22 February 1835, Adventure Bay, Bruny Island, Van Diemen's Land, Australia
It had taken three trips via the converted whaler Prince George, but 229 Tasmanian aboriginals had been relocated from the mainland to Bruny Island, which had been set aside exclusively for their use, aside from the trading and whaling port at Adventure Bay. Many had been brought to Hobart Town via the exhortations and efforts of George Augustus Robinson, who was motivated to try and bring peace in the endless clashes between settlers and the indigenous inhabitants of the island.
It had followed a number of sad events in the mind of Robinson, most notably a massacre of over 30 aboriginals on the land of the Van Diemen Company and also the 1830 "Black line". George Arthur had allowed himself to be persuaded to change his policies from the strangest of places, namely John Batman, a well known terror of natives in the colony. Batman had sailed to Port Phillip the previous year and established a settlement, purchasing land from the local aboriginals for a nominal amount of blankets, clothes, axes, scissors, knives and mirrors. Whether the savages understood what they were agreeing to was another matter, but that was a matter for them and them alone. Motivated by this seeming success, Arthur had been only to happy to move the quarrelsome blacks from the areas of main settlement and the island of Bruny seemed a fair location where they could be out of sight and out of mind. Hence, he was to provide twenty bags of flour, knives, scissors, three spades, six mirrors, 50 axes, 20 sets of clothes and even two muskets and a small amount of powder. Reports indicated it left less than 40 natives on the island, not counting half breeds. Robinson was well intentioned and motivated by simple Christian charity, but a fool none the less in Arthur's opinion, yet such an accommodation had been encouraged from Sydney and in his own opinion would be beneficial in the long run, perhaps even to both parties.
Land was badly needed in any case, with the colony expanding at a rapid pace. In England, a survey conducted by hulk officials indicated that convicts "appeared to have a general wish for transportation", with the Antipodes seen as a chance to start a new life with a clean slate.