1890s

16 Koories sign a petition asking for land: “We, the native blacks about Sydney, ask you if you would be kind enough to give us a piece of land at Jervis Bay, where we can make a home for ourselves and our people. We have been hunted about a good deal from one place to another, and we find it hard to get a living for ourselves and our children, but if we get a chance and some help from the government, we might in time get a living. As it is we find it very hard. Drink and a hard life are killing us off. White people ought to be very good to us for they got our good country for nothing. We don’t want them to pay us for it, but they ought to help us to live. We would like our boys and girls to learn to read and write like white children and we want boats and nets for fishing, so we can get money for our work and learn to live like Christians.” Goodall, Invasion to Embassy, pp. 82-83.

Mr Tresco Rowe recalls Koori people living at Darling Point in the early 1890's on the Mona Estate. He believes that the people there had been removed and taken to La Perouse in the late 1890's.

People are picked up by police and removed to La Perouse for instance, Peter Wandy from Western Australia writes that when woken up by policemen as he was sleeping in the Sydney Domain he was told to go to La Perouse.

The Census shows William Rowley living at Weeney Bay with four men and a woman.

Senior Koori's in the district include Bessie Sims, Granny Giles, Emma Timbery, Lizzy Malone, Clara Philips (‘Gungee’), Kate Saunders, Jimmy Lowndes and Robert Racklin.

Lucy Leane demands recognition of her right as a Koori woman to land and an economic future. She calls herself, in accurately, the ‘only Surviving Woman of the Georges River’, and in a petition to the government asks for a fishing boat ‘for the purposes of carrying on trade on the Georges River’ She was refused. Goodall and Cadzow, Rivers and Resilience, p 75-77

Lucy Leane, married to William Leane, having raised 13 children has with her husband developed at 33ha farm and vineyard. She writes to the Aborigines Protection Board this petition: “Your Petitioner … is the only surviving Native Woman of the Georgian River and Liverpool District residing here ever since her birth, 53 years ago. “Being a bona fide Original Native of Australia & of this District your Petitioner requests of you the supply of a boat as granted by Government in all such cases, for the purpose of carrying on trade on the Georges River.” Goodall and Cadzow, Rivers and Resilience, 77. Although the Board rejects her claim the Leanes continue their occupation in the family name until at least 1925. Goodall and Cadzow, Rivers and Resilience, 77-78

Miss Watson establishes, through the United Aborigines Mission, a house at La Perouse. Emma Timbery is the first president of the La Perouse United Aborigines Mission.

The New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board reserves 7 acres (3 Ha) on Botany Bay north shore for the use of Koori people at La Perouse. This portion of land is where a handful of Aboriginal families have already permanently established themselves at least since the late 1870's.

Jimmy Lowndes states that "the Gundungurr and Dharrook natives could converse together with but little difficulty."

Retta Dixon becomes the La Perouse missionary.