Matthew Blagden Hale

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The Right Reverend Dr. Matthew Blagden Hale (June 18, 1811–April 3, 1895) was the first Bishop of Perth and later, Bishop of Brisbane.

Born in Alderley, Gloucestershire, England on June 18, 1811, Matthew Hale was the son of Robert and Lady Theodina Bourke (née Bourke). His maternal grandfather was the Archbishop of Tuam. After completing his education at Wotton-under-Edge, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained his B.A. in 1835 and M.A. in 1838. He was eventually conferred an Hon. D. D. as well. He was ordained as a Church of England Curate in 1836.

In 1840, Hale married Sophia Clode, which whom he would have three children before her death in 1845. He became Archdeacon of Adelaide in 1847. The following year he married Sabina, daughter of John and Georgiana Molloy. In 1855, Hale returned to England without his family. The following July he arrived in Western Australia on the Guyon, and in November his family arrived there from South Australia. In March 1857, Hale returned to England with his family, where on July 25, 1857 he was consecrated as the first Bishop of Perth in a ceremony at the Lambeth Palace Chapel.

Returning to Western Australia on the Nile early in 1858, he took office as Bishop of Perth, and that year opened the first Boys' College in the colony. Modelled after England's public schools, it remains the oldest boys' school in Western Australia, and has been renamed Hale School in his honour.

Matthew Hale was Bishop of Perth until 1875, whereupon he became Bishop of Brisbane until 1885. He eventually returned to England, retiring at Clifton, Bristol where he died on April 3, 1895.

Hale is widely seen a social and educational pioneer, noted for advocating the protection of Australia's Aborigines.

During 2007 Anglicans in the Diocese of Perth will be celebrating the one hundred and fiftieth of the establishment of the Diocese and the foundational work of its first Bishop, Matthew Blagden Hale.

Hale's work amongst the Aboriginal peoples of WA has its roots in a much earlier Anglican work in the Swan River Colony and beyond. Some of the earlier Anglican work with Aboriginal people in the colony warrants attention, particularly in relation to Aboriginal children.

In 1829 Swan River Colony was established by Stirling, his cousin, C.F. Irwin, accompanied him as military commander to protect the colony. Five years later Irwin went to England and Ireland; while there he established the Western Australian Missionary Society.

The Society then purchased an 866 acre site that stretched from the Swan River right up into the hills; the 69 acre "Swanleigh" property at Middle Swan is all that remains of that land holding and is now under the control of the Perth Diocesan Trustees.

The Society sent Giustiniani as their first missionary and he arrived at the Middle Swan site in 1836. He built two houses: his home and an Aboriginal mission; after some controversy involving his advocating on behalf of Aboriginal people Giustiniani left the colony in 1838.

William Mitchell, his family and a governess named Anne Breeze arrived 1838. Within a month Mitchell established a mission school on the Middle Swan site for settlers children and Aboriginal children with Breeze assisting.

A second Anglican school was established at Fremantle by George King in 1841, it continued till 1850. In 1841 Abraham Jones re-opened Giustiniani's mission school it also continued until 1850. (it should be noted that these schools closed in the same year that convict labour was introduced to the Swan River Colony).

Wollaston arrived at Fremantle in April 1841 and by May 1842, he proposed a plan to remove Aboriginal children from "… the baneful influences of heathen customs", to schools where they would be educated at the cost of settler families, who would then have the option of employing them as domestic servants.

In 1843 Mitchell established a second Mission School at Middle Swan and at Upper Swan Revd Postlethwaite established a Mission school for settlers and Aboriginal children which ran until1848.

In the 1850s the Swan Cottage was built at the Swan site to accommodate young 'native' girls for the Mission School.

Also in the 50's Wollaston was granted 60 acres in Albany and the children from King's Native School of Fremantle was moved there (documents hint that they may have been moved to Perth before going to Albany).

Henry Camfield and his wife Anne managed the Albany Institution: Mrs Camfield being Anne Breeze who had worked in Mitchell's Middle Swan School over a decade earlier.

In 1856 Hale was appointed Bishop; he is said to have had three main areas of interest: care of the Aborigines, the spiritual welfare of the convicts, and a desire to provide higher education for the 'sons of the better class settlers'.

In 1871 the Albany Native Institution was the longest operating educational establishment for Aboriginal children in the colony and the Camfields wanted to retire. The Bishop offered his resignation as he was proposing to go and run the Albany institution as nobody else could be found to run it; a delegation talked him out of this.

In spite of this, Hale purchased a block adjacent to Bishop's House and built a house to accommodate and educate Aboriginal children and brought the children from Albany at his own expense.

This two-storey building was known as Hale House and the "Native and Half Caste Institution" operated there for the next sixteen years under the direction of Hale and his successor, Parry.

Bishop Parry, took over the management of the Institution until 1888 when he moved the children to the newly established the Swan Native & Half Caste Mission on part of the Middle Swan site.

The "Hale House" land was eventually absorbed into the Bishop's See.

The "Aborigines Act 1905" made the Chief Protector the legal guardian of 'every Aboriginal and half-caste child' under 16 years.

AO Neville was appointed Chief Protector in 1915 and subsequently opened two major reserves; at Moore River near Mogumber and Carrolup River near Katanning.

In 1920 Neville had cut the Government subsidy to Church run Institutions; this decision led to the closure of the Swan Native and Half Caste Mission with the remaining children sent to Moore River Native Settlement, Mogumber.