Our Great Southern Land

FEAR OF THE WOODS Trailer (2020) Monster Horror

2020-06-17T13:54:00.001+10:00

February 19 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-19T12:50:00.003+11:00

1810 - Edward Luttrell Jnr, a ship’s officer and son of Surgeon Edward Luttrell, shot Pemulwuy’s son ‘Tidbury’ (Tedbury or Tjedboro) in the face during an argument at Parramatta. [1]

1836 - British Parliament officially proclaimed the colony of South Australia and formally defined its boundaries.
King William IV recognised the continued rights to land for Aboriginal people in South Australia's founding document, the Letters Patent. It was the first ever recognition of Aboriginal rights granted in Australia's colonial history. But the promise of legal entitlement to the land was never kept. [2]

1856 - Exotic dancer Lola Montez - who was neither Spanish nor a trained dancer -was greatly displeased with a bad review written by the editor of the Ballarat Times, [3] Henry Seekamp (who was the only man to serve a prison term as a result of the Eureka Stockade for printing seditious libel [4]), about her.

So she took to him with a horse whip.

Totally justified, Your Honour...!

1892 - Eileen O'Connor, the next possible Aussie saint, was delivered by the stork [5] in Richmond (colloquially known as Struggletown, but originally known as Quo-yung [6]), Melbourne.

She was yet another ballsy gal who took on Rome to establish Our Lady's Nurses For The Poor.

1894 - The Sydney Anarchy Trial found several well-known chappies were a bit naughty for flogging editions of the anarchist newspaper Hard Cash that cast aspersions upon trustees of the Savings Bank of NSW.

Tsk tsk tsk.

Because banks are always so trust-worthy during a depression... aren't they?

Of course two chappies in particular were let off the hook...future NSW Premier Jack Lang and future Prime Minister Billy Hughes. [7]

1913 - Today Henry Leo Crawford aka Eugenia Falleni went through a marriage ceremony with Annie Birkett (Henry's future murder victim) at the Methodist Parsonage, Balmain South. [8]

1942 - Darwin was bombed twice on this day with deaths far exceeding the originally quoted 15 and the later revised 243. [9]

1942 - A Japanese Zero crash-landed on Melville Island to Darwin’s north, and its pilot was captured by a local Tiwi Islander man named Matthias Ulungura snuck up behind the Japanese pilot with a tomahawk and said,

'Stick 'em up!'— the first prisoner of war taken on Australian soil. [10]

1942 - During the Bombing of Darwin the first wave of 188 Japanese planes was spotted by Father John McGrath, a Catholic priest at the mission station on Bathurst Island. Father McGrath sent a message on the radio saying,

"An unusually large air formation bearing down on us from the northwest". Nearly everyone ignored this, though it was on the most popular radio station. About an hour later there were roughly 100 people dead, but the people who followed his instruction all survived. [11]

1942 - Following the Bombing of Darwin many Aboriginal people were relocated to 'control camps' and restrictions were placed on Aboriginal movement, especially women.

In Arnhem Land Aboriginal people made up special reconnaissance units in defence against the Japanese.

The United Church in North Australia set up an Aboriginal mission on Elcho Island, Northern Territory. [12]

1951 -Jean Lee was Hanged at Pentridge for the murder of 'Pop' Kent in Dorrit Street Carlton. Jean Lee was the last woman executed in Australia. [13]

1965 - The Freedom Rides Moree, home of the Gamilaraay people, Friday 19 & Saturday 20 February

“On the radio we heard that aboriginal children had been demonstrating outside the Moree baths for the last two afternoons, which was terrific news. All of us are very determined that we are doing the right thing despite the mayor's warning over the radio that our return would cause harm.”

Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides

“We went down to the mission with a few of the students in the bus and we explained to some older Aborigines. Then we went to one particular road in town where a lot of Aborigines live. They were the ‘upper-class adult Aborigines and they did not want anything to do with us at all…So we went back to speak to the young Aboriginal people on the mission: ‘Yeah we’ll support ya!’”

Quote from Charles Perkins, A Bastard Like Me.

“Charlie started talking to the crowd, but there was a lot of hissing and booing. Then he went to the front of the line and when he refused to move was grabbed and taken away from the line.”

Ann Curthoy’s diary from the Freedom Rides [14]

1966 - Aussie gal Heather McKay won her fifth successive British squash title. [15]

1993 - The people of Bourke paid homage to renowned eye specialist Professor Fred Hollows. His coffin was draped with the Nepalese and Eritrean flags as well as an Aboriginal Commemorative Blanket. [16]

1997 - Greens Senator Dee Margetts moved an amendment designed to make the government’s Native Title Amendment Bill wholly subject to the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA). [17]

1998 - Zali Steggall broke the drought and took home the first individual Winter Olympic medal for the Aussies when she won Bronze for the downhill slalom. [18]

1998 - Queensland’s first Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Economic Development Strategy was released by Economic Development and Trade Minister. [19]

1999 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister, John Herron, unveiled proposed areas for which eligible organisations would be invited to apply for recognition as Representative Bodies under the amended Native Title Act 1993. [20]

2002 - Central Queensland University (CQU) and ATSIC’s Central Queensland Regional Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding, the first of its kind between an Indigenous peak body and a Queensland university. [21]

2003 - The Australian Film Commission (AFC) launched Skin, Kin and Country: Stories from Black Australia, five new documentaries directed by Indigenous filmmakers. [22]

Sources:

[1] http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/d5225154-9208-41f1-9006-8a971b94e0b4/back09b.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

[2] https://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/landtitle.htm

[3] https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/how-spider-dancer-lola-montezs-war-of-the-whip-inflamed-ballarats-dusty-goldfields/news-story/301373dc93ee8a9503f5e08065d0e993

[4] http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/seekamp-henry-13188

[5] http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/oconnor-eily-rosaline-eileen-7875

[6] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-10/the-aboriginal-names-for-ten-melbourne-suburbs/9960092

[7] https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/847/12/adt-NU20020722.19202506chapter5.pdf

[8] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/falleni-eugenia-12911

[9] https://www.dva.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/about%20dva/media-centre/media-backgrounder/P02087R%20Australia%20under%20attack_FINAL.pdf

[10] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-04-25/riseman---remembering-aboriginal-diggers/3971728

[11] https://teachnt.com/our-remote-schools

[12] https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/remembering-mission-days

[13] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/lee-jean-10804

[14] https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-freedom-ride

[15] https://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/sg/mckay.html

[16] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[17] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[18] https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/australias-zali-steggall-hits-a-gate-19-february-in-the-news-photo/93893020

[19] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[20] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[21] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[22] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

February 18 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-18T12:33:00.000+11:00

1883 - Jessie Litchfield, a fantastically inspirational woman, was found in the tulip patch. She was an author, poet, Aussie and international journalist and editor of a NT newspaper, who helped push tourism in the Top End.

1965 - The Freedom Ride reached Tenterfield home of the Marbal people;

“There we heard from Bob Brown that they day after we left Moree (yesterday) about 60 aboriginal children tried to get in the pool after school. Up to 5.30 about 30 were allowed in, some with Bob Brown, others not. At 5.30 pm the manager refused to allow any more aborigines in and at 6pm the baths were closed (usually they stay open till 8pm). The baths opened again at 7pm and soon after this the mayor stated that the segregationalist statute of June 6th 1955 would be enforced.” - Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides.

“We decided, after much heated discussion, to go straight to Inverell, thus leaving out Tabulam... From there we would go straight to Moree and take strong action of some kind, such as a 24hr picket or something. The decision was unanimous.” - Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides.

1966 - The Canberra Times reported that Charles Perkins, in his role as Manager of the Foundation for Aboriginal Affairs, had stated that unless funds were donated the foundation would be forced to close within three months.

1989 - The Oh So Fabulously Wonderfully Out There Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras was celebrated with an estimated 200,000 peeps whilst the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence carried forth a platter on which the head of raging right-wing fundamentalist bible thumping God botherer Fred Nile lounged.

1992 - The Aboriginal Children’s Kindergarten opened in Hobart.

1999 - A native title agreement was signed by members of the Analway, Dthungutti and Gumbaynggirr Aboriginal Nations, and Hillgrove Mining.

1999 - Three young Indigenous Queenslanders were awarded $5,000 scholarships from the Queensland Department of Main Roads.

2003 - Queensland Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Judy Spence approved $10,000 funding to support an exhibition of the Indigenous art of Cape York.

2006 - The Pride History Group launched its new comprehensive history web site.

Sources:

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/litchfield-jessie-sinclair-7205

https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-freedom-ride

http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/1960s/ct18feb66.pdf

http://www.mardigras.org.au/history

https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

http://www.camp.org.au/00s/396-2006

February 17 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-17T13:12:00.000+11:00

1803 - Matthew Flinders met up with some Malay Praus (ships) from Macassar near Cape Arnhem and discovered that there were 60 ships trading with the Aboriginal people as they fished for trepang and that this was a very long established practice. [1]

1805 - Thomas Brown, a free settler, was sent to the Parramatta gaol for striking an Aborigine [sic]. [2]

1815 - Thomas Hassall reported that the ‘Cundorah’ (Gundungurra) had attacked Macarthur’s farm at Camden. [3]

1816 - The Sydney Gazette shared on its front page that the first Ceylonese family banished to Australia had arrived on board HM Kangaroo. [4]

1846 - The free Aborigines on Flinders Island in Bass Strait wrote a petition addressed to Queen Victoria concerning the mistreatment of indigenous people. [5]

1848 - The magnificent Mater of Henry Lawson, Louisa Lawson, was pupped today. [6]

1873 - There was Russian-phobia running amok in both Oz and NZ, but the editor of the Daily Southern Cross newspaper used his imagination to cook a hoax about the supposed Russian invasion of Auckland from the ship Kaskowiski (cask of whisky) who nabbed the gold and the Mayor. [7]

1881 - The Taranaki Herald was being very diplomatic when it quietly announced that the Aussies had been knocked over after a pitiful 154 runs (and no sandpaper in sight!). [8]

1885 - Author of a somewhat dubious tome about Aboriginal people Daisy Bates was a little absent-minded today when she got legally hitched to John Bates, a drover.

I say absent-minded as she seems to have forgotten that she was already married to Breaker Morant.

S'ok, she had another brain fart 4 months later and got married for a 3rd time. [9]

1942 - Margaret Lilian Jeffrey, NSW Policewoman, was commended by Police Commissioner William MacKay for the capable and tactful manner with which she had treated a woman who was assaulted on the North Coast mail train in the previous September. [10]

1958 - At a meeting in Adelaide, activists from all mainland states formed a national pressure group: the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (FCAA). Its goal was the achievement of 'equal citizens' rights' for Aboriginal Australians. The first two goals of this new body were:

1. Repeal of all legislation, federal and state, which discriminated against the Aborigines.
2. Amendment to the Commonwealth Constitution to give the Commonwealth government power to legislate for Aborigines as with all other citizens. [11]

1965 - The Freedom Rides reached Boggabilla, on the border between the homes of the Bigambul and Gamilaraay people.
“We went around and spoke to a lot of people. Many of them told us that the manager had told them not to answer our questions, but they intended to do so anyway.”

Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides
“The houses were weatherboard and very overcrowded. There was not water on, but the river water was taken to taps in the yard. There was no gas or anything, and no electricity (I think). Very often there weren't windows and doors.”
Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides
“We heard some terrible stories such as the fact that the police came in the houses without knocking whenever they liked, to find out who had been drinking. Also they "did what they liked with the women".”

Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides [12]

1965 - The Canberra Times [13] and Sydney Morning Herald [14] reported on the Freedom Ride bus crash in which a truck had run the bus off the road after two unsuccessful attempts.

1965 - Thirty Aboriginal school children were allowed entry to the Moree swimming pool after Sydney University students protested against racism. The university students were members of the Action for Aborigines Council led by Charles Perkins. [15]

1987 - The Coffs Harbour Aboriginal Family Community Care Centre Inc. aka Abcare was incorporated on this day. [16]

1990 - Today saw the Oh So Fabulously Wonderful Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras flouncing its frilly bits in all of her technicolour glory.
Featuring the first ever Mardi Gras Fair Day held in Glebe’s Jubilee Park it attracted 1,000 people and featured the first Dog Show plus touch football, mud wrestling and a meet-and-greet with the Dykes on Bikes. [17]

1999 - The Townsville, ATSIC Regional Council, called for ‘urgent action’ by the police and the State Government in a bid to prevent more attacks on Aboriginal people in Townsville parks before someone died. [18]
2002 - Alisa Camplin won gold in the women's aerial skiing contest. [19]

2010 - We lost the magnificent songstress, Aunty Ruby Hunter. [20]

2014 - Peaceful protests by asylum seekers detained in the Manus Island facility turned into a violent riot. Security guards and police stormed the facility attacking asylum seekers, including people who had not been involved in the protests. One asylum seeker, Reza Berati, was beaten to death and over 60 others were injured, some of them seriously. [21]

2014 - Dental staff and services commenced on this day at Armajun Aboriginal Health Service Inc, NSW. [22]

Sources:

[1] https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p241301/html/ch12.xhtml?referer=294&page=14

[2] http://nationalunitygovernment.org/pdf/2014/incidents-aboriginal-colonisers-1792-1809.pdf

[3] http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/d5225154-9208-41f1-9006-8a971b94e0b4/back09b.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

[4] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/492986

[5] http://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/arthur-walter-george-12775

[6] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/lawson-louisa-7121

[7] http://airminded.org/2008/05/30/the-russians-are-coming/

[8] https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TH18810218.2.9

[9] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/bates-daisy-may-83

[10] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/jeffrey-margaret-lilian-10618

[11] https://indigenousrights.net.au/civil_rights/the_warburton_ranges_controversy,_1957/birth_of_a_federal_movement

[12] https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-freedom-ride

[13] http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/1960s/ct17feb65.pdf

[14] http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/1960s/smh17feb65b.pdf

[15] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[16] http://www.abcare.org.au/

[17] http://www.mardigras.org.au/history

[18] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[19] http://olympics.com.au/athlete/alisa-camplin/news

[20] https://www.portrait.gov.au/people/ruby-hunter-1955

[21] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-18/one-dead-77-injured-in-manus-island-unrest/5265960

[22] https://www.armajun.org.au/history.php

February 16 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-16T11:46:00.004+11:00

1856 - Infamous Lola Montez opened at Ballarat in a series of sketches; greeted by packed houses she invited miners to shower nuggets at her feet as she danced. [1]

1881 - (Lady) Alice Maud Sewell was born; was the first woman to win the Wyselaskie scholarship in classical and comparative philology and logic. With Ethel Osborne, she was a founder of the Lyceum Club, Melbourne. Active in the Country Women's Association, she chaired the handicrafts and home industries committee in 1937-40, and was appointed a member of honour. She was also a member of the Victoria League and the Ormond Women's Association. In 1937 she was awarded the Coronation medal. [2]

1952 - Former Police Tracker Sergeant Isaac Grovenor, 52 year veteran of the NSW Police and recipient of the Imperial Service Medal passed. As a token of respect the Commissioner of Police, Mr. J. F. Scott, provided a mounted police escort to lead the funeral cortege from the funeral parlours in Crown Street along a portion of the route to the cemetery. Mrs. Grovenor and family expressed their deep thanks for the Commissioner’s kindness in providing the mounted escort and those of us who were so closely associated with ‘Ike’ at the Police Depot and elsewhere know how the kindly old gentleman would have appreciated such a tribute from the Department to which he rendered such valuable and lengthy service. [3]

1965 - The Freedom Rides reached Moree home of the Gamilaraay people.
“The mission had much better housing etc. than we'd seen anywhere, but there was a manager in control who was apparently very disliked and seemed rather unpleasant.”

Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides

“We did the picket, but nobody much came around, and we all boiled, it was very hot. Then we went to the swimming pool. The manager refused to let the six aboriginals in and so we held up our posters and signs. After about 25 mins they let the boys in. Then Charlie arrived with a bus load of 21 aboriginal boys and they had to be all let in.”

Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides

“We went back to the hall, had tea, and then went off to the Memorial Hall for the public meeting we'd arranged. There were over 200 people there and at first the atmosphere was very hostile, with lots of jeering and interjection."

Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides

“Jim Spigelman spoke first, about who we were and how we came to be there. Then John Powles, on the survey. Then Charlie. The questions were sometimes antagonistic but there were some very sympathetic ones too. Then a Mr Kelly got up and moved that the clause in the statute books about segregation in the swimming pool be removed. This was seconded by Bob Brown, and accepted 88 votes to 10. We were all thrilled to bits."

Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides. [4]

1971 - Lady Alice Maud Sewell died at Berwick. [5]

1973 - Catherine Astrid Salome Freeman aka "Our Cathy" Freeman, was born today at Slade Point, Mackay, Queensland. [6]

1980 - The Bloomfield River Mission, near Cape York, QLD, was officially renamed Wujal Wujal.

‘Wujal Wujal’ or ‘many falls’ is derived from the local language. There are several Indigenous languages spoken within this community. [7]

1983 - Over 100 fires started today, the day now known as Ash Wednesday. [8]

1999 - Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Chairperson Evelyn Scott presented the Governor-General, Sir William Deane, with a copy of the Draft Document for Reconciliation. [9]
2015 - To commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Freedom Rides the Moree Plains Gallery celebrated with a photo exhibition featuring a collection of photos captured by the Tribune newspaper during the historical 1965 Freedom Ride (photos kindly donated by Search Foundation Exhibition) which ran for three weeks. [10]

2018 - The Australian Bureau of Statistics announced in a media release that;
"The 2016 Census of Population and Housing reveals that more than half of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young adults are fully engaged in work and study.
Fifty two per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 15 to 24 years are fully participating in either education or work, up from 46 per cent in 2006. Those living in urban areas (55 per cent) are more likely to be fully engaged in work or study than those living in non-urban areas (42 per cent)." [11]

Sources;

[1] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/montez-lola-4226

[2] http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE6083b.htm#_edn1

[3] http://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/grovenor-isaac-ike-15561

[4] https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-freedom-ride

[5] http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE6083b.htm#_edn1

[6] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cathy-Freeman

[7] https://www.qld.gov.au/atsi/cultural-awareness-heritage-arts/community-histories/community-histories-u-y/community-histories-wujal-wujal

[8] https://www.ffm.vic.gov.au/history-and-incidents/ash-wednesday-1983

[9] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[10] https://www.moreechampion.com.au/story/2878855/freedom-rides-50th-anniversary-whats-on/

[11] http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbytitle/4335345D87F9711FCA257AC2001A4ABF?OpenDocument

February 15 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-15T11:11:00.002+11:00

1795 - HMS Reliance and HMS Supply set sail from Portmouth for Sydney. On board were Capt John Hunter to take up his appointment as Governor of NSW, Master's Mate Matthew Flinders, Surgeon George Bass, with his boat, Tom Thumb, and Bennelong. [1]

1796 - John "Black" Caesar, the first bushranger and escaped convict, was shot by a settler at Liberty Plains (Strathfield). [2]

1802 - Twenty crew of the brig Lady Nelson, the first ship to enter Port Phillip Bay, met five Boon wurrung men on the beach near Arthurs Seat. They exchanged greetings and danced, but that afternoon violence erupted and contacts ceased. [3]

1822 - Elizabeth Henrietta Macquarie sailed forth into the sunset aboard the ship Surrey towards home in England. She managed to drag her little-known hubby, some bloke calling himself Gov Lachlan Macquarie, back home with her. [4]

1898 - Kathleen Margaret Maria Sherrard, geologist, was born today at North Carlton, Melbourne. After passing the senior public examination in December 1914, Kathleen entered the University of Melbourne (B.Sc., 1918; M.Sc., 1921), graduated with honours, and won Kernot and Caroline Kay research scholarships.

Her colleagues named Monograptus sherrardae in honour of her pioneering work in the study of graptolites. [5]

1930 - Dr Masako Izumin was born today at Sendai, Japan. Masako for some years was senior research fellow at the ANU in the Department of Mathematics, Research School of Physical Sciences. After due examination of her published work in the theory of Fourier Series and their summablility, she was admitted to the Degree of Doctor of Science in April 1976. [6]

1933 - A Torres Strait Islander was lucky to reach hospital after 2 days of travel after having been attacked by a shark whilst diving for Trochus at Barrow Point, 161 kms north of Cooktown. [7]

1934 Gra Gra aka Graham Kennedy was dropped off, not according to rumour by the White Crow but the stork. [8]

1965 - The Freedom Riders protested outside the Walgett RSL Club because they had been told the club was not permitting entry for Indigenous ex-servicemen. They held signs that read: "Good enough for Tobruk - why not Walgett RSL?" and protested a womenswear store forbidding Indigenous women from trying on dresses.
Their presence was felt by the community and attempts were made to run the bus off the road as they left Walgett. [9]

1974 - The National Aboriginal Consultative Committee called for the Minster for Aboriginal Affairs, Senator Cavanagh, to be replaced. The dispute began when the NACC changed its name and requested more powers only to be met with threats of having their allowances stopped. [10]

1999 - Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Chairperson Evelyn Scott was disappointed that a meeting between Mr Ruddock and representatives of the Tent Embassy did not occur. [11]

2003 - Tens of thousands of people gathered in downtown Sydney and around Australia to protest possible war with Iraq and their country's involvement. [12]

2008 - Representatives for Australian Aborigines confirmed plans to launch the first compensation lawsuits since a landmark government apology earlier this week for past abuses. [13]

Sources;

[1] https://www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/timeline-1791.html

[2] http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/caesar-john-black-12829

[3] http://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM00029b.htm

[4] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/macquarie-elizabeth-henrietta-2418

[5] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/sherrard-kathleen-margaret-maria-11681

[6] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/izumi-masako-521

[7] http://www.sharkattackfile.net/spreadsheets/pdf_directory/1933.02.15.R-Tumia.pdf

[8] https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/graham-kennedy#.XGYB5OgzayI

[9] https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2015/02/18/explainer-what-was-australias-freedom-ride

[10] https://theconversation.com/australia-has-ignored-black-viewpoints-before-why-would-a-constitutional-voice-be-any-different-81816

[11] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[12] https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/from-the-archives-sydney-protests-the-iraq-war-20190214-p50xtd.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[13] https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/aborigines-plan-to-sue-australia/

February 14 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-14T12:55:00.002+11:00

1779 Jimmy Cook aka Captain Cook met a sticky end at the end of a sharp stick aka spear on the Sandwich Islands aka Hawaii. [1]

1792 - Ann Brookes was sentenced to 14 years transportation for receiving stolen goods from her daughter. She arrived in Sydney on this day in the same ship as her daughter, the Pitt. She died a few weeks later and was buried on 3 March 1792. Her date of death is not known. [2]

1831 - Dr Elyard of Avondale Farm, Woollongong, noted that Bob, Ned and Johnny (Dharawal men) accompanied Arthur Elyard on a shooting expedition to Lake Illawarra that netted 15 ducks . On the same day, Dr Elyard asked other Aboriginal people to cut bark but they went off hunting possums instead. He observed them smoking possums out of a hollow in a blue gum tree. [3]

1900 I hear pan pipes...run for the hills, Miranda ! According to the fictional book Picnic at Hanging Rock 3 fictional girls went missing during a fictional outing from their fictional snooty private girls school near factual Woodend. Just don't ask about that missing chapter that explains everything.... [4]

1910 - Valentine Bynoe McGinness, rights activist for Aboriginal people of mixed ancestry, musician and songwriter, was born today at the Lucy tin mine, Bynoe Harbour, west of Darwin. [5]

1922 - Tasmanian women became eligible to stand for State Parliament. [6]

1942 - The Vyner Brooke, carrying 65 Australian nurses and other refugees from Singapore, was sunk by Japanese aircraft one day after leaving the island. The survivors made their way to Banka Island where one group of nurses were massacred by their Japanese captors.

Only Sister Vivian Bullwinkel survived the massacre. [7]

1958 - The Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines was founded on 13th February, with the first conference held in Adelaide from 14th - 16th February . [8]

1965 - The Freedom Ride Sunday Gulargambone.

Up at 6.30. Left at 9.15. Heard some radio publicity about us. Arrived in Gulargambone about 11.30. Very small. Told that only certain aborigines allowed in pub, and aborigines not served in the cafe (the only one). Got permission to go on the reserve (for 1 hour only), Everyone very pleased with the interviews. The people better off than at Wellington, but not much. Reserve closer in, seemed healthier. Spoke to Mr and Mrs Baxter - very old and very interesting. Apparently town jobs for aborigines impossible to get, shearing jobs pay well but are uncertain and seasonal. Welfare board and police very much disliked. Housing very poor. [9]

1984 - Elton John got hitched to Renate Blauel at St Mark's Church in Sydney. [10]

2003- Information on Yorke Peninsula’s cultural heritage received a significant shot in the arm with the launch of a new book focusing on the history and genealogies of the Narungga people. [11]

2004 – The 2004 Redfern riots started in the inner-Sydney suburb Redfern following the death of an Aboriginal teenager Thomas Hickey. [12]

2008 - Senator Andrew Bartlett introduces the Stolen Generation Compensation Bill into the Senate. The bill calls for ex gratia payments (i.e. without any liability or legal obligation) to be made to the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal children. The Senate rejects the bill. [13]

2010 - The Yamba Not-Actually-A-Riot incident took place in Yamba; newspapers attempted to claim that an incident in which 15 youth (12 non-Indigenous, 3 Indigenous) were arrested at a party was due to "racial tensions" in a "town divided".
Thankfully Patricia Laurie was able to state the facts. [14]

2012 - Three former Aboriginal children’s homes were added to the NSW State Heritage Register: Cootamundra, Bomaderry Aboriginal Children’s Home and Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home. [15]

2014 - The House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs announced an inquiry into the harmful use of alcohol in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, which will also recommend strategies to minimise alcohol misuse and alcohol-related harm. [16]

2017 - The Co-Chairs of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples and prominent Aboriginal leaders from across Australia formally presented the Redfern Statement to parliamentary leaders in Canberra. [17]

Sources;

[1] https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/captain-cook-killed-in-hawaii

[2] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/brookes-ann-27793

[3] http://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/file/bd49404f-b5f6-e8b1-f2d3-d0c60d622598/1/full_text_volume_1.pdf

[4] https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/secrets-of-hanging-rock-eerie-location-of-haunting-tale-about-schoolgirls-who-vanished-on-st-valentines-day-1900/news-story/74bfe0c67a61517375571ff77c79fe95

[5] http://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/mcginness-valentine-bynoe-14671

[6] http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/InfoSheets/FemaleFranchise.htm

[7] https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/E84734

[8] https://books.google.com.au/books?id=FD4eyBQXgxIC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=14+february+1958The+Federal+Council+for+the+Advancement+of+Aborigines+was+founded&source=bl&ots=Axz9LTdnYx&sig=ACfU3U2GXj2P6QvBmpgs77uDQVt-rlxgUw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj8rH497ngAhWHPo8KHZqJBV0Q6AEwCnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=14%20february%201958The%20Federal%20Council%20for%20the%20Advancement%20of%20Aborigines%20was%20founded&f=false

[9] https://aiatsis.gov.au/collections-and-library/collections/items/freedom-ride/17234

[10] http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/nmets.do?DOCCHOICE=1977643.xml&dvs=1550102829713~541&locale=en_GB&search_terms=&adjacency=&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/nmets.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=4&divType=&usePid1=true&usePid2=true

[11] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[12] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2004-02-16/fifty-police-injured-in-redfern-riot/136268

[13] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[14] https://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/news/yamba-blame-game/474718/

[15] https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/heritagebranch/heritage/media/120214aboriginalchildrenshomes.pdf

[16] https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/inquiry-to-examine-the-harmful-use-of-alcohol-in-indigenous-communities/news-story/51c1257dd67c04b3018132a092f4713c

[17] https://antar.org.au/campaigns/redfern-statement

February 13 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-13T13:45:00.000+11:00

1790 - Less than three months after Bennelong's capture, on 13 February 1790, Phillip passed on the names and locations of eight coastal clans in a dispatch to Lord Sydney at the Home Office in London. Bennelong also told Phillip that ‘one-half of those who inhabit this part of the country’ had died from smallpox.[1]

1855 - A shortage of tenors on the Australian colonial operatic stage often meant that women had to perform male roles; Sara Flower, described by the Melbourne Press as 'the modern Sappho', 'the Queen of song' and 'the Australian Nightingale' sang Edgardo on this day in the first Australian performance of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.[2]

1905 - Marjorie Jean Lyon, surgeon and prisoner of war, was born on this day; she was described by Lady Mountbatten as 'an outstanding woman doctor . . . whose work . . . will make history, and who succeeded in commanding and controlling the Japanese and seeing that they carried out her orders!' [3]

1930 - The first Protector of Aboriginals to be based in Mount Isa was appointed on this day. [4]

1965 - The Freedom Ride bus arrived in Wellington, NSW.
"Houses of tin, mud floors, very overcrowded, kids had eye diseases, had to cart water (very unhealthy) from river… Jim S and a few others came across some discrimination in a pub. An aboriginal was allowed in only because he was with us. The publican said he only prevented aborigines from coming in "if they were disorderly"… Left Wellington and arrived in Dubbo about 6.30 pm. Had tea, went for a swim, then to the Dubbo hotel. We noticed a sign above the doorway of the halfway hotel - "Aborigines not allowed in the Lounge without the Licensee's permission".”
Ann Curthoys' diary from the Freedom Rides. [5]

1971 - It was announced that Aboriginal people hoped to set up 13 settlements throughout Victoria in an effort to claim land, the first having been established in Sherbrooke Forest near Belgrave and the second to be at Framlingham Reserve, near Warranambool. [6]

1974 - It was announced that the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (NACC) had backed down in its dispute with the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and agreed that the body would stick to that of an advisory role. [7]
1981 - Cinderella Jane Simon , Aboriginal leader, evangelist and storyteller, passed to the stars. [8]

2003 - The Commonwealth Government implemented steps to combat the problem of some merchants using Indigenous Australians’ electronic bank cards as security for store credit. [9]

2008 - Today marks the 13th Anniversary since Australians watched a live broadcast of their government apologizing for policies that degraded its indigenous people. PM Rudd said Australians had reached a time in their history when they must face up to their past to be able to cope with the future. Aborigines numbered about 450,000 in Australia's population of 21 million. [10]

2008 - Sir William Deane and former Prime Ministers Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser were all seated on the floor of the Parliament to hear Prime Minister Kevin Rudd deliver upon the recommendation of the “Bringing them Home” report, a formal apology on the part of the Australian nation for the suffering inflicted as a result of the stolen generations. Conspicuous by his absence was the former Prime Minister, John Howard. Western Australian polls show that western Australians the least to be in favor of an apology. [11]

2009 - The Australian government promised to establish the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation which would deal with the “trauma experienced by all Aboriginal people as the after-effect of colonisation” but with a particular focus on the Stolen Generations. The foundation won’t deliver healing services, instead it will fund healing work, educate communities and social workers and evaluate healing programs to find out what works. [12]

2010 The Indigenous All Stars team played the National Rugby League All Stars, two years after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s apology to the Stolen Generations. [13]

2013 - The Australian Parliament passed with bi-partisan support the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Bill 2012 which recognises the unique and special place of Aboriginal people and sets out a review process to progress the route to a referendum. [14]

2015 - Aboriginal activist Aunty Faith Bandler died, aged 96. She was a tireless social activist, best known for her 10-year campaign leading the landmark 1967 referendum that ensured Aboriginal Australians were counted as full citizens. [15]

2017 - A last minute attempt to save an historic tree, estimated to be approx. 700 years old, from being felled was announced today with the application to the Aboriginal Heritage Register as it was believed to possibly be a birthing tree. [16]

Sources;

[1] http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p74631/pdf/ch0156.pdf

[2] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/flower-sara-elizabeth-12919

[3] http://womenaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/lyon-marjorie-jean-10881

[4] https://www.qld.gov.au/atsi/cultural-awareness-heritage-arts/community-histories/community-histories-m/community-histories-mount-isa

[5] https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/1965-freedom-ride

[6] http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/1970s/1971/snp13feb71.pdf

[7] http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/images/history/1970s/nacc74/nacca26.html

[8] http://ia.anu.edu.au/biography/simon-cinderella-jane-15750

[9] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[10] https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/articles/apology-australias-indigenous-peoples

[11] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[12] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[13] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[14] https://www.clc.org.au/media-releases/article/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples-recognition-bill-2012

[15] https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/timeline/searchResults?page=6&q=&category=any&yearFrom=2011&yearTo=

[16] https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/lastminute-bid-to-save-significant-tree-in-path-of-western-highway-20170209-gu8w4n.html

February 12 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-12T08:55:00.000+11:00

1844 - Commissioner of Crown Lands Charles Tyers arrived in Gippsland in early 1844, and was soon himself surprisingly involved in an affray. On February 11, 1844, he notes in his diary: I issued orders to both the border police and the blacks not to fire except in self defence - but to rush upon them and take them by surprise. When approaching the scrub however in line - one of the party fired and was followed by the whole. The natives being taken by surprise fled though the scrub - leaving everything behind them.

1965 - The Student Action For Aborigines (SAFA) from the Uni of Sydney took a bus and toured through regional towns such as Walgett, Gulargambone, Kempsey, Bowraville and Moree where they recorded acts of racism to show wider Australia the experience of Aboriginal Australians.
Thus was born the Freedom Rides.

1990 - Carmen Lawrence became the Premier of Westralia and the first *gasp* female Premier in Aussie history. Next thing you know they'll be letting a female be PM too...

1996 - The Barkindji people of the lower Darling River region and the Governments of New South Wales and South Australia reached an agreement for a long-term management plan on Lake Victoria.

1998 - Indigenous Australian delegations at the United Nations called on the Australian Government to clarify once and for all its position and approach to the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.

1998 - The Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, Judy Spence, opened new Cultural and Programs area at the Sir David Longland Correctional Centre and announced $75,000 funding from the Beattie Government, to assist with the re-opening of the Wujal Wujal Store on Cape York Peninsula.

2003 - Ballarat Council adopted the Statement of Commitment to the Local Indigenous Community.

2008 - For the first time ever Australian Aboriginal leaders were invited to offer a "Welcome To Country" ceremony at the opening of Federal Parliament.

Sources :

[1] https://www.aec.gov.au/Electorates/Redistributions/2017/vic/files/suggestions/vic18-s0064-glawac-and-blcac-.pdf

[2] https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2015/02/18/explainer-what-was-australias-freedom-ride

[3] https://timeline.awava.org.au/archives/292

[4] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[5] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[6] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

[7] http://www.ballarat.vic.gov.au/media/2407842/reconciliation_action_plan_2014-2017_web.pdf

[8] https://qram.com.au/black-jocks/february-jocks/

February 11 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-12T07:55:00.002+11:00

1822 - Macquarie introduced Bungaree to Governor Brisbane at Georges Head.
‘I gave him an old Suit of General’s uniforms to dress him out as Chief’,writes Macquarie.
Governor Brisbane promised Bungaree and his people a new boat and fishing net. [1]

1900 - King Billy was a ketch that was named after William Lanne, the supposedly last "pure-blood" male Tasmanian aboriginal., left Port Arthur for Hobart on this day; whilst taking water the ship rolled on her beam ends and sank in fifty fathoms. Cap. Madden and his two crew escaped in the dinghy and landed near Cape Raoul, from where they walked to Nubeena. [2]

1939 - In late 1938 Jack Patten had led a delegation of Aborigines Progressive Association members to the German Consulate in Sydney, in protest against the persecution of Jews in NAZI Germany. This had been a coordinated effort between the APA in Sydney and the AAL in Melbourne, producing a protest in each city. These are the only two known protests against the acts of the Kristallnacht in the world.

The efforts of the APA delegates who had attended the German Consulate in Sydney were later distorted in the media, in an article produced by the Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate. The article published on February 11 in Ferguson’s home-town newspaper alleged that Patten had “led a drunken group of Aboriginal people to the Consulate in a disloyal act”, and that “the purpose of this evidently is for use as propaganda in Germany.” [3]

2015 - The Attorney General tabled the final report of Australian Human Rights Commission’s national inquiry into children in immigration detention. The report, The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014, was provided to the Attorney-General on 11 November 2014. The report made sixteen recommendations, including the release into the Australian community as soon as possible of all children and their families detained in onshore detention facilities and on Nauru; an amendment of the Migration Act to limit the detention of children and their parents to a strictly limited period of time necessary to conduct health, identity and security checks; the closure of all detention facilities on Christmas Island and the appointment of an independent guardian to all unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in Australia. [4]

Sources :

[1] http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/d5225154-9208-41f1-9006-8a971b94e0b4/back09b.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

[2] http://oceans1.customer.netspace.net.au/tas-wrecks.html

[3] http://koorihistory.com/jack-patten/

[4] https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/national-inquiry-children-immigration-detention-2014

February 10 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-10T10:54:00.000+11:00

1828 - The Cape Grim Massacre.
The Cape Grim massacre occurred where a group of Aboriginal Tasmanians gathering food at a beach in the north-west of Tasmania were ambushed and shot by four Van Diemen's Land Company workers, with bodies of the victims then thrown from a 60-metre cliff. Thirty men were killed in the attack, as a part of an escalating spiral of violence which included the abduction and rape of Aboriginal women in the area. [1]

1840 - George Augustus Robinson recorded that a group of Wadawurrung People, less than two years after the occupation of land in the Ballarat district, lamented the loss of their staple food to McLeod, a squatter near Buninyong in central Victoria. The Aboriginals stated to McLeod that “there were no murnong about Geelong. It was like Port Phillip all gone the Bulgana [cattle] and sheep eat it all”. [2]

1842 - Conflict between European settlers and local Aboriginal people at Light River, Kapunda, SA. [3]

1861 - Lieutenant Rudolph Morisset led a Native Police squad which shot dead 6-8 Aboriginals including old men at Manumba, QLD.

John Mortimer, one of the station owners, complained in the local press about the police behaviour. He also gave evidence to an 1861 inquiry into the activities of the Native Mounted Police. [4]

2008 - Barbara Lemon, a researcher at the University of Melbourne, presented a radio documentary on women philanthropists which aired on Hindsight (ABC Radio National) on this day.
‘A Great Form of Love: Women Philanthropists in Australian History’ profiles eight generous Australian women, spanning 150 years: Anne Fraser Bon, Dr Una Porter, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Barbara Blackman, Jill Reichstein, Eve Mahlab, Toni Joel and Trisha Broadbridge. [5]

Sources;

[1]http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/C/Cape%20Grim%20Massacre.htm

[2] https://sovereignhillhiddenhistories.com.au/sheep-paddock/

[3] http://australianfrontierconflicts.com.au/timeline-of-australian-frontier-conflicts/

[4]https://theconversation.com/how-unearthing-queenslands-native-police-camps-gives-us-a-window-onto-colonial-violence-100814

[5] http://www.philanthropy.org.au/blog/view/a-great-form-of-love-women-philanthropists-in-australian-history/

February 9 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-10T09:15:00.001+11:00

1788 - The drumming out of a soldier - who was caught in the female convicts' tents - had the pleasure (?!) of having the first piece of named music played in Oz ; aptly twas The Rogues' March.

1986 - The Anglican Church of Oz ordained its first batch of female deacons in a ceremony at St. Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne....and the sky didn't fall in, either!

2013 - The Australian Government announced a new resettlement deal with New Zealand, whereby 150 places from New Zealand’s overall resettlement quota of 750 would be allocated to refugees who sought asylum in Australia. The refugees may be resettled directly from Australia or from offshore processing centres in Nauru and Manus Island. The government announced that the deal would commence in 2014.

2015 - Aboriginal people commenced a sit-in in Canberra at Parliament House to confront politicians about the state of Aboriginal affairs around the country. They demanded that the Commonwealth of Australia begin negotiations towards decolonisation with the goal of healing from the “devastation wreaked upon Aboriginal Nations and Peoples” by violations of human rights.

2017 - Perth (Boorloo) was sprinkled with a drop or two of 114.4 millimetres of rain.

February 8 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-08T11:28:00.001+11:00

1792 - James Collington was Hanged at Sydney for breaking into the hut of the baker John Campbell and stealing bread, flour and a check apron. At the hanging tree he addressed the assembled convicts before his execution, warning them to avoid the path he had pursued; but said that he was induced by hunger to commit the crime for which he suffered. [1]

1845 - MURDER BY BLACKS[sic].-About three weeks ago, some forty or fifty natives of the Loddon tribe visited N. Simson's station on the Loddon, and en-camped within forty yards of one of the huts. About two o'clock on the following morning, they were surprised by an attack from another body of blacks (supposed to be a tribe from the Grampians,) who speared and killed some half dozen of the Loddon natives. Mr. Simson, when he heard of the affray, went down to the scene of action, and had the wounded savages properly cared for. Mr. Protector Parker and two mounted policemen went out after the attacking parties, but we understand they were obliged to abandon the pursuit.[2]

1864 - Nightingale, a schooner, was wrecked on Long Island, while sheltering from a gale off the Sir James Smith Islands. The crew landed at Cape Bowling Green where they were attacked by aborigines and taken as slaves. Some of the crew were later rescued by the schooner Three Friends but the master died from the beatings he had received.[3]

1868 - Shortly before the the Duke of Edinburgh sailed home to England on this day he attended the practice, on a couple of days, of the team of Aboriginal Australian cricketers who were preparing in Sydney for the first sports tour by Australians, and for the first cricket tour to England.[4]

1900 The Chinese camp at Dunolly (Vic) was burnt, destroying 7 housing areas and the Joss House. The fire brigade saved several houses and the chapel but the landmark of 30 years is lost.[5]

1947 - Six Australian BPW clubs met and passed a resolution that an Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs be formed.[6]

2003 - In Australia 750 nude women formed a heart around the words 'No War' near the town of Byron Bay to protest possible war with Iraq.[7]

2012 - Western Australia's Premier Colin Barnett had been confronted by about 50 protesters who described a billion-dollar native title deal as a sham.[8]

2016 - Chief Minister Adam Giles launched the CLP's Aboriginal Affairs Strategy which would track 34 specific areas where the Government would measure its performance.[9]

2017 - The Federal Court ruled that Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ILUA) can only be registered if they are signed by all registered Native Title Claimants who are “named applicants”, replacing a previous court decision that allowed registration without all named applicants having signed the ILUA (called the McGlade decision).[10]

2018 - Reconciliation Australia CEO Karen Mundine says that the establishment of an Indigenous voice to parliament would help address key problems outlined in a 10-year review of the Closing the Gap strategy.[11]

Sources:

[1] https://www.geni.com/projects/Executed-New-South-Wales/49207

[2] Morning Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1843 - 1846) Sat 8 Feb 1845 Page 3 Port Phillip

[3] http://oceans1.customer.netspace.net.au/qld-wrecks.html

[4] https://www.smh.com.au/sport/cricket/how-an-australian-aboriginal-team-became-cricket-pioneers-20180104-h0d6fe.html

[5] The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Tue 13 Feb 1900 Page 4 INTERCOLONIAL TELEGRAMS.

[6] https://www.bpw.com.au/History

[7] https://www.smh.com.au/national/nudes-against-war-20030209-gdg8sv.html

[8] https://www.abc.net.au/lateline/protesters-angered-by-land-rights-deal/3819398

[9] https://www.sbs.com.au/news/nt-launches-aboriginal-affairs-strategy

[10] https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-02-08/turmoil-over-indigenous-land-use-ruling/8250952

[11] https://www.reconciliation.org.au/failure-close-gap-proof-need-indigenous-voice/

February 7 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-07T12:22:00.001+11:00

1788 - The Colony of New South Wales was formally proclaimed. The official ceremony was performed by Judge-Advocate David Collins and marked the effective commencement of the British colony. Captain Arthur Phillip assumed the Office of Governor.

1803 - Charles Grimes Survey Party went up the Yarra to a creek, believed to be Gardiner’s Creek, where they saw local Boonwurrung people.

1841 - Munangabum was an influential clan head of the Liarga balug and Spiritual Leader or neyerneyemeet of the Djadja wurrung. Munangabum was shot and wounded by settlers on this day while his companion Gondiurmin died at 14 Mile Creek (or Far Creek later Glen Mona station) on Bet Bet Creek, west of Maryborough, Victoria.
Three settlers were later apprehended and tried on 18 May 1841 but were acquitted for want of evidence as Kooris could not give evidence in courts of law.

1851 -The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News published on its front cover the "Annual Reports of The Guardians of Aborigines[sic] "
ual Reports of the Guardians of Aborigines.
1868 - Constable William Griffis (WA) was speared at Nickol Bay Roebourne.

1872 - Madame Ghurka, the Queen of fortune tellers aka Julia Gibson, was dropped off by the stork.
Read her colourful life story HERE

1890 - We dratted women were getting in everywhere, even in the doctorin' game when Dr Emma Constance Stone became the first registered female doctor in Oz.

1939 - Published in the Sydney Daily Mail was a headline “Nazis Behind Panic”, which alleged that the exodus of the Koori community from Cummeragunja had manifested as an act in support of the German press, to provide it with “material to further Nazi claims for the return of colonies.”
Jack Patten, a leader of the Cummeragunja walk-off later sued the Sydney Daily Mail for libel, but without success.

1944 - Esther Gwendolyn (Stella) Bowen became the second woman war artist to be appointed by the Australian government. This was arduous and often distressing work; some portraits of Royal Australian Air Force bomber crews based in England had to be finished with the aid of photographs. The Australian War Memorial, Canberra, holds forty-six of her wartime oils and pencil drawings.

1967 - Distinguished Aboriginal author and inventor David Unaipon died at Tailem Bend. His achievements were later commemorated by the national David Unaipon Award for Aboriginal writers, instituted in 1988, and by his portrait, featured on one side of the $50 note, first issued in 1995.

1972 - Gough Whitlam promised that a Labor government would grant Aboriginal land rights, provide free legal aid for Aborigines who believed that their rights are being denied, and overrule state laws which discriminated against them.

1975 - Daniel Alfred Yock , dancer, was born today at Cherbourg Aboriginal Settlement, QLD.
Yock became one of the best known of the Aboriginal people to have died in custody in Queensland. His short life and tragic death were commemorated by a songwriter, Kev Carmody, and by at least two poets, Fogarty and Kaylah Kayemtee Tyson.

1979 - Composition of the Tiwi Land Trust and the Tiwi Land Council was determined at a meeting of the Land Council held on this day. Selection procedures for membership was initially based on 12 clan or ‘country’ groups on the Tiwi Islands.

1986 – Lindy Chamberlain was released from prison after serving three years upon the finding of new evidence which eventually led a judge to overturn her conviction.

1997 - Brisbane City Council, churches and local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities began a series of events entitled Kul-gun Da ‘Lo-bol’ pa - The Journey Home, to recognise the Stolen Generation.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders led a procession to City Hall where they were formally welcomed by the Lord Mayor. Cultural and historical ceremonies were conducted to mark the start of a healing process and a commemorative plaque was placed near City Hall.

2017 - The University of Sydney announced;
" A vital resource of Australian academic work and engagement with Indigenous people, held by the University of Sydney, will be inscribed on the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register."
"Australia’s oldest collection of academic anthropology records documenting Aboriginal communities in Australia and Indigenous communities in the South Pacific region has been recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Australian Memory of the World (AMW) Register."

February 6 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-06T10:51:00.002+11:00

Early in February the French fired on the Aboriginal people at Botany Bay.

1788 - The first female convicts graced Port Jackson with their presence...and of course rapes, riots and debauchery followed.
A violent thunderstorm that night sacrificed 6 sheep and a pig.

1829 - Broger, an Aboriginal man born at Boon-ga-ree—known in 1822-88 as Broughton Creek and later as Berry, on this day with his Aboriginal friend George Murphy took two sawyers, John Rivett and James Hicks, into the bush in Kangaroo Valley to show them some fine cedar. Here, Broger killed Rivett.
Sawyers of the district they had a bad reputation for their dealings with Aborigines. A few days before his death, Rivett had cheated Broger and Murphy in an exchange of flour for bush turkey eggs and Rivett had seduced Murphy's wife. Broger may have been obliged to assist Murphy in securing redress under Aboriginal law.

At his trial at Campbelltown on 20 August 1830 before Chief Justice (Sir) Francis Forbes, witnesses noted his claims that Rivett had attacked him first and he had acted in self-defence. However, he was not allowed to speak in his own defence. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. On 30 August Broger was publicly executed by Alexander Green.

1851 - Black Thursday bushfires roared all over Victoria, turning the day into night and roasting the air to 47 degrees C.

1885 - The Launceston Examiner today reported that ;
"Nichols, late sub-inspector of the Queensland police, who was arrested in connection with the recent
massacre of blacks at Irvinebank, has been discharged by the Herberton Bench, the evidence being insufficient to warrant a committal."

1893 - Rumours of the Parliamentary Mace disappearing in a Melbourne brothel were setting fire to the city so a Board of Inquiry was cobbled together to investigate the theft. (I've often wondered why Great Uncle Rupert won't let me clean his attic...).

1942 - Ray Raiwala became the first recruit to enlist in an Aboriginal guerrilla unit at Darwin on this day.

1976 - Patricia O'Shane celebrated becoming a fully-fledged barrister on this day...as she was the first Aboriginal (and *gasp* a woman) to do so.

1984 - Today the coroner of WA found that Aboriginal youth , 17 year old John Pat had died of a 'closed head injury suffered during a disturbance in Padbury Street, Roebourne'.
On 28 September 1983 a brawl broke out between off-duty police officers and a group of Aborigines, including Pat, outside the Top Bar of the Victoria Hotel at Roebourne. Aboriginal witnesses later alleged that an officer kicked Pat in the head as he lay on the road. On-duty officers were called, arrested Pat and four other Aborigines, and took them to the police station, where Pat died that night.
The coroner also found that Pat had also suffered two broken ribs and a torn aorta.
Four police officers and a police aide were charged with manslaughter; tried in the Supreme Court of Western Australia at Karratha in May 1984, they were acquitted by an all-White jury and reinstated to duty.
No disciplinary action was taken against any police officer.

1986 - Aboriginal and Island Affairs in QLD was redesignated Community Services.

1991 - Smelling salts at the ready, boys !
Roma Mitchell, a WOMAN became the Governor of South Oz, the first FEMALE Governor of any Aussie state.

1995 - The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) report Recognition, Rights and Reform says constitutional reform is a priority. The report, which is endorsed by ATSIC at its 33rd meeting held in Canberra, says consultations across the country have found overwhelming support for the recognition of Indigenous Australians in the constitution.

February 5 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-05T17:08:00.000+11:00

1867 - The South Australian Register published the report from Mr. Gething, the medical officer recently sent to Streaky Bay, on account of the smallpox amongst the Indigenous population.

1893 - The schooner, Foam, was wrecked on Myrmidon Reef as she was returning Kanakas to the Solomon Islands. The ninety-eight persons on board just had time to make a raft by lowering the top-masts and spars over the side and cutting away all the bulwarks and deckhouses.

1896 - Henry Lawson's mother-dearest, Louisa, received the patent for a mail bag fastener today that, although freely used by the Post Office, was never acknowledged as hers nor was she showered in the dosh she was owed.

1946 - In London's The Daily Mail newspaper they advocated atomic testing in Australia. Yeah, thanks guys...you wanna come clean up your mess now?

1953 - The Sydney Morning Herald announced that,

"15-YEAR-OLD aboriginal girl, Miss Evelyn Robinson, of Grafton, has made history for her race by becoming the first fully-certified aboriginal schoolteacher."

1972 - Members of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy drew up a petition to present to the government. In it they asked for full control of the Northern Territory including all titles to minerals, ownership of all other reserves and settlements in Australia including mineral and mining rights, preservation of all sacred lands in Australia, legal title and mining rights to areas of 'certain cities', and compensation payments for all other land taken from them.

1999 - The great Neville Bonner, the first Australian Aboriginal in Federal Parliament, passed to the stars on this day.

February 4 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-04T09:34:00.002+11:00

1826 - Mr. Dawson states that he "derived great assistance from the Natives" in the First Settlement at Port Stephens.

1856 - The Brigantine Occator was blown ashore near North West Cape, WA. The one passenger and eight crew landed on Morion’s Island about 56 nautical miles from the wreck. Finding it deserted they decided to return to the ship to recover more water; about forty Indigenous men menaced them with spears and stones, but a shot fired from the passenger’s gun scared them away. Four days later they reached Shark Bay and landed on Dirk Hartog Island. They were rescued by the schooner Favourite.

1907 - Herbert Stanley (Bert) Groves , Aboriginal activist, was born today at Walhallow (Caroona) Aboriginal station, near Quirindi, New South Wales, son of Robert William Groves, a respected Aboriginal shearer, and his wife Alice Jane, née Fox.

1939 - The first-ever mass strike of Aboriginal people in Australia occurred, called the Cummeragunja Walk-off. Over 150 Aboriginal people packed-up and left Cummeragunja Aboriginal Station in protest at the cruel treatment and exploitation of residents by the management. They walked 66kms and crossed the border from New South Wales into Victoria in contravention of the rules of the New South Wales Protection Board.

The opera Pecan Summer tells the story of the walk-off.

2002 - The movie Rabbit Proof Fence was released on DVD on this day.

2003 - The High Court declared Federal legislation designed to deny illegal refugees and asylum seekers the right of appeal to the Federal and High Courts as invalid.

2013 - UNHCR released a report on the conditions in the offshore processing facility on Manus Island which similarly concluded that “the transfer of asylum-seekers to unsatisfactory temporary facilities, within a closed detention setting, and in the absence of a legal framework and functional system to assess refugee claims, do not currently meet the required international protection standards”. It also expressed concern about the situation of children transferred to Manus Island, noting that “the lack of any appropriate legal or regulatory framework for their treatment (in what UNHCR finds to be a mandatory, arbitrary and indefinite detention setting), and on-going delays in establishing any procedures to assess children’s refugee protection needs, and broader best interests, is particularly troubling”.

February 3 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-03T18:59:00.001+11:00

1806 - The whaling ship, George, was wrecked at Twofold Bay; the following month sealers from the ship opened fire on Aboriginal people ‘by which nine of their assailants were lain prostrate’. Their bodies, hung in trees, were taken away during the night.
1830 - On this day in history George Augustus Robinson set out on a promenade with a couple of Indigenous fellows to act as cultural ambassadors for him to con the Tassie First Peoples that being shifted and "civilised" by a mob of weird white fellas was the thing to do....

1832 - Carrying provisions to settlers, John Chipper and Reuben Beecham, a boy, were driving a cart over Greenmount (WA) when they were attacked by blacks. The boy was killed almost instantly, but Chipper, though wounded in one arm and having a spear sticking in his side, escaped by jumping over the rock that now bears his name, on top of a steep hill and running seven miles to safety....

1900 - On this day JFG Foxton, WE Parry-Okeden and WE Roth were appointed trustees of a number of Aboriginal reserves in QLD including the Kelsey reserve at Bowen.

1988 - The cat was set amongst the pigeons when a prominent historian pointed out that the famous "Man From Snowy River" was probably in fact an Aboriginal chap named Toby, as it was highly likely Paterson based his now-famous poem on an article by C. W. Neville-Rolfe.

1989 - The findings of the Muirhead Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody were released.

2008 - Australian PM Kevin Rudd announced a summit of 1,000 ordinary citizens to address long-term challenges facing the nation, saying the best ideas could influence government policy. He also scolded the country's opposition for haggling over the exact content of a planned apology to Australia's Aborigines, saying its meaning will be quite clear.

2014 - The Australian Human Rights Commission announced that it would conduct an inquiry into children in immigration detention, to investigate the ways in which life in closed immigration detention facilities affects the health, wellbeing and development of children. The inquiry coincided with the ten-year anniversary of the Commission’s landmark report, A Last Resort? At the time of the announcement, more than 1,000 children were detained in closed facilities.

2016 - The High Court of Australia dismissed a challenge to the legality of the offshore processing regime. The government’s legal victory rested on a retrospective amendment to the Migration Act.

February 2 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-02T12:48:00.000+11:00

1800 - Yellowgowey [Yaragowhy], a Hawkesbury Aboriginal leader, said that an Aboriginal man named Major White killed Hodgkinson and John Wimbow.

1811 - George Caley and Daniel Moowattin sorted specimens at Sir Joseph Banks’s house in Soho Square, London. Banks questioned Dan about the Cola [koala].

1850 - The Sydney Morning Herald announced;
At Botany, on Thursday, January 31st, the well-known Aboriginal "Boatswain,"
whose intelligence and superior manners, coupled with the fact of his being the last of the Botany Bay tribe, rendered him a favourite with all who knew him, and especially with his white countrymen.

1900 - Apart from local Protectors, the appointment of a Protector to oversee the lives of young Aboriginal women was also made. Frances Meston, wife of Archibald Meston the Southern Protector, was the matron of a home for Aboriginal girls in South Brisbane. Mrs. Meston was succeeded by Mary Easter Frew (later known as Mary McKeown) on this day.

1912 - 73 year old Emma Miller unseated the QLD Commissioner of Police from his gee-gee when she took on a mounted police charge and stuck her hatpin in Commissioner Cahill's horse. Thereafter hatpins were outlawed and wide berths given to innocent-looking little old ladies.

1972 - Women were roaring and the men were certainly hearing them when the Women's Electoral Lobby was founded.

1982 – Lindy Chamberlain was committed to trial for murdering her baby Azaria.

1986 – Sydney nurse Anita Cobby was brutally murdered leading to calls for the re-introduction of the death penalty.

1998 - Support for preamble recognition; The constitutional convention held at Old Parliament House from February 2-13 to debate proposals on whether Australia should become a republic supported Indigenous recognition in a new preamble.

February 1 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-02-01T08:44:00.000+11:00

1606 - Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon becomes the first (that we know of) European to map parts of the Australian coast.
Proving Captain Cook didn't discover a thing.

1794 - (Date unspecified)
Aboriginal people attacked, robbed and beat settlers’ wives, stripping one woman of her clothes.

1796 - (Date unspecified)
The Darug severely wounded a man travelling by boat on the Hawkesbury River.
John Wimbow, who was living with an Aboriginal woman at the Hawkesbury River, shot and killed John Caesar for a reward of five gallons of rum.

1798 - (Date unspecified)
As the maize again ripened, a settler was killed and three others wounded at Toongabbie. Two more were killed a few days later. Hunter wrote:

‘It became absolutely necessary… to send out numerous well-armed parties, and attack them [natives] wherever they should be met with; for leniency had only been followed by repeated acts of cruelty.’

1819 - (Date unspecified)
Twenty Aboriginal children competed in the New South Wales Anniversary Schools Examination with 100 white children.

‘A black girl of fourteen years of age, between three and four years at the school, bore away the prize …’
The clever Aboriginal girl is believed to be Maria Lock.

1823 - First husband of Maria Lock, Dicky, a son of Bennelong and a member of the Richmond clan through his mother, was buried on this day at St John's Church of England, Parramatta. He had been in the Native Institution, but had moved to the household of the Wesleyan missioner William Walker, and was baptized Thomas Walker Coke. Within weeks of his marriage to Maria he became ill and died.

1930 - Robert Curry, the Superintendent on Palm Island, murdered his children and attempted to murder several other members of the white administration. Peter Prior was ordered by the Deputy Superintendent to shoot Curry and did so, unwillingly, in self defence.
He was charged with murder but eventually acquitted.

1943 - Aboriginal stockmen were employed to drive cattle towards the Army slaughter yards from widely dispersed areas in northern Australia.

1957 - Rupert Murdoch used his newspaper The News (Adelaide) to claim that the Warburton Ranges report on sick and starving Aboriginal people " to be an exaggeration".
The more things change, the more they stay the same....

1969 - Oz signed on to the International Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination...but the CERD treaty came to be closely eye-balled in the 1990s as Oz had failed to eliminate racial discrimination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

2002 - Then UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, expressed concerns about the vilification of asylum seekers in Australia and urged the Australian Government to provide its citizens with accurate information.

2002 - It was recommended that in Tasmania the AEC establish a separate register of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voters:
The aim of this roll would be to determine eligibility (ie Aboriginality) to nominate and vote prior to the elections taking place. The then-Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Mr Philip Ruddock, announced the trial of such a role in the 2002 ATSIC Regional Council elections.

2006 - The North Australian Justice Agency (NAAJA) was established.
NAAJA is an amalgamation of three separate Aboriginal Legal Aid organisations providing quality services.
They were the:
North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (NAALAS) established in Darwin in July 1973.
Katherine Regional Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (KRALAS) established in Katherine in 1985.
The Miwatj Aboriginal legal Service (MALS) established in 1996.

2014 - The residents of Badu Island in the Torres Strait were granted freehold title over almost 10,000 hectares of land.
The title deed was formally handed over to the traditional owners of Badu Island at a ceremony , giving them full ownership and responsibility to manage, use and enjoy the land now and into the future.

2016 - Casual racism reared its ugly head when two Ballarat men sent social media into meltdown after dressing up in blackface as indigenous Australians at a dress-up party.

January 31 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-01-31T10:39:00.000+11:00

1815 - Governor Macquarie decided to settle ‘friendly’ Aborigines on land they can farm. He erected huts at Georges Head (Mosman ), for Boongaree (Bungaree) and his Broken Bay clan to ‘Settle and Cultivate’.
Macquarie presented Bungaree with a crescent-shaped metal gorget or breastplate naming him ‘Chief of the Broken Bay Tribe’. The Aboriginal ‘settlers’ received clothing, seeds, farming implements and a fishing boat called the Bongaree.

1838 - George Augustus Robinson was appointed Chief Protector of Aborigines, with his headquarters in Port Phillip.

1879 - Chilagorah was arrested and found guilty for the murder of Pintagorah on this day at Cossack (Westralia).

1905 - The West Australian newspaper published the first Royal Commission on Atrocities Against Aboriginal Prisoners.
Which makes for harrowing reading.

1917 - Having a spot of water lying about in pools, as the 1914-1915 drought had done a bunk,The Murray River Commission began operating.
That's one drop for you and gazillion gallons for me, one drop for you and....

1920- The Queensland Times published today;
"RIGHTS OF ABORIGINAL SOLIDIERS.
The opinion has been expressed in some quarters that aboriginals who fought
with the A.I.F. in the late war should be given the right to vote at State or Federal
elections (says a Toowomba contemporary. It is contended that if the aboriginals
thought so much of their country by enlisting, they at least should be given a
voice in the election of men to run the affairs of that country. The Western District of the R.S.S.I.I.A. debated this point very keenly in its conference in Toowoomba recently and finally a motion was carried that it be a recommendation to the authorities that aboriginals who fought with the A.l.F. be granted the privilege of voting.

It may be stated that at a previous meeting of the Western District a proposal
in favour of allowing soldier aboriginals full citizen rights was turned down.

1938 - A deputation of about 20 people met with the Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, his wife Enid as well as the Minister for the Interior, John McEwen, (whose Department held responsibility for Aborigines in the Northern Territory), to present a proposed national policy for Aboriginals which included 10 points.
Among the deputation were John Patten, William Ferguson, Mrs D. Anderson, Helen Grosvenor, Pearl Gibbs and her mother, and Tom Foster.
They called for Commonwealth control of all Aboriginal matters, with a separate Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs; an administration advised by a Board of six, at least three of whom were to be Aboriginals nominated by the Aborigines Progressive Association; and full citizen status for all Aboriginals and civil equality with white Australians, including equality in education, labour laws, workers compensation, pensions, land ownership and wages.

1939 - William Cooper believed a permanent Aboriginies' Day should be established. On this date he wrote to the National Missionary Council of Australia (NMCA), asking for its help in promoting a permanent Aborigines' Day.

1968 - Nauru finally got the monkey off its back ( or Canberrans, if you insist on correct terminology) when it declared its independence on this day.
Which, for some odd reason, makes it Nauru Independence Day.

1972 - The Australian newspaper published an article in which it was reported (supposedly for the first time) that some Aboriginal people in Alice Springs had nowhere to go and were sleeping in dry creek beds.
Only 47 years and not much has changed.

1997 - More than 300 people attended a public meeting called by the Redfern Aboriginal Housing Coalition to discuss opposition to the ongoing relocation of residents and demolition of houses in Eveleigh Street, Redfern.

2003 - The Coogee Madonna began appearing on a sea-side fencepost.
*ahem*
Hundreds of Christians believed they were seeing Mother Mary appear on a Coogee cliff top on sunny afternoons.

2008 - Bruce Trevorrow, the first of the Stolen Generation to receive compensation, was awarded a further $250,000 in interest for the time taken for the case to succeed.

2008 - A Native Title Mining Agreement for Production was signed with Iluka Resources by the Far West Coast Aboriginal Corporation.

2011 - It was announced that Indigenous Rangers from the only Aboriginal-managed Botanic Gardens in Australia, Booderee National Park, south of Sydney, were helping their Papua New Guinean counterparts take part in the joint training program to manage the Kokoda Track and to learn about promoting the responsible management of the legendary trail.

2012 - The NSW Aboriginal Land Council called on the federal Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda to conduct an independent investigation into the actions of police on January 26.
It followed the release of fresh footage of the incident outside the Lobby restaurant in Canberra, which showed Australian Federal Police dealing inappropriately with protestors, including inciting and committing violence.

2017 - It was announced that Yarra Council was working with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to develop a Stolen Generations Marker in Fitzroy as a tribute to the struggles of the Stolen Generations and their families.

January 28 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-01-28T10:06:00.000+11:00

1863 - Derrimut, partially blind, with weak lungs and a paralyzed arm, eloped from the Melbourne Hospital after being subjected to a rough bath. Derrimut at this time was bitterly complaining about the sale and subdivision of the Mordialloc Aboriginal Reserve and the ploughing up of Boonwurrung bones buried on the site.

1933 - The Cairns Post published an article by James Bennett formerly of the 15th Battalion,
"I have stood shoulder to shoulder with half castes in Hell’s pit, [Hell’s Spit] on Quinn’s Post, and seen them die like the grandest of white men and other little stunts I can mention. "

1940 - The Australian Aborigines League persuaded churches to declare the Sunday before Australia Day to be known as Aboriginal Sunday, the first of these falling on this day. The recognition of this continued until 1955 when it was moved to the first Sunday in July.

1948 - Australia's Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, announced that all 'coloured' people who found refuge in Australia during the war must leave.

1970 The very first Oz gay rights group was born when the Australasian Lesbian Movement was launched on the opening of a branch of Daughters of Bilitis.

1972 - Sun newspaper reported on three Black Power Aboriginals setting up a Tent Embassy on the grounds of Parliament House.
*shock horror*
(That was sarcasm in case anyone missed it).

1972 - The second annual national conference of the National Council of Aboriginal and Island Women began today in Canberra.

1998 Dr Wendy Beck announced that large earth mounds, approx. 3,000 in number and found along valleys near the Murray River and tributaries, were cultivated gardens created by Aboriginal Peoples from as long ago as 1000 BC.

2006 - Warren Mundine, previously an advisor on Aboriginal issues to the conservative government of PM John Howard, took over the role of Australian Labor Party president. The first Aborigine to be elected president of an Australian political party, Mundine said that he wanted to enter parliament after his term finishes.

2007 - Harry Melbourne, whose name who should be engraved on the heart of all chocolate lovers everywhere, passed away to the confectioners shop in the sky.
He was responsible for birthing our beloved Freddo Frog in 1930.

2015 - The High Court of Australia ruled that the Sri Lankan asylum seekers were legally detained at sea.

2017 - The City of Fremantle presented the inaugural One Day in Fremantle, a free, family-friendly event and the city’s “culturally-inclusive” alternative to traditional Australia Day celebrations.

January 27 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-01-27T11:35:00.003+11:00

1808 - Tedbury or Tjedboro, son of the famous Pemulwuy, arrived in Sydney, ‘armed with a bundle of spears’. He had been friendly with John Macarthur, who lives at Parramatta. Finding Macarthur safe at his town cottage, Tedbury exclaims, ‘Master they told me you were in gaol’.
‘Well Tjedboro, what has brought you here with your spears?’ asks Macarthur, who was gaoled for a few hours the previous day. He replies, with eyes flashing, ‘To spear the Governor.’

1830 - George Augustus Robinson set out from Hobart for Port Davey to conciliate the Aborigines.

1848 - The first marriage in South Australia between an Aborigine, Kudnarto, and a European, Tom Adams, was solemnised on this day.

1875 - Foundation stone was laid for Sydney's The Great Synagogue in Elizabeth Street.

1972 - Disgusted at the refusal by the McMahon government to acknowledge Aboriginal land rights, Aboriginal activists marched on Canberra where they established the Tent Embassy on the lawn opposite (Old) Parliament House.

2008 - In Australia an Aborigine elder, Mr. Ward (b.1961), died of heatstroke during a four-hour, non-stop trip to face a drink-driving charge in a prison van with broken air-conditioning. In 2010 state director of public prosecutions Joe McGrath told Ward's widow that charges would not be laid against the two guards employed by security firm GSL, now known as G4S, who were in charge of the van. In 2010 Ward’s family was awarded 3.2 million Australian dollars ($2.9 million) in compensation.

January 26 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-01-26T00:00:00.000+11:00

1824 - Maria Lock daughter of Yarramundi, 'Chief of the Richmond Tribes' married Robert Lock, an illiterate convict carpenter who had been assigned to work on the construction of the new Native Institution buildings at Black Town (Blacktown) in 1823. The marriage was the first officially sanctioned union between a convict and an Aboriginal woman, and Robert was assigned to her.

1838 - Waterloo Creek Massacre took place 50kms south-west of Moree.
Five white men were killed while between 120-300 Aboriginal People of the Kamilaroi Nation were murdered by police commandant Major James Nunn.

1927 - Perth magistrate, G.T Wood was appointed as Royal Commissioner to investigate the charred remains found on Forrest River by Aboriginal deacon and tracker, Rev James Nobel.

1938 - The first Day of Mourning was held when defiant Aboriginal protesters gathered in the Australian Hall in Sydney calling for citizens rights.

1958 - Thousands of frustrated Greek chappies vented their frustrations when they rioted in Melbourne after the bridal ship Castel Felice was 9 hours late.

1968 - Lionel Rose was the first Indigenous person to be named Australian of The Year.

1972 - The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up in the wee hours on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra.

1972 - Liberal Prime Minister (Sir) William McMahon’s announced that the Commonwealth would lease Aboriginal people their own land following a decade’s long campaign by the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land and others for land rights.

1972 - In Brisbane homeless Aboriginal people drew attention to their plight with a planned tent city in Central Brisvegas.

1978 - Land rights in the Northern Territory
The proclamation of the Northern Territory Land Rights Act in 1976 enabled traditional owners to claim unalienated land. The Act provided for a Commission to hear claims and with power to grant a limited title. This was the first Australian law enabling claims to traditional ownership to be judged.

1988 - More than 40,000 people, including Aborigines from across the country and non-Indigenous supporters, staged what was the largest march in Sydney since the Vietnam moratorium. There were a dozen buses of Victorian Aborigines among those congregated. The protesters marched through Sydney chanting for land rights. The march ended at Hyde Park where several prominent Aboriginal leaders and activists spoke.

1988 - Standing below the cliffs of Dover, Aboriginal Burnum Burnum (Henry James Penrith) claimed Britain on behalf of the Aboriginal people as a gesture to highlight the plight of contemporary Aborigines in Australia.

1993 - 37-year old Aboriginal rock singer Mandawuy Yunupingu was declared Australian of the Year.

1998 - Cathy Freeman was named Australian of The Year.

2000 - Sir Gustaf Nossol, 68-year old scientist and deputy chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, was named Australian of the Year.

January 25 #OnThisDay in #Australian #History

2019-01-25T00:08:00.002+11:00

1795 - Cameragal (North Shore) elders officiate at the Erah-ba-diang initiation ceremony in Cadigal territory at Woccanmagully (Farm Cove), in which a dozen boys were ‘made men’. According to David Collins, ‘Pemulwuy, a wood native, and many strangers, came in.’ No attempt was made to detain Pemulwuy. Collins thought him 'a most active enemy to the settlers, plundering them of their property, and endangering their personal safety'. Raids were made for food, particularly corn, or as 'payback' for atrocities: Collins suggested that most of the attacks were the result of the settlers' 'own misconduct', including the kidnapping of Aboriginal children.

1795 - Governor John Hunter wrote that Bennelong's health was precarious because of cold, homesickness and disappointment at the long delay which had 'much broken his spirit'.

1863 - James Morrill , a British citizen, ended years of living with Australian Aborigines after a shipwreck in 1846.

1881 - An intercolonial conference imposed unilateral restrictions on the number of Chinese immigrants following ongoing trouble on Australia's goldfields involving Chinese miners.
Dickheads!

1924 - A Japanese naval training squadron visited Sydney.
Because, if you'd known your history, you would have known they were our Allies in WW1.

1988 - Manning Clark published an article in Time Australia entitled 'The Beginning of Wisdom'. Clark wrote:
"Now we are beginning to take the blinkers off our eyes. Now we are ready to face the truth about our past, to acknowledge that the coming of the British was the occasion of three great evils: the violence against the original inhabitants of the country, the Aborigines; the violence against the first European Labor force in Australia, the convicts; and the violence done to the land itself. "

1992 - Armajun Aboriginal Health Service Incorporated was registered on this day. The name Armajun means “open minded”.