The Aborigines Act of 1890 (Act no.1059) was ‘An Act to consolidate the Laws relating to the Aboriginal Natives of Victoria.’ It extended the powers of the Governor to separate Aboriginal children from their families. The Act commenced on 1 August 1890 and was repealed by the Aborigines Act 1915 on 1 October 1915.
In many ways the 1890 Aborigines Act was a consolidation of the Aborigines Protection Act 1886, but it solidified the link between the government’s mainstream child welfare system and systematic removal of Aboriginal children. The Aborigines Act of 1890 was in many ways merely a solidification of the 1886 Act, but it did add that the Governor was responsible for ‘the care custody and education of the children of aboriginals’. Read in conjunction with the provisions of the 1886 Act, this meant that the Board for the Protection of Aborigines could, and did, transfer Aboriginal children to state ‘care’ even when they were not orphaned.
It was repealed by the Aborigines Act 1915, No. 2610.