Annual Aboriginal Census,1921-1944 - South Australia

This study contains time series of data of the Annual Aboriginal Census for Australia, Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia from 1921 to 1944. The file au.edu.anu.ada.ddi.20002-sa is the data for South Australia.

Special care notice:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, researchers and other users should be aware that material in this dataset may contain material that is considered offensive. The data has been retained in its original format because it represents an evidential record of language, beliefs or other cultural situations at a point in time.

The Annual Aboriginal Census is considered as a significant official source of Aboriginal population statistics. It was conducted annually in June from 1921 to 1944, exempting the war years between 1941 and 1944 in each State and Territory. The 1944 census was incomplete with New South Wales not taking part at all. Enumeration of Aboriginal populations was poor and difficulties in classification occurred. The Census was a collaboration of the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics who initiated the study, State and Territory Statisticians, the Protector of Aborigines, and local police officers who conducted the enumeration. The Annual Aboriginal Census is also referred to as the Annual Census of Aborigines and Police Census.

The enumeration for the Annual Aboriginal Census was conducted by Local Police officers within their Police District. This was conducted with no self-identification by those enumerated but classified by the local police officers making the census, a population summary with no unit record data collected. Due to the frequent use of rounded number figures have been suggested to be rough estimates.

The Conference of Statisticians, Sydney, 1925 resolved that the future Annual Aboriginal Census would include; number and distribution of 'full-bloods', number and distribution of 'half-castes' living with 'full-bloods', males and females, adults and children, and whether nomadic, in regular employment or in protected camps. Changes to classification also occurred at the Statisticians' Conference in Perth in 1926. It was resolved that 'persons of mixed blood living with aboriginals should be classed as 'half-caste' aboriginals, whatever be the degree of the white strain' and that 'persons of mixed blood not living with aboriginals shall be 'half-caste' if strains are approximately equal, as 'full blood' if the predominant strain is aboriginal, and not included at all if the predominant strain is white'. Previous to this no definition was giving for determination of 'half-caste' enumeration. The Statistician's Conference in Hobart in 1928 furthered the classification of social and employment status, children of persons in employ were classed as 'other' and those in both 'regular employ' and 'in supervised camps' would be classed only as in 'regular employ'. In 1939 the Queensland statistician insisted the counting of Torres Strait Islander people be separated from Aboriginal counts.

Leonard Smith, obtained Annual Aboriginal Census state level data with his work with the National Population Inquiry and as a part of his PH.D thesis. An ARC grant in conjunction with Gordon Briscoe allowed local area data to be obtained. Data came in format of copies of the original collection forms, tabulation sheets and published bulletins of results. The data was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the Commonwealth, State and Territory Archives.

Dataset ID:

au.edu.anu.ada.ddi.20002-sa

Principal Investigator:

Gordon Briscoe

Len Smith

Subject:

Indigenous

Keywords:

Aborigines

Aboriginal history

Census

Torres Strait Islanders

Document Description

The Document Description consists of bibliographic information describing the DDI-compliant document itself as a whole.

Document Title:

Australian Aboriginal Census, 1921-1944 - South Australia

Document ID:

au.edu.anu.ada.ddi.20002-sa

Production

Producers:

Producer:

Australian Data Archive

Abbreviation:

ADA

Affiliation:

The Australian National University

Production Software:

Software:

Nesstar Publisher

Version:

4.0.2

Date:

7 Jan 2011

Version Statement

Version:

Version 1.0

Date:

22 Jul 2011

Bibliographic Citation:

G.Briscoe and L.Smith. Australian Aboriginal Census,1921-1944. [Codebook]. Canberra: Australian Data Archive, The Australian National University, 2011.

Study Description

The Study Description consists of information about the data collection, study, or compilation that the DDI-compliant documentation file describes. This section includes information about how the study should be cited, who collected or compiled the data, who distributes the data, keywords about the content of the data, summary (abstract) of the content of the data, data collection methods and processing, etc. Note that some content of the Study Description's Citation -- e.g., Responsibility Statement -- may be identical to that of the Documentation Citation. This is usually the case when the producer of a data collection also produced the print or electronic codebook for that data collection.

Other Identifications / Acknowledgements:

Researcher:

Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics

Role:

Data Collection Initiators

Production

Production Software:

Software:

Nesstar Publisher

Version:

4.0.2

Date:

7 Jan 2011

Distribution

Distributors:

Distributor:

The Australian National University

Abbreviation:

ADA

Depositor:

Gordon Briscoe & Len Smith

Affiliation:

Australian National University

Deposit Date:

22 Jul 2011

Version Statement:

Version:

Version 1.0

Date:

22 Jul 2011

Responsibility Statement:

Australian Data Archive

Study Information

Time Period Covered:

1 Jan 1921 - 31 Dec 1944

Research Collection Date:

1 Jan 1921 - 31 Dec 1944

Country:

Australia

Geographic Area:

South Australia

Geographic Unit:

State/Territory

Unit of Analysis:

Individual

Universe:

Total Universe of Persons deemed to be Australian Aboriginal 1921-1944

Kind of Data:

Census data

Methodology

Time Method:

Time series

Data Collector:

Local Police Officers

Sampling Procedure:

No sampling (total universe)

Mode of Data Collection:

Observation

Type of Research Instrument:

Structured

Weighting:

No Weighting

Cleaning Operations:

The data were checked by the archive for missing variable and value labels, out of range values and wild codes, logical inconsistencies, and confidentiality.

Response Rate:

Not applicable

Class of the Study:

Level 2

Data Access

Access Conditions:

The depositor may be informed (by the archive) of use being made of the data, in order to comment on that use and make contact with colleagues of similar interests.

Citation Requirements:

All manuscripts based in whole or in part on these data should:

(i) identify the data and original investigators by using the recommended bibliographic reference to the data file;

(ii) acknowledge the Australian Data Archive and, where the data are made available through the Australian Data Archive by another archive, acknowledge that archive;

(iii) declare that those who carried out the original analysis and collection of the data bear no responsibility for the further analysis or interpretation of them.

Deposit Requirements:

In order to assemble essential information about archival resources and to facilitate the exchange of information about users’ research activities, individuals are required to email ADA (ada@anu.edu.au) with the bibliographic details and, where available, online links to any published work (including journal articles, books or book chapters, conference presentations, theses or any other publications or outputs) based wholly or in part on the material.

Disclaimer:

Use of the material is solely at the user's risk. The depositor, The Australian National University and the Australian Data Archive shall not be held responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the material supplied.

Other Study Materials

Related Publications:

L.R.Smith. (1980). The Aboriginal Population of Australia. Canberra, ACT: Australian National University Press.

Briscoe.G. & Smith L.R. (2002). The Aboriginal population in South Australia 1921-1944. In Briscoe.G. & Smith L.R (Eds), Aboriginal History Monograph 10: The Aboriginal Population Revisited: 70,000 years to the present. (pp.16-40). Canberra, ACT, ANU Printing.