AUS-Tasmania-L Archives

Archiver > AUS-Tasmania > 1998-12 > 0912665862


From: Joan Fawcett <>
Subject: Tassie History
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 17:17:42 +1100 (EST)


taken from the Warrnambol Examiner 1867..............

A few months ago, a curious tablet was found under the old Tasmanian
Government House at Hobart.
This was a proclamation by Governer Davey in 1816.
As the aborigines could not understand a printed or written proclamation,
the Governer had it translated into a pictorial form.
A photograph of the original tablet has been brought to us, and it conveys a
proclamation in a very graphic and original manner.
In one group, two men, two children and two women, alternately black and
white, are drawn together,-the white woman holding a black picaninny, and
the black woman a white child.
This of course represents peace and concord.
In the next group a black chief with his followers is kindly recieved by the
Governer and his soldiers.
The next two groups represent British justice.
In one a blackfellow spears a white, and is hanged in return.
In the other a white shoots a black and is also strung up.
Though small, the tablet is drawn with much spirit, and represents its
meaning very clearly.
As a memorial of the earlier days of Tasmania, it must be a very interesting
to all who have lived in that beautiful colony.

all the best
Jenny Fawcett

This thread: