1900s

Aboriginal people reported still living at Quakers Hat Bay near Beauty Point, Middle Harbour. (D Keed, 28 May 1984, Manuscript, Local History section, North Sydney Library) Another important area where the northern clans gathered is Narrabeen Lagoon.

Numbers of Aboriginal people at Sackville Reserve are diminishing. By the 1930s only one person remains. Many descendants now live around Blacktown.

Birth of Marie Robinson, daughter of Matilda Ellen, descendants of Bungaree and Matora. Jean Boyd marries Edward Smith. Their children include Reta Smith and Lynette Smith (Robley).

1905

Death recorded of Aboriginal man Robert Walker at Ryde.

1909

The Aborigines Protection Act is passed in NSW. The Board for the Protection of Aborigines has the power to “exercise a general supervision and care over all Aborigines and over the interests and welfare of Aborigines … and to protect them against injustice, imposition and fraud”. The Protection Act gives the Board great powers to control the private lives of Aborigines. For example the Board may order any Aboriginal into or out of any Reserve at its own discretion. The powers to remove children are codified and strengthened, and the Board becomes an instrument of persecution of Guringai, and other NSW Koories, for the next 60 years.

PLEASE NOTE

All the video recordings on this website were made at least a decade ago. Some are fifteen years old.

What the speakers say on camera was based on their own knowledge and researches at the time each video was made. Since then a great deal of information has come to hand which may make some of the information first recorded now outdated. Therefore please regard this website as a period piece presenting knowledge held and believed at the time of recording.