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Board for the Protection of Aborigines
Victorian Board for the Protection of Aborigines is established. The Governor can order the removal of any child to a reformatory or industrial school. The Protection Board can remove children from station families to be housed in dormitories. -
Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act
The Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act (Qld) allows the ‘Chief Protector’ to remove local Aboriginal people onto and between reserves and hold children in dormitories. -
Western Australia Aborigines Act
The Western Australia Aborigines Act is passed. Under this law, the Chief Protector is made the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ child under 16 years old. Reserves are established, a local protector is appointed and rules governing Aboriginal employment are laid down. -
South Australian Aborigines Act
The South Australian Aborigines Act makes the Chief Protector the legal guardian of every Aboriginal and ‘half-caste’ child under 21 years old. The Chief Protector also has control of where the child lives. The Chief Protector is replaced by the Aborigines Protection Board in 1939 and guardianship power is repealed in 1962. -
The NSW Aborigines Protection Board
The NSW Aborigines Protection Board is given powers to remove Aboriginal children without a court hearing. This power is repealed in 1940, when the Board is renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board -
Going Home Conference
Going Home Conference in Darwin. Over 600 people removed as children, from every state and territory met to share experiences, and expose the history of the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and the effects of this policy on Aboriginal people. -
National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families
The National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families is established to examine the effects of separation, identify what should be done in response, find justification for any compensation and look at the laws of that time affecting child separation. -
Bringing Them Home Report
Publication of the Report Into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, more commonly known as the Bringing Them Home Report. An abbreviated version is called ‘Bringing them Home - Community Guide’. The inquiry made 54 recommendations, e.g. reparations and an apology to Aboriginal peoples. -
Sorry Books campaign
Australians for Native Title (ANT) launches the Sorry Books campaign where Australians can sign who want to do something in response to the federal government’s refusal to make a formal apology to the Stolen Generations. -
Social Justice Report
HREOC releases the Social Justice Report 1998,
which includes a summary of responses from the churches, and non-Indigenous community to the inquiry’s recommendations plus an Implementation Progress Report. -
Statement of deep and sincere regret
Federal Parliament issues a statement of deep and sincere regret over the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families. -
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Australia appears before the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The Committee criticises the Commonwealth Government’s inadequate response to recommendations of the Bringing Them Home Report -
The government denies that a ‘Stolen Generation’ exists
The government denies that a ‘Stolen Generation’ exists in a submission to the Senate inquiry on compensation for children forcibly removed. -
first member of the Stolen Generations is awarded compensation
The first member of the Stolen Generations is awarded compensation in the NSW Victims Compensation Tribunal for the sexual assault and injuries she suffered after authorities removed her from her family. Valerie Linow was 16 when she was working as a domestic servant for a family and suffering sexual assault and violence. -
The Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs
The Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) commissions and releases an independent evaluation of government and non-government responses to the Bringing Them Home Report. -
Memorial to the Stolen Generations
The Commonwealth Government establishes a memorial to the Stolen Generations at Reconciliation Place in Canberra. -
The organisation Stolen Generations Victoria
The organisation Stolen Generations Victoria is set up as a result of the 2003 report of the Stolen Generations taskforce. Its purpose is to establish a range of support and referral services that will assist Stolen Generation peoples to reconnect with their family, community, culture and land. -
Stolen Generations compensation scheme
The first Stolen Generations compensation scheme in Australia is set up in Tasmania by the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Children Act 2006 (Tas). The Tasmanian government allocated $5 million to Aboriginal people who qualified for the compensation package. -
$525,000 in compensation
In a landmark court case a member of the Stolen Generations has been awarded $525,000 in compensation by a South Australian court for a liftetime of sorrow and pain [2]. Bruce Trevorrow was taken from his father aged 13 months. -
Both the government and the opposition support the apology and say ‘sorry’ to Aboriginal people
Both the government and the opposition support the apology and say ‘sorry’ to Aboriginal people who were taken away from their families from 1900 to the 1970s. The apology has no legal effect on the ability of Aboriginal people claiming compensation. -
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