Moorilup In our search for Ngurabirding we are building background to the arrival of his father, Ticket-of-leave man John Maher, in the Albany area during 1854. Maher took up work as a farm labourer or shepherd on one of the Spencer sheep runs closer to Mount Barker, north of …
The Hay River Brigade Before we go on with the story of John Maher after the issuing of his Ticket-of-Leave, it’s important to look into what had already taken place at Albany relative to his arrival. This applies to the earliest period of free settlement and the story of the …
Resolving the identity of a man known as John Jack Maher helps tell the story of early European/Aboriginal integration inland from Albany. By following the threads we learn how Albany’s pioneer pastoralists merged with those from York in and around what later became the railway town of Katanning; most …
Originally Published 30 November 2015: Warning: This post is concerned with Indigenous family history and carries the names of many deceased persons. Content addresses heritage relating to the Noongar branch of the Quartermaine family and by extension many others. Some assumptions may challenge existing beliefs. I should also point out that …
Bob Gamble, John Bailey Pavey & Black Jack Anderson Above: The story of Truganini, perhaps Australia’s best known female Aboriginal ancestor, extends through her sisters and other women like her, via Kangaroo Island, all the way to King George’s Sound. Cartoon image by Chris Grosz, taken from the politics, society and culture magazine The …
The Sealers of the Schooner’s Hunter and Governor Brisbane 1825-26 Above: Part of a sealing gang captured in full flight. Probably American, the gang are thought to be clubbing Cape Fur Seals off Namibia sometime in the early 1800’s. Image uncredited and taken from The Seals of Nam website. King George’s Sound was settled some years before Robert …
From New Zealand and Bass Strait to Kangaroo Island, Middle Island and King George’s Sound Above: The business of hunting fur seals boomed in the 1790s, arriving in Australian waters around 1798. At the time seal rookeries were crowded and hundreds of thousands of the animals were slaughtered in …
Originally Published 30 April 2015: The 1840s Above: The Lower Kalgan River meanders past Mount Boyle into Oyster Harbour and King George’s Sound reflecting the rural idyll of old Albany. Campbell Taylor’s childhood home lay on the upper part of the hill. Built in 1837 by his father Patrick, the …
Originally Published 01 March 2015: East Along The Coast Above: Cape Arid featuring Middle Island and the eastwards view toward Point Malcolm. This is the place where Aboriginal and Settler historical records along the South Coast began and where the story of one particular pioneer, Campbell Taylor, stands out. Photo courtesy …
Originally Published 15 December 2014: People of the Wild Cherry Above: Tijuk (Jeeuk-Bates), the Native or Wild Cherry, is related to the more widely known Quandong and a member of the Sandalwood Family. Also known as the Broom Ballart or Exocarpos Sparteus the plant is a weeping shrub native to Western Australia. Tijuk was totem to a clan of the Ngadgu (Ngadjumaia), Aborigines from the area north and east of …
Originally Published 31 October 2014: Background to Violence The events at Cocanarup during the 1880’s did not take place in a vacuum. Precedents of violent repression had been set along the Swan River since 1829, more forcibly at Pinjarra in 1834, the Vasse River and York District between 1835 and 1841 and at various …
Originally Published 11 October 2014: Cross-cultural understanding and the difficulty in researching old family histories Preface: The following post, as with others in the Interlude sequence, contains the names and images of deceased Aboriginal persons. Also contained is a discussion about the difficulties Aboriginal families of the South West of Western Australia …
Originally Published 1 October 2014: Above: Research takes time – I can’t go any faster. Photo Credit – http://blog.speedbit.com/?p=1485
Originally Published 15 September 2014: More thoughts on the movements and whereabouts of John James Dunn prior to March 20th, 1881 Above: Construction of the East-West telegraph line between Albany and Port Augusta, South Australia, impacted upon settlement along Western Australia’s South Coast. Both the Gillam and Dunn families established in …
Originally Published 31 August 2014: And the Dunns of Cocanarup; What do we know about John, James, George, Robert and Walter? Above: The Dunn brothers and sister, Eliza, probably taken around 1910 – After the death of brother George in 1907. Front row seated – Eliza, William & James. Back …