Brothers and Sisters

Do you know the meaning of the Letters Patent and their importance to the Aboriginal people of South Australia?

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Letters Patent of 19 February 1836

William the Fourth by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland King Defender of the Faith To all to Whom these Presents shall come Greeting Whereas by an Act of Parliament passed in the fifth year of our Reign entitled "An Act to empower His Majesty to erect South Australia into a British Province or Provinces and to provide for the Colonization and Government thereof" After writing that, that part of Australia which lies between the Meridians of the one hundred and thirty second and one hundred and forty first Degrees of East Longitude and between the Southern Ocean and twenty six Degrees of South Latitude together with the Islands adjacent thereto consists of Waste and unoccupied Lands which are supposed to be fit for the purposes of Colonization And that divers of our Subjects possessing amongst them considerable Property are desirous to embark for the said part of Australia And that it is highly expedient that our said Subjects should be enabled to carry their said laudable purpose into effect  It is Enacted that it shall and may be lawful for Us with the advice of our Privy Council to erect within that part of Australia which lies between the Meridians of the one hundred and thirty second and one hundred and forty first Degrees of East Longitude and between the Southern Ocean and the twenty-six Degrees of South Latitude together with all and every the Islands adjacent thereto and the Bays and Gulfs thereof with the advice of our Privy Council to Establish one or more Provinces and to fix the respective Boundaries of such Provinces Now Know Ye that with the advice of Our Privy Council and in pursuance and exercise of the powers in Us in that behalf vested by the said recited Act of Parliament We do hereby Erect and Establish one Province to be called the Province of South Australia—And we do hereby fix the Boundaries of the said Province in manner following (that is to say) On the North the twenty sixth Degree of South Latitude On the South the Southern Ocean—On the West the one hundred and thirty second Degree of East Longitude— And on the East the one hundred and forty first Degree of East Longitude including therein all and every the Bays and Gulfs thereof together with the Island called Kangaroo Island and all and every the Islands adjacent to the said last mentioned Island or to that part of the main Land of the said Province Provided Always that nothing in those our Letters Patent contained shall affect or be construed to affect the rights of any Aboriginal Natives of the said Province to the actual occupation or enjoyment in their own Persons or in the Persons of their Descendants of any Lands therein now actually occupied or enjoyed by such Natives In Witness whereof We have caused these our Letters to be made Patent Witness Ourself at Westminster the Nineteenth day of February in the sixth year of our Reign.

By Writ of Privy Seal
Edmunds