Tas That Was – Wybalenna

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this article contains the names of people who have died.

For thousands of years before British colonisation of Tasmania began in 1803, Aboriginal people lived across the island. The Furneaux Group was only occupied during ancient periods when Tasmania was still connected to mainland Australia.

Conflict between British settlers and Aboriginal Tasmanians began shortly after the colony of Van Diemen’s Land was established. During the 1820s and early 1830s, violent clashes known collectively as the Black War devastated many Aboriginal communities. In response, the colonial authorities sought to remove surviving Aboriginals from the Tasmanian mainland.

In the early 1830s, lieutenant-governor George Arthur supported George Augustus Robinson’s efforts to persuade Aboriginal groups to relocate by promising protection and the eventual opportunity to return to their ancestral lands. Several temporary sites were used during this process, including Swan Island and a settlement called ‘The Lagoons’ on Flinders Island.

In 1833, Wybalenna was established on Flinders Island as a permanent settlement to accommodate Aboriginal Tasmanians who had been forcibly removed from their homelands. Around 200 of them – all from different tribes and language groups from across Tasmania – lived at Wybalenna during its existence. Many had been promised that they would one day return home – but this never occurred.

Life at Wybalenna was strictly controlled, and attempts were made to suppress traditional cultural practices in favour of Christianity and European ways of living. Housing and nutrition were inadequate, and the Aboriginal residents were exposed to diseases they had no immunity against. The forced separation from their ancestral lands also caused them profound social and emotional suffering.

As a result of all this, mortality at Wybalenna was devastatingly high. More than 150 Aboriginal Tasmanians died at the settlement or while being transported there.

Among those associated with Wybalenna were prominent Aboriginal figures like Truganini and Mannalargenna. Mannalargenna was a leader of the Trawlwoolway clan in north-eastern Tasmania and had cooperated with Robinson in the belief that his people would be protected, but he died at Wybalenna in 1834. His death became symbolic of the suffering experienced by many of the Aboriginals confined at the settlement.

The colonial government closed Wybalenna in 1847, and the remaining Aboriginal residents were transferred to the Oyster Cove area south of Hobart. The settlement’s buildings were abandoned and fell into ruin, with the chapel becoming the main surviving structure.

Despite its importance to Tasmanian Aboriginal history, Wybalenna received limited public recognition for much of the twentieth century.

In 1986, investigations identified the location of multiple unmarked Aboriginal graves at Wybalenna, prompting greater public awareness of the site’s historical and cultural significance.

A decade later, in 1996, management of Wybalenna was transferred from local government authorities to the local Aboriginal community. In 1999, the Tasmanian Government formally gave ownership of the site to the Aboriginal community as an act of reconciliation.

Today, conservation and restoration of Wybalenna is an ongoing process, with the local Aboriginal community advocating for additional resources and funding, as well as protection from acts of vandalism.

References & bibliography

• A Timeline of Tasmanian Aboriginal History (Tasmanian Geographic)
• ‘Virtually a concentration camp’: The all-but-forgotten story of Australia’s Wybalenna (SBS News)
• Former Aboriginal settlement Wybalenna restoration work starts on Flinders Island (ABC News)
• Vandalism at Wybalenna site on Flinders Island condemned by Aboriginal community, police and politicians (ABC News)
• Tasmanian Aboriginal History in the Furneaux Region (Flinders Council)
• Furneaux History (Flinders Council)
• Flinders Island (Our Tasmania)
• Flinders Island, Tasmania (National Museum of Australia)
• The Flinders Island Aboriginal Association website

Tas That Was is a column that includes:

• anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past;
• historical photographs of locations in Tasmania; and/or
• documentaries about locations in Tasmania.

If you have an anecdote or photograph you’d like to share with us, please send it to submit@tasmaniantimes.com.

Callum J. Jones is passionate about telling stories. He studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania and lived in Western Sydney from 2022 to 2024 while working as a journalist for Professional Planner, a leading online publication for financial planners. Callum has written for Tasmanian Times since 2018 and has also been published in a range of other outlets, including Quadrant and the BAD Western Sydney anthologies.

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