What's the real story behind this "dragnet" of Tasmania?

October 20, 2009 1:00 PM

Was there some sort of giant 19th century human dragnet across Tasmania? What was the deal with it, exactly?

This quote is from a comment posted on the website of the Guardian, in relation to a report that finds sex trafficking to be "exaggerated."

Reminds me of what happened in Tasmania in the 19th century.

Apparently Aboriginal people were causing havoc amongst the invaders - no space to go into the rights and wrongs here. The government in Hobart, thought it so serious, a Highland-style clearance was in order.

They formed a human line, from one side of Tasmania to the other. They dragged the island, from one end to the other. No mean feat, as Tassie is half the size of Wales.

Three arrests were made. A couple of kids, and a very old lady or man.

& after that things continued much as before.

Does anyone know the story behind this supposed incident?

posted by Dee Xtrovert to society & culture (7 comments total)

I found this on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_War
Soon after, during the same year, Governor Arthur called upon every able-bodied male colonist, convict or free, to form a human chain later known as the Black Line, that then swept across the settled districts, moving south and east for several weeks in an attempt to corral the Aborigines on the Tasman Peninsula by closing off Eaglehawk Neck, the isthmus connecting the Tasman peninsula to the rest of the island, where Arthur hoped that they could live and maintain their culture and language. The Black Line was seen as a costly method as it proved unsuccessful in capturing more than a few Aboriginal Tasmanians and had the devastating side-effect of completely removing the local population from their land.

And this:
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?HistoryID=ab95&ParagraphID=izp
But the most shameful mistreatment of the Aborigines is in Tasmania. The natives here are particularly defenceless. Long isolated from the mainland (for as much as 10,000 years), they number fewer than 2000 when the British arrive in 1804. The settlers herd sheep on the Aborigines' hunting grounds and kill the kangaroos which are their main prey. When the native Tasmanians relatiate with acts of violence, the settlers attempt (in 1830) to round them all up by moving through the bush in a thin extended line.

This is the climax of the hostilities known as the Black War. It is a failure (only a woman and a boy are caught in the dragnet). But the number of the Tasmanians has already declined by this time to around 200.

Read more: http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?HistoryID=ab95&ParagraphID=izp#ixzz0UVbZelU7
posted by amethysts at 1:10 PM on October 20

I believe this is referencing the Black Line.
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:10 PM on October 20

The Black Line (Google search).
posted by cog_nate at 1:11 PM on October 20

FYI: Matthew Kneale's novel "English Passengers" does a great job of portraying Tasmania at the time of the Black Line.
posted by greatgefilte at 3:18 PM on October 20 [2 favorites]

Let the record reflect, this wasn't some "Hands Across America"* thing. Tasmania, by non-Australian standards is still an incredibly large place. The "line", such as it was, was a very slapdash, holey affair - more idea than reality.

This is in no way to minimise the true horrors, abuse and racism that the Tasmanian aboriginal community suffered from. Make no mistake, white settler Tasmanians did everything they could to disenfranchise and destroy the indigenous Tasmanian population, it's just that forming a true line was not something they had the means to do, however strong the desire.

*Note: My only knowledge of Hands Across America comes from that episode of the Simpsons
posted by smoke at 3:38 PM on October 20

Where the hell did they get "half the size of Wales" from? According to Wikipedia, Wales is only 20,779 km square. Tasmania's land mass is 68,401 km square. That would make Tassie three times the size of Wales.

There's an episode of the US show 'Forensic Files' that deals with a murder in Tassie and starts "Tasmania is a tiny island off the coast of Australia". Makes me laugh, it does.
posted by andraste at 5:30 PM on October 20

This was described in some detail in The Fatal Shore.
posted by media_itoku at 6:46 PM on October 20