The Act

In 1894 Archibald Meston was appointed Special Commissioner of Police in Queensland and asked to find solutions to the increasing ‘problem’ of indigenous affairs. The result was the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 which came into operation on 1st January 1898.

Meston was appointed Chief Protector and his police sergeants became local protectors. Combined they had the authority to strictly control all aspects of an Aboriginal person’s life.

Aboriginal people would now be subject to ‘Work Agreements’, a permit system managed by a protector. One aim of the legislation was to eliminate the serious abuses of Aboriginal labour, particularly in the maritime industry. The police commissioner had directed the protectors ‘to resort to its drastic provisions only where necessary to put down abuses and wrong doing, and in all cases where the blacks are kindly treated and their well-being assured not to disturb the status quo.’

The distribution of rations was also subject to The Act and far from being a response to deteriorating health conditions, it served the dual purpose of deterring cattle killing and controlling the movement of Bama through food supply.

In Bloomfield, a local dispute erupted when Meston declared Robert Hislop unfit to distribute rations because he had Bama children. Bloomfield residents, including Robert Baird, disputed the charge saying ‘there is no man who has had more experience and who is better qualified than Hislop who looks after his children not like the majority’.

Walter Roth, the local protector visited Bloomfield in February 1898 and noted three hundred Bama were living at Bloomfield, sixty at China Camp, two at Olufson’s Granite Creek selection and two at Baird’s Connemara. Roth was unable to visit Connemara but he reported that Robert Baird looks after his children.

At the time Robert was listed in the Post Office Directory as a storekeeper. He continued to cater to the needs of the Chinese mining gangs and tin-scratchers and in his capacity as a Justice of the Peace conducted an inquest into an accidental drowning at Baird Creek.

Norman, ten years old, was attending school at China Camp with younger brother Charles. Here he learnt to read and write, and judging by the letters Norman wrote later in his life he was a receptive student. While ensuring his two boys received a sound education, Robert also encouraged them to learn the Yalanji ways.

It was during these lessons that Norman learnt about the ancient knowledge of the land he later described as his ‘childhood home on the Bloomfield’. It was this knowledge of the bush that proved to be essential to his survival when a removal order was issued for him many years later.