Premier Roger Cook revealed the program today, following National Sorry Day, which aims to assist all living members of the stolen generations in Western Australia.

Today, we take small steps towards righting a historic wrong,” Cook said.

Tony Hansen, a leading advocate for the scheme who was forcibly removed from his family during the stolen generations, welcomed the announcement.

“This has been a long time in the waiting,” he said.

“Our people have suffered. This is our shared history of this state.

“The evilness of what took place in this state has a ripple effect right across this country.”

A significant portion of Western Australia’s policies regarding the forced removal of Indigenous children can be attributed to A.O. Neville, who acted as the state’s chief protector of Aborigines and later as the native affairs commissioner from 1915 to 1940.

A believer in eugenics, Neville spoke of using missions in WA to “pacify the natives and accustom them to white man’s ways and thus enable further settlement”, and also discussed a goal to “merge them into our white community and eventually forget that there were any Aborigines in Australia”.

“This state was the worst state in the country, because of the chief protector we had in this space that controlled every aspect of each and every one of us as Aboriginal people of this state,” Hansen said.

“This man was practising eugenics before Hitler, weeding out the colour.

“Today is a historical moment and, as a survivor, I’m so proud to work in partnership with the premier and his government.”

Indigenous people who were removed from their families before July 1, 1972, will be eligible for the scheme.

Applications are open from today and Cook said payments are expected to be made in the second half of the year.