Assimilation Act

The Assimilation Acts: Policy, Control, and Identity in Victoria and Australia (1937–1973)

MLA Educational Series — Indigenous Policy, Culture, and Resistance

From the 1930s to the early 1970s, Australia’s governments enforced a series of laws and policies known collectively as the Assimilation Policy. These policies aimed to absorb Indigenous peoples into white Australian society — socially, culturally, and biologically — under the guise of “protection” and “progress.”

In Victoria, assimilation was implemented through amendments to the Aborigines Acts, the authority of the Aborigines Welfare Board, and the closure or control of reserves such as Framlingham, Lake Tyers, and Coranderrk. These measures stripped Indigenous people of identity, language, and family while redefining belonging through racist classifications.

This article explores the development, enforcement, and legacy of assimilation policy in Victoria, examining how Indigenous families resisted and survived, and how this era shaped modern movements for rights, recognition, and truth-telling.

Origins of the Assimilation Policy

Assimilation emerged from earlier colonial systems of “protection” and “segregation.” Throughout the 19th century, state governments in Australia had established missions and reserves to isolate Indigenous communities. By the 1930s, this system evolved into one of forced absorption.

The 1937 Commonwealth-State Native Welfare Conference marked the official adoption of the assimilation policy across Australia. It declared that:

“All Aborigines and part-Aborigines are expected to attain the same manner of living as other Australians and live as members of a single community.” (Commonwealth of Australia, 1937).

In practice, this meant erasing Indigenous identity through education, employment, and family separation. Children of “mixed descent” were removed from families, while adults were encouraged or forced to abandon culture and language. The goal was not equality — but disappearance.

Victorian Context: From Protection to Assimilation

In Victoria, the groundwork for assimilation was laid decades earlier. The Aborigines Protection Act 1869 and the Half-Caste Acts of 1886 and 1890 already segregated Indigenous people based on ancestry, forcing families apart.

By the early 1900s, only two government-controlled reserves remained — Lake Tyers and Framlingham. The Aborigines Act 1910 gave the state continued authority to manage Indigenous lives, while later amendments allowed officials to decide who was “Aboriginal” and who was not.

When the Commonwealth adopted assimilation in 1937, Victoria followed quickly. The Aborigines Act 1957 (Vic) replaced the old Protection Board with the Aborigines Welfare Board, tasked with implementing assimilation in the state.

This Board pursued policies that:

• Closed missions and relocated residents into towns or white suburbs.

• Encouraged “suitable” Indigenous people to marry non-Indigenous partners.

• Removed children for training, domestic service, or adoption.

• Discouraged the use of Indigenous language or community gatherings.

The Board’s slogan was “integration,” but its effect was disconnection.

Lake Tyers: The Last Mission Under Pressure

By the 1950s, Lake Tyers Mission on Gunai/Kurnai Country was the last remaining government reserve in Victoria. Assimilation policy sought to close it and disperse its residents into urban areas such as Melbourne and Morwell.

The Victorian Aborigines Welfare Board claimed that dispersal would “improve living standards” by integrating residents into mainstream society. However, for the community, this meant loss of land, kinship, and security.

Elders such as Ivy Morgan, Bessie Rawlings, and Banjo Clarke organised resistance campaigns, petitioning the government to keep Lake Tyers open (Broome 2005). With support from the Aborigines Advancement League (founded 1957), they successfully fought against forced relocation.

Their activism culminated in the Aboriginal Lands Act 1970 (Vic) — which returned Lake Tyers and Framlingham to Aboriginal ownership. This victory marked one of the first legal recognitions of Indigenous land rights in Australia.

Framlingham and the Survival of Identity

Framlingham Reserve, established in 1861 on Gunditjmara Country, endured decades of government interference. Under assimilation policy, families were pressured to move into nearby towns, their reserve homes demolished or sold.

Children from Framlingham were targeted for removal under welfare laws, placed into foster homes or institutions like Turana Home or the Ballarat Orphanage (Pritchard 2012).

Despite this, Framlingham families sustained kinship ties and language through quiet acts of resistance. Songs, stories, and names were passed down secretly, ensuring continuity even when the state sought to erase it. Today, Framlingham stands as both a physical and symbolic site of survival.

Mechanisms of Assimilation

The assimilation system in Victoria operated through legal, social, and educational structures designed to enforce conformity.

1. Legislation and Classification
Government officials classified people as “Aboriginal,” “half-caste,” or “quadroon” — labels used to determine who could live on reserves or receive rations. Those deemed “too light-skinned” were expelled from communities and denied identity under the law (Markus 1990).

2. Education and Employment
Children were placed in “training homes” to learn domestic service or farm labour. Education was limited to manual skills and Christian morals — a deliberate denial of intellectual equality.

3. Removal and Family Separation
Under the Children’s Welfare Act 1928 (Vic), police and welfare officers had sweeping powers to remove Indigenous children. These removals intensified between 1940 and 1960, forming the Victorian chapter of the Stolen Generations (HREOC 1997).

4. Cultural Erasure
Speaking language or practising ceremony was discouraged or punished. Community gatherings were banned, and Indigenous names were replaced with English ones.

Assimilation was not only a policy — it was a structure of dispossession applied to the body, the mind, and memory.

Women, Children, and the Burden of Assimilation

Indigenous women bore the heaviest impacts of assimilation. Many were employed as domestic servants under government contracts that restricted their movement and pay. Others were separated from their children through the welfare system.

The 1950s and 1960s saw the rise of the “domestic training” model, in which young Indigenous girls were placed into white households to serve as maids or nannies. They were often isolated, underpaid, and denied family contact (HREOC 1997).

Mothers were deemed “unfit” for raising children based on racialised criteria of poverty or morality. Many never saw their children again.

The trauma of this period is remembered in testimony collected through the Bringing Them Home Report (1997) and the Yoorrook Justice Commission (2022), where survivors describe growing up believing their families were dead or “given away.”

Resistance, Activism, and the End of Assimilation

By the late 1950s, Indigenous activism in Victoria was gaining strength. The Aborigines Advancement League (AAL), founded by Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls and Margaret Tucker, became a leading voice against assimilation.

The AAL demanded land rights, education access, and legal equality — countering the paternalistic control of the Welfare Board. It published newsletters, held rallies, and established community support networks that united families separated by government policy.

Nationally, the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA) formed in 1958, coordinating campaigns across states. Their advocacy helped shape public opinion leading to the 1967 Referendum, in which Australians voted overwhelmingly to include Indigenous people in the national census and allow federal intervention in Indigenous affairs.

This referendum symbolically ended the era of assimilation, though practical reform would take decades longer.

The Shift to Self-Determination (1970s Onward)

In the early 1970s, assimilation policy was formally replaced by the principle of self-determination, recognising the right of Indigenous people to manage their own communities and affairs.

The Aboriginal Lands Act 1970 (Vic) returned Lake Tyers and Framlingham to Aboriginal ownership — a landmark victory in the state’s history.

Soon after, the Whitlam Government (1972–75) established the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, transferring control from state welfare agencies to Indigenous-led organisations.

In Victoria, this shift gave rise to new community-controlled services — including the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service (1973), the Aboriginal Legal Service (1974), and educational programs preserving language and heritage.

Assimilation officially ended, but its psychological and cultural impacts remain deeply felt.

Legacy and Reflection

The Assimilation Acts left generations of loss — of family, language, and identity — yet they also produced resilience, unity, and reform. The descendants of those targeted by these policies are now leaders in politics, education, and cultural renewal.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission (2022) continues to investigate the long-term effects of assimilation in Victoria, connecting historical policy to present-day inequalities in housing, health, and justice.

Truth-telling has become a process of healing — not only acknowledging the trauma of the Assimilation era but celebrating the endurance of Indigenous families who refused to disappear.

Conclusion

Assimilation was one of the most damaging chapters in Australia’s colonial project. Framed as benevolence, it was in reality a deliberate campaign to eliminate Indigenous identity through control, separation, and erasure.

Yet across Victoria, families at Lake Tyers, Framlingham, and beyond resisted with courage and wisdom. Their endurance transformed policy into protest and laid the groundwork for the self-determination movements of the 1970s and beyond.

Today, the descendants of those who survived assimilation continue to lead in the renewal of culture, law, and Country — ensuring that what was meant to disappear now stands stronger than ever.

References

Barwick, D. (1998). Rebellion at Coranderrk. Canberra: Aboriginal History Inc.
Broome, R. (2005). Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Commonwealth of Australia (1937). Conference of Commonwealth and State Aboriginal Authorities. Canberra: Government Printer.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1997). Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
Markus, A. (1990). Governing Savages. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Pritchard, J. (2012). Untold Stories: Framlingham and Its People. Warrnambool: Jan Pritchard.
Victorian Government (2022). Yoorrook Justice Commission Interim Report. Melbourne: Yoorrook Secretariat.

Written, Researched and Directed by James Vegter (22 October 2025)

MLA

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Magic Lands Alliance acknowledges the Traditional Owners, Custodians, and First Nations communities across Australia and internationally. We honour their enduring connection to the sky, land, waters, language, and culture. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and emerging, and to all First Peoples’ communities and language groups. This article draws only on publicly available information; many cultural practices remain the intellectual property of their respective communities.