Biraban and Chief Bo-win-bah (“Gorman”) guide explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt

Biraban and Chief Bo-win-bah (“Gorman”) of the Newcastle Tribe guide explorer and naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt from Ash Island on the Hunter River on the first leg of Leichhardt’s overland journey to the north. They take a circuitous route around the swamps towards Maitland. Biraban and Bo-win-bah make camp for the night at Minmi. The following morning, Biraban and Bo-win-bah refuse to accompany Leichhardt any further, possibly because they would be entering the lands of the Sugarloaf Tribe. Leichhardt proceeds to scale the heights of Mount Sugarloaf before heading to Robert Scott’s property at Glendon. (M Aurousseau, The Letters of F.W. Ludwig Leichhardt, 1968, p640, quoted in Hartley, 91).