Author Description

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, 2014) has published the journals that concern Victoria (1839-1852). This volume is the second volume in a series that will publish the Papers of GA Robinson that concern Port Phillip/Victoria. These will include Letterbooks (1839-1848), Correspondence (1839-1852), Official Reports (1841-49); Aboriginal Vocabularies (1839-1852); and Miscellanea. Volume One, the Chief Protector's Office Journal (1839-1850), has already been published. This present volume is Volume Two: Aboriginal Vocabularies, Southeast Australia, 1839 - 1852. The entries in this volume have been collated from one volume of Robinson's Papers (Vol. 65, Aboriginal Vocabularies: South East Australia, 1839 - 1852). Robinson's collection of Aboriginal vocabularies from south-eastern Australia is perhaps the largest source of information on the languages of the area that we have, certainly it is the most varied. It covers practically every area of Victoria as well as some adjacent areas of South Australia and New South Wales. Indigenous people seeking to reclaim their languages and linguists working on these languages will now have for the first time easy access to the complete collection faithfully transcribed by Ian Clark.