TitleBlanket List, Tewantin, 30 April 1881Additional Information
From the early 1800s, colonial governments in Australia, including Queensland's, initiated the annual distribution of blankets and rations to Australia's First Nations peoples. As Country was irrevocably altered, disrupting every aspect of traditional life, some members of the aboriginal population came to depend on the issue of blankets and other government rations for subsistence. 'Blanket Lists' were created by judicial officers, i.e. police or Justices of the Peace, detailing the particulars of those who were issued blankets.
These lists are representative of the time and demonstrate the way that indigenous people were named in official records, or not identified at all in the case of the 'females'.
For more information see
Blanket Lists (2011) Archive, State Library of New South Wales,
https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/history_nation/indigenous/blanket/blanket.html#:~:text=In%201814%2C%20Governor%20Macquarie%20initiated,1898%2C%20by%20Kerry%20&%20Co.&text=To%20account%20for%20expenditure%20on,to%20view%20this%20interactive%20content.
A transcription is provided for ease of reading
King Billy, Tuppernywoe 'King Tommy', Willie Dunn
Personal AuthorJohn Walsh, acting Chief of PoliceDate30 April 1881Published inInwards Correspondence, Colonial Secretary's Office
Queensland State Archives, Item ID ITM847044
DR66231 81/2024 (page 20)
See also Index:Correspondence - Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders, Colonial Secretary's Office 1859-1896.
https://www.publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/30d27611-1da0-4b34-b175-434686e794f8/resource/a360e286-8e2c-490b-a0b0-dc6d589f1582/download/colonial-secretarys-office-1859-1896-index-to-correspondence-aboriginal-peoples-and-torres-strai.pdfNumber of pages3