Clermont-Belyando Area Native Title Claim Meeting

Clermont-Belyando Area Native Title Claim (QUD25/2019) Meeting.

The Current Claim Group are the descendants of
Billy and Lucy (parents of Jimmy Tarpot, Mary Ann Alboro and Mary Ellen)
Dan Dunrobin (also known as Dunrobin, Christopher Dunrobin and Dan Robin)
Frank Fisher (Snr) of Clermont
Jimmy Flourbag
Charlie McAvoy of Logan Downs
Liz McEvoy of Alpha
The Mother of Jack (Girrabah) Malone and Jim (Conee) Malone
Mary of Clermont (also known as Mary Johnson).

The amended Claim Group are the descendents of
Billy and Lucy (parents of Jimmy Tarpot, Mary Ann Alboro and Mary Ellen)
Dan Dunrobin (also known as Dunrobin, Christopher Dunrobin and Dan Robin)
Frank Fisher (Snr) of Clermont
Jimmy Flourbag (husband of Annie Flourbag)
Charlie McAvoy of Logan Downs
Liz McEvoy of Alpha
The Mother of Jack (Girrabah) Malone and Jim (Conee) Malone
Mary of Clermont (also known as Mary Johnson)
Daisy Collins;
Maggie (Miller) of Clermont;
Nellie Digaby;
Momitja; and
Katy of Clermont.

Appeared in the Koori Mail dated August 26, 2020

Some notes

Dan Dunrobin is mentioned in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Report of the Inquiry into the Death of Gregory Michael Dunrobin available here
Dan Dunrobin died 23.10.1938 at Cherbourg aged c50 years
Dan Dunrobin born c1920 at Clermont parents Dunrobin and Lizzy Dunrobin 
Bob Dunrobin born c1924 at Clermont parents Dunrobin and Lizzy Dunrobin
Lizzie Dunrobin, Dan Dunrobin, child, Bob Dunrobin, child removed to Barambah in 1924

Lenny Malone, born 1907, married 6. 3.1928 Cherbourg, father is Jack Malone and mother is Eliza Quentin (born c1888, parents Albert Quentin (European) and Jenny (Full Blood))
Jessie McEvoy. born 1906 Clermont, died 4. 3.1940 Cherbourg, married 6. 3.1928 Cherbourg, father is unknown and mother is Polly McEvoy

Jack Malone , Native Name Girribah , male aged 31 yrs, Native of Jericho Class Woongoo       
Jim Malone , Native Name Conee , male aged 47 yrs, Native of Jericho, Class Woongoo  
at Durundur in 1903

Nellie Digaby was born around Avon Downs around 1863. Her two daughters Daisy(b.c.1891) and Grace (b.c.1893) were born at Frankfield while she worked there as a domestic. Nellie’s husband was Digarbie. (personal communication)

Annie Flourbag, aged 50 years, married, was at Barambah in 1928
Annie Flourbag died  on 22. 7.1937 at  Cherbourg
Jimmy Flourbag died on 22.10.1938 at Cherbourg  

Daisy Collins married Arthur Murdock in 1919 at Barambah

Multidisciplinary evidence for early banana cultivation on Mabuyag Island

An interesting article appears in Nature Ecology & Evolution as follows

Multidisciplinary evidence for early banana (Musa cvs.) cultivation on Mabuyag Island, Torres Strait Robert N Williams, Duncan Wright, Alison Crowther and Tim Denham
Nature Ecology & Evolution (2020).

The abstract follows

"Multiproxy archaeobotanical analyses (starch granule, phytolith and microcharcoal) of an abandoned agricultural terrace at Wagadagam on Mabuyag Island, Torres Strait, Australia, document extensive, low-intensity forms of plant management from at least 2,145–1,930 cal yr bp and intensive forms of cultivation at 1,376–1,293 cal yr bp. The agricultural activities at 1,376–1,293 cal yr bp are evidenced from terrace construction, banana (Musa cultivars) cultivation and dramatic transformations to the local palaeoenvironment. The robust evidence for the antiquity of horticulture in western Torres Strait provides an historical basis for understanding the diffusion of cultivation practices and cultivars, most likely from New Guinea. This study also provides a methodological template for the investigation of plant management, potentially including forms of cultivation that were practiced in northern Australia before European colonization."

Internet Archive Wayback site - Aboriginal Family History Research website

The precursor to the Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies website, namely the Aboriginal Family History Research website, has been saved 59 times between February 4, 2004 and July 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Similarly the Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies website has been saved 66 times from May 23, 2012 to January 1, 2020 in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine

The URL for accessing the saved sites for Aboriginal Family History Research website is here  and for the Centre for Indigenous Family History Studies is  here .
(Does not appear to be compatible with IE11)

The original site was created using the My Connected Community (mc2) Webpage generator. My Connected Community (mc2) was funded by the Victorian Government and coordinated by VICNET.

It is interesting to follow the both sites through their life and noting additions and pages that were later removed for various reasons.

AIATSIS MS 4165 - Aboriginal Families of the Moree Region

AIATSIS MS 4165 - Aboriginal Families of the Moree Region

Date range: 1788-1997

Noeline Briggs-Smith deposited the collection in the Library, in October 2001, on behalf of the Northern Regional Library and Information Service at Moree, New South Wales.

The collection consists largely of certified copies of birth, death and marriage certificates of Aboriginal people in the Moree andsurrounding areas. In addition, there are birth, death and funeral notices, for example from The Australian Evangel, and printouts from sources such as the 'Index to the Brian Williams Family History Genealogies’ held at the University of New England Regional State Archives. Included also are notes made from church records, such as baptismal records from the Salvation Army Church Records at Moree, family record sheets, such as those from the Griffith Genealogical & Historical Society and other papers.

There is also a photocopy of 'A Grose family history' and various documents such as birth and death certificates for the Grose family; some family trees and a printout of the descendants of Ada Parker.

The collection consists entirely of photocopies.

Descriptions

Items

1  Families include Adams, Aldridge, Allen, Alli,Anderson, Andrews, Andy, Annie, Archibald, Armstrong, Arnold, Ash,Ashley, Ashmore, Atkinson, Bailey, Baker, Baldwin, Ballengarry, Bamblett,Banfield and Bangaree

2  Families include Barber, Barlow, Barndo, Barney, Barr, Bartman, Bartholemew, Barwick, Bateman, Bates, Bath, Beale, Beatle, Beaumont, Beears, Bellear, Bengalla, Bessie, Beveridge, Biggs, Billie, Bing, Bino, Birrie, and Black

3  Families include Blacklock, Blair, Blay, Bligh, Bollan, Bloomfield, Bond and Bone 

4  Families include Boney, Bonn, Borghmanna, Borland, Bourah, Bowden, Bowler, Boxer and Boyce

5  Families include Bradshaw, Brady, Brair, Brandy, and Brennan. Some of the photocopies for Brennan are very faint and therefore difficult to read

6  Families include Briggs, Bright, Brooks, Broomham,Broughton, Brown, Browning and Brummy

7  Families include Buars, Bubby, Buchana, Buckabone, Buckenbone, Bugg, Bull, Bullaman, Bullamin, Bullingar, Bundai, Bungaree, Bungle, Burke, Button and Byrnes

8  Families include Cain, Callaghar, Campbell, Carrie, Capp, Carbone, Carlyle, Carmody, Cart, Carroll, Carter, Cassidy, Catalana, Chambers, Charles, Charlie and Chatfield

9  Families include Clark, Clarke, Clarkson, Clifford, Clift, Cobar, Cobla, Cobra, Coe, Coffey, Cohen, Cohon, Coleman, Colger, Colless, Collins, Combadello, Combo, Comborugo

9a Families include Connor, Connors

10 Families include Conroy, Cook, Coombs/Coombes, Copeland, Corbett, Crotty, Crump, Draper, Duncan (Duncombe), Edwards, Egan, Graham

11 Grose Family

12 ‘A Grose family history, Part 1, From Britain to Botany Bay, the story of William Smith Grose & Elizabeth Reay’ and ‘A Grose family history, Part 2, Beyond the Blue Mountains, the story of William & Julia Grose’, both by Beverley Johnson. Photocopies

13 Families include Hart, Hulin, Jenkins, Kinchella, Mitchell, Murray, Narang, Nattey, Navey Bux, Payne, Poffit, Riggs, Suey, Swan, Tighe

14 Randall/Martin family tree from 1788 (two copies) and Walters/Saunders family tree

15 Printout from NSWGenWeb Lineage of records relating to union of Kitty Colaby and Budsworth (two copies)

16 Miscellaneous documents

Radiocarbon Dating program in the Riverland Region of South Australia

An interesting article appears in the journal Australian Archaeology as follows -

Initial results and observations on a radiocarbon dating program in the Riverland region of S.A.
Craig Westell , Amy Roberts , Mick Morrison , Geraldine Jacobsen & the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation
Australian Archaeology 2020

The abstract follows

"This paper presents a preliminary occupation chronology for the Riverland region of South Australia, based on 31 radiocarbon age determinations. This region has represented a significant geographic gap in understanding occupation chronologies for the broader Murray-Darling Basin. The dating forms part of an ongoing research program exploring the longterm engagements of Aboriginal people with the habitat mosaics of the central River Murray corridor. Dating targets were selected on the basis of their landscape context. Results relate occupation evidence to an evolving riverine landscape through the period extending from approximately 29 ka to the late Holocene. These results include the first pre-Last Glacial Maximum ages returned on the River Murray in South Australia and extend the known Aboriginal occupation of the Riverland by approximately 22,000 years."

Journal Article - Aboriginal artefacts on the continental shelf

An interesting article appears as follows -

Aboriginal artefacts on the continental shelf reveal ancient drowned cultural landscapes in northwest Australia
Jonathan Benjamin et al
PLoS ONE 15(7) 2020

Abstract
"This article reports Australia’s first confirmed ancient underwater archaeological sites from the continental shelf, located off the Murujuga coastline in north-western Australia. Details on two underwater sites are reported: Cape Bruguieres, comprising > 260 recorded lithic artefacts at depths down to −2.4 m below sea level, and Flying Foam Passage where the find spot is associated with a submerged freshwater spring at −14 m. The sites were discovered through a purposeful research strategy designed to identify underwater targets, using an iterative process incorporating a variety of aerial and underwater remote sensing techniques and diver investigation within a predictive framework to map the submerged landscape within a depth range of 0–20 m. The condition and context of the lithic artefacts are analysed in order to unravel their depositional and taphonomic history and to corroborate their in situ position on a pre-inundation land surface, taking account of known geomorphological and climatic processes including cyclone activity that could have caused displacement and transportation from adjacent coasts. Geomorphological data and radiometric dates establish the chronological limits of the sites and demonstrate that they cannot be later than 7000 cal BP and 8500 cal BP respectively, based on the dates when they were finally submerged by sea-level rise. Comparison of underwater and onshore lithic assemblages shows differences that are consistent with this chronological interpretation. This article sets a foundation for the research strategies and technologies needed to identify archaeological targets at greater depth on the Australian continental shelf and elsewhere, building on the results presented. Emphasis is also placed on the need for legislation to better protect and manage underwater cultural heritage on the 2 million square kilometres of drowned landscapes that were once available for occupation in Australia, and where a major part of its human history must lie waiting to be discovered."

The full Article is available here.

Journal Article - Fire mosaics and habitat choice in nomadic foragers

Fire mosaics and habitat choice in nomadic foragers
Rebecca Bliege Birda, Chloe McGuire, Douglas W. Bird, Michael H. Price, David Zeanah,
and Dale G. Nimmo
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2020 

The abstract follows
"In the mid-1950s Western Desert of Australia, Aboriginal populations were in decline as families left for ration depots, cattle stations, and mission settlements. In the context of reduced population density, an ideal free-distribution model predicts landscape use should contract to the most productive habitats, and people should avoid areas that show more signs of extensive prior use. However, ecological or social facilitation due to Allee effects (positive  density dependence) would predict that the intensity of past habitat use should correlate positively with habitat use. We analyzed fire footprints and fire mosaics from the accumulation of several years of landscape use visible on a 35,300-km2 mosaic of aerial photographs covering much of contemporary Indigenous Martu Native Title Lands imaged between May and August 1953. Structural equation modeling revealed that, consistent with an Allee ideal free distribution, there was a positive relationship between the extent of fire mosaics and the intensity of recent use, and this was consistent across habitats regardless of their quality. Fire mosaics build up in regions with low cost of access to water, high intrinsic food availability, and good access to trade opportunities; these mosaics (constrained by water access during the winter) then draw people back in subsequent years or seasons, largely independent of intrinsic habitat quality. Our results suggest that the positive feedback effects of landscape burning can substantially change the way people value landscapes, affecting mobility and settlement by increasing sedentism and local population density."

The article also contains the following lines

"During the 1950s, for example, two marauding brothers, Tirinji and Yawa, roamed the Great Sandy Desert on a violent rampage, murdering younger men and kidnapping women. Rumors of the brother’s serial killings circulated the surrounding settlements and the fear engendered by their violence lasted years; in 1964, when Western Australia Native Welfare officer Terry Long encountered a group of 20 Aboriginal women and children at the Percival Lakes, he reported that the women were “desperate to quit the area [. . .] they had no men for years and were frightened that if they did run into a group containing men that some of them would be killed, if they were considered unsuitable as wives.”
(References to this section
(a) N. J. Bent, P. Lowe, Eds., Two Sisters: Ngarta & Jukuna, (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 2004).
(b) F. Skyring, “Ngurrara history report” [in the Federal Court of Australia, WA District Registry, Between Annette Kogolo, Butcher Wise, and Others, applicants, and the
State of Western Australia and Others, respondents—WAG6077 of 1998] (Broome, KLC, 1998).
(c) here.)