Parramatta Native Feast

At the Parramatta Native Feast, lists of people are drawn up who people who attend. Some give their place of residence or tribe as Duck River, Kissing Point, or Concord. For example, William Wilson and Bollan (Mary) are living at Kissing Point in 1836. The Kissing Point people seem to have moved to Duck River after 1836. Koories remain till now at Kissing Point probably because of the wealthy emancipist James Squire.. Squire’s family may have continued to assist Aboriginal survivors until the end of the 1830s. Michael Flynn speculates how the Duck River people supported themselves: ‘they may have followed a traditional lifestyle along the Duck River around what became the Clyde Railway workshops in the 20th century. The returns for blankets suggest that most of or all of the Koori people from Kissing Point, Duck River and Concord have disappeared, or are living elsewhere, by 1842. (Vincent Smith pp. 106-7)

  • Annual Government blanket distribution