The Labor government just won the federal election, and the new Prime Minister has announced his full support of the Uluru Statement.

I have not blogged about the Uluru Statement for a while now, so it’s a good time for an update. I’m not going to write about the Uluru Statement in any detail here, but the goal of this post is to place it in a context.

The decolonisation era

The constitutional convention at Yulara was held in 2017, coinciding with the 50th year anniversary of the 27 May 1967 referendum. This May 2017 date seemed to be a soft-target date for getting “something” done in the years leading up to the convention. The date – 27 May – is still being floated now as a candidate for a future Voice referendum.

The 1967 Referendum was in one way – very successful, as it had a high “Yes” vote. In another way, it was an absolute failure.

7 years beforehand in 1960, the members of the United Nations in the General Assembly passed a landmark resolution to rid the world of colonialism. They set a plan into action.

Franchise colonies were to be decolonised in a transparent process overseen by the “Special committee”/C24 committee. Settler colonies were to be decolonised in domestic processes led by settler-colonial states themselves. The result is there are two different, but parallel decolonisation processes are running side-by-side.

The action of C24 committee decolonising franchise colonial states ironed out a lot of the technical details as to how decolonisation happens. These details then fed back into the processes run behind domestic walls in settler-colonial states.

In Australia, the first attempt at decolonisation was during the 60’s. It was an attempt at “Integration” of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by granting them “equal citizen rights”. Integration is one of the three main pathways established by the UN as a valid form of decolonisation. In Australia, this included a lot of different sub-projects – the biggest being the 1967 referendum itself. The 1967 Referendum succeeded, Aboriginal people got “equal citizen rights”, and according to the UN rules, Australia was temporarily decolonised.

Temporarily. The 1967 referendum was ultimately a failure, because it’s goal was to decolonise Australia. But a spanner was thrown in the works from Africa.

Spanner in the works

After 1967, all seemed well and good. The Australian Federal Government had a new, reformed races power that it didn’t even use for several years. It didn’t need to use it – the 1967 referendum was to simply change the constitution to make it appear from the outside that all people of the Australian territory are equal in terms of citizen rights.

But something happened in Africa. In 1965, a white, settler minority, in a franchise colonial state went rogue from their European Crown, and declared independence. The UN rules were changed in response. The change in rules closed a loophole that Australia had relied on, and undid all of the work done in the 60’s including the 1967 Referendum. This is why 1967 was ultimately a failure.

1970 was the 25th year anniversary of the United Nations Charter. In commemoration, the Friendly Relations declaration was made. The African “spanner” was embedded inside of this declaration in a section on colonialism. The new rules meant that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people now have to decide themselves that they want to integrate. Affirmative consent is now needed.

1970 to the Uluru Statement

From 1970 onwards, there has been a continual conga-line of committees, reports, panels, rep bodies, proposals – all working towards the goal of decolonising Australia. It has taken many different forms, and has also been continually shaped by the ongoing and parallel decolonisation of franchise colonial states by the C24 committee, and also by contemporary international Human Rights law.

The Uluru Statement is simply the end of a long conga-line of expensive fails. But after so many failures, this current proposal is fully optimised.

Firstly – the basic political solution was engineered. Next – the proposal was optimised for the benefit of corporations, of “Australians”, and to minimise Aboriginal claims for reparatory justice. On top of that, experts in risk management have identified and put in place strategies to minimise risks of failure.

The marketing of the proposal to different groups is also very well thought-out. It is a bit like a slimy used-car sales tactics. It is not based on outright lies – that would legally be fraud and risk invalidating it. But there is plenty of creative use of language, exploitation of common misunderstandings and exploiting a general apathy for politics. Smoke and mirrors. There is a lot of appeal to emotion, especially to white-guilt. Aboriginal dissent to the proposal is being carefully neutralised by re-framing and re-direction. Often, dissent is redirected in a way where it still looks like dissent, but it actually supports the proposal.

How do I know this? I have been watching very closely. I have reverse-engineered the proposal in a technical sense. I can see what is happening. It’s genius what they are doing. Every time I think I see they made a ‘mistake’ – I bite my tounge/keyboard, I wait a few months, a few years… I wait, and watch. Then the ‘mistake’ is fixed. As far as I can tell, the ‘mistakes’ are now all ironed out. It’s show time.

As Australia has such a complicated foundational problem, the Uluru Statement solution is a complicated solution. If I try to simplify it – it ends up sounding ridiculous because I am fighting through a sea of misunderstandings. I’m scared my efforts won’t be enough. I’m scared that it’s too late to stop.

I try my best to explain what I have found in my blog. I write in lengthy detail, it might be boring to read. The historical stuff is also important because it all fits together. Maybe I sound pretentious, I am not really – I am just an INTP. I am not a wanna-be academic, I am expressing myself. Normally I don’t bother sharing my ideas because by the time I put my theories together I have gotten bored and already moved onto the next “thing”. But this time is different because it is so important for our people.

I know my target “audience” of my work will be very small. I’m not doing this for clicks.

My goal is that our people know what they are entitled to as colonised peoples, and they can use that information to make their own choices. The Uluru Statement will limit choices, and will set our people up for permanent failure.

They have stolen an entire continent. This is NOT a “gammon advisory-only body”, it is far more complicated. No expense is too high to spend securing their Stolenwealth. Do not underestimate this proposal.

In 1998 there was a high profile court case called Kartinyeri v Commonwealth. This was part of a larger drama which played out for years decades. I remember it being on TV all the time – where people would make snarky remarks about “secret women’s business” and dodgy, private developers being supported by taxpayers.

You can google it yourself (if you want to go down a rabbit-hole) but to briefly summarize for the purposes that I’m going to write about: this is what happened.

• A developer wanted to build a bridge to Hindmarsh Island.
• Some Aboriginal women objected, citing that to build a bridge would violate their women’s law. The Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act (1984) could possibly support the women’s claims and stop the construction of the bridge.
• John Howard passed the Hindmarsh Island Bridge Act (1997). This basically cancelled the The Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act (1984) for the purposes of building the bridge.
• The women challenged the Hindmarsh Island Bridge Act in court (Kartinyeri v Commonwealth(1998)). They argued that the Bridge Act was a law that relied on the races power in the constitution, and that it was invalid because the races power can only be used to pass laws beneficial to the Aboriginal race as per the result and the “vibe” of the 1967 referendum. The court decided against the women and said – the vibe of the referendum doesn’t matter, the wording of the races power matters and there is nothing in the wording limiting Australia to freely pass racially discriminatory laws.

I think the Kartinyeri case was a collusive lawsuit of the colonial variety. The end result was that the federal government ended up with not only the power to racially discriminate against the “Aboriginal race”, but also the power to hone-in that discrimination to apply not just to “a race”, but to a small, localised group of Aboriginal women. From this case onwards, the government are not even using the power as a “races power” anymore. The scope and flexibility of the power has been greatly extended. This was demonstrated during the NT intervention – where is was used in a regionalised manner and only applying to certain Aboriginal communities.

I think it is INSANE that this is still the case today. The races power is ridiculous. It isn’t even used “for the people of any race” – it is used to single-out political communities.

Hindmarsh Island

The location of this bridge is relevant, and tells a larger story. Here is a map showing where Hindmarsh Island is, with very rough reddish-shading where the Murray Darling Basin is;

It is in South Australia. It’s at the mouth the Murray Darling catchment. The Murray Darling runs into a big lake, and inside that lake lies Hindmarsh Island. The Murray Darling Catchment is significant in terms of British colonial claims over the land, click this text to see a previous post on this.

Here is a map from that post;

This story links in with the Myall Creek Massacre trial. The Myall Creek Massacre was as far as I know, the ONLY massacre of Aboriginal people (out of literally hundreds of them) that the British bothered prosecuting. WHY??

The reason they prosecuted is that the British Crown cherry-picked this case to demonstrate that the were “protecting” the interests of the natives within the “no-man’s land”. It was a way for the British to imply to the international community (ie. other colonial powers) that they have First Discovery over the no-man’s land, without having to make an explicit declaration.

For the British to make an explicit First Discovery declaration over the no man’s land would be a problem, because to do so, it would be necessary to specify which land is, and which land is not already under British/Dutch/other First Discovery. By 1838 when the massacre trial was held, this was already a very complicated and unclear situation due to the 1824 Anglo Dutch Treaty. It is still now unclear who has First Discovery over what parts. At best, one can guess some scenarios. I have speculated on some scenarios throughout this blog, but these are more “best-fit” scenarios inferred from British behavior. I am a blogger, not the International Court of Justice or a Colonial power – I am just reading the room.

Under the Doctrines of Discovery, a river basin can be treated as a single geographical unit. So the British can possibly extend this implied First Discovery claim (via exercise of protection in the Myall Creek massacre trial) to include the entire Murray Darling basin.

The state borders in south-east Australia are drawn up to take advantage of the basin claim, with QLD, NSW, VIC and SA all having a bit of Murray Darling basin in them. QLD and NSW have direct Cook-explored coastline. VIC also has Cook explored coastline if you ignore his fudging of the map at Point Hicks. This is all done to hedge bets on alternate basis’ for British First Discovery claims across different colonies. SA does not have Cook-explored coastline, but has the river mouth (claim the mouth, claim the basin= Doctrine of Discovery principle). The First Discovery claim of SA is 100% reliant on the British extended Murray Darling basin claim, as Cook never went anywhere near SA. I think this is the main reason why there was a difference in the status of Aboriginal people in SA in the letters patent establishing the colony compared to eastern-seaboard states – as the British knew their First Discovery claim was particularly fragile there, necessitating better treatment of the natives (at least on paper).

That demonstration of “protection” done in Myall Creek massacre trial was effectively overturned in Hindmarsh Island controversy. The court basically ruled that the races power can be used against the interests of the natives. Under the Doctrines of Discovery, protection of natives means protection of ALL their interests. Colonisers need to at least pretend that moving-in on native people’s land is in the native peoples’ benefit – at minimum by making an agreement involving exchange of blankets and flour. The argument in the High Court was whether or not the races power is limited to beneficial laws. Under the Doctrines of Discovery – yes – the First Discovering power has a fiduciary obligation to the natives – this means only beneficial laws are allowed. But unfortunately, this is not the argument used by the lawyers arguing that side. They chose a much weaker argument. They used the argument from the movie, The Castle. “It’s the vibe of it” (“it” being the 1967 referendum). This backfired, and now the races power is used against our interests.

This is a big deal. It is a shift in Australia’s colonial foundation. The implication of that is – as of Kartinyeri v Commonwealth, the British are no longer maintaining their implied First Discovery claim over the Murray-Darling, as they have thrown the fiduciary duty out to the dogs. Note – they are doing this in 1998.

1998. ONE YEAR BEFORE THE 1999 REPUBLIC REFERENDUM!

This is the British wiping their hands of responsibility it as much as possible before Australia becomes a republic. It’s tying-up loose ends.

Poetic irony…

In Myall Creek Aboriginal people were massacred. At Myall Creek, the British Crown decided to protect the lives of those Aboriginal people who were massacred. (Not that it really helped, in the long-run it drove future massacres underground)

Some of the massacre victim’s blood perhaps flowed into the creek, down and around Hindmarsh Island, then out to sea.

The British used the blood of massacre victims, and the trial to open up and claim more land in the river basin for themselves. They put on a façade to the world of protecting the natives.

After the British took all the land, at Hindmarsh Island 160 years later, the perfect case went through the courts to decide – nah, we don’t give a toss about Aboriginal interests, and we will discriminate against Aboriginal people as we please. The location is so ironic – that it is as if this location was hand-picked especially for this case.

Australia’s foundation story is like a cross between a metaphorical snowball of lies, and an onion.

There was a foundational lie at some stage, which just kept accumulating more and more lies, like the snowball getting bigger while rolling down a snowy hill.

But in the case of Australia’s foundational story, the snowball has a structure like an onion. There are distinct layers. When something needs to be hidden – they simply add a new layer on the outside.

There are at least three layers in the onion. There may be more, but I will write here about the layers I have found:

The inside layer is that the Dutch discovered New Holland, which later changed hands to the British in a complex legal settlement. Aboriginal people were the natives of New Holland – who according to the British interpretation of the legal settlement made with the Dutch became trespassers circa year 1836, and were therefore legally cleared off the land.

The middle layer is the one that lasted the longest amount of time. James Cook discovered the entirety of “Australia” for the British. The British then moved themselves in, treating the land as if it were a terra nullius.

The outer layer is the newest layer. It started growing in about the 1980’s, and hasn’t finished growing yet. The implementation of the Uluru Statement will finish off this layer and will also hide all the layers underneath. This outer layer is that Aboriginal people are the “First Australians”. They settled “Australia” 60,000 years ago, they were subsequently joined by a latter wave of British settlers, and then by people of other ethnicities. As Aboriginal people only had a spiritual interest in the land, they had no concept of materialism. Therefore, their land could not be stolen as they had no concept of ownership.

Personal anecdote

I just wanted to share a related personal anecdote. I went through about 10 years worth of Australian school curriculum history. I learnt the “middle layer” exclusively – the terra nullius curriculum. I was in grade 6 when terra nullius was overturned. The school curriculum must have taken a few years to catch up with the High Court – because up until grade 9 (when I stopped history as a subject) school was still embedded with the terra nullius doctrine. As an Aboriginal student, this was very awkward and embarrassing to sit through some lessons. It made me feel like society places a value less than zero to being Aboriginal. Our existence was not even worth acknowledging.

In retrospect, I am grateful for the experience. It taught me that “facts” are open to interpretation, and it taught me to take everything with a grain of salt. It bred a natural skepticism, and helped nurture an ability for seeing things from perspectives other than my own. It’s an ability that has served me well in life.

When I got to grade 12, my school was about to have it’s annual awards night. I didn’t study very hard, because I only needed to get pass grades to get into my chosen university course. So as my grades were good but not great, I didn’t expect to have to go to the awards night. But I, along with another student named Mitchell Johnson got special invitations to the awards. I expected that Mitchell would get the sports student of the year as he was very good at tennis and cricket (he went on to become a famous cricket player). But I didn’t know why I was invited to the awards night.

At the awards night, right at the end of the night when there was only a handful of awards left including dux – I was announced as the school’s inaugural “Aboriginal Student of the year”. I was shocked, confused, conflicted and angry when I heard my name announced. My own people’s identity had been denied by the school curriculum through most of my education, and now I’m getting an award for being Aboriginal?! WTF?? But as I was walking up to the podium get my award, I got a message from my ancestors. I won’t say here what the exact message was. But it immediately calmed me. Nobody would ever know how furious I was when I heard my name announced that night.

What happened that night was that I experienced a “glitch in the Matrix”. I never really understood until now – that I was caught in-between the layers of the onion.

The making of the outer layer

Many people welcome the recent acknowledgment of past atrocities such as the Stolen Generations and the massacres.

But a word of caution…. False narratives are always made from a mixture of both truth and fiction.

The cheating husband will not lie more than he has to. He will construct a story that is mostly true, otherwise it becomes too hard to keep up with all the lies. The more elements of the story that are blatantly false – the higher the chance of being caught-out.

The same goes for the outer layer of the onion. It has elements of truth – yes, there were stolen generations and massacres. And these truthful elements are not in the terra nullius onion layer, so it may appear that the outer layer is more truthful. But a small spoonful of truth helps the swallowing of the lies. Overall the “First Australians” narrative is a lie – simply there to obscure what is underneath, and to create a nice, clean foundation story for Australia.

Real truth-telling is dissecting the onion and peeling back the layers. It is not covering up everything with more lies.

There is a line in the Uluru Statement that says:

“With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.”

In this post, I will write about what “substantive constitutional change” means.

Substantive:

One of the meanings of the word substantive is: considerable – serious, big or significant.

But another meaning is: Of, or relating to the substance of a thing.

Substantial => Substance. Makes sense!

Constitutional:

The other word here is constitutional. This can mean one of two different things;

• One is that it is to do with the Commonwealth of Australia Contitution Act. This is a DOCUMENT, that is sometimes described as “Australia’s birth certificate”. This is also called the Big “C” constitution.

• Another meaning of the word constitution is the MAKE-UP OF SOMETHING. Australia is made up of a federation of colonies that call themselves “States”. If the fundamental make-up of Australia would change, but without changing the words on the “birth certificate” – that would still be a “constitutional change”. This is also called Small “C” constitution.

What is “substantive constititional change”

Put this together – “substantive constititional change” could mean a couple of different things.

• It could mean a big overhaul of the Constitution Act, as in the document. A significant re-writing of the “birth certificate” document.
• It could also mean a change to the substance of the make-up of Australia.

Pretty much everyone is being misled to believe that it is a change to the Constitution ACT – the birth certificate. But it isn’t. No one’s putting forward any suggestions as to what to put in a significant re-write.

The Uluru Statement asks for a fundamental change to the federation, to the make-up of Australia itself.

It substantially changes the federation by retrospectively adding a FIRST NATIONS STATE as a landless, seventh state.

“First Nations” are sovereigns of the soil, and by retrospectively becoming part of the federation of Australia, First Nations will replace the sovereignty of the British Crown as the source of authority on which Australia and it’s institutions run. This is what the second part of this line the Uluru Statement is referring to when it says:

“this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood”

This does not need any change to the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act. To add a new state (or in this case, retrospectively recognise a First Nations state, pretending like it was always there) does not need a change to the words of the Constitution Act. It can be enacted through a declaration. In this case, this will be done by the Declaration of Recognition, part of the reforms that no one talks about.

The Referendum

Another thing to note is that the word “referendum” DOES NOT APPEAR in The Uluru Statement. It appears in the “OUR STORY” annex to the Uluru Statement in the Referendum Council Final Report, but only in reference to the 1967 referendum. THE ULURU STATEMENT DOES NOT ASK FOR A REFERENDUM! The Referendum Council recommended a referendum – but that is just that – merely a recommendation.

It is not the referendum that we need to worry about.

They will continue with the circus show – arguing over whether the Voice should “be enshrined” first, or the Agreement-making, blah blah blah…. The Voice-Treaty-Truth order doesn’t matter – because THERE IS NO ORDER! Read the Referendum Council Final Report – it does not ask for any particular order! The arguing over the order is just to drum up controversy and press.

More circuses/drama is drummed up over how such-n-such politician, or such-n-such party is bad because they want to co-design a voice first (even though the Referendum Council Final Report specifically asks for that!), or such-n-such is bad because they don’t call a referendum yesterday.

Don’t be distracted by the circus!

HOW TO STOP THE ULURU STATEMENT

If we want to protect Aboriginal sovereignty – we need to listen to Tony Abbott!

Tony Abbott said:

“The first thing is that we’ve got to come up with some words, an amendment that is meaningful for Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders. It’s got to speak to, it’s got to sing to them, OTHERWISE THEY’LL WASH THEIR HANDS OF IT”

Abbott said this because he knows – that’s how we have the power to stop any government-engineered reforms. By WASHING OUR HANDS OF IT!

So wash your hands of everything that the Statement asks for.

• No Treaty from the government. This includes anything called “agreement making”, and treaty with State governments.
• No Truthtelling from the government. Government can “tell the truth” if they want. You can continue to stand in the truth – just don’t take special govt money to do it.
• No Voice. Boycott it!

Boycott until the government admits that it’s failed, and is off the table.

Note also this. There are many people and organisations that are actively PUSHING us towards at least one of these elements of Voice/Agreement Making/Truth – even those who pretend they are against the Uluru Statement. Eg. “We don’t want to be in the constitution, we want a Treaty”. If a treaty is made while the Uluru Statement is still on the table – the treaty will be what’s called an Instrument of Accession, and any terms that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people negotiate will be only enforceable domestically. It will be a GAMMON TREATY. There can be no proper treaty with any Australian government until the Uluru Statement is ABOLISHED.

In James Cook’s claim of the east coast, he specifically mentioned RIVERS.

 I now once more hoisted English Coulers and in the Name of His Majesty King George the Third took posession of the whole Eastern Coast from the above Latitude down to this place by the Name of [blank, later filled in with Wales, changed to New Wales, then changed to New South Wales], together with all the Bays, Harbours Rivers and Islands situate upon the same said coast

https://www.captaincooksociety.com/home/detail/21-august-1770

There is precedence in this era that RIVERS means River catchments. This includes surrounding land that if rained on, will drain into those rivers. Cook is not claiming “up to the high-water mark” as some claim, Cook is claiming a portion of the land. The precedence for a claim on rivers is from north America with the Mississippi and Colombia rivers which were claimed as whole catchments by various European powers. The idea is, if you discover the mouth of a large river system – you can put a settlement at the mouth and claim the catchment, especially when a large, continental-sized landmass is concerned.

Above is a screenshot from Google Earth that I have added some overlays. Everything to the east of the light-blue line is what Cook claimed First Discovery of if you interpret his claim of “rivers” as meaning pacific-flowing catchments.

The Orange Line in this map is also very important. I will keep referring to this line throughout this post as the Orange Line. This is with capital letters because it’s a thing I found, there’s no name for it – so that’s what I’m gunna call it! I picked Orange because of the association with the Netherlands.

This Orange Line extends down to skirt the east coast of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman planted a flag claiming first discovery on the east coast of Van Diemen’s land. I would say, at the time it was commonly understood that everywhere to the west of the Orange Line was part of the Dutch East Indies. This is evident because no other European colonial power went anywhere near trying to claim New Holland between 1642 and 1770. This is almost 150 years of recognition from the colonial community, that the territory is under Dutch First Discovery.

At the time, the Torres Strait was not commonly known of, neither was the Bass Strait. The island Papua, mainland Australia and Tasmania were; as far as most Europeans knew, part of a single land mass under Dutch claim. Everything west of this Orange Line is under Dutch first discovery claim.

In 1762, the British occupied Manila in the Philippines, which was a Spanish colony. Alexander Darlymple translated documents that were found in naval archives in Manila during the occupation. There, Darlymple “discovered” the Torres Strait by reading accounts of Torres’s passage from La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo (in Vanuatu) through the Torres Strait to Manila. This showed the British that there was a geographical separation between the island of Papua and mainland New Holland/Australia. This is a very significant strategic discovery, which Cook was sent on his first voyage specifically to exploit.

The existence of the Torres Strait weakens the Dutch first discovery claim over mainland New Holland. The reason is this: the Dutch had treaties with the Sultanate of Tidore. The Sultanate of Tidore in turn, had some kind of jurisdiction over part of the island of Papua. So, if Papua and New Holland are part of the same land mass, and the Dutch have a treaty with Papuans – then the Dutch have treaty with the peoples of the single Papua/New Holland/Van Diemen’s Land landmass. But the existence of the Torres Strait means that the Dutch DO NOT have a treaty with any people from the New Holland landmass.

Cook’s Voyage

Cook’s first voyage was to exploit Alexander Dalrymple’s finding in the Manila naval archives. Firstly, it’s commonly known that Dalrymple was the brains behind Cook’s first voyage. Dalrymple revealed the existence of the Torres Strait by publishing a book while Cook was out on the voyage exploiting that knowledge. The book is very revealing as to his overall strategy, what Dalrymple knew, and what he thought was important.

The real secret instructions of Cook’s voyage was not to find terra australis incognita, but to claim any land parts of New Holland that lay east of the Orange Line for the British.

However, this means Cook needs to be able to accurately locate the Orange Line. This presents a technical challenge. Cook needs to locate the Orange Line without actually going down to Van Diemen’s Land. If he goes down to Van Diemen’s Land – his cover story about going to Batavia for repairs is blown.

So Cook located the Orange Line mathematically. Cook used an extract of Tasman’s journal by Dirk Rembrantse. This is clear in his journal entries on 18 April and on 20 April;

By our Longitude we are a degree to the Westward of the East side of Van Diemen’s Land, according to Tasman, the first discoverer’s, Longitude of it, who could not err much in so short a run as from this land to New Zeland; and by our Latitude we could not be above 50 or 55 Leagues to the Northward of the place where he took his departure from.

Cook’s journal, 18 April

However, every one who compares this Journal with that of Tasman’s will be as good a judge as I am; but it is necessary to observe that I do not take the Situation of Vandiemen’s from the Printed Charts, but from the extract of Tasman’s Journal, published by Dirk Rembrantse.

Cook’s journal 20 April

If you look at Rembrantse’s extract, it becomes clear that Cook has measured his estimation of the location of the Orange Line by measuring a longitudinal offset backwards from Murderer’s Bay/Cape Farewell.

Coordinates in Rembrantse’s Extract	Longitude
Murderer’s Bay/Cape Farewell (NZ):	191d 41min
Where Tasman claimed possession (Van Diemen’s Land Princes Flag):	167d 55m
Difference:	23d 46min

Cook’s Journal also says on the 18th:

At Noon our Latitude by observation was 38 degrees 45 minutes South, Longitude from Cape Farewell 23 degrees 43 minutes West

So you can see here – Cook’s goal was to go 23 degrees 46 minutes westward from Cape Farewell/Murderer’s Bay, and on the 18th April he has hit that target.

The problem is – Cook’s estimation of the Orange Line is only as accurate as Tasman’s given coordinates. And Tasman himself – had fudged the coordinates in order to hide some strategically valuable, sheltered harbours on the south coast of Van Diemen’s Land. So Cook ended up placing the Orange Line much further east than it actually is. On the 18th April, Cook thinks he has crossed the Orange Line, and he writes as much in his journal. Cook also – does not make any landing attempts until he is back on the east side of what he believes the Orange Line is (at Bulli).

See the map below – this shows a yellow line. This yellow line is what Cook mistakenly thinks is the eastern limit of Dutch first discovery. This is why Cook does not attempt to go ashore until he gets to Bulli. Bulli lies exactly on the yellow line. Cook is a VERY impressive navigator and hit Bulli SPOT ON. The problem is Tasman’s coordinates were not accurate.

Also note, the green line is the track that Cook took. Note the initial northward deviation up to 37 degrees, 17 minutes South, and correction back further south. This correction southward makes no sense if he is heading for Batavia. The correction is because he has secret instructions to hit the New Holland coast at latitude 38 degrees. This is because once he gets to the Torres Strait, he knows he is to claim possession of the coast down to 38 degrees south. This is also why Point Hicks is misplaced on Cook’s charts.

This is also why BOTANY BAY is important – and not Port Jackson, or any of the other nice bays southward along the NSW coast. For a long time, convicts spoke of and even sang about going to Botany Bay, when they were actually going to Port Jackson. It is because Botany Bay is the first sheltered harbour that is outside of Dutch first discovery zone according to Cook’s 1770 calculations. The entire colony hangs on Cook’s claim of First Discovery of Botany Bay, hence why the name Botany Bay prevailed to mean the colonial settlement which was not even at Botany Bay.

The British/Dutch border

So the Orange Line is, kind of a preliminary border between Dutch New Holland and British New South Wales.

The British sent explorers over the Great Dividing Range in order to get a foothold in land that is outside of the Pacific water catchment, yet still east of the Orange Line. The British could have just set up settlements at various points along the coast that they had claimed – but no. They were prioritising westward expansion, because that potentially gave them first discovery claim over more territory. The map below I will show the area – the no-man’s land that they had their eyes on;

This black area is technically a no-man’s land according to the Doctrines of Discovery. It is east of Tasman’s claim – the Orange Line for the Dutch, and outside of Cook’s claim over rivers. No-man’s land because no European power has formally claimed first discovery of it.

What would also be a priority for the British after making inroads into no-man’s land, is to find the mouth of the Murray Darling River system, and try to claim the whole catchment. Under the Doctrines of Discovery – if you claim and put a settlement at the mouth of a river, you can claim the entire catchment. This is why many explorers – both inland and by sea – were trying to find the mouth. However, since the mouth is clearly flowing off onto land that’s already Dutch territory, finding and claiming the mouth of the river system may just provoke an unwinnable fight with the Dutch for claim over the entire basin.

I think the British may have found the mouth much earlier than they let-on. In 1802, Matthew Flinders encountered the French Baudin expedition in Encounter Bay, which is right at the Murray Darling mouth. That is one heck of a coincidence for both the British and French to be in such a strategic location, at the same time. I’d say both the English and French knew exactly where the river mouth was – but both knew that claiming it for themselves was not the best idea strategically.

Moving beyond the Orange Line

After the Anglo-Dutch treaty of 1824, the British basically got a green light to progressively move west of the Orange Line into Dutch discovered territory in the greater Murray Darling Basin. This progressive move was planned according to a timeline to match the treaty terms. Part of this progression was the establishment of the 19 Counties by Governor Darling in 1826. The 19 Counties westernmost-limit (the western limit of Murray county) lies directly on the Orange Line. Charles Sturt “discovered” (or I suspect – made public a secret discovery) the Murray Darling river mouth in an expedition in 1829-1830. 1830 is a key date of the treaty terms. The British only started allowing squatters to cross outside the 19 Counties limit in 1836 – which is also a key date in the treaty.

Don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but there is also a town in NSW called Orange. Eyeballing the town’s location, it is smack bang in the middle of the strip of no-man’s Land. Now, check this out;

In 1823 Lieutenant Percy Simpson passed through the district on his way to Wellington. He was accompanied by Chief Constable John Blackman who gave his name to Blackman’s Swamp. This became the name of the first settlement.  By the late 1820s the name ‘Orange’ had began to appear on official documents as a replacement for Blackman’s Swamp. The name change was a result of Major Thomas Mitchell who renamed the town after the Prince of Orange. Mitchell had been involved with the Prince in the Peninsular War in Spain.

https://www.aussietowns.com.au/town/orange-nsw

The Prince of Orange was the son of the King of the Netherlands – House Orange-Nassau … looks like a secret hat-tip on the side of the 1824 treaty to me! There may be another sneaky hat-tip to the Netherlands by the use of a red (Belgic?) lion on the Tasmanian state badge and flag.

After the treaty was really finalised in 1836, the British started using various court cases to demonstrate a duty of protection to the natives (and therefore, jurisdiction of British law) within various sectors including in the no-man’s land. For example – the Myall Creek Massacre trial. By the British Crown holding that massacre trial, the Crown faked to the outside world that it has First Discovery rights over the the Murray Darling Basin – because only a Crown with First Discovery would bother protecting the natives like that. But this protection is only implied, it is not explicit. The Crown did not act consistently by catching other massacres, nor did it ever declare discovery over the basin. The Crown – in some ways acted like it had a fiduciary duty, and in other ways not. They left their future claim options open – hedging their bets.

NSW/QLD Border

This half-arsed British claim of First Discovery over the Murray Darling basin may also has something to do with the positioning of part of the NSW/QLD border.

The border’s eastern (Pacific) end begins at a place called “Point Danger” and initially follows a watershed line till it reaches a T-Junction with the Murray Darling watershed. From that point it follows watershed boundaries between some tributaries in the Murray Darling system (Border Rivers), then it hits longitude 149 E and does a strait line along latitude 29 S.

James Cook really did discover and name a nearby point “Point Danger”, but this point is now called Fingal Head. There are some diehard Cook fans trying to get this ‘mistake’ fixed, but I think was not a mistake, but an attempt to fudge and extend Cook’s claim of rivers to include the Murray Darling basin.

It kind of makes sense – if Cook directly discovered and named Point Danger; which is part of a watershed boundary that is contiguous with the Murray Darling watershed boundary – then it’s almost as if he actually discovered the Murray Darling catchment itself. Afterall, a watershed boundary IS a part of a river system. This point of the QLD/NSW border is one of the the closest points that the Murray Darling catchment comes to the Pacific Coast. If they just ignore the Fingal Head “error” – it kinda works, especially if you have a separate colony on either side of the line (Queensland and New South Wales).

But for this to work – Cook needs to have discovered and named the point that lies on the watershed. This is why the “mistake” will not be corrected anytime soon, because colonial claims still depend on it.

The national capital and the Orange line

Canberra is not half-way between Sydney and Melbourne. Note how the A.C.T., and the Canberra-Yass region (which is where capital sites were scouted) is snuggly tucked in a pocket of no-man’s land. Dalgety was also nominated, and lies in the southern-most part of the no-man’s land.

The Orange Line half-way point = 131 degrees East

The Orange line is at about 148 degrees 30 minutes east. If you take Steep Point, the western-most extremity of the Australian mainland (113 degrees east), and find the halfway line between the two, you get 130 degrees 45 minutes east. Rounding that to the nearest whole longitude (as colonisers tend to do), you get 131 Degrees east.

The Port of Darwin is basically the closest port possible that is west of this 131 degree half-way point;

This is deliberate. It’s like putting down a chess piece on a board.

And as for the Uluru Statement from the Heart… the constitutional conference happened at facilities in Yulara, while the ceremony and first reading of the Statement happened at Mutitjulu. These two locations straddle longitude 131 East. I find it kind of interesting that the conference should happen here, of all places, at the half-way line of Dutch discovered New Holland. Yes, Uluru is famous – but why? Because it has been made famous. If you never went “out there”, you would think it was the only landmark in the center. And perhaps it was made famous because of it’s location on this meridian. Funnily enough – there is even a resort there called Longitude 131…why?

Uluru/Ayers Rock is an Australian national possession to be named, strategically claimed, given back but taken on the same day, renamed, rebranded and reinforced through ritual pilgrimage. It’s kind of fitting to name the Uluru Statement after it, because we, as a peoples are going through the same washing machine cycle as Uluru has – with a long spin cycle.

Interesting, related developments today

There are a couple of things happening in our era – that may be a result of the unclear status of British discovery claims of the Murray Darling catchment.

One is the Kartinyeri v Commonwealth court case. The court case was in regards to the construction of a bridge right at the mouth of the Murray Darling.

Other interesting developments are to do with:

• the Union of Sovereign First Nations of the Northern Murray-Darling Basin,
• and the Unilateral Declarations of Independence made by the Murrawarri Republic and other nations.

There are some complex technical details to cover here – but I can’t begin to tackle them until I first set a foundation to explain why the Murray Darling catchment is so important in terms of colonial territorial claims. So now that I have covered that background, hopefully I can now delve into these topics.