Wadjemup - Beyond the Shore

Pre-contact to 1619

• <30,000 years - A fertile environment cared for and occupied by the Noongar Aboriginal people of the south west of Australia.
• The rising sea level covers the lowland existing to the immediate west of Walyalup (Fremantle) resulting in the creation of Wadjemup, an island separated from the mainland.
• Though no longer accessible the Island, often indistinct in wintery conditions and the haze of summer, revered in mythological and cultural significance. 

European History 1619-1838

• 1619 - Sighted by Dutchman Frederick De Houtman's commander of the exploratory vessels Dordrecht and Amsterdam. 
• 1658 - Sighted by Samuel Volkersen, skipper of Dutch vessel Waeckende Boey who lands three times.
• 1696 Sighted by Willem de Vlamingh, skipper of Geelvinck, who names the island 't Eylandt 't Rottenest (‘Rats' Nest Island’).
• 1801- Crew from French frigate Naturaliste under the command of Captain Hamelin visit over a two-week period. 
• 1802 - The crew of the HMS Investigator under the command of Captain Matthew Flinders RN visit recording, collecting and documenting information.
• 1822 - Phillip Parker King, Captain of Bathurst, and his botanist Mr Cunningham visit during a circumnavigation of the Continent and leaving with a negative impression.
• 1826 - Exploration and surveying undertaken by the captain of the HMS Success, James Stirling who would become the first ‘Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Western Australia’.
• 1829 - Western Australia annexed for Britain. First British colonists arrive in June. Swan River Colony established.
• 1833 - The Noongar name ‘Wadjemup’ is acknowledged in the Perth Gazette Newspaper in April by correspondent Robert Menli Lyon who had spent time with Yagan, a respected Noongar leader, on the nearby Carnac Island.  
• 1836 - talks commence to segregate Aboriginal people from the colonist community in a prison.

Rottnest Island (Wadjemup) Aboriginal Establishment 1838-1899

• 1838 - Perth Gazette refers to a plan to convert Wadjemup into ‘a place of security for the confinement of such of the native inhabitants as may be guilty of any offences’. Legislative Act passes establishing a legal prison at Wadjemup. Governor Hutt’s stated intention was to provide a humane alternative solution to mainland incarceration and for the facility to be regarded as a training establishment. His intentions were interpreted differently by those responsible for implementation. 
• First 10 Aboriginal prisoners arrive at Wadjemup and were chained to a tree as no prison building exists

• 1839 - Salt House completed.
• 1840 - First ‘Protector of Aborigines’ appointed, Charles Symmons. 
• 1841- Prison Superintendent Henry Vincent’s house and outbuildings constructed by prisoners. 
• Accumulation of tons of salt, reaping of wheat and formation of gardens for vegetable production.

• 1842 - Henry Vincent charged with cruelty towards prisoners. Vincent acquitted.
• 1843 - Francis Armstrong ‘Interpreter to Aborigines’ endeavours to establish a native mission at Wadjemup. The project ceases after a very short time and those present return to the mainland.
• 1844 - Permanent Military Barracks completed.
• 1846 - Henry Vincent charged but exonerated on second charge of cruelty. 
• 1847 - House built for newly appointed ‘Moral Agent’ and storekeeper, Francis Armstrong.
• 1848 - First official pilot, Captain Back, arrives. Aboriginal prison population 44.
• 1849 - Nine Aboriginal prisoners escape. 
• Prison temporarily closed due to insufficient employment and all prisoners transferred to mainland.

• 1855 - Reopened as a penal establishment. Aboriginal prisoners transferred from mainland under the control of Henry Vincent.
• 1856 - The ‘Great Wadjemup fire’ affecting most buildings especially cottages, prison, stable and barn area. Prison warder charged with arson.
• 1857 - Vincent directs the construction of various farm and school buildings. 
• 1858 - Aboriginal prison population 36.
• 1862 - Construction of a new prison and government residence begins.
• Measles epidemic. 16 Aboriginal prisoners die. Death toll for the year 32. Complaints raised regarding Vincent’s abuse of prisoners.

• 1864 -A prison commonly referred to as ‘The Quod’ is constructed by Aboriginal labour working under slave like conditions.  
• 1865 - William Vincent, son of Henry Vincent, convicted of cruelty towards an Aboriginal prisoner.
• 1866 - Henry Vincent resigns following investigation of charges of cruelty against Aboriginal prisoners.
• 1868 - Aboriginal prisoners engaged in the gathering and bagging of salt which is transported and sold on the mainland. Aboriginal prison population 68.
• 1872 - Well known English novelist and civil servant Anthony Trollope visits and views a Corroboree that is staged involving 18 performers from one ‘tribe’. In his book entitled Australia and New Zealand he describes the event as the ‘best he ever saw’.  Aboriginal prison population 65.
• 1875 - Public concern raised about conditions in The Herald Newspaper with a headline ‘Rottnest: Native Paradise or Black Man’s Grave?’
• 1878 - Aboriginal prison population 80. 
• 1879 - First execution of prisoner (18 July 1879) – Tampin (867) for the murder of John Moir. 
• Commission of Inquiry into Prisons established. Rules and regulations for prisons drawn up.

• 1880 - Construction of Boys Reformatory begins.
• 1883 - Three Aboriginal prisoners executed at Wadjemup: Wangabiddie for the murder of Charles Redfern; Guerilla from the Kimberley for the murder of Anthony Cornish and one month later in July Nannacrow is executed for the murder of Charles Brackle. 
• Governor Broome appoints a Commission of Inquiry into Aboriginal Welfare in the State including at the Aboriginal prison on Wadjemup. Enquiry finds that affairs were generally conducted humanely; cells are unsatisfactorily small but in spite of these disadvantages Rottnest is a better location for Aboriginal prisoners than the mainland and that the majority of prisoners are from remote locations.

• 1884 - Aboriginal prison population 167.
• 1886 - Aboriginal Protection Act passed in Parliament. Aboriginal prisoner population 116, 87 of whom are incarcerated for killing livestock.
• 1888 - Last execution in June. Carlabangunburra (703) for the murder of Indyco. - Aboriginal prison population 60.
• 1889 - Two boys, Paddy Maloney (778) and Bagpipe (779), aged 10 and 11 respectively, charged with ‘hut robbing’ at Esperance Bay and sentenced to the Reformatory for six months with hard labour. They remain in detention for almost one month prior to being discharged to Bishop Salvado at the New Norcia mission. Correspondence associated with the case confirms the fact that another ‘little native boy’ had served time at the reformatory previously. Although these cases were unusual the severity of the sentences were similar to those imposed on non-Aboriginal boys.
• 1892 - Influenza epidemic but without casualties.
• 1895 - Prison population falls to its lowest figure for some time with an average of 40 for the year, significantly less than the number needed to ensure that the prison remained economical to run.
• 1896 - Parliamentary question regarding the opening to the general public following the removal of prisoners to the Abrolles Islands to work as labourers.
• 1897 - Influenza outbreak. This outbreak is mainly confined to prisoners from the north of the state who were unaccustomed to the cold winter conditions. 30 Aboriginal prisoners die with 17 in August alone.
• 1898 Death of Nardarook the last prisoner to die from illness (pneumonia). He was 45 years old. 
• Tadpole, a fifteen-year old boy, sentenced by the resident magistrate at Williams to 12 months detention at the Reformatory. He remained in detention for two weeks and was discharged by order of the visiting medical officer Dr Hope.

• 1899 - Royal Commission into Prisons announced. 

Wadjemup 1900-1931

• 1900 - Two Aboriginal prisoners Alboomera alias Willie (98,172, 6186) and Malmurchie (99) arrive from the Kimberley wearing only a shirt each and chained by the neck. Aboriginal prison population 50.
• 1901- The incarnation of the only female prisoner, Fanny Walganda (229) for a short period. 
• Boys Reformatory School closed. The juveniles were sent to the Salvation Army Senior Industrial School at Collie.

• 1902 - The Colonial Secretary recommends the closure of the prison and removal of the Aboriginal prisoners to the north of the State. 
• Parliamentary inspection occurs with a view to closing the Aboriginal prison ‘once harvesting of the crops had taken place’.
• Good conduct long-term non-Aboriginal prisoners from Fremantle Prison sent to work on improvements.
• Salt House closes due to the low number of Aboriginal prisoners.

• 1903 - Prisons Bill Debate – amendment to abolish Rottnest as a prison for Aboriginal people passes. Average number prisoners during the year 14. The highest number at any one time 25.
• 1904 - Rottnest ‘officially closed’ as an Aboriginal prison and proclaimed a Goal within the meaning of the Prisons Act 1903.
• 1905 - German anthropologist and collector Dr Hermann Klaatsch conducts anatomical studies and photographing the prisoners. Information returned to Germany.
• 1906 - Noted ethnographer Daisy Bates makes the first of her two visits to the Island collecting tribal information and compiling genealogies.
• Noted academic Ellen Lawson (Nellie) Walker visits and engages in anatomical studies.

• 1907- Declared a public park in perpetuity. Members of both Houses of Parliament along with people from the Fremantle Harbour Trust visit to inspect the progress of work being done by prison labour in preparation for the ‘opening up’ of the island as a ‘popular’ summer resort. 
• A comprehensive survey undertaken by AJ Lewis of the Lands Department identifies the existence of a cemetery both within his field book and on a preparatory plan adjoining the ‘recognised’ cemetery containing non-Aboriginal people.

• 1909 - The Premier announces the proposed closure of the prison pending the completion of improvements to the buildings to allow for public accommodation.
• For using his native language Henry Narriel (7528) is reprimanded and restricted to bread and water for three days.

• 1910 - The Colonial Secretary supports converting the Quod into accommodation for tourists.  Prisoners move to temporary camping facilities at ‘the Neck’ situated 8 km west of the main settlement to begin new road works. The Colonial Secretary, who advocated for the move, also recommends the establishment of a new ‘wood and iron prison’ for Aboriginal prisoners, to attend to the ongoing maintenance and the removal of all white prisoners’. Prison population 56, Aboriginal descent 20 and 36 good conduct non-Aboriginal men. 
• 1911 - Prisoners return from their camping facilities to the main settlement on instruction following a visit from the Minister. By mid-year prisoners accommodated in two large separate dormitories. The Aboriginal dormitory being inferior to that occupied by the non-Aboriginal prisoners.
• The Comptroller of Prisons, Queensland, Charles Edward de Fonblanque appointed a Royal Commissioner to enquire into the administration of Fremantle Prison and during the enquiry visited Wadjemup.

• 1912 - An Aboriginal life-saving brigade established and trained in the use of rocket fired equipment. The team remained in existence for several years one member replacing another as their sentence expired.
• Daisy Bates returns to Perth following an extended visit to remote areas in Western Australia during which time she collects additional cultural and genealogical information.
• Aboriginal prisoners still accommodated in a temporary ‘prison of small dimensions’ within the settlement area.
• Camping area fronting Thompson and Bickley Bays closes in favour of the ‘Plantation’ adjacent to the settlement. The new site described as ‘well shaded’ and near to the natural bathing pool and the newly erected amenities.
• Materials for the construction of a temporary shelter shed to accommodate both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal prisoners during the winter months arrives. The prisoners provide the labour for the construction of the building.
• New prison together with cookhouse, washhouse, woodshed and temporary warder’s accommodation known as the Salt House Prison constructed by prisoners under the direction of a training instructor. The Public Works Department expenditure to complete this work amounted to 692 pounds.

• 1913 - Allen Lester Buckmaster, Officer in Charge, stated ‘this Prison as it is so termed, is nothing less than a working camp of Aboriginal prisoners, whom the government has placed at the disposal of the Tourist Department’ in response to criticisms received by Frank Nicholas, visiting justice to Fremantle and Rottnest prisons.
• 1915 - Almost 1100 German, Serbian and Croatian internees arrive, some opting to undertake the arduous tasks such as carting materials for which they were paid two shillings per day. Aboriginal prisoners allocated to the same tasks were unpaid.
• Principal warder recommends the removal of prisoners from the island ‘during the tourist season’ but the Aboriginal prisoners remain.

• 1916 - Proposal to establish a new ‘white and native prison’ of around 120 acres (48 hectres) in area and enclosed by a cyclone fence to be situated to the immediate south of Lake Bagdad prepared. Prisoners clear the proposed site and commence the quarrying of material.  By the end of the year 23 corrugated huts, previously occupied by internees, were hauled to a site near the Aboriginal prison adjacent to the Salt House.
• 1917 - Sydney Edwin Smith of the Survey Department engaged to examines a site for a new Reformatory Prison.
• By mid-February nine huts are hauled from the Salt House site to the new prison site.
• Over two days the entire prison population is engaged in extinguishing a bush fire.      Prisoners each rewarded with a tin of meat for their efforts.
• Declared an A-Class Reserve for tourism.
• Rottnest Board of Control appointed to manage the Island.
• Prison population 40: 20 Aboriginal, 20 non-Aboriginal.

• 1918 - Seeking atonement for provocation and humiliation sustained over time Aeirbundy alias Albert Jackson (9642) kills Wooby alias Jimmy Dibbs (6978). Charged with wilful murder he is escorted back to the mainland where he escapes from custody, is recaptured, tried and sentenced to death with the recommendation of mercy. He gains further notoriety for endeavouring to escape on three occasions prior to his death at the prison hospital in December the following year.
• 1919 - Aboriginal prisoners assist to contain roaring bushfires that threaten to envelop the Island.
• A plan for a temporary Reformatory prison adjacent to Lake Bagdad completed by James Stoddard, a surveyor with the Public Works Department.
• A prison reserve proclaimed for the reformatory prison by His Excellency Sir William Macartney the Governor of WA.
• Petition presented to the State Parliament pointing out the inhumanity of bringing Aboriginal prisoners down from the north-west chained by the neck and given only a bare space of deck accommodation.
• Aboriginal prisoners commended for the production of ‘a very excellent sample of wheat’.

• 1921 - Decline in the number of prisoners sentenced to the Reformatory sees the facility close and a replacement established on the mainland.
• 1922 - Cabinet approved the closure of Wadjemup as a prison.
• Nine long-term Aboriginal prisoners transferred to Fremantle Prison where they are joined by two other prisoners, Hinajar alias Roger (10993) and Jimmy Newman (4699) prior to being transported to the Broome Goal. Their removal aligned to the growing number of tourist visitors.
• Reformatory Prison to be closed and prisoners temporarily transferred to Fremantle.
• Rottnest Island Board assumes responsibility for infrastructure.

• 1923 - Return of good conduct prisoners to complete necessary works.
• 1924 - Questions raised in Legislative Assembly regarding the use of prison labour by ‘non-government’ residents.
• 1927 - reference in the Western Mail to the existence of an Aboriginal burial ground containing the remains of 300 prisoners in the area set aside for camping. 
• 1931 - The last prisoner Maitland Narrier is escorted to the mainland in December. 
• 1936 - Daisy Bates in her 1938 semi-autobiography The Passing of the Aborigines, refers to a man named Jingooroo dying and his grave being ‘added to the many hundreds on the Island.’ 

Wadjemup 1932 -2020

• 1938 - Kingstown Army Barracks completed. 
• 1939 - Four thousand troops of the 5th and 10th Australian Garrisons arrive.
• 1940 - Defence Department take control. Civilian women and children evacuated.  
• 1945- Re-opens for tourism.
• 1953- Anecdotal reference to the existence of a ‘little native cemetery enclosed by a low line-stone wall’ in a book titled Isle of Girls by popular authoress Eleanor Smith.
• 1959 - Salt Works demolished.
• 1962 - Work team accidently uncover a number of graves in an area about 50 metres in diameter near the T-junction of the golf-course road and the road that runs between the lodge resort and Garden Lake. The remains are buried in a sitting position in rows of trenches about 60cm apart.
• 1970 - Burial ground acknowledged in the manager’s report to the Rottnest Island Authority Board stating that there were ‘hundreds of skeletons’ in the area to the immediate north of the Quod. The discovery was reported to the Protector of Aborigines.
• 1985 - The location of the Aboriginal burial ground where around 400 Aboriginal men are buried is identified by the Aboriginal Sites Department.    
• Rottnest Island Management Plan Report delivered. Recommendations include the recognition of the Aboriginal burial site and the development of guidelines for future development.

• 1986 - Confirmation as to the area of the burial ground with the discovery of bones within the old prison quod and the infirmary.
• 1988 - Proposal to redevelop and extend the tourist potential of the Quod met with protests from over 200 Aboriginal people. Concerns about the neglect of the cemetery site (previously used as a holiday camping ground) raised.
• 1988 - Administration of Wadjemup handed to the Rottnest Island Authority Board.
• 1989 - Work ceased on Rottnest Lodge due to the 19th century Aboriginal burial site in the area. 
• Workers locate cultural items, including a glass spearhead and a message stick.
• Aboriginal people seek to have the area declared a ‘sacred site’- application rejected by the Supreme Court.

• 1990 - Aboriginal Sites Department requests Curtin University to assist to locate the extent of the burial site
• 1992 - The location of the Aboriginal burial site location is re-fenced to provide permanent protection.
• 1993 - Premier Richard Court addresses a State-wide Aboriginal representative group during the year of Indigenous Peoples and acknowledges Wadjemup to be the largest Aboriginal deaths in custody burial site in Australia.
• 1994 - Proposal to acknowledge the significance of Wadjemup to the Aboriginal community throughout the state presented to the Premier.
• 1995- Chronological History of Rottnest Island published by the Government of Western Australia.
• 1997 – The highly acclaimed book by Neville Green and Susan Moon, Far From Home, is published.
• 1998 - Two hundred Aboriginal people representing different language groups from across the state visit and march in procession to the burial ground where they offer their respect to the dead. A spokesman for those gathered requests that the area be fenced, a plaque erected, and Aboriginal people employed to supervise the work.
• 2006 - First Aboriginal person, Karen Jacobs, appointed to the Rottnest Island Authority Board.
• 2007 - Camping area removed and relocated away from the Aboriginal Burial Ground northwest of the Quod.
• 2009- First Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) focusing on aspects such as cultural understanding, creation of employment opportunities and educative signage adopted with Aboriginal people from throughout the State in attendance. 
• 2012 - A revised RAP recommits the Rottnest Island Authority Board to continue the intent outlined in the original document.
• 2014 - Short film Wadjemup: Black Prison White Playground produced by Aboriginal film maker Glen Stasiuk detailing both the history of incarceration and more recent developments is released.
• 2017 - Cabinet approves the establishment of the Wadjemup Aboriginal Reference Group (WARG) to provide advice to the Rottnest Island Authority Board and Executive Director on a future strategy for the Aboriginal Burial Ground; and possible future use of the Quod.
• 2018 -The Quod closes as tourist accommodation.
• 2020 - Consultation commences to memorialise the Aboriginal history of Wadjemup.