1880s
1880
Association for the Protection of Aborigines constituted. The following year it advocates the establishment of a protectorate for the Aborigines. One protector for the colony: George Thornton, former MP is appointed and surveys the conditions and needs of Aborigines (Brook 1st edit, p5). Concerned about the great number of “half-castes” in the census, Thornton argues that government should limit aid to the “true Aborigines only”. (Brook 1st edit, p5).
June. Overdue blanket distribution in Hunter Valley. The Maitland Mercury reports: “We are pleased to learn…the unfortunate [A]boriginals of this district are to be suppled at once with clothing to protect these poor creatures from the severity of the winter season…We understand that is intended to give a full suit from the hat to the boots and there will most likely be some fifty or sixty recipients…We shall no doubt see many of the blacks parading the streets in a day or two, looking quite happy in their new attire…” (Report from the Select Committee on the Condition of the Aborigines for the Hunter region, in Lucas, 56)
December 15. Among the Hall Family accounts 1866-1884 are some records relating to rations and wages paid to Aborigines working on “Lilburndale”. The earliest record is 15 December 1880: “Paid to Shaw 1 pound”, and list of rations supplied to “Shaw” and “Afe”: flour, sugar and tea. Afe or Alfie is the son of a union between William Onus and Martha Everingham.
“Andy” (Andrew Barber earns 17 pounds on 7 January 1881 and had six pounds three pence deducted for “rations”. (Brook, 1st edit, 16). On 13 July 1883 records show rations are distributed to:
1) Henry Barber
2) T Cox (Tommy)
3) Andrew Barber
4) Will
5) Shaw
6) Boney
Records indicate the Aborigines assisted the Hall family at harvest time: pulling corn. Those involved are Harry and Andrew Barber, Tom Dillon, Tuckernong, Old Charley (Chorley), Young Charley, Tilley, Efffie and Rachel. Other names mentioned beside “rations” and “money advanced” are: Tom Lewis, Tom Twopenny, George, Fred and Peter. (Brook, 1st edit, 15-16). The Hall family (John Smith Hall) holds a Christmas party each year for his black friends.
Lingering fear is apparent by young Aboriginal boys. This may be caused by John Henry Fleming (a Hall relative involved in the Myall Creek Massacre). Family legend tells of him galloping away from the vicinity of the massacre on a horse. Reaching Maitland, Fleming “disappears”. Rumour has it he escaped to Tasmania. However, avoiding arrest he reaches his relatives in the Macdonald and Hawkesbury valleys, comes out of hiding and for the rest of his life is a model of propriety (Brook, 1st edit, 17).
1881
“The Aborigines of the district assembled at the Windsor Court House on the Queen’s Birth Day, for the yearly distribution of blankets. There does not appear to be any falling off in the contingent; but the Aborigines are gradually losing their distinctive character, and are becoming a whitey-brown nation”. The following are the names and ages of the Lower Portland tribe: - Elizabeth Captain, 28; Margaret Shaw 23..... Barber, Cumber, Doyle, Nowland, Stewart, Lenart, Curber, Cumber, Everingham, Bowman, Cox, Muley (The Australian, Windsor & Richmond Advertiser, 28 May). [the full list of names appears on the West timeline)
1882
Henry Barber and Annie have 7 children of whom two survive: Frederick (Yeri) and Wesley (Muckeye) born 1882. Both men are well known cricketers. Andrew’s son Albert is also well known. All three play for Botany Cricket Team in 1907 and earlier for Sackville Reach. They are employed as log splitters near Marsden Park. (Brook, 1st edit, 50).
1883
Tom Dillon’s parents are not known. He appears at Sackville in the Hawkesbury Valley and at Broke in the Hunter Valley. He works at “Lilburndale” near Sackville Reach during 1883-84, and lives among Darkinung communities of the Hawkesbury and Hunter valleys. Tom Dillon is a fully initiated man, with a scarred chest and missing front tooth. He lives for sometime at Wollombi Brook. He is a fine horseman, a keen cricketer, and for a while, a black tracker based at Bulga. Tom Dillon dies from burns at Newcastle during 1923 while residing at Karuah (Port Stephens). (Barney, Historic Grave; Ford p284, 155).
1883c Tom Lewis, grandson of Queen Matora is working at “Lilburndale” and Tizzana Winery (see pic). On 7 February 1887 Tom is unable to pay the school fees for his large number of children. They are forced to leave Sackville Reach Public School. He moves to Marramarra Creek to join his extended family and works as a lime burner and ship repairer. The family grow an orchard and collect oysters and fish. (J Brook and J L Kohen, The Parramatta Native Institution and the Black Town) (Brook, 1st edit, 55) W615 W616.
Under the influence of the Aborigines Protection Association from 1880, small reserves are declared where Aborigines might camp if they choose and police are responsible for the government contact. This precedes the establishment of the Aborigines Protection Board in 1883. The number of reserves in NSW increases from 18 in 1883 to about 170 in 1910, mostly due to Aboriginal agitation or occupation. (Nolan, We Want to do what they did, p23; Ford 212).
1883, Aborigines Protection Board appointed. It recommends a Bill, the first proposal put to government is: “the custody and control of [A]borigines of all ages and sexes…in like manner as a parent has the right to the control of his children of tender years”. This is paternalism openly expressed. No bill is passed. Later, such recommendations allow black children to be removed from their parents without their consent and placed in institutions. (Brook, 1st edit, 14)
The Hawkesbury Aborigines are not unduly harassed by the Board, probably because they live in quiet seclusion and many are earning a living working on local farms. The Board’s first report reveals rations are “supplied to four infirm Aboriginal women” of the Hawkesbury and farming implements and rations are supplied to the Sackville Reach Aboriginal community. (Brook, 1st edit, 15)
Evidence suggests the Hall family property “Lilburndale” beside West Portland Road, Sackville Reach is the distribution point for rations destined for Hawkesbury Aborigines. However, the bulk of the food they receive is paid for out of their wages. The Board’s policy is that only Aborigines unable to support themselves (eg the aged, infirm or children attending school whose parents were unable to provide for them) can receive aid. (Brook, 1st edit, 15).
The Rachel working at “Lilburndale” near Sackville Reach is possibly Rachel Trooper, a strong woman capable of heavy farm work, born circa 1854 to Charlie and Tilley Comfort. Rachel is aunt to Frederick Barber. At 20 years of age (circa 1874) Rachel marries George Trooper at La Perouse. George and Rachel Trooper live at Maggie’s Bight. They live for some time in a small hut opposite “Lilburndale” on the eastern side of the river. They have two female children, both die before their mother. Rachel and George eventually move to Smith’s Flat Aboriginal community near Kempsey. Rachel Trooper dies at Smiths Creek on 22 September 1931 aged 70 years and is buried at Comara cemetery. (Brook, 1st edit, 55-56)
1884
7 adults and 9 children are provided with clothing and rations at Windsor. In 1885, 21 adults and 11 children are catered for. In 1886, 18 adults and 22 children receive assistance. 1887, numbers cropped at Windsor to 15 adults and 7 children.(Brook, 1st edit, 17)
1885
1886
1887
Approx 100 years after Gomebeere’s vocabulary is collected, others collect more wordlists from the Aborigines who remain in the same area where Gomebeere and Yellomundy’s families encountered Governor Phillip’s expeditions 1789 and 1791. Locally born James Tuckerman at Sackville records and publishes a word list from people native to the Hawkesbury at Sackville near Portland Head Rock. (Ford p9, 179)
Around the same time, native-born Robert Mathews travels to Sackville near Portland Head Rock on Hawkesbury River to meet Aborigines he first met and befriended at Broke on Wollombi Brook when surveying that country. From some of the Wollombi people who moved through the ranges to Sackville on the Hawkesbury River, Mathews completes a record of their language which they call Darkin-nyoong then spelt as Darkinung. Principle families that Mathews records in the Hunter catchment are: Clark(e), Saunders, Dillon and Taggart. Others from the ranges move to the coast, eg Newman – Noakes/Sales. Principle families that Mathews lists at Sackville are: Clark(e), Dillon, Everingham-Saunders including Ephraim “Afie” Everingham son of Budha (Butha alias Mildred Saunders) both born at Sackville, Barber-Morley and Newman (Mathews publishes this record 16 years later in 1903). (Ford p23)
Annie Barber, sister of Tom Dillon, is known to Robert Mathews as a Darkinung woman at Sackville, one of principal sources for the identification of the language and people. Also, Tilly Clark/e, sister of Hiram, native to Sackville at the Tuckerman’s farm on Addy Creek (present-day Currency Creek). Annie (“Grannie Barber) is one of the subjects for the portraits drawn by artist Herbert Beecroft at “The Aborigines camp at La Perouse”. (Waugh, Beecroft: An entertaining artist; Ford p163).
1888
May 25. Queen Victoria’s birthday.8290 blankets are distributed throughout NSW to the Aborigines. Windsor Courthouse was distribution centre for Hawkesbury region. (Brook, 2nd edit, 22) After one hundred years of white occupation,1888 total of 31 adults and 30 children receiving aid at Windsor. This cannot be taken as accurate reflecting the total Aboriginal population of the Hawkesbury.
During the late nineteenth century on the Hawkesbury River and in the Hunter some of the pocket camps established by Aboriginal people from the 1850s are designated as Aboriginal Reserves in acknowledgement of their existing use by Aboriginal people. They are sometimes located near white farms which require Aboriginal labour. (Lucas, 20).
1889
1889 September 18. An Aboriginal Reserve is declared at Sackville Ridge (Portland Head). For several decades it is the largest designated reserve in the Sydney area, outside of La Perouse. It is in two parts at first.
1. Ab Res gazetted 23958. On Cumberland Reach on Hawkesbury River, 11 miles from Wilberforce, area 150 acres, all scrub and rocks except for 3 acres. Unfenced, uncultivated, one bark hut occupied by Thomas Dillon and his family. (Dillon & Onus families). Reserve was named Sackville Reach Aborigines Reserve.
2. Reserve 23957 gazetted. On Kent Reach on Hawkesbury River, 9 miles from Wilberforce, 30 acres, all scrub and rocks except for half an acre, area cleared and area under cultivation is nil. One slab hut is occupied by Thomas Onus
3. A third part is added to the Sackville Reserve: No. 28546. 40 acres next to reserve 9857. One end of the reserve is situated in 2012 at Jerimuda Bed & Breakfast, 72 Laws Farm Road, Lower Portland 2756.
One of the largest concentrations of Aboriginal people is around Sackville Reach. In 1889 the Minister of Lands proclaimed two reserves, one 150 acres on Cumberland Reach and the other of 30 acres on Kent Reach. The larger was then named the Sackville Reach Aborigines Reserve. Four slab huts were built on the reserve in the 1890s and a church-meeting room was opened in 1900. In 1901, 50 Aborigines were recorded as living there. (Nichols 5-6).
70 inferior government blankets are doled out at Windsor. (Brook, 1st edit, 18). Those who had journeyed to Windsor from Colo, Putty and the Hawkesbury Valley brought wild currants into Windsor and sold them for sixpence (5 cents) a quart. (Brook, 1st edit, 18). are doled out at Windsor. (Brook, 1st edit, 18). Those who had journeyed to Windsor from Colo, Putty and the Hawkesbury Valley brought wild currants into Windsor and sold them for sixpence (5 cents) a quart. (Brook, 1st edit, 18).
June 13. Margaret Smith Hall (1833-1909), John Smith Hall’s unmarried sister purchased sixty acres of Crown Land adjoining her land and “Lilburn Cottage” situated on a portion of “Lilburndale”. This new acquisition incorporated the Aboriginal burial ground. The burial ground is situated at the foot of a steep boulder-strewn ridge which is cleft by a narrow watercourse. The contour of the ridge forms a small natural amphitheatre. There are no headstones. Margaret hall was a friend of local Aboriginal people all her life. It is possible that Margaret sought to caretake the burial ground. By 1901 the spinster became too infirm and was moved into Ebenezer to live with her brother Matthew Smith Hall and his wife. She lost her land and cottage. Teresa Hall acquired the property. The conditional purchase noted that it contained a “special area”. Local Aborginal people who “tenaciously clung to the old ways” utilised this sacred area. (Brook, 1st edit, 61).
A dam is scooped out in its midst sometime around the late-1950s.