Foreword: Richard Windeyer (1806-1847)

In 1844, when Richard Windeyer gave his lecture on the rights of the Aborigines---to their own customary laws, their land and the wild animals---he and his views were well known. In summary, he argued they had no rights as regards those matters but an entitlement to just and humane treatment by the institutions and individuals of the new colony. When the rest of his family left for Australia in 1828, Richard stayed behind in England to complete his legal studies. He arrived in 1835 and soon was a prominent barrister in Sydney. Additionally, and relevant in the context of the lecture, he held considerable lands on the lower Hunter River, based on his property Tomago at Raymond Terrace. He was a foundation member of the Aborigines Protection Society; and from 1843 he was one of the twenty-four elected members of the newly constituted New South Wales Legislative Council. In his lecture Windeyer draws extensively on the writings of Vattel and Blackstone, to hold that property in land was derived from one having laboured on it and hence that the Aborigines had no claim to it. The argument in relation to their rights to the wild animals was similar: the animals belong neither to individuals nor societies until brought under actual domination. As to their customary laws: they were no more than 'lewd customs' which admitted atrocities, and in which settlers clearly had a right, indeed an obligation, to interfere. All of this needs to be considered in the context of Windeyer's experiences in his legal practice, his interactions with Aborigines on his properties and his work in the Legislative Council.