Establishment of Coranderrk Mission Station 1860s-1920s

8.4Establishment of Coranderrk Mission Station 1860s-1920s

The Coranderrk community is perceived as being quite a happy one initially (Barwick 1998: 67; Wiencke 1984: 55). The men were employed felling trees and clearing land, and there were over 9 acres of wheat, 98 acres of various vegetables, 70 head of cattle and 20 calves. By 1865 fifteen huts had been erected to house the community (Wiencke 1984: 60). However, a sense of insecurity and alarm developed with the drawing up of a piece of restrictive legislation called the Aborigines Act in 1886. This was implemented by the Victoria’s Board for the Protection of Aboriginal People and forced all ‘half-castes’ under 34 years of age to be turned off the mission stations to be absorbed in the white community (Critchett 1998: 133; PROV&AA: 54). This, and the government threat that the reserve would be taken away if Coranderrk did not become self-supporting, encouraged most Coranderrk people to leave the station.

Between 1879 and 1886 fifteen ‘fullblood’ and twenty nine ‘half caste’ adults and children who came to live at Coranderrk migrated to the Maloga Mission on the New South Wales’ side of the Murray River (Barwick 1998: 302). After Maloga was closed, residents were relocated to the new government station established at Cummeragunga, near Echuca, between 1888-1889 (Atkinson n.d.: 2). The majority of the 50 ‘half castes’ who were exiled from Coranderrk after the introduction of the 1886 rule also eventually made their way to Maloga and eventually to Cummeragunga. The names of many families (Barber, Briggs, Campbell, Charles, Davis, Dunnolly, Hamilton, Jackson, Kerr, Morgan, Nelson, Simpson and Wandin) from Coranderrk therefore became known across the Murray as they helped establish new homes for themselves there (Barwick 1998: 302). However, copying the Victorian Aborigines Act of 1886, the New South Wales government imitated the Victorian Aborigines Act in 1909, requiring all ‘half castes’ to leave. This caused the Cummeragunga population to decrease dramatically. Some of the dispossessed Coranderrk families chose to camp across the Murray from the reserve. Others had headed south to the Kulin territories but were forced to camp on riverbanks and rubbish tips in Victorian Towns (Barwick 1998: 311).

The displacement of the original Coranderrk residents was apparent in the station records following the implementation of the 1886 Aborigines Act; 10 of the 41 residents there in 1894, and 22 of the 38 adults present in 1909 had been transferred from other stations. In 1916 the Board for the Protection of Aborigines established a policy whereby all Aboriginal people who were eligible for assistance under the Act should be transferred to one station. Lake Tyers was chosen as the site. In 1918, when those residents willing to move to Lake Tyres were recorded, none of those who agreed to go were members of the original Coranderrk community; all were recent arrivals (Barwick 1998: 303). In 1921 the Board announced that only 42 residents remained at Coranderrk, but that another 47 people were camping in the vicinity. These people were the descendants of the pioneer members of the Coranderrk community. The Davis, Franklin, Harris, Hunter, Manton, Patterson, Rowan, Russell, Terrick and Wandin families were camped in huts and tents to be near their “old people” (Barwick 1998: 304). Barak and his family remained at Coranderrk, where his children were sent into service. He later died in 1908. In the early 1920s, Coranderrk Station was essentially closed, though the Board allowed elderly people to remain there. These remaining Aboriginal people were transferred to Lake Tyers (PROV&AA 1993: 67).

8.5Traditional practices after the 1860s

It is difficult to tell from accounts of life at Coranderrk whether traditional practices and beliefs were upheld by the various clans. Generally, the process of assimilation at Coranderrk would have prevented information about clan traditions and territorial boundaries from being passed on to younger generations. Records certainly suggest this. For example, once at Coranderrk, Aboriginal ceremonies such as corroborees were frowned upon and discouraged (Critchett 1998: 132). Revered Hagenauer, who was a manager at Coranderrk between the 1880s and 1906, “forbade corroborees, and having assembled his charges, he made them put their spears, boomerangs and other native implements in a heap , and then set fire to them” (PROV & AA 1993: 113).

Traditional practices such as hunting may have been forgotten, as game became increasingly scarce by 1866 (Barwick 1998: 82). Farming became a necessary substitute, and families on the reserve quickly became industrious farmers who grew and sold their own produce. Other indications that Coranderrk people were adopting European ways are suggested in surviving photographs and reports by the Royal Commission (Barwick 1998: 83), which indicate that they dressed with extreme elegance and:

…eagerly saved to buy sofas, chiffoniers and rocking chairs, curtains and wallpaper, clocks for the mantlepiece, pretty ornaments…. In addition to spending large sums in the Healesville shops they ordered furniture and other goods from Melbourne, and the manager in 1877 complained that ‘there is no end to their propensity for good dress when they have the money’ (in Barwick 1998: 83).

Christianity appeared to have been readily accepted, and Christian marriages took place from the first year at Coranderrk. William Barak became a devout Christian, as did others, which is indicated by Green, the first administrator and preacher at the reserve. Green stated that at Coranderrk “all attend prayers twice every day, and keep the Sabath better than many of the Europeans” (Wiencke 1984: 56). Christian burial was universally accepted from 1861 (Wiencke 1984: 56).

Barwick found no evidence to suggest that the old religion continued on at Coranderrk. Wonga and Barak had gone through basic initiation ritual at puberty, but by the end of the 1840s these Woi wurrung practices had been interrupted (Barwick 1998: 74). Perhaps because of this, and also because younger people at Coranderrk had not had a chance to become traditionally initiated, many sacred traditional beliefs were not passed down. It is significant that although Howitt was keen to trace family heredity lines of the people at Coranderrk, this proved unsuccessful. Barak and the few other men interviewed by Howitt were reluctant to speak about their dead ancestors. Shaw, a manager at Coranderrk, wrote to Howitt about Barak:

This is all I can get for you from my people. I have tried Dick Richards but cannot get anything from him. He has either forgotten or does not like to mention the names of his antecedents – I have had some difficulty with old Barak also in this respect (in Wiencke 1984:78).

Despite the adoption of non-Aboriginal ways, it appears that some traditional beliefs stayed with the people at Coranderrk. Wonga and William Barak are said to have retained many traditional ways, and have been practised in the arts of the sorcerer, or Wirrarup (Barwick 1998: 56, Wiencke 1984: 56-57). Barak later told Howitt that “some ngurungaeta (clan heads) are doctors, not all – I am not” (in Barwick 1998: 56). The skills of the medicine men were used to cure illnesses at Coranderrk. Patients who had high fevers were massaged with peppermint leaves, or buried in a hole which was stoked with hot stones and eucalyptus branches, like a steam bath (Wiencke 1984: 57).

Directory: files
files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2
files -> Integer programming and game theory
files -> 4 Integer Programming
files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective
files -> Pop Warner History
files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose
files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d
files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal
files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations

Download 0.72 Mb.

Share with your friends: