St Clair mission, church school, cultural park

Aboriginal groups from Upper Hunter Valley seek refuge at Rev James White's property near Singleton (1860s). They establish a church & school, and St Clair Mission Reserve on Glennies Creek (1893). People whose ancestral lands make up the Hunter Valley form a large proportion of St Clair population: Wonnarua, Darkinung, Worimi & Awabakal clans. St Clair/Singleton becomes the centre of Aboriginal life in the region for fifty years or so.

There is constant movement between Singleton/St Clair & Sackville Reach Reserve on Hawkesbury River, eg Edward Saunders. Maggie Barber, Tom Dillon & Johnny Goobra apply to Aborigines Protection Board for railway passes to journey between the reserves.

"We have been through the bad times and the good times. We have survived. Always look to develop what you have got for the future". (Laurie Perry, CEO of Wonnarua Nation Aboriginal Corporation).

Cultural revival: Possum skin cloak making at St Clair 2011

Descendants purchase St Clair site: Wonnarua Cultural Park, Bio-Banking & Mobs coming back to Country

Aborigines Inland Mission: missionary work

Aborigines Protection Board, strict controls and expulsion

Ceremonial links to Mt Yengo, Bulga Bora ground and Biame Cave at Milbrodale

Reserve closure & eviction: some remain nearby in tin shantytown at Redounberry Hill camp

Wonnarua St Clair "project" to revitalise language & culture (2006)

Location

St Clair: Mission, Church School, Reserve, Cultural Park

Australia

32° 23' 16.9332" S, 151° 13' 18.7572" E

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 Since then a great deal of information has come to hand which may make some of the information first recorded now outdated.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.