Walter George Arthur

Walter George Arthur (c.1820 – 12 May 1861) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian leader, newspaper editor, drover, whaler and pioneering Indigenous rights activist.

Early life Arthur was born around 1820. His parentage is unclear but he himself stated that he was from the clan of people who inhabited the region around Ben Lomond in north-eastern Van Diemen's Land. It is possible that he was the son of Rolepa (also known as Trowlebunner), a senior man of the Ben Lomond tribe and that his mother was probably either Luggenemenener or Toogernupertooner also from this tribe.

As a young Indigenous boy, Arthur lived through the violence and dispossession of British colonisation and the Black War. During this period, he became separated from his kin and taken from his country in unclear circumstances. He appears to have been too young to retain much knowledge of his people's language and culture. He lived on the streets of the British colonial settlement of Launceston with another Aboriginal boy, where in order to survive, they became joined to a criminal gang, working as petty thieves and pickpockets. He was referred to by the name of "Friday".

Arthur witnessed first-hand the dispossession and despair of the local Aboriginal people at the hands of the British colonists, just as he had experienced in his own country in Van Diemen's Land. He questioned whether white society would ever see Indigenous Australians as being deserved of equality.

In 1842, two other young Aboriginal men from Wybalenna, Maulboyheenner and Tunnerminnerwait, were sentenced to death in Melbourne for murdering two sailors. Arthur and Robinson visited them in jail before their execution, and two days after they were publicly hanged, Arthur became very despondent and was arrested for drunkenness.

Death Returning by rowing boat to Oyster Cove on 12 May 1861, Arthur, possibly inebriated, fell overboard. His body was never found.

Mary Ann afterwards married an ex-convict named Adam Booker and died ten years later on 25 July 1871.