Coranderrk
The struggle for rights 1850 - 1901
Journeys
Robinson and Gellibrand's travels through Victoria.
Establishment
Attitudes
Threat of Closure
Protest
Children
Legislation
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Extract Four
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'A very erroneous impression is generally prevalent regarding the power
of natives to withstand the vicissitudes of weather; it is assumed,
because in their aboriginal condition they were able, with little
clothing, and under the mere shelter of a mia-mia, to resist the
influence of severe cold and wet, that their dwellings should be
very open. This is a great mistake: the altered conditions in which
a comparative civilization places them render them much more obnoxious
to changes of temperature than when they led a savage life; the
circumstance of wearing clothing causes them to perspire more freely
in exertion, and the exposure to draughts under these conditions
renders them unusually liable to diseases consequent on suppressed
perspiration, and particularly to diseases of the lungs.'
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5. W. McCrea, Chief Medical Officer to the BPA, 24 March 1876, Board for
the Protection of Aborigines, 12th Report, 1876, pp. 21-22.
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© Museum Victoria Australia
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