1950s

This will be the beginning of pressure on Koori families to leave the inner city and move to the west and south west where the factories are being re-located.

Aboriginal people arriving from the bush to Sydney take up residence in the shanty town areas around the harbour if they do not move on to La Perouse reserve itself. Not everyone is allowed to stay though, and some are unwelcome.

12,000 houses have been built by the NSW Housing Commission in Sydney’s west and south west. Those prepared to leave areas like Redfern or Little Bay are promised work and the chance to buy their own home within a few years.

Other Koori people still moving from the Salt Pan Creek area include the activist Bert Groves. Goodall and Cadzow, Rivers and Resilience, p 187.

Randwick municipal council begins to remove the last of the remaining shanty towns of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal residents such as 'Happy Valley'. Some people ignore the council’s eviction orders. Some shacks are finally demolished with the occupants leaving only minutes before. From the 1950’s the last shanty town houses are completely gone.

Joseph Timbery demonstrates his boomerang throwing skill to Queen Elizabeth.

Pearl Gibbs leaves her position as Aboriginal member of the Aborigines Welfare, an elected position she has held since 1954. She believes that she was excluded from important debates and decisions, especially when the male members went into a bar to drink and discuss, from which as a Koori, she was debarred.

Many Koori men are employees at the Burragorang dam site, clearing timber. Uncle Chicka Madden from Redfern meets many future mates from La Perouse on the dam site.