Unveiling the Lost History of Wybalenna's Aboriginal Community in Tasmania

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Nestled on Flinders Island in Bass Strait lies a site teeming with importance, not just for Tasmanian and Australian heritage, but also world history.

This site, Wybalenna, represents profound sorrow and suffering for the Tasmanian Aboriginal community.

However, the narrative of Wybalenna remains largely unknown to many Australians.

Brendan ‘Buck’ Brown speaks of his ancestor, Manalakina (also spelled Mannalargenna), who was one of numerous Tasmanian Aboriginal individuals deceptively relocated to this place in the 1830s and 1840s.

Brown refers to this location as “virtually a concentration camp for the ancestors”.

“There’s mixed emotions when you’re here,” he says.

“I’ve had spiritual things happen to me here, and I’ve had the old people come and visit me while I’ve been here.

When you walk around, you feel a lot of sadness here too. There’s only certain places I’ll go on this property because of that reason.

Manalakina was among many Tasmanian Aboriginal people who would ultimately die at Wybalenna.

Who was Manalakina?

Manalakina, a leader of the north-east nations, was among the few chiefs who survived the British invasion of Lutruwita—known in palawa kani as the island of Tasmania—and the ensuing conflict.

A watercolour portrait of Aboriginal leader and warrior Manalakina

A watercolour portrait of Manalakina by Thomas Bock sits inside the door of the Chapel at Wybalenna. Source: SBS News / Kerrin Thomas

From the beginning of the invasion in 1803, the British dispossessed Aboriginal people of their lands, took some captive and slaughtered hundreds more. The conflict peaked between the mid-1820s and early 1830s in what became known as the Black War.

In 1830, an English builder, George Augustus Robinson, was tasked with acting as a conciliator with the remaining Aboriginal people to bring the conflict to an end.

Manalakina made an agreement with Robinson that he and his people would temporarily leave Lutruwita for their protection, with an understanding they’d be returned to their homelands and could live freely in time. But they were forced into exile on islands in the Bass Strait in conditions that saw many die, before ending up at Wybalenna on Flinders Island.

Robinson used Manalakina to locate other Aboriginal people, leading to his arrival at Wybalenna where he discovered the betrayal: the treaty he thought was agreed upon was unfulfilled. Instead, his people were essentially detained on the island to be “civilised and Christianised”.

A black and white print of buildings on an island with the sea in the background.

An early print of Wybalenna with various buildings, including the chapel and L-shaped Aboriginal residences. Credit: Tasmanian Archives NS1013/1/570

After surviving 30 years of invasion, he lived for around three years at Wybalenna before his death in 1835, never returning to his home country.

Brown says Manalakina died with a “broken heart”.

“He was brought here and made promises to and the promises were broken and he shaved his hair off and became a broken man.”

The legacy of Wybalenna

The actual number of Tasmanian Aboriginal people exiled to Wybalenna is hard to determine, but it’s estimated to be as many as 300.

Some Aboriginal women were taken by sealers to other nearby islands, and by the mid-1830s, almost all Tasmanian Aboriginal people had been forcibly moved from Lutruwita to islands in the Bass Strait — known in palawa kani as Tayritja.

Of those imprisoned at Wybalenna, just 47 were still alive when it was shut down in 1847. Survivors were relocated to Oyster Cove in Hobart.

The cemetery at Wybalenna contains 107 confirmed but unmarked burial sites. The location of many others remains unknown.

A sign in an open area of land. There is a tree-covered hill in the background

A sign details the 107 known burials in the cemetery on Wybalenna with the unmarked graves beyond. Source: SBS News / Kerrin Thomas

Pakana woman and general manager of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, Sarah Wilcox, says, despite a lack of awareness among the broader Australian population, the site holds great significance.

“Wybalenna is a key historical place in our history, not just in Lutruwita/Tasmania, not just in Australia, but globally,” she says.

“It was a place that was recognised when the term genocide was penned [in the 1940s], referring to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.”

Land handback

The site was returned to Aboriginal ownership in 1999, with the land titles transferred to the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania.

Brown was part of the Aboriginal-led sit-in in the 1990s that preceded the handback.

“I was only a teenager when we come over here and we done a sit-in here on the property and took the property back,” he says.

“A big mob of us came from Cape Barren and there was a heap of locals here from Flinders. We all sat here and stayed here, occupied the place and took the place back.”

A man with a long grey goatee, sunglasses on his head and wearing a long-sleeved dark grey top stands inside a wooden building

There are places on Wybalenna Brendan ‘Buck’ Brown won’t go. Source: SBS News / Kerrin Thomas

Wybalenna spans an area of almost 140 hectares on the west coast of Flinders Island and includes a homestead, chapel and graveyard, as well as an old shearing shed used until the 1970s by a previous owner, which has been repaired and has basic kitchen facilities.

While the site has been managed by the Land Council for the past two and a half decades, securing funding to maintain it has been difficult, says Wilcox, so the Land Council has turned to crowdfunding.

“The generosity through those donors and those sponsors we’ve been able to get over time has been overwhelming for us. It’s an incredible and humbling experience in a way,” she says.

Healing and truth-telling

In recent years, efforts have been made to make Wybalenna a more comfortable space for the Aboriginal community to spend time.

The work started under former Land Council manager, Rebecca Digney, who handed over the reins to Wilcox in June.

“We’re really trying to invite people back to this site so we can reconnect with the history here, and particularly reconnect with the stories of our ancestors,” Digney tells SBS News.

“Wybalenna is definitely a place that conjures up a variety of feelings. It’s one of great sadness; it can feel quite desolate at times. But also, it’s a good reminder of what my people have been through and how strong they are.

Our cultural practices continue – despite the attempts to Christianise our people here, our people survived against all odds, and we continue as a strong and vibrant community today.

The Land Council has been collaborating with Tasmanian architectural firm Taylor and Hinds to make adjustments to the site, including adding bathing and cooking spaces that will allow the community to gather and spend time there.

“It’s really important that we have these sort of amenities and access for the community to be able to come to Wybalenna to honour the memory of ancestors on that site, the people who had died there,” Wilcox says.

“Acknowledging that significant and deep trauma — it’s still a place of trauma and sorrow — but recognising it’s our opportunity for truth-telling, so it’s entirely Aboriginal-led and making sure that there’s space there for elders to come and visit, so having that accessibility and those essential services are really important for their comfort.

“Also for families, so our younger generations and future generations understand the significance of that place.”

A brick chapel sits inside a picket fence with manicured lawns all around.

The chapel at Wybalenna is a “monument to the horrors” that occurred there as colonial officials sought to Christianise the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Source: SBS News / Kerrin Thomas

The work so far has focused mostly on the Aboriginal community’s experience at the site.

But improvements are also being made to the visitor experience, with Palawa historians updating information panels in the on-site chapel.

“It’s a really fantastic opportunity that we have here to tell this truth in our words,” Wilcox says.

“All of the interpretation of Wybalenna is being told from a Palawa perspective … of what happened to our people, what it means to us.

“It’s a great opportunity for people to learn, to listen, to understand and to absorb that truth.”

NAIDOC commemorations

Earlier this month, members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal community gathered at Wybalenna for a flag-raising to mark the start of NAIDOC week — believed to be the first time such an event has been held at the site.

Land Council Chair Greg Brown addressed this year’s theme: The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy.

“It speaks to the leadership and strength within our community, past, present, and future,” he told attendees.

A group of people gathered around an Aboriginal flag on a flagpole outside

A flag-raising was held at Wybalenna to mark the start of NAIDOC Week 2025. Source: Supplied / Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania

“Truth-telling at Wybalenna most certainly acknowledges the true story and legacy for our old people here at Wybalenna, it also shows the strength of our community with our continuing fight to have our stories told and vision for our community with the interpretations and works here at Wybalenna.

“Our community is very lucky that we have a strong and talented pool of young people … to continue and improve on the gains that we have achieved in past years.”

Jazmin Wheatley, a project officer with the Muylatina Milaythina Junior Ranger program, helped organise the event.

“I thought it would be really important and significant to come and do it at Wybalenna,” she tells SBS News.

“Just to honour our people and honour the story that’s here and to get together as a community again.”

She says it was an emotional day for the community.

“It is a sad place, but at the same time it’s important that we’re here to take back that sense of pride at this place and honour our people.”

A sign reading Wybalenna next to a country road

Wybalenna has been described by some as a desolate place, but it is also a place for truth-telling. Source: SBS News / Kerrin Thomas

Flinders Island Elder Aunty Lillian Wheatley was also in attendance. She is among a group of eight adults and eight children who occupied the homestead in the 1990s.

She hopes the site can become a place of unity for her people.

“My dream before I leave is to see my people come together on this country and respect it for what it is,” Wheatley says.

Share our old people’s story, it’s about them and what happened here needs to be told.

For the community and the Land Council, it’s part of a long history of truth-telling they want more Australians to recognise and understand.

“Truth-telling is just part of our family history, it’s what we talk about all the time when we’re together, so we’ve been doing it for a very long time,” Wilcox says.

“Now it’s about truth understanding and it’s about truth acceptance and our people will always fight for a treaty.”