 Rottnest Island had become a prison for Aborigines from all over Western Australia. Thomson surrendered his land holdings in 1839 and was the last person to privately own land on the island. There is a great diversity of opinion on the conditions of the Aboriginal prison. The English novelist Anthony Trollope declared that the Aborigines enjoyed wonderful conditions while Daisy Bates (probably more of a realist) wrote of the near genocide and the appalling conditions which prevailed. Rottnest remained a prison for Aborigines until 1903.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 08:33:46 +0000
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