The View From Mount Clarence . Com – Page 2 – A look back at settlement along Western Australia's South Coast

A short history of Aboriginal relations along the South Coast through the story of the Albany Aborigine Norngern and his King George Town contemporaries

Tommy King was Norngern, and Norn was Wandinyilmernong.

This is a modified version of a piece submitted to Vol. 33 of the academic journal Studies in Western Australian History during 2019. The edition, called ‘Albany: an antipodean Arcadia‘ edited by Malcom Traille and Harry Freemantle, carries a range of works from writers in some way dedicated to Albany and Albany’s place in Western Australia’s history.

Being the first work submitted by The View under the strictures of the university system, and coming from a medium designed for modern consumption via the internet, the piece was overly-lengthy and unweildy by comparison as it strived to meet the full breadth of the title under which it was submitted; ‘Aspects of European-Aboriginal Interaction in 19th Century Albany’. I took that to mean a 100 year history, which meant summarising everything these pages had compiled to date, and then some. The invitation came early in July, 2018, but the work wasn’t submitted until over 12 months later, so it wasn’t that The View was doing nothing that year, rather it was occupied elsewhere.

Having considered that submission it seems reasonable to revisit and modify, building in the charms available to an internet version. However, below is not the same piece. The very many references needed for an academic submission are not detailed here and elements of the text by way of order, cull, addition and modification are made without reference to the original. For the original (and much more on historical Albany), readers should invest in the journal itself, copies of which may be obtained here.

Warning: The names of many deceased Aboriginal persons are described below. The View From Mount Clarence is the work of an Irish/Australian writer concerned with the history of racial integration across Western Australia’s South West. Although of interest and importance to the Indigenous community, the primary intention of this site is to inform non-indigenous West Australian’s of their shared history by exposing the actions of both groups via the stories that make-up our collective past.

Norngern: King George Man

Above: Daisy Bates never met Norngern, but she knew who he was. To the Albany settlers Norngern (aka Wandinyilmernong) was known as Tommy King, one of the King George boys born into the new settler presence at his family’s antediluvian stamping ground. Norn grew up between the traditional world of his elders and the new one brought by the European invasion. Spending the vast majority of his life in the area of the town, he wrestled the change which took place, resisting it to greater effect than his best known contemporaries, all but one of whom he outlived. By old age Norn had become a curiosity or relic, last link to the past world of the South Coast Aborigine, while also a maligned figure of defiance and resilience, irksome reminder to the town of the great imposition it had leveled upon his people. Source: Southern Districts Photographs, Daisy Bates Archive, University of Adelaide.

Whalemen, Jumpships and Albany’s Old Waterfront Precinct

An important off-cut from the Newhill/Newell project – 2019/20

Above: Albany’s waterfront precinct cut from Albany 30A, King George’s Sound as marked by Philip Chauncy, Assistant Surveyor, 1851. Source: State Records Office of W.A.

AS we have seen from our investigations into 1830s and 1840s Albany, behind the imaginary fascia of the town constructed by the moneyed settlers whose role it was to promote and develop a society in the model of well-to-do Britain, Albany’s pre-eminent locale returned the image of a shabby disreputable waterfront populated by heavy drinking soldiers and mariners, foreign sailors running-off or else frolicking on shore-leave, and an otherwise supportive indigenous element sick and dying while embroiled in seedy prostitution.

This changed and improved to a degree from the 1850s with the expansion caused by appointment of Albany as coaling depot for the intercontinenal passenger steamers, especially those contracted to carry the royal mail, but what needs to be remembered is that based on population statistics and social make-up, Albany as a micrcosm of coastal colonial Australia was one part church and office to nine parts boat and vice. There are so many stories of excess carried out by whalers coming ashore between Geographe Bay and the South Coast over the 1840s in particular, author Tim Blue’s much needed Whale Hunters of the West carries 240 pages of startling insight.

Jimmy’s Harbour – Part 3: Summary & Conclusion

From Newell to Newhill The Short Story Behind Jimmy Newell’s Harbour A revised/updated summary and conclusion: January 2026 The origins of the name Jimmy Newell’s Harbour on the Torndirrup Peninsula have long been disputed. The most accepted version today claims the small cove was named after “James Newell,” …

Jimmy’s Harbour – Newhill or Newell? Part 2

Continued from Part 1

Whalemen, rebellion and Albany’s original newspaper;

Jimmy (Ned) Newhill and 1880’s Albany

Above: Edward August Newhill, known among his friends and family as Jimmy, was granted title to the harbour after camping, fishing and hiding deserting whalemen there during the 1880s, but Newhill also led one of the single largest labour revolts in the history of American whaling activity off the Australian coast when he walked off Bartholomew Gosnold at Albany in May, 1883. Image: Undated portrait c. 1920 Source: Lauren Rowe – Rowe family papers

To understand the story of the man who came to be known as Jimmy Newhill, we first have to understand the story of American whaling on and off Albany’s shores across the 1800s, particularly the latter half. This constitutes the bulk of the history, principally the relationship Albany had with the New Bedford whaling firm John Tucker & Co whose four ships, Bartholomew Gosnold, Platina, Canton II and Bertha were stationed off King George Sound between 1877 and 1887. Within this story, however, lies the overlapping one of Princess Royal Harbour becoming coaling depot for the arriving steam age which significantly impacted development of the town around the waterfront. Also, Albany’s first locally produced newspaper came into being toward the end of both the whaling and P&O eras playing an important role in documenting it, along with the drive for the railway, third essential element of the waterfront precinct. Of vital macro importance at this time too were pastoral interests and arrival of the telegraph service from 1877, the combination of which resulted in the settling of the so-called Eastern District which brought with it dire cross-cultural consequences; Albany’s judicial club, headquartered in the newly constructed government buildings looking directly down on the jetty, complicit in its violence. By 1883 the telegraph service allowed the innards of Jimmy Newhill’s story of arrival and remain to play out as it did. And as if that were not enough, the Newhill story ties with Irish poverty and convictism, the effects of which drew the father of Newhill’s locally born bride, Elizabeth Cullinane, from the fringes of West Cork during the aftermath of Ireland’s Great Hunger. Moreover, Elizabeth Cullinane’s registered maternal grandparents were William and Mary Sounness, an 1840’s settler couple rooted to early Albany’s highly influential Scotts fraternity. The Sounness legacy was built along aspiring European lines in the Mount Barker area but there remains the nagging suggestion the Cullinane children were not entirely European, bringing into the picture another cross-cultural relationship and as yet unidentified Menang mother.

Could there be a richer backdrop to local family history than this?

Jimmy’s Harbour – Newell or Newhill? Part 1

An un-won argument and the Newell family of early Albany

Above: Stockphoto of “Jimmy Newhill’s Harbour” drawn from the West Australian Government website Beachsafe.Org.Au The photo is one of very few taken oceanside, looking northward into the mouth of the locally famous cove.

Introduction

As the settlement at King George Sound begins to round on it’s 200th anniversary, there is gathering momentum behind a core of Albany historians determined to strengthen the town’s still lightly-grasped knowledge of itself. The way to do this, of course, is to research and write, to find stories inaccurate, incomplete or as yet untold, and to set them down in a format everyone can relate to.

This post sets out to untangle the Jimmy Newhill/Newell nomenclature dilema, an irritating naming issue that has confused both residents and visitors since anyone can remember. Glancing into it, the names date back to the time of Albany’s earliest European settlement, featuring the town’s NSW convict heritage, its exploitation at the hands of our daringly infamous small-boat mariners, and of a select few working-class men who came to leave a legacy. By way of inclusion, as these pages are want to do, this history also hones in on a much longed-for Indigenous identity, that of Jane Teanan, the search for whom carries on.

With regard to surname heritage, it’s no surprise the Newells and Newhills are confused as the names are variations of each other in two languages. Looking at British origins, which extended to America, Newhall, Newill, Nevill, Noel and Knowles are all related variations. By far the most common being Newell. But these names also evolved from the German Null/Noll/Nolle. Members of these families migrated across Europe and to America as well, where variations now include Newell, Newhall, Nihill, Nuehal, etc.

But this is not a story of confused spelling. Far from it.

Apical Argument – Part 1

MARCH 2023 UPDATE:

6PR Radio talks Lake Monger name change with Glenda Kickett of UWA

Indigenous Elders are calling for Lake Monger to be renamed Galup due to the colonial history associated with the current name. Whadjuk Noongar Elder and senior lecturer at UWA Glenda Kickett told Oliver Peterson on Perth Live there needs to be more truth-telling.

A short history of Aboriginal relations at the Swan River through the story of John Henry Monger and his closest associates.

JH Monger Death Notice Above: Gone to the grave. The name of John Henry Monger (the elder) has long been associated with the birth of Benil, also known as John Jack Mungar Bennell, patriarch of the well known Noongar Bennell and Garlett families of today. Image: taken from Classified Advertisements, The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times, Friday 3 September 1869.

Warning: This post is concerned with Indigenous family history and carries the names of many deceased persons. The intention is to neither prove nor disprove existing theories or beliefs, only to throw light upon a subject of interest to many indigenous and non-indigenous families alike. The View From Mount Clarence is the work of a non-indigenous writer and researcher on the subject of racial integration in South-West Western Australia.

For Aileen, Glenys and Darren Quartermaine-Garlett and all descendants of

John Henry Monger, the Elder, 1800-1867

Introduction

In recent months I’ve been drawn back into family matters. When I say family, I mean extended family, and in this case the extention is wide and far. But that’s the beauty of it and one of the reasons I decided to get involved. The other is because the matter at hand is distressing and it’s not nice to find people in distress.

A relative of mine has been told she belongs to a family she doesn’t know. For the purposes of the Single Noongar Claim, a Perth woman through and through has been told by the South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council (SWALSC) that she’s from the Avon Valley. She’s been told she belongs to an old and very well known Ballardong family with roots buried deep in the days of first settlement at York. She holds nothing against that family, of course, she just doesn’t understand or agree with the judgement. Her whole life she’s been told stories of her grandparents, great grandparents and beyond living along the Swan. My Aunt says her people were the 19th Century Perth personalities Tommy Dower and Fanny Balbuk, not the York patriarchs Benil, Mungarlit and Kikit.

Mokare’s Mob – Summary and Conclusions

As with every aspect of The View From Mount Clarence‘s look into the inclusive history of Albany and the South Coast, exploring the life and times of Mokare and his fellow Menang Aborigines has been nothing short of compelling. This is because most non-indigenous people, myself included, have little knowledge …

Mokare’s Mob – Part 4b

Collie after Mokare (Continued from Part 4A) Cultural impasse aside, it’s important to stay close to our intended purpose of trying to determine the ultimate role played by Mokare in leading the Albany Aborigines into non-violent intercourse with the incoming European presence. The question is not whether Mokare and …

Mokare’s Mob – Part 4a

Mokare and Dr Alexander Collie (1793-1835) And so to Dr Collie himself, Albany’s original ailing academic. Doctor, botanist and casual explorer, by the early 1830s Collie had become a reknown natural history collector as well. His naval experience aboard HMS Blossom cruising the coasts of the Americas, including the Pacific …

Sound As A Bell

‘The Sound’ by Sarah Drummond (a book review) Albany writer Sarah Drummond’s first novel, The Sound, stares into and stirs the dark waters of the town’s immediate pre-history, resolving to tell a harsh and uncomfortable truth. Her subject is the Breaksea Island sealing gangs, the 19th Century story of a …

Mokare’s Mob – Part 3

Mokare and Captain Collet Barker Our impression of life with the Aborigines at the garrison prior to the arrival of Captain Collet Barker can be compared to Scott Nind’s watercolours. From them we get a sense of place and time, but the landscapes Nind painted are unpeopled and vacant. In …

Mokare’s Mob – Part 2

Mokare- His character and influence Above: Louis de-Sainson’s Albany Aborigines sketched in October 1826, coloured and printed 1833. The images are of Mokare (bottom right); Patyet, thought to be Nakinah (bottom left); and young brother Yallapoli with the brothers’ father, also named Patyet (middle). The two men at the top …

Mokare’s Mob – Part 1

Mokare: 1800 – 1831 Not since the time of Mokare has there been more future driven anxiety facing the South Coast’s Indigenous. As final deliberation on the Single Noongar Claim looms, Western Australia’s South-Western Aborigines face acceptance of the decades long Native Title case against the Government of Australia, an issue as much rooted …

In Search of Ngurabirding-Part 4(b)

This post is continued from Part 4 (a) previous: John McKail and George Cheyne: Town, Sea or Land? Above: John McKail arrived at Albany immediately prior to the 19th Century’s great off-shore whaling boom (1836-1842), a phenomena which should have resulted in much greater migration of moneyed settlers to …

In Search of Ngurabirding-Part 4 (a)

John McKail and George Cheyne: From the Swan River to The Ship Inn, Cape Riche and Eticup In the continuing search for Ngurabirding we complete the background to John Maher’s 1854 arrival at Albany with a look at the activities, enterprises and connections of the disputatious pair John McKail and George …