Farm Camps: Homesteads of Refuge

Farm Camps: Homesteads of Refuge. Living within a frontier region that becomes increasingly violent, Aboriginal people take refuge and camp on homesteads that provide them protection. These include: Merton at Denman, Invermain House at Scone, Segenhoe at Scone, Glendon at Singleton, and Cassilis Station at Merriwa. A number of these homesteads also become an important area of employment for Aboriginal people in the pastoral industry: Invermain at Scone, Segenoe at Scone, Merton at Denman, and Glendon at Singleton. Some of these farm camps had been in occasional or cyclical use for thousands of years. Kelvinside homestead at Aberdeen, for example, is the site of an important Bora ground. On these camps, relations of interdependence develop between Aboriginal and white people. Aboriginal people are attracted by the availability of European food, blankets and security, while the supporting homesteads frequently use Aboriginal labour (Lucas, 15).