Why were surviving Tasmanian Aboriginal people taken to Flinders Island?

Between 1831 and 1835, the remaining Tasmanian Aboriginal people—numbering approximately 200—were relocated to Flinders Island in the Bass Strait.21

This removal was orchestrated by George Augustus Robinson, an agent of Lieutenant Governor George Arthur, ostensibly as a final effort at conciliation. The primary goal was to shield the Indigenous population from the ongoing hostility, violence, and dispossession they faced on the Tasmanian mainland during the Black War.213

Tragically, this forced resettlement failed to protect them. Once on the island, the survivors were subjected to alien diseases and attempts to force them to adopt European ways of life, which destroyed their traditional social organization and led to a rapid decline in their population. By 1847, the few remaining survivors were moved back to the Tasmanian mainland.31