The Papers of George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate: Volume 4: Annual and Occasional Reports 1841-1849

The journals and papers of George Augustus Robinson (1788-1866), the Chief Protector of Aborigines of Port Phillip from 1839 to early 1850, are a rich source of historical and ethnohistorical information. His voluminous private papers and journals were acquired by the Mitchell Library in New South Wales in 1939 from the estate of his son Arthur P. Robinson of Bath, England. The papers did not arrive in Sydney until 1949, their departure from England being delayed by their possible destruction in transit during the second world war.

N.J.B. Plomley (1966, 1987) has published the journals that relate to Robinson's period in Tasmania (1829-1838), and Ian D. Clark (2000) has published the journals that concern Victoria (1839-1852).

This volume is the fourth volume in a series that will publish the Papers of GA Robinson that concern Port Phillip/Victoria. These will include Letterbooks (1839-1848), Official Correspondence (1839-1852), Annual and Occasional Reports (1841-1849); Aboriginal Vocabularies (1839-1852); Family Correspondence, and Miscellanea. Volume One, the Chief Protector’s Office Journal (1839-1850), Volume Two, Aboriginal Vocabularies (1839-1852), and Volume Three, Miscellanea have already been published.

This present volume is Volume Four: Annual and Occasional Reports (1841-1849). The entries in this volume have been collated from three manuscript volumes of Robinson’s Papers: Vol. 59 Correspondence & Other Papers both Official and Private, Port Phillip Protectorate, Official Reports, 1841, 1845; Vol. 60, Correspondence & Other Papers both Official and Private, Port Phillip Protectorate, Official Reports, 1846, 1847; and Vol. 61, Correspondence & Other Papers both Official and Private, Port Phillip Protectorate, Annual Reports of the Chief Protector, 1844-49.