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Taking of Colbee (Colebee) and Benalon (Bennelong), Manly Cove, 25 November 1789

By
William Bradley
From the collections of the
State Library of New South Wales
[a3461020 / ML Safe 1/14 opp. p. 182]
(Drawings from journal 'A Voyage to New South Wales', Mitchell Library)

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Colebee Governor Phillip and the Eora Manly Manly Cove, Kai'ymay Woollarawarre Bennelong
Subjects
Aboriginal
People
Bennelong Colebee c1760-1806
Places
Manly Manly Cove

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Bradley, William

First lieutenant on HMS Sirius, who kept a detailed journal during the early years of settlement.

State Library of New South Wales

Colebee

A Cadigal man who became one of the first to interact with the Europeans, Colebee was a leading Aboriginal figure in Sydney Town in the early years of the colony. He was associated with the white-bellied sea eagle.

Manly

From beginnings as the traditional country of the Cannalgal and Kayimai people, Manly had a brief spell as a place for the elite to take the waters. The area saw intense development in the 1920s with thousands of flats built, but remains a popular spot with both foreign tourists and local day trippers.

Woollarawarre Bennelong

Thrust into history by his abduction, Bennelong led a tumultuous life, becoming the best known Aboriginal figure in the first decades of European settlement. His story, plagued by myths, connects twenty-first century Australia with the social and spiritual Aboriginal world that existed before the English colony of New South Wales.

Manly Cove, Kai'ymay

Manly Cove was the site for first encounters between people from opposite sides of the globe; the site of greeting, gift-giving and dancing, of goodwill and curiosity, as well as betrayal, violence, justice and retribution.

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

Bennelong

Eora man who had an important role in relations between the colonists and the local people. With Colebee, Bennelong was abducted by Governor Phillip at Manly on 25 November 1789 and held at Government House. He escaped in May 1790, but started visiting the colony voluntarily later in the year. In December 1792, he travelled to England with Phillip, returning in 1795. 

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Colebee c1760-1806

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Cadigal man captured with Bennelong, who became familiar with the Europeans but disappeared after 1806.

Manly

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Peninsular suburb at the northern entrance to Port Jackson, which faces both the harbour and the ocean. Its name comes from the 'confidence and manly behaviour' of the Aboriginal people encountered there by Governor Arthur Phillip in 1788.

Manly Cove

Bay inside the north head of Port Jackson.

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