Topics: People: Community leaders: North Coastal
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1823 - view
Birth of Charlotte Ashby, daughter of Sophie Bungaree and James Webb.
1828 - view
The
census in 1828 lists Lewis Ferdinand (Biddy’s Lewis’ husband) as living at
Lower Portland Headland (Broken Bay). Lewis is listed as a labourer to John
Grace, and Sarah (Biddy) as Lewis’s housekeeper.
1830 - view
Birth
of Theda Bungaree, father: Bowen Toura Bungaree, Mother: Maria.
1834 - view
Rickety
Dick of the Broken Bay tribe has his portrait painted.
1836 - view
Bowen
may also have been disappointed in British justice. Bowen had requested the
Reverend Threlkeld to make representation to the NSW Attorney General for the
unsuccessful prosecution of two Aboriginal men, Murrell and Bummaree for the
murder of his brother-in-law Jabinguy and another man. His appeal to the
Attorney General was unsuccessful. Bowen returned to find his country much
altered with traditional coastal fishing grounds blocked off to them and
borders from farms and roads.
1836 - view
Bowen
and other members of his clan find work employed as black trackers and also
catch and trade fish with settlers. He works beside Customs Officer Howard and
is friends with local farmer John Farrell. He is described as a valuable asset
to the force. The Sydney Herald
reports that Bowen has given information that leads to the capture of three
bush rangers. “A black fellow named Bowen told Brophy that the other bushrangers
were on another island near Mooney Mooney Creek”.
1836 - view
Bowen
is a very effective black tracker in detecting illegal stills in the upper
reaches of McCarrs Creek, Church Point. He leads John Howard from the Customs
House at Barrenjoey, Pittwater, up the creek to where a man William Farr is
detained. Howard recognizes Bowen’s skills and recommends to the Collector of
Customs in Sydney that he should ”have a second boat which would cost about
four hundred pounds and enable him to get a living for himself and family
consisting of two daughters and a son. … as he will be liable to insult and
oppression for having aided me”. Later Howard writes “I am reluctant to employ
(Bowen) … without the protection of a constable as I have reason to believe
that violence would be used towards him.”
1836 - view
Bowen
(Toura Bungaree) and his wife Maria, and daughters Jonza, Nan, Theda (Jane),
and son Mark, move to Pittwater, near Barrenjoey. Bowen has perhaps decided to
lead his clan away from the destruction and poverty of Sydney life back to a
semi traditional existence.
1842 - view
Boio
(Long Dick). son of Bungaree and Cora Gooseberry, gives a Broken Bay vocabulary
to John Mann.
1844 - view
Her (known) children are ‘Miss Diana
Bungaree’, Long Dick and Young Bungaree.
1849 - view
Bowen Bungaree, Bungaree’s son, sails with other Koories to the Californian gold
fields with Richard Hill because of their skill in sailing boats and in the
hope to be given jobs to carry the crowds of gold seekers flocking to the
Eldorado. Black Bowen is the only one to return. He speaks with ridicule about
America, “That country! No wood for fire, but plenty cold wind … no good for
me! No good for blackfellows!”
On
his return Bowen resumes his duties as a Police Tracker and reports to police
the activities of two assigned servants (convicts) who had escaped and are
petty thieves on the Northern Beaches. The men are captured and sent to prison.
Bowen’s reputation is now well established, for example he tracks and uses his
gun to hunt the bush-ranger Casey. Bowen wear grand clothes, Farrell describes
him: “He was in full rig with dress coat, his hair knotted up behind with three
feathers stuck in it”.
1853 - view
Bowen
is shot by four white bushrangers at Newport.
He is 56 years old. John Farrell relates that a bushranger Casey, who
frequented Bushranger’s Hill, had murdered Bowen as he sat by his fire at
night.
1862 - view
Death
of Queen Gooseberry, at 78. Her father was from the southern Sydney area. After
Bungaree’s death she has settled around Camp Cove with other displaced
Aboriginal people. She wears a breast plate with her name on it. Wrapped in a
blanket, her head covered by a scarf and with a clay pipe in her mouth, she is
a familiar Sydney personality. Her grave is in the Presbyterian section of
Botany Cemetery. “In memory of Gooseberry Queen of the Sydney Tribe of Aborigines”.
1863 - view
Clara
Duggan, born 4 November 1863 at Wattle Flat, NSW. Esther’s daughter (William’s
mother), descendants of Bowen.
1868 - view
Thomas Booker
1880s - view
Mrs Benns (and husband Joseph Benns) are still living on Pittwater. She acts as midwife to all the families along the Hawkesbury River.
1880 - view
Biddy
Lewis dies and is buried at Bar Island near Brooklyn.
1895 - view
Birth of William de Serve, a Guringai Koori farmer and fisherman on Barenjoey Peninsula.
1920s - view
‘Black
Lucy’ lives in Milling Street Gladesville until she dies in late 1920s. She is
referred to by Europeans as the last (traditional) member of the Gamaraigal
tribe and is buried in the Field of Mars Cemetery.
1940s - view
William
de Serve, a Gai-mariagal man born on Barrenjoey, is living in several camps
along the Hawkesbury River making a living by selling his fishing catch at
Brooklyn. He is also known at Coal and Candle Creek and at Narrabeen.