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Pemulwuy c1801

By
Samuel John Neele
Contributed By
National Library of Australia
[nla.cat-vn2312357]
(from 'The narrative of a voyage of discovery, performed in His Majesty's vessel the Lady Nelson, of sixty tons burthen, with sliding keels, in the years 1800, 1801 and 1802, to New South Wales' by James Grant, 1803)

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Aboriginal People on Sydney's Georges River from 1820 Aboriginal people of the Cooks River valley Governor Phillip and the Eora Old Toongabbie and Toongabbie Pemulwuy
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Aboriginal Canoes
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Pemulwuy

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Neele, Samuel John

National Library of Australia

Old Toongabbie and Toongabbie

Traditional country of the Darug people, Toongabbie was settled as early as 1792 and quickly became an important farming centre, worked by convicts. Roads and railways shaped the town's growth, as it was increasingly integrated into Sydney's western suburbs.

Pemulwuy

Pemulwuy was a powerful Aboriginal resistance leader against the British settlers who occupied his land. Through the final decade of the eighteenth century, Pemulwuy led guerrilla attacks against settlers' farms, burning their huts, maize crops and livestock, and plundering their possessions.

Aboriginal people of the Cooks River valley

For the Eora people, the Cooks River valley was a crossroad for trade, social and ceremonial networks but when the first European settlers ventured south, their explorations brought death and destruction to the clans

Aboriginal People on Sydney's Georges River from 1820

The Dharug and Dharawal Aboriginal people along the Georges River had a range of strategies for keeping in touch with their country once Europeans arrived, such as moving around country to avoid danger and travelling to visit important places. Some held onto their country through purchase, providing areas of refuge for their people. Under the pressure of loss of land, removal to hostels and separation within new suburbs, Aboriginal people remained outspoken and strong, maintaining connections to the river and to each other.

Governor Phillip and the Eora

What was Governor Arthur Phillip's relationship with the Eora, and other Aboriginal people of the Sydney region? Phillip's policies, actions and responses have tended to be seen as a proxy for the Europeans in Australia as whole, just as his friend, the Wangal warrior Woolarawarre Bennelong’s allegedly tragic life has for so long personified the fate of Aboriginal people since 1788. To fully imagine those early years, we must see them through the twin lenses of British and Eora perspective and experience to glimpse what was happening, and why. This allows a nuanced and complex view, and the banishment once and for all the notion that there can be only one 'right' story.

Aboriginal

Canoes

Pemulwuy

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Aboriginal warrior who led a campaign of resistance against European settlers.