Western Australia
Possibly the most well-known Protector was A.O. Neville, a Western Australian Protector who has left his footprints and carefully kept records all over Australia’s History. Neville is the character portrayed as something of a Nazi Eugenicist in the movie The Rabbit Proof Fence.
Doris Pilkington’s book Follow The Rabbit-Proof Fence reads like a loving and admiring tribute to her mother, and is extraordinarily non-judgmental about whitefellas. It doesn't suggest the Moore River Settlement was anything other than a concentration camp, but it certainly does not present Neville as a monster in the way the movie does.
South Australia
While South Australia’s government established reserves and encouraged the establishment of Missions, it seems to have had a more enlightened approach to protection. In 1921, when it was proposed to extend legislation, the idea of separating children from their families was still widely opposed, and it took more than two years to push new legislation through the South Australian parliament.
Queensland
The State of Queensland on the other hand was extremely paternalistic towards Aboriginals. There was no overt policy of removing children from their families because of mixed race, but much the same result was achieved by:
insisting children sleep in separate dormitories rather than in the same buildings as their families;
though children were forced to live in separate dormitories from adults, they were required to leave at 14 to find work;
relocating ‘troublemakers’ from one mission or reserve to another as punishment for being troublemakers.
Queensland fought tenaciously until 1971 before finally losing control over Aboriginal affairs in that state.
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