William Thomas (Australian settler)

William Thomas (* 1793 in Westminster, England; † December 1, 1867 in Brunswick ) was an Assistant Protector of Aborigines, who gained confidence through his attitude and care for the Aboriginal people. Assistant Protectors were subordinates of the chief protectors and should serve to protect the Aborigines before the British colonizers.

Early years

William Thomas had French parents and his father was an army officer. He spent a year in Spain to studies at school and he opened a civilian school in the Old Kent Road in London. In 1837 he was selected by a committee in England to one of the four Assistant Protectors of the Aborigines in Australia in the Port Phillip District. For this he received a salary of 250 pounds and a free boat ticket with his wife Susannah and family.

Australia

He reached Sydney on August 3, 1838, came a year later in Melbourne. He worked with the Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson and settled in Narre Warren, where he lived in a primitive house. Thomas was responsible for the Warwoorong ( Yarra ) and Boonwoorong - Aboriginal people. He took detailed records of Aboriginal life and was marked by a high degree of people orientation.

The task of the protectors in Australia was terminated until 1849, but Governor Charles La Trobe, Thomas the wards for Bourke, Mornington and Evelyn from January 1850. Then he was up to his death, the chief adviser to the government in Aboriginal affairs and was very influential in the selection of committee members for the Committee of the Legislative Council on the Aborigines. Installed in 1860, the policy of the Aboriginal Protection Board.

He lost his sight two months before his death on December 1, 1867 in his home Merri Ville Lodge, Brunswick, Victoria.

Simon Wonga

When Simon Wonga, one of the tribal leaders of the Wurundjeri Aboriginal people and the son of Billibellary was seriously injured in 1840 while hunting at its foot, nursed him William Thomas and his wife Susannah two months healthy. During this time Thomas and Wonga Wonga got better acquainted and learned from him the European society understand. This understanding helped Wonga later in life when his people wanted to use parts of their traditional lands with permission of the whites. Thomas supported him even in a financial dispute with a landlord.