When the Records Speak Our Name Bullcorronda, Mary Ann Quinn and the Wider Story of My Anaiwan Family
- Brian AJ Newman LLB
- Aug 15
- 23 min read
Updated: Aug 25
By Brian AJ Newman
Official genealogical research concerning Bullcorronda identifies Mary Ann Quinn as an original Aboriginal inhabitant of the New England cultural area and connects her descendants to the Quinn, Duval, Bristow, Reid and other families. For me and my family, the record provides further evidence of an enduring Anaiwan family history.
A Second Record of My Family
In my earlier article, We Come From Somewhere, I wrote about my Anaiwan ancestors, Granny Duval and the responsibility I feel to honour their survival through my work as an employment and human rights advocate.
That story drew substantially upon Sue Pickrell’s book, Granny Duval: “She Must Have Come From Somewhere”. It traced my family through Milbona, a Wiradjuri woman; Corumba, a Ngarigo or Bemeringal man; their daughter Maryann, also remembered as Mary Quinn, Lulu, Mahrakah or Mahrakan; and the next generation through Mary Elizabeth Quinn, who married James Duval and became known as Granny Duval.
Another important record has now added weight, context and new branches to that family history.
Bullcorronda (Mount Yarrowyck): Aboriginal Cultural Association with Mount Yarrowyck Nature Reserve was published in 2016 by the Office of the Registrar under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW). It was not produced as a family memoir or an informal collection of local stories. It arose from the statutory process associated with Aboriginal ownership and joint management of culturally significant land.
The publication combines historical records, government archives, certificates of birth, death and marriage, anthropological research and oral genealogies provided by Aboriginal community members.
Most significantly for my family, it identifies Mary Ann [Quinn] as an original Aboriginal inhabitant of the Bullcorronda cultural area.
Once again, the records speak our family’s name.
Bullcorronda: Country Where People Came Together
Bullcorronda, now commonly called Mount Yarrowyck, stands approximately 20 kilometres west of Armidale, 20 kilometres north of Uralla and about 60 kilometres south of Tingha.
It sits within a broad New England cultural landscape connecting Armidale, Walcha, Uralla, Tingha, Bundarra, Inverell, Hillgrove, Wollomombi and the eastern falls country.
The Bullcorronda report does not attempt to force this landscape into rigid boundaries. It recognises that language, kinship, ceremony, marriage and movement created overlapping forms of cultural association. It describes Bullcorronda as part of a wider ceremonial network and records the oral understanding that it was a place where “tribes came together.”
That description is important.
Colonial governments attempted to divide Aboriginal people through reserves, districts, administrative classifications and externally imposed racial categories. Blak families understood their relationships differently. Country was connected through ceremony, marriage, obligation, movement and kinship.
The Bullcorronda report identifies historical associations among Anewan or Anaiwan people and neighbouring Amberu, Banbai, Kwiambal, Yukambal, Ngarabal, Bigambal, Gamileroi and coastal communities. It also records ceremonial gatherings involving people from the Macleay and Clarence Rivers and the New England tablelands.
The report therefore helps explain why the identities and family relationships of lower New England cannot always be reduced to a single line on a map.
My own ancestry reflects that interconnected history. I descend from Anaiwan/Nganyaywana, Ngarigo/Bemeringal and Wiradjuri ancestors. My family history carries Anaiwan and Gamileroi connections through family who lived and cared for the lands around Tingha and the broader New England region.
These connections do not cancel one another. They are evidence of how Aboriginal families lived, moved, married and survived.
Who Was Mary Ann Quinn?
The Bullcorronda report contains a family sheet headed “Mary Ann [Quinn]”.
It describes Mary Ann as an Aboriginal woman from the Walcha area who had children with Maurice Quinn, a European man. It estimates that she was born during the 1820s or early 1830s and records that Maurice Quinn died at Rimbanda, near Armidale, in 1869.
This closely aligns with the family described in Granny Duval.
That book identifies Maryann as the daughter of Milbona and Corumba. Family knowledge remembers her through several names, including Maryann, Mary Quinn, Lulu and the Aboriginal name rendered as Mahrakah or Mahrakan.
The Bullcorronda report does not identify Milbona and Corumba as Mary Ann’s parents. It therefore does not independently prove that earlier generation. What it does establish is that an Aboriginal woman named Mary Ann, associated with the Walcha area, had children with Maurice Quinn and became an ancestral source of numerous continuing New England Aboriginal families.
The two publications meet at the same family.
The Bullcorronda research recognises Mary Ann as an original Aboriginal inhabitant of the cultural area. Granny Duval takes the family line further back through Milbona and Corumba and follows it forward through Mary Ann’s daughter and grandchildren.
The records are not identical in every detail, but they are substantially consistent in their central account.
Mary Ann and Mary Duval Were Two Different Women
The similarities in names have sometimes created confusion, so the generations must be stated carefully.
Mary Ann [Quinn] was the mother.
Her daughter was Mary Quinn, also identified as Mary Elizabeth Quinn in the Granny Duval material.
Mary Quinn married James Duval, a European man, at Walcha in 1862 or 1863. She thereafter became Mary Duval and, in later life, was remembered as Granny Duval.
The Bullcorronda report reproduces a photograph captioned “Mary Duval, nee Quinn” within Mary Ann’s family sheet. The photograph therefore appears to be of the daughter, Mary Quinn or Granny Duval, rather than her mother, Mary Ann.
This distinction matters because both women occupy important but separate places in the family line:
Milbona and Corumba↓Mary Ann, Maryann, Mary Quinn or Lulu↓Mary Elizabeth Quinn, later Mary Duval or Granny Duval↓The Duval and Bristow line↓The Whitfield line↓Rita Alma Whitfield↓Brian Alfred Newman↓Brian AJ Newman
There remain missing names and generational questions within the Bristow-to-Whitfield part of the tree. Those gaps should be investigated rather than filled by assumption. But the central Quinn–Duval–Bristow connection is now supported by more than one substantial source.
The Children of Mary Ann and Maurice Quinn
The Bullcorronda report identifies at least four, and probably six, children of Mary Ann and Maurice Quinn.
They include:
Mary Quinn, who married James Duval;
Bodella “Jessie” Quinn, who married Jack Cook;
Maria Quinn, who married Walter “James” Dixon and also married Michael Harris;
an unnamed daughter believed to have married a Ridgeway from Taree;
Elizabeth Quinn, later associated with the name Morris, who may also have been their daughter; and
James Morris, who may also have been their son, but the records are inprecise.
The report is appropriately cautious about Elizabeth and James. It describes them as believed to have been children of Mary Ann and Maurice rather than presenting the relationship as conclusively documented.
That caution is valuable. Aboriginal genealogy was often poorly recorded by colonial officials. Names changed through marriage, employment, mission records, pronunciation and the decisions of government administrators. Aboriginal people could also adopt, reject or conceal surnames as circumstances required.
Uncertainty does not mean the family did not exist. It means the surviving colonial record is incomplete.
Granny Duval and Her Twelve Children
The Bullcorronda report records that Mary Quinn and James Duval had 12 children.
Only two are discussed in detail: Frank Duval and John “Jack” Duval.
Frank and Jack became accomplished horsemen, jockeys and trainers. Their skill carried them far beyond the New England tablelands.
Jack established himself overseas, particularly in Asia. He later trained large teams of horses and remained in South-East Asia. Frank rode successfully in India and Africa, including winning the Penang Cup. He eventually returned to the Walcha district, where he became a respected racehorse trainer.
When Frank died, a Walcha Cup crowd reportedly stood in silence before the first race as a tribute was delivered over the course amplifiers.
This is another part of Blak history that deserves to be remembered.
Our ancestors were not merely victims appearing in protection-board files, police reports and records of deprivation. They were workers, horsemen, trainers, travellers, mothers, storytellers and respected members of their communities.
The success of Frank and Jack Duval demonstrates the skill, ambition and adaptability within Granny Duval’s family. Their lives also remind us that Aboriginal excellence frequently existed in spaces where Aboriginal identity was ignored or deliberately concealed.
The Bristow Name Confirms My Direct Family Link
One of the most important findings in the Bullcorronda report is its list of surnames carried by Mary Ann Quinn’s descendants.
The report identifies descendants within the:
Ahoy;
Bartholomew;
Bettison;
Briggs;
Bristow;
Cook;
Dixon;
Duval;
Farrell;
Griffin and Griffen;
Harris;
Kelly;
McKenzie;
Murray;
Olsen;
Quinn;
Reid;
Ridgeway;
Rudder;
Schmutter;
Seymour;
Smith; and
Towney families.
The appearance of Bristow directly corresponds with my recorded ancestral line.
Granny Duval’s descendant Margaret married into the Bristow family. That line subsequently continued into the Whitfield family, including Rita Alma Whitfield, and then into the Newman family through my father, Brian Alfred Newman.
The Bullcorronda report does not name every intervening person in my particular Bristow and Whitfield line. Its fuller genealogical database is retained by the Office of the Registrar, while some details were deliberately removed from the publicly distributed report.
Nevertheless, the appearance of Bristow among Mary Ann Quinn’s identified descendant surnames is significant independent corroboration. It supports the family history that connects me to Mary Ann Quinn and Granny Duval through the Duval–Bristow–Whitfield–Newman line.
The appearance of Reid may also be relevant to known family and community relationships, but a surname alone cannot prove the precise connection of any particular Reid person. That branch requires documentary comparison before a specific relationship can be asserted.
The Morris, Betts, Widders and Wright Connections
The Bullcorronda report also helps explain the broader family network surrounding the Quinn and Duval lines.
It identifies James Morris as a possible son of Mary Ann and Maurice Quinn. James Morris married Sarah Betts, also recorded as Sarah Burton and Sarah Clark.
Sarah Betts was an Aboriginal woman born around 1859 at Wollomombi. The report records that she may have been the sister of Jessie Mahoney, also known as Marney, and that both may have been daughters of an Aboriginal woman named Sarah from around Hillgrove Station.
James and Sarah Morris had 10 known children.
Their descendants carried many surnames, including Morris, Dixon, Duval, Widders, Wright, McKenzie, Murray, Naylor and others. One daughter, Vera Morris, married Jack Widders, the son of Jessie Mahoney. Another daughter married Frank Archibald, a grandson of Bob King, also known as King Robert.
These were not isolated households. They were interconnected Aboriginal families whose marriages linked Walcha, Ingalba, Woolbrook, Wollomombi, Nymboida, Armidale, Tingha and the eastern falls country.
The recurring surnames in different family sheets are evidence of continuing kinship networks. They should not automatically be treated as proof that every person bearing one of those surnames is my relative. The report itself warns against that conclusion.
However, where the relationship begins with a recognised child or probable child of Mary Ann Quinn, the connection is more than geographical. It represents a collateral branch of the same ancestral family.
Other Branches Descending From Mary Ann
The Bullcorronda report identifies several additional connections through Mary Ann’s descendants.
Maria Quinn, Mary Ann’s daughter, married Walter “James” Dixon and had six children.
Through this Dixon branch, later marriages connected the family to the McKenzie line. The report records that Mary Dixon, a granddaughter of Mary Ann Quinn, married Jimmy “Da” McKenzie.
Another descendant, Amy Rudder, is identified as a great-grandchild of Mary Ann Quinn. Amy married John Murray at Walcha in 1931.
These references demonstrate how the family moved across surnames while remaining connected through blood and community. A person looking only for the surname Quinn would miss the Duvals. A search limited to Duval would miss the Bristows, Dixons, Rudders, McKenzies, Reids and many others.
This is why Aboriginal family research cannot stop at surnames.
Our families survived through women whose surnames changed, children recorded under different fathers or stepfathers, and people whose names were written according to what a European official thought they heard.
The name might change. The bloodline did not.
Family, Country and the Kempsey Question
The Bullcorronda report also provides further context for possible relationships between New England families and communities towards Kempsey and the Macleay Valley.
It documents movement and intermarriage between the tablelands, the eastern falls, coastal river communities and western plains. It records ceremonies involving New England people alongside people from the Macleay and Clarence Rivers. It also identifies historical movement caused by conflict, police action, employment and the pressures of the protection regime.
That evidence supports the existence of longstanding relationships between Anaiwan families and Dunghutti/Thunggutti communities towards Kempsey.
It does not, by itself, establish that my direct line is Dunghutti.
The strongest unresolved clue remains the expanded name previously associated with Milbona: Milbona Dunghutto Barra. Because “Dunghutto” resembles a spelling of Dunghutti, it deserves investigation. However, neither the public Bullcorronda report nor the available Granny Duval material conclusively identifies Milbona as Dunghutti.
The responsible position remains that my established ancestry is Anaiwan/Nganyaywana, Ngarigo/Bemeringal and Wiradjuri, with Gamileroi connections.
Why This Record Matters to Me
The Bullcorronda report matters because it is not simply another retelling of a family story.
It is an official publication produced through the Office of the Registrar under the NSW Aboriginal land-rights framework. Its genealogical research drew upon documentary records and the oral genealogies of Aboriginal community members. It identified Mary Ann Quinn as an original Aboriginal inhabitant whose descendants remain connected to the Bullcorronda cultural area.
That does not make every detail beyond question. No responsible family historian should pretend that colonial records are complete or free from error.
But it adds another independent layer of corroboration.
My ancestry is not based upon the accidental appearance of a familiar surname. It is supported by a continuing chain of family knowledge, community history, documentary research, DNA connections and published genealogical material.
It is carried through Mary Ann Quinn.
It is carried through Mary Duval, known as Granny Duval.
It is carried through the Bristow and Whitfield families.
It is carried through my grandmother Rita Alma Whitfield, my father Brian Alfred Newman and me.
It continues through my four daughters.
The Records Were Never the Source of Our Identity
It is important to remember that government recognition did not create our Aboriginality.
Mary Ann was Aboriginal before an official report described her as an original Aboriginal inhabitant.
Granny Duval was Anaiwan before her photograph appeared in a published genealogy.
Our ancestors belonged to their families and Country before governments created reserves, protection boards, registers or land-rights legislation.
The records do not give us our identity. They help recover what colonisation attempted to obscure.
That distinction is central to my work as an employment and human rights advocate.
Institutions often behave as though a person’s experience becomes real only after it has been recorded in the institution’s preferred form. Workers encounter this when an employer dismisses an unwritten complaint, discounts oral evidence or treats an incomplete personnel file as the whole truth.
My family history teaches the danger of that approach.
An absent record does not mean an absent person.
An incomplete document does not mean an incomplete identity.
A changed surname does not sever a bloodline.
A silence created by fear or oppression is not evidence that nothing happened.
In advocacy, as in family history, justice requires us to look beyond the official version and listen to the people who lived the experience.
We Are Still Here
The Bullcorronda report contains a sentence that should be remembered: the Register of Aboriginal Owners does not close.
That principle carries a meaning beyond the statutory register itself.
The history of our families is not closed.
New records are found. Old photographs are identified. Elders share what they were told. DNA connects relatives separated by generations. Different books preserve different parts of the same story.
Granny Duval helped return names, places and human experiences to my ancestors.
Bullcorronda adds another layer. It places Mary Ann Quinn within an officially researched genealogy of the original Aboriginal inhabitants of the New England cultural area. It identifies the Duval and Bristow surnames among her descendants. It records the wider family branches through Quinn, Cook, Dixon, Morris, Betts, Widders, McKenzie, Murray, Reid and others.
It does not resolve every question.
It does something equally important: it confirms that there are further questions worth pursuing.
My family came from somewhere.
We came through Milbona and Corumba.
We came through Mary Ann Quinn.
We came through Granny Duval.
We came through generations who lived across Walcha, Ingalba, Nundle, Armidale, Tingha, Inverell and the wider New England region.
We survived the violence of invasion, the taking of Country, the protection regime, child removal, racial classification and pressure to conceal Blak identity.
Our surnames changed, but our connection continued.
Our history was fragmented, but it was not destroyed.
The records are now beginning to speak our names again.
And we are still here.
Principal source and evidentiary note
This article draws upon Kate Waters and Korey Moon, Bullcorronda (Mount Yarrowyck): Aboriginal Cultural Association with Mount Yarrowyck Nature Reserve, published in 2016 by the Office of the Registrar, Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), together with Sue Pickrell, Granny Duval: “She Must Have Come From Somewhere”.
The Bullcorronda publication
The Bullcorronda publication identifies Mary Ann Quinn as an original Aboriginal inhabitant of the cultural area and records the surnames of some descendants. Inclusion of a surname does not establish that every person bearing that surname is a descendant. Specific relationships should be supported by certificates, archival material, oral genealogy, DNA connections and community knowledge wherever available. Sources, Archives and Further Reading
The historical and genealogical interpretations in this article draw upon family research, archival records and the published scholarship listed below. These materials should be read critically and alongside Anaiwan community knowledge, oral history and cultural authority.
Some historical catalogue descriptions, publication titles and image captions contain outdated or offensive terminology. Those words are reproduced only where they form part of an original title or archival description. Elsewhere, this article uses Blak.
Several Aboriginal cultural-site records are held in restricted collections because they contain culturally sensitive information. Access should be sought respectfully and, where appropriate, in consultation with Anaiwan knowledge holders and community organisations.
Online research gateways
AIATSIS Collection — manuscripts, audiovisual material and published research relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
National Library of Australia Catalogue and Trove — manuscripts, historic newspapers, photographs, maps and digitised publications.
Papers of R. H. Mathews, 1866–1984, National Library of Australia.
State Library of New South Wales Collection — Mitchell and Dixson Library manuscripts, photographs, maps and pictorial collections.
Museums of History NSW: State Archives Collection — government, school, Aboriginal Protection Board and Aboriginal Welfare Board records.
NSW Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System — information about recorded Aboriginal cultural sites and access to site cards and reports.
Bulagaranda (Mount Yarrowyck) Aboriginal Area ownership and leaseback agreement — the NSW Government describes the agreement as being between the Anaiwan Aboriginal owners and the NSW Government.
Principal family and cultural-history sources
Pickrell, Sue, Granny Duval: “She Must Have Come From Somewhere”.
Waters, Kate and Korey Moon, Bullcorronda (Mount Yarrowyck): Aboriginal Cultural Association with Mount Yarrowyck Nature Reserve, Office of the Registrar, Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), 2016.
Family certificates, genealogical records, oral histories and family-held material relating to Mary Ann Quinn, Sarah Ann Duval and their descendants.
Manuscripts
Creamer, Howard, Mythical and Religious Sites in New South Wales, AIATSIS, Canberra, pMs 2908, 1977.
Everett, Edwin, Edwin Everett—Journal from Plymouth to Sydney in the Kelso, 1842, David Scott Mitchell Collection, Mitchell Library, Sydney, B 129 (CY 450), 1842.
Everett, John, “Letter, 7 June 1840 from New England,” addressed to Ann Everett, Ollera Station Records, New England Regional Archives, City A103: Ollera Records, UNE 3052/3, 1840. Typescript; original not sighted.
Gardner, William, Description of a Map of the Five Northern Districts Beyond the Boundary Location in New South Wales, Dixson Library Collection, Mitchell Library, Sydney, A 175, 1844–1846.
Gardner, William, Productions and Resources of the Northern Districts of New South Wales, Dixson Library Collection, Mitchell Library, Sydney, MLMSS 5936, vol. IX, 1851; microfilm CY 4608.
Gardner, William, Productions and Resources of the Northern and Western Districts of New South Wales, Dixson Library Collection, Mitchell Library, Sydney, microfilm CY 4608, 1854.
Mathews, R. H., New England Tribes Notebook, R. H. Mathews Papers, MS 8006/3/12, National Library of Australia, undated. See the R. H. Mathews Papers catalogue record and collection finding aid.
Published Government Records
Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council.
New South Wales Parliamentary Papers.
New South Wales Government Gazette.
Historical Records of Australia.
Many of these publications can be located through Trove and the NSW Parliament catalogue and archives.
Acts of Parliament
An Act to Restrain the Unauthorised Occupation of Crown Lands, 1836, Colony of New South Wales.
Crown Lands Unauthorised Occupation Act, 1839, Colony of New South Wales.
Newspapers and Magazines
The following newspapers and periodicals were consulted. Digitised issues can be searched through Trove Newspapers and Gazettes:
Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal
Clarence and Richmond Examiner and New England Advertiser
Daily News
Dawn
Inverell Times
Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser
New South Wales Aborigines’ Advocate
North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times
Our Aim
Singleton Argus
Sydney Gazette
Sydney Herald
Sydney Mail
Sydney Morning Herald
Town and Country Journal
Walcha Witness
Reports
Anonymous, Report of Inquiry into the State of the Public Lands and the Operation of the Lands Laws, Legislative Council of New South Wales, 1883.
Anonymous, Strategies to Help Overcome the Problems of Aboriginal Town Camps, House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 1982.
Beck, Wendy, Margaret Somerville, John Duley and Ken Kippen, Assessment of the Cultural Significance of Mt Yarrowyck Nature Reserve: Report to New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and Aboriginal Communities of the Region, unpublished report, University of New England and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Armidale, 2003.
Boileau, Joanna, Thematic History of Nundle, Manilla and Barraba: Tamworth Regional Council Community Based Heritage Study, Tamworth Regional Council, 2007.
Cole, Anna, Review and Annotated Bibliography of Sources for a Shared History of Pastoralism in NSW: Research Resource Series No. 2, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, 2001.
Egloff, Brian, Nicolas Peterson and Sue Wesson, Biamanga and Gulaga: Aboriginal Cultural Association with Biamanga and Gulaga National Parks, Office of the Registrar, Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), Sydney, 2005.
Ferry, John, Thematic History of Parry Shire: Final Draft, Parry Shire Council, Tamworth, circa 2009.
Harrison, R., Shared Landscapes: Archaeologies of Attachment and the Pastoral Industry in New South Wales, UNSW Press and NSW Department of Environment and Conservation, Sydney, 2004.
Kwok, Natalie, A Literary Review of Group Boundaries in the Literature for New England and Adjacent Areas Re Mount Yarrowyck Project, with Tentative Suggestions for Identification of the Appropriate Cultural Area, unpublished draft report, Office of the Registrar, Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), Sydney, 2008.
Le Maistre, Barbara, Nimula, Tingha, Bullawangen: Aboriginal People and Their Land, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, 1996.
Rich, Elizabeth, Aboriginal Historic Sites in North East NSW: Management Study, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Australian Heritage Commission, Sydney, 1990.
Riebe, Inge, Yarrowyck Cultural Area: Anthropological Consideration, Office of the Registrar, Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW), Collaborative Solutions, 2011.
Waters, Kate and Korey Moon, Living Places Project: Northern Directorate—Stage 1 Database, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, 2003.
Electronic Resources
European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights, “Repatriation of Aboriginal Human Remains,” formerly available at eniar.org/repatriation.html; accessed 2011.
University of Edinburgh, “Aboriginal Smoking Ceremony Marking the Return of Remains,” accessed 2011. See the university’s current Repatriation and Restitution Guidance.
Lewis, Miles, Australian Building: A Cultural Investigation, electronic resource, accessed 2011.
Patrick, Sophie, “Bald Blair Station (1872–): Pastoral Station Entry,” Unlocking Regional Memory: New South Wales Electronic Regional Archives, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, accessed 2011.
Patrick, Sophie, “Ollera Station: Pastoral Station Entry,” Unlocking Regional Memory: New South Wales Electronic Regional Archives, Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, accessed 2011.
Maps and Property Records
Various maps from the Parish Maps Preservation Project, formerly administered by Lands and Property Information, NSW Department of Primary Industries.
Macdonald, A. C., Map of the Colony of New South Wales, Melbourne, 1883, National Library of Australia.
Historic maps may be searched through NSW Historical Land Records Viewer and Trove Maps.
State Records of New South Wales
The following records are held in the State Archives Collection, now administered by Museums of History NSW:
Census, 1891: Collectors’ Notebooks, NRS 683.
The Women’s Hospital, 1903–1908: Board Minutes, book 3, NUA 305/1.
Colonial Secretary: Letters Received, 1839—Aborigines, 4/2433.1.
Colonial Secretary: Special Bundles—Annual Reports on the State of the Aborigines in the Various Districts, 1851–1853, 4/1146.4 and 4/713.2.
Aborigines Protection Board Minute Books, Records of the Aborigines Protection and Welfare Boards.
Register of Issue of Blankets to Aborigines, Armidale, 1890–1904, Courts of Petty Sessions, 5/3769, part.
Register of Aboriginal Reserves, circa 1861–1899, Records of the Aborigines Welfare Board, NRS 23, 2.8349, reel 2847.
Register of Aboriginal Reserves, circa 1912–1973, Department of Community Services, records relating to Aboriginal people, 4/10590–10591.
Bassendean Aboriginal School File, 5/14818.3, 1879–1939.
Long Gully Aboriginal School File, 5/16657.2, 1879–1939.
Ngoorumba Aboriginal School File, 5/17147.4, 1876–1939.
Noocoorilma Aboriginal School File, 5/17154.2, 1879–1939.
Nowendoc Aboriginal School File, 5/17180.6, 1879–1939.
Sevington School File, 5/17612.2, 1879–1939.
Summer Vale Aboriginal School File, 5/17713.3, 1876–1939.
Walcha Aboriginal School File, 5/17980.2, 1879–1939.
Search the State Archives Collection using the record series and item numbers above.
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and Heritage Records
These records may contain sensitive cultural information. Access is managed through the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System.
Anonymous, Yarrowyck Ceremonial Ground: NPWS Site Card, 20-3-11, undated.
Anonymous, Tienga-Reach Bora Ground: NPWS Site Report, 20-3-23, circa 1970s.
Creamer, Howard, “Strathroy” Destroyed Bora Ground, NPWS Site Registration Form 20-3-13, 1978.
Creamer, Howard, NSW Aboriginal Sites of Significance Survey Form: Flaggy Mountain Bora Ground, Woolbrook, 1987.
Morris, Glen and Mrs Dolly Brown, Nucoorilma Aboriginal Cemetery and Mission: Sites of Significance Site Report, 11-3-3, 1977.
Morris, Glen and Ray Kelly, Mother of Ducks Lagoon—Emmaville/Strathbogie: Sites of Significance Site Report, 11-3-1, 1976.
Williams, Carol Frances, Mt Yarrowyck NPWS Site Registration Form, 20-3-12, 1981.
Images and Pictorial Sources
Relevant images can be searched through the State Library of NSW Collection, National Library of Australia Catalogue and State Library Victoria Catalogue.
“Cunninghun, Warrior, Armidale, NSW,” circa 1890s, Kerry and Co. Collection, State Library of New South Wales.
“Robert, King of Cumbathagano and Woman,” circa 1900s, State Library Victoria, H20338/25.
“Robert, King of Cumbathagano,” State Library Victoria, H18599/12.
Brown, C. B., “Blacks Camp near Armidale,” in Album of Photographs of Armidale NSW and Surrounding Districts, Mitchell Library.
Macpherson, Emma, Rocky River Diggings 1856–57, watercolour, Dixson Graphic Materials, State Library of New South Wales.
“Sevington: 3a: School Children,” in Photograph Album of New South Wales Aboriginal Reserves, circa 1910, Mitchell Library, PXB 492.
“Sevington: 4a: Schooley Jack, King,” in Photograph Album of New South Wales Aboriginal Reserves, circa 1910, Mitchell Library, PXB 492.
Thomson, Edward, Black’s Grave near Pindari, circa 1848, National Library of Australia.
Thomson, Edward, Blacks near Newton Boyd, New South Wales, circa 1848, National Library of Australia.
Australian Indigenous Ministries Pictorial Collection, Mitchell Library, PXA 773/1/52.
Photographs, circa 1924–1961, Records of the Aborigines Welfare Board, State Records of New South Wales, 4/8566–8578.
Webster, William, “Carved Tree, Boorolong, New South Wales,” in Cage of Ghosts, National Library of Australia, ID 32071977.
Additional images reproduced from private collections and published works as identified in the original endnotes.
Theses
Djenidi, Valerie, “State and Church Involvement in Aboriginal Reserves, Missions and Stations in New South Wales, 1900–1975; and a Translation into French of John Ramsland, Custodians of the Soil,” PhD thesis, University of Newcastle, 2008.
Williams, Carol Frances, “‘Vacuuming Mt Yarrowyck’: A Comprehensive Survey of One Stratified Zone of the New England Tablelands,” University of New England, Armidale, 1980.
Pamphlets
Anonymous, Official Souvenir of the Municipal Jubilee of Armidale: 1863–1913, Armidale Citizens’ Committee, 1913.
Anonymous, Armidale: 100 Years of Local Government, 1863–1963, official souvenir program, Armidale Council, 1963.
Conference Papers
Bowdler, Sandra, “A Study of Indigenous Ceremonial (‘Bora’) Sites in Eastern Australia,” paper presented at Heritage Landscapes: Understanding Place and Communities, Southern Cross University, Lismore, November 1999, pp. 1–30.
Monographs
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R., The Social Organization of Australian Tribes, Oceania Monographs no. 1, Macmillan, Melbourne, 1931.
Tatz, C., Aborigines in Sport, Australian Society for Sports History, monograph no. 3, Adelaide, 1987.
Wright, Owen, Wongwibinda, UNE History Series no. 4, University of New England, Armidale, 1985.
Wright, Phillip, Memories of a Bushwhacker, UNE History Series no. 3, University of New England, Armidale, 1982.
Books
Aplin, Graeme, S. G. Foster and Michael McKernan, eds., Australians: Events and Places, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1987.
Attwood, Bain, Winifred Burrage, Alan Burrage and Elsie Stock, A Life Together, A Life Apart: A History of Relations between Europeans and Aborigines, Melbourne University Press, 1994.
Baker, D. W. A., The Civilised Surveyor: Thomas Mitchell and Australian Aborigines, Melbourne University Press, 1997.
Blomfield, Charles Edwin, Reminiscences of Early New England: Memoirs of a Pioneer, Southern Publishers, Bega, 1978.
Briggs-Smith, Noeline, Winanga Li: Moree Mob, vol. 1, Northern Regional Library and Information Service, Moree, 1999.
Camm, J. and J. McQuilton, Australians: A Historical Atlas, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1987.
Campbell, Judy, Invisible Invaders: Smallpox and Other Diseases in Aboriginal Australia, 1780–1880, Melbourne University Press, 2002.
Chesterman, John and Brian Galligan, Citizens Without Rights: Aborigines and Australian Citizenship, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1997.
Cleary, Tania, Poignant Regalia: Nineteenth-Century Aboriginal Breastplates and Images, Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Sydney, circa 1993.
de Brébant Cooper, Frederic, Wild Adventures in Australia and New South Wales, Beyond the Boundaries, James Blackwood, London, 1857.
Elphick, Don, Aborigines Mentioned in the Minutes of the Meetings of the NSW Aboriginal Protection Board and Aboriginal Welfare Board, 1890–1969, self-published, 1998.
Etheridge, R., The Dendroglyphs, or “Carved Trees” of New South Wales, Sydney University Press and State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, 2011.
Fletcher, J. J., Clean, Clad and Courteous: A History of Aboriginal Education in New South Wales, Southwood Press, Sydney, 1989.
Franklin, Margaret-Ann, Assimilation in Action: The Armidale Story, University of New England Press, Armidale, 1995.
Gardiner, Elizabeth, Terrible Vale: No Time Like the Past, DSAMC Education, Tamworth.
Gilbert, Lionel, New England from Old Photographs, John Ferguson, Sydney, 1980.
Goodall, Heather, Invasion to Embassy: Land in Aboriginal Politics in New South Wales, 1770–1972, Allen and Unwin in association with Black Books, Sydney, 1996.
Griffiths, G. Nesta, Some Northern Homes of NSW, Shepherd Press, Sydney, 1954.
Hanson, William, Pastoral Possessions of New South Wales, Gibbs, Shallard and Co., Sydney, 1889.
Harris, Anne, Old Stations on the Gwydir, Wild and Woolley, Sydney, 2000.
Howell, Robyn, The History and Culture of the Aboriginal People of the Ashford District, NSW Department of Education, Government Printer, 1982.
Irby, Edward, Memoirs of Edward and Leonard Irby: 1841, William Brooks and Co., Sydney, 1908.
Jeans, D. N., An Historical Geography of New South Wales to 1901, Reed Education, Sydney, 1972.
King, C. J., An Outline of Closer Settlement in New South Wales, Part 1: The Sequence of the Land Laws, 1788–1956, NSW Department of Agriculture, Sydney, 1957.
Lamond, Henry G., From Tariaro to Ross Roy, Jackson and O’Sullivan, Brisbane, circa 1940s.
Lang, Andrew, Crown Land in New South Wales, Butterworths, Sydney, 1973.
Lindsay, Grace, Granny Munro, Mission Publications of Australia, Lawson, 1998.
McGrath, Ann, Born in the Cattle, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1987.
McGuigan, A., Aboriginal Reserves in NSW: A Land Rights Research Aid, NSW Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, occasional paper no. 4.
Macpherson, Allan, Mount Abundance; or, The Experiences of a Pioneer Squatter in Australia Thirty Years Ago, Tsuba Productions, Roma, 1994; originally published 1877.
Macpherson, Emma, My Experiences in Australia, J. F. Hope, London, 1860.
Marsh, Matthew Henry, Overland from Southampton to Queensland, Edward Stanford, London, 1867.
May, Dawn, Aboriginal Labour and the Cattle Industry: Queensland from White Settlement to the Present, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 1994.
Maynard, John, Aboriginal Stars of the Turf: Jockeys of Australian Racing History, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 2002.
O’Sullivan, John, Mounted Police in NSW: A History of Heroism and Duty Since 1821, Rigby Books, Sydney, 1979.
Oxley, John, Journals of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, John Murray, London, 1820.
Perry, T. M., Australia’s First Frontier: The Spread of Settlement in New South Wales, 1788–1829, Melbourne University Press, 1965.
Powell, J. M., Environmental Management in Australia, 1788–1914, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1976.
Read, Peter, The Stolen Generations: The Removal of Aboriginal Children in New South Wales, 1883–1969, NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Sydney, 1996.
Reynolds, Henry, The Other Side of the Frontier, Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1981.
Reynolds, Henry, With the White People, Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1990.
Roberts, Stephen, History of Australian Land Settlement, 1788–1929, Macmillan, Sydney, 1968.
Schofield, Claire, Bundarra: Stepping Stone of the Gwydir, Inverell, 1979.
Tindale, N. B., Results of the Harvard–Adelaide Universities Anthropological Expedition, 1938–1939: Distribution of Australian Aboriginal Tribes, Adelaide, 1940.
Tindale, N. B., Aboriginal Tribes of Australia, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1974.
Wiedemann, Elizabeth, Holding Its Own: The Inverell District Since 1919, Inverell Shire Council, 1998.
Whitehead, John, Tracking and Mapping: The Explorers, Volume 2—Oxley and Evans, Southern Cross University Press, Lismore, 2005.
Walker, R. B., Old New England: A History of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, 1818–1900, Sydney University Press, 1966.
Articles and Book Chapters
Atkinson, Alan, “What Is New England?” in Atkinson et al., High Lean Country, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2006, pp. 10–19.
Atkinson, Alan and John Atchison, “Colonial Settlement,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 148–159.
Aveling, Marian and Lyndall Ryan, “At the Boundaries,” in Australians 1838, 1987, pp. 21–63.
Beck, Wendy, “Aboriginal Archaeology,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 88–97.
Calley, Malcolm, “Pentecostalism among the Bandjalang,” in Marie Reay, ed., Aborigines Now, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1964.
Cleland, J. B., “Ecology, Environment and Diseases,” in B. C. Cotton, Aboriginal Man in South and Central Australia, University of Adelaide, 1966.
Creamer, Howard, “Investigations of Sites of Significance to Aborigines in New England,” Armidale and District Historical Society Journal 24, 1981, pp. 27–30.
Crowley, T., “Chipping Away at the Past: A Northern New South Wales Perspective,” in Archaeology and Linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in Global Perspective, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Daley, E. J., “When the Squatters Turned East,” Journal and Proceedings of the Armidale and District Historical Society 1, no. 1, 1961, pp. 6–17.
Dawson, R. L., “Outback from the Hunter, New South Wales, to ‘New Caledonia’ and the Severn River in 1840,” Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society 15, part 1, 1929, pp. 44–46.
Dunlop, E. W., “Marsh, Matthew Henry (1810–1881),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974. Read online.
Enright, W. J., “Notes on the Aborigines of the North Coast of NSW: XIII—Ceremonial Ground,” Mankind 3, no. 9, July 1946, pp. 264–265.
Haworth, Robert, “The Rocks Beneath,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 23–34.
Jarman, Peter and Karl Vernes, “Wildlife,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 44–56.
MacPherson, John, “Ngarrabul and Other Aboriginal Tribes, Part II—Distribution of the Tribes,” Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 29, 1905, pp. 677–684.
MacPherson, John, “Some Aboriginal Place Names in Northern New South Wales,” Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society 16, part 2, pp. 121–131.
Mathews, R. H., “The Burbung of the New England Tribes, New South Wales,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 9, 1896, pp. 120–136.
Mathews, R. H., “Initiation Ceremonies of Australian Tribes,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 37, 1898, pp. 54–72.
McDonald, Barry, “Some Account of Kangaroo Hunting on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales, 1840–1880, and the Evidence of Folksong,” Australian Folklore 10, 1995, pp. 108–131.
McDonald, Barry, “Evidence of Four New England Corroboree Songs Indicating Aboriginal Responses to European Invasion,” Aboriginal History 20, 1996, pp. 176–193.
McGowan, Barry, “Mullock Heaps and Tailing Mounds: Environmental Effects of Alluvial Goldmining,” in Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia, Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Oppenheimer, Jillian, “Homesteads,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 160–170.
Powell, J. M., “Patrimony of the People: The Role of Government in Land Settlement,” in The Australian Experience, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1988.
Quinlan, M., “Bellbrook: My Father’s Country,” Aboriginal History 7, nos. 1–2, 1983, pp. 34–45.
Reid, Nick and Lewis Kahn, “Land and Livelihood,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 69–78.
Reynolds, Henry, “Aborigines,” in Australians 1888, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1987, pp. 117–132.
Roberts, David, “The Frontier,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 98–110.
Ross, June, “Seeing Red: Musings on Rock Art,” in High Lean Country, 2006, pp. 81–87.
Short, Jeff and John H. Calaby, “The Status of Australian Mammals in 1922—Collections and Field Notes of Museum Collector Charles Hoy,” Australian Zoologist 31, no. 4, 2001, pp. 533–562.
White, H. O’Sullivan, “Some Recollections of the Aborigines of NSW in the Years 1848, 1849 and 1850,” Mankind, 1934, pp. 223–227.
Wyndham, W. T., “The Aborigines of Australia,” Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 5, no. 23, 1889.
Young, Susan Bundarra, “Reminiscences of Susan Bundarra Young,” in “Reminiscences of Pioneers and Others,” Royal Australian Historical Society Journal 8, supplement, pp. 342–435.
A note on evidence and cultural authority
These sources do not all carry equal weight. Government files, pastoral records and nineteenth-century publications frequently recorded Aboriginal people through colonial categories, misspelled names, imposed labels or omitted identities altogether. Their silence should not be mistaken for proof that a person, family or cultural connection did not exist.
Archival evidence is therefore used here as one strand of a larger story. It must be considered together with family continuity, oral testimony, Country, community recognition and the authority of Anaiwan Elders and knowledge holders. Family-history findings remain open to correction as further records and community knowledge emerge.
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