Governor Phillip'S Instructions (1787): Conciliation Rhetoric Vs Frontier Reality

1. The Royal Instructions of 25 April 1787

Issued under the royal sign manual of King George III on 25 April 1787, the 'Instructions for Our Trusty and Well-beloved Arthur Phillip, Esq. Our Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over Our Territory called New South Wales' established the official executive mandate for the first British colonial administration in Australia.^[1] Spanning instructions on naval transport, land surveying, and convict discipline, Section 24 laid down the crown's official policy regarding the Indigenous inhabitants.^[2] This clause became the standardized boilerplate instruction replicated across subsequent colonial appointments, including Governor Stirling's commission for Western Australia in 1829.^[3]

2. The Conciliation Clause: Rhetorical Benevolence

Section 24 of Governor Phillip's Instructions commanded the Governor in high humanitarian language: > 'You are also to endeavour by every possible means to open an Intercourse with the Natives and to conciliate their affections, enjoining all Our Subjects to live in amity and kindness with them. And if any of Our Subjects shall wantonly destroy them, or give them any unnecessary Interruption in the exercise of their several occupations, it is Our Will and Pleasure that you do cause such offenders to be brought to punishment.'^[4] The Crown purported to establish a regime of peaceful conciliation, commanding settlers to live in friendship and threatening legal punishment against any subject who harmed Aboriginal people or interrupted their traditional foraging.^[5]

3. The Inherent Contradiction: Conciliation vs Territorial Expropriation

Despite its benevolent rhetoric, Section 24 contained a fatal structural contradiction that rendered conciliation impossible.^[6] In the very same document, Phillip was granted unrestricted executive authority to survey and grant away millions of acres of land to British settlers and marine officers.^[7] The instructions made zero provision for negotiating treaties, purchasing land, or setting aside permanent Indigenous reserves. It was impossible for British subjects to seize Aboriginal lands without giving 'interruption in the exercise of their several occupations'.^[8] The moment settlers fenced off freshwater springs and cleared hunting forests, conflict was inevitable, and the rhetoric of conciliation instantly collapsed into martial violence.^[9]

4. The Legacy of Abandoned Conciliation in Western Australia

When Captain James Stirling established the Swan River Colony in 1829, he received instructions derived from Phillip's 1787 template.^[10] Yet, within five years, Stirling abandoned all pretense of conciliation, leading mounted troops into the Pinjarra Massacre and issuing proclamations declaring resistance commanders like Yagan to be outlaws marked for death.^[11] Historical examination of Phillip's Instructions reveals that British colonisation was fatally compromised from its origin: the Crown promised legal protection while authorising total territorial theft.^[12] Reconciling this historical hypocrisy requires dismantling colonial mythologies and enacting genuine, legally binding treaties with the Bibbullmun Sovereign Nation.^[13]