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Showing posts with label aboriginal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aboriginal. Show all posts

Aboriginal Hunters Short story









Deep in the heart of Australia, a group of Aboriginal people journeyed through the vast, red desert. They had been walking for days, in search of native foods and wildlife that would sustain them and their families. The sun beat down on their faces, and the sand swirled around their feet, but they persevered.

The group was led by an elder named Yirara, who knew the desert like the back of his hand. He had taught the younger generations how to read the land and find food and water sources. He pointed to a distant hill and signaled to the group to follow him.

As they approached the hill, they saw a small group of kangaroos grazing in the distance. Yirara signaled to the group to stop and wait for his command. The kangaroos were their main source of meat, and it was important not to scare them off.

Yirara led a small group of hunters forward, using the terrain to their advantage. They stalked the kangaroos, careful not to alert them. Suddenly, Yirara signaled for the hunters to pounce. They threw their spears, and three kangaroos fell to the ground.

The group rejoiced, knowing that they would have meat to sustain them for the next few days. They skinned and butchered the animals, taking only what they needed and leaving the rest for the other animals of the desert.

As they continued their journey, the group spotted a small water source. Yirara knew that this would be a good place to rest and replenish their supplies. They set up camp, using the resources of the land to build shelter and start a fire.

Over the next few days, the group explored the surrounding area, finding native fruits and berries to add to their diet. They also hunted for other animals, such as emus and goannas, to supplement their food supply.

As the days passed, the group grew stronger and more united. They knew that their survival depended on their ability to read the land and work together. They continued on their journey, knowing that there were more challenges to come, but also knowing that they had the knowledge and skills to overcome them.


Aboriginal Timeline 1600 - 1900





1606


Dutchman Willem Jansz and his ship Duyfken explore the western coast of Cape York Peninsula and were the first Europeans to have contact with Australian Aboriginal people. There were clashes between the two groups.



The Spaniard Luis Vaez De Torres sailed through Torres Strait.



1623

Dutchman Jan Carstenz described several armed encounters with Aboriginal people on the northern coast of Australia. Shots were fired and an Aboriginal man was hit.



1697

Englishman William Dampier visited the west coast of Australia.



1768

Anticipating that Captain Cook would discover the great southern land he was issued with special instructions to "with the consent of the natives take possession of convenient situations in the name of the King... or if you find the land uninhabited Take Possession for His Majesty".



1770

April 29 Captain James Cook in the Endeavour entered Botany Bay. After an encounter with local people in Botany Bay Cook wrote that "all they seem'd to want was us to be gone".



1786

August 18 the British Government chose Botany Bay as a penal colony.



1788

18 January Captain Arthur Phillip entered Botany Bay. A total of nine ships sailed into Botany Bay over three days.



Aboriginal people watched the arrival.



25 January Phillip sailed to Port Jackson and between 25 January and 6 February 1 000 officials, marines, dependents and convicts came ashore.



Frenchman La Perouse and two ships arrive at Botany Bay and remain until March 10.



Resistance and conflict between Europeans and Aborigines begins almost immediately.




Early February the French fire on Aboriginal people at Botany Bay.



29 May the first conflict between the First Fleet arrivals and Aboriginal people takes place near Rushcutters Bay, Sydney. Two convicts are killed.



December, Arabanoo is the first Aboriginal person captured by Europeans.



Captain Phillip estimates that there are 1 500 Aboriginal people living in the Sydney Region.



1789

April, smallpox decimates the Aboriginal population of Port Jackson, Botany Bay and Broken Bay. The disease spread inland and along the coast.



The settlement spreads to Rose Hill, later called Parramatta.



November, Governor Phillip captures two Aboriginal men - Bennelong and Colebee. Colebee escapes but Bennelong is kept at Government House for five months.



1790

Bennelong and a boy named Yemmerrawanie are taken to England by Phillip. Bennelong meets George III. Yemmarrawanie dies in England. In 1795 Bennelong returns to Australia.



1790

September, Pemulwuy spears Phillip's gamekeeper, John McEntire, and Phillip orders the first punitive expedition. Pemulwuy and his son Tedbury led Aboriginal resistance in the Sydney area in a guerrilla campaign lasting several years.



1791

Time-expired convicts granted land around Parramatta.



1792

Colonists spread to Prospect Hill, Kissing Point, Northern Boundary, the Ponds and the Field of Mars.



1794

By August, 70 colonists farming on the Hawkesbury. Aboriginal people dispossessed of their land.



1797

Punitive party pursue Pemulwuy and about 100 Aboriginal people to Parramatta. Pemulwuy is wounded and captured but later escapes.



1798

Colonists dispossess Aboriginal people of land around Georges River flats and Bankstown.



1799

Two Aboriginal boys killed near Windsor by five Hawkesbury settlers. A court martial found them guilty but referred sentencing to the Secretary of State for Colonies and the men are released on bail. Governor Hunter is recalled. Acting-Governor King is instructed to pardon the men.



Beginning of a six-year period of resistance to white settlement by Aboriginal people in the Hawkesbury and Parramatta areas. Known as the 'Black Wars'.



1801

April, Governor King orders Aboriginal people gathering around Parramatta, Georges River and Prospect Hill "to be driven back from the settler's habitation by firing at them".



1802

June 30, Proclamation stating: "His Majesty forbids any act of injustice or wanton cruelty to the Natives, yet the settler is not to suffer his property to be invaded or his existence endangered by them, in preserving which he is to use the effectual, but at the same time the most humane, means of resisting such attacks".



Shortly after this Pemulwuy is shot by two settlers. Tedbury continues the resistance.



1803

Settlements established near present-day Melbourne at Port Phillip and in Tasmania at Risdon, on the Derwent River by Governor King. The settlement at Port Phillip is abandoned.



1804

Colonists are authorised by Lt. Moore to shoot 50 Aboriginal people at Risdon Cove in response to Aboriginal resistance. Hostilities increase - the slaughter of Aboriginal people in Van Diemen's Land has begun.



1804

Most of the Cumberland Plain west of Sydney is occupied by colonists. The Darug people are being dispossessed of their land.



1805

Aboriginal people trying to defend their land, kill colonists. A Government order on 19 April directed Captain William Bligh to send soldiers "for their [colonists] protection against those uncivilised insurgents".



20 July the colony's Judge-Advocate, Richard Atkins when referring to whether or not Aboriginal people could be witnesses or criminals before a court stated that Aboriginal people "are at present incapable of being brought before a criminal court - and that the only mode at present when they deserve it, is to pursue them and inflict such punishment as they merit".



1810

Tedbury is wounded but there are no records of what happened to him.



1813

Colonists, assisted by Aboriginal people, cross the Blue Mountains. Create new hostilities as they pass through Aboriginal lands.



1814

The establishment of a "Native institution at Parramatta" by Governor Macquarie to "civilise, educate and foster habits of industry and decency in the Aborigines". An annual 'feast' is also begun to reunite parents with children, who have been separated from their parents to attend the institution.



1815

Remnants of the Broken Bay Aboriginal people are established on a reserve at George's Head.



1816

Attacks on farms by Aboriginal people on the edge of Sydney. Macquarie sends Captain James Wallis with three detachments of the 76th Regiment to arrest 'offenders'. They attack a camp near Appin at night and 14 Aboriginal people are killed including Carnabyagal.



4 May Macquarie announces a set of regulations controlling the free movement of Aboriginal people.



No Aboriginal person is to appear armed within a mile of any settlement and no more than six Aboriginal people are allowed to 'lurk or loiter near farms'.



Passports or certificates are issued to Aboriginal people "who conduct themselves in a suitable manner", to show they are officially accepted by Europeans.



Five areas are set aside by Macquarie as agriculture reserves for the settlement of Aboriginal people from the Sydney area. The Aboriginal people who settle on these lands are given seed, tools, stores and clothes for six months. Convicts are assigned to help with cultivation of crops.



1819 - 1820

Rapid expansion of the colony into present day Queensland. A penal settlement set up a Redcliffe but moved to present day Brisbane three months later.



Colonists spread west of the Blue Mountains and establish stations.



There are a number of large scale killings as conflict over dispossession of land and erosion of hunting rights continue.



1824

'Saturday' leads Aboriginal resistance in the Bathurst area.



August, martial law is proclaimed in the Bathurst area when seven Europeans are killed by Aboriginal people and the conflict is seen as a serious threat. Soldiers, mounted police, settlers and stockmen carry out numerous attacks on Aboriginal people. As many as 100 Aboriginal people are killed. Martial law stops in December.



August - a Mission is established at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney.



1827

John Oxley leads an expedition to the Liverpool Plains west of present day Tamworth, NSW. This area is settled in the 1830s, with an increase in settlers during the 1837-1845 drought, when more land is needed. Kamilaroi people are dispossessed of their land.



1829

A colony is set up in Perth, on the south-west coast of Australia.



1830

October beginning of the Black Wars in Tasmania. Governor Arthur tries unsuccessfully to drive all the remaining Aboriginal people in eastern Van Diemen's land on to the Tasman Peninsula. 2 200 men form a 'Black Line'. It cost 5000 pounds and only two Aboriginal people are caught - an old man and a young boy.



1834

October, Governor Stirling leads a party of men to a site near present day Pinjarra, on the Swan River and attacks 80 Aboriginal people. One of Stirling's men dies and many Aboriginal people are killed. Official reports say that 14 Aboriginal people were killed but Aboriginal accounts suggest a whole clan was decimated in the attack. This became known as the 'Battle of Pinjarra'. The battle was an attempt to punish Aboriginal people south of Perth, after conflict with settlers the death, in April, of Hugh Nesbit.



The Aboriginal people are unsuccessful in defending their land and are dispossessed.



1835

John Batman attempts to make a 'treaty' with Aboriginal people for Port Phillip Bay, near present day Melbourne by 'buying' 243 000 hectares with 20 pairs of blankets, 30 tomahawks, various other articles and a yearly tribute. Governor Bourke does not recognise the 'treaty' and the purchase is voided. This is the only time colonists attempt to sign a treaty for land with Aboriginal owners.



The Dunghutti people of north coast NSW are now confined to 40 hectares of land on the Bellwood Reserve, near present day Kempsey. They previously owned 250 000 hectares.



October, George Augustus Robinson, who sees himself as a protector of Aborigines, takes over the European style settlement on Flinders Island in Bass Strait. He spent much time convincing the last Aborigines on Van Diemen's Land to move to Flinders Island. After most Aboriginal people have died from various diseases the protectorate is abandoned in December 1849.



1836

Port Phillip District established. As the settlement expands Aboriginal lives are severely disrupted and people die in great numbers.



Colony of South Australia is founded. A protector of Aboriginal people is appointed but the Kaurna people, near Adelaide, are unable to maintain life as a group because of the expanding settlement and loss of their land.



1836 - 1837

A select committee of the British House of Commons said that Aboriginal people had a "plain right and sacred right" to their land.



The committee reports genocide is happening in the colonies.



1837

Conflict between Aboriginal people and settlers, stockmen and shepherds increases on the Liverpool Plains between 1827 - 1837.



1837 - 1845

Drought on the north-west plains of NSW. Drying up of creeks and waterholes, forces Aboriginal people to kill sheep and cattle on European holdings, and move towards settlements looking for food.



1838

January, Major Nunn's campaign. Mounted police, mostly European volunteers, set out in response to conflict on the Liverpool Plains, north central NSW. At Vinegar Hill, a site on 'Slaughterhouse Creek', 60 - 70 Aboriginal people are reported killed. The only European casualty is a corporal, speared in the leg.



11 April, "Faithful Massacre" at Owens Creek, Victoria. Ten Europeans travelling south from NSW with G. P. Faithful, killed by Aboriginal people.



'The Bushwack' or 'The Drive', against Aborigines, is initiated by squatters and their stockmen to clear the Myall Creek area, near present day Inverell, NSW.



On 10 June, the 'Myall Creek Massacre' occurs. 12 heavily armed colonists rounded up and brutally kill 28 Aborigines from a group of 40 or 50 people gathered at Henry Dangar's Station, at Myall Creek. The massacre was believed to be a payback for the killing of several hut keepers and two shepherds. But most of those killed were women and children and good relations existed between the Aboriginal people and European occupants of the station. 15 November, 11 Europeans were charged with murder but are acquitted. A new trial is held and seven men are charged with murder of one Aboriginal child. They are found guilty and hanged in December.



Competition between Aboriginal people and colonists develops for water on Bogan River, west of present day Dubbo. Seven Europeans and their overseer are killed on William Fee's outstation. Border Police formed after the Myall Creek Massacre, arrive from Bathurst and almost all men of the group involved are killed.



Reports of poisoning of Aboriginal people on 'Tarrone' near Port Fairy, West Melbourne and 'Kilcoy' north-west Moreton Bay. Flour is poisoned and left in shepherds' huts on 'Kilcoy' in the expectation that Aboriginal people now dispossessed of hunting ground would take it.



1842

Governor Bourke of NSW ordered the establishment of the Native Police, in the Port Phillip district. They are trained to disperse groups of Aboriginal people. This force is disbanded in 1853.



Native Police forces operated punitive expeditions and attacked and killed many station Aborigines. The force was lead by European officers. The force played a significant role in later years, in 'settling' hostilities in the Macleay and Clarence River regions of NSW. Native Police were used extensively against Aborigines in Queensland. They were later disbanded and replaced by civil police, following increasing concern within non-Aboriginal communities concerning the forces' activities. The force was finally disbanded in Queensland in 1897.



1843

A number of squatters abandon their stations because of continued resistance of Aboriginal people in defence of their land which includes attacks on properties.



1845

About 50 remaining Aboriginal people from the Sydney and Botany Bay peoples are living at a camp on Botany Heads.



1846

Native Police are used to 'settle' hostilities on the northern plains of NSW. Hostilities lessen in the area.



1848

The Board of National Education, established in NSW states "It is impractical to provide any form of education for the children of blacks".



Native Police are introduced into northern regions with headquarters at Callandoon near present day Goondiwindi, on the Macintyre River.



1849

A select committee of the NSW Government claimed that protectors of Aboriginal people serve no purpose and should be abolished.






Land Commissioner McDonald reported widespread food shortages among Aborigines in the Murray District after their displacement by pastoralists who took their land for sheep stations.



December, Flinders Island Protectorate in Bass Strait abandoned after most Aboriginal people have died from various diseases.



1851

The Colony of Victoria established.



1857

27 October The Jiman people kill 11 Europeans at Martha Fraser's Hornet Bank station on the Dawson River, central Queensland. Local squatters with the help of the Native Police later shoot several Jiman men.



1860

A Board of Protection is established in Victoria and continues until 1957. During the next 20 years nearly 11 000 hectares of land are 'temporarily reserved'. By 1900, most Victorian Aboriginal people are placed on reserves.



1861

17 October, a party of settlers led by Horatio Spencer Wills, is attacked by Aboriginal people at the new Cullin-la-ringo station, near Emerald, Queensland. Wills and 18 Europeans are killed. Native Police deserters are said to be the ringleaders. A punitive party set out immediately and numerous Aboriginal people were slaughtered.



1867-1868

Aboriginal cricket team tours England. Some members of the team find it difficult to adapt to the climate and have to return home. One team member dies.



1868

150 Aboriginal people are killed resisting arrest in the Kimberley.



1869

A settlement is established in Darwin.



Punitive expeditions are common in the north and north-west until the 1930s.



Act for "Protection and Management of Aboriginal Natives" is passed in Victoria.



1874

The Maloga Mission is established as a refuge for the 9 000 surviving Aboriginal people in NSW.



1876

8 May Truganini dies in Hobart aged 73. The Tasmanian Government does not recognise the Aboriginal heritage of people of Aboriginal descent and claims the last Tasmanian Aboriginal person has died. A falsehood many still believe today.



1870

In the early 1870s the first Aboriginal children are enrolled in the public schools in NSW. By 1880 there are 200 Aboriginal children in school in NSW.


1873

 Those who made it through Cooktown on their journey to the fabled Palmer River Gold diggings then faced perils that would make most of us turn around and head for home at a very rapid rate.
The greatest peril was from the local natives, the Merkin tribe. These people were fierce fighters. Not for them to throw a few spears and run away. Upon first encountering white men they attacked in waves, holding men back in reserve and probing the flanks of the defending white men's camp. They poisoned their spears by rubbing the tips in rotting carcasses and only had to scratch their opponents to kill them.



1877

The Hermansburg Mission in established on the Finke River, Northern Territory by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia and the Hermannsburg Mission Society of North Germany.



1880

South Australia introduces a Protection Policy.



1881

A 'Protector of Aborigines' is appointed in NSW. The Protector has the power to create reserves and to force Aboriginal people to live on them.



The Minister for Education establishes separate schools for excluded Aboriginal children. The Protector attempts to provide reserves with a building where a school can be run by the Department of Education. Where this is not possible, Aboriginal children can attend the local public schools providing they are "habitually clean, decently clad and that they conduct themselves with propriety, both in and out of school".



1883

The Aboriginal Protection Board is established in NSW. Aboriginal people at Maloga Mission on the Murray River are moved to Cumeroogunga. By the end of the 1880s several reserves have been established in NSW. Reserves are set up far enough away from towns so that contact with Europeans is limited. Segregation is a key part of Aboriginal Protection Policy.



White parents object to about 16 Aboriginal children attending a public school at Yass. The Minister for Education, George Reid, stops the children from attending school stating, in general that although creed or colour should not exclude a child "cases may arise, especially amongst the Aboriginal tribes, where the admission of a child or children may be prejudicial to the whole school".



1886

Western Australian Aborigines Protection Act provided for a Protection Board.



The Victorian Aborigines Protection Act excludes "half castes" from their definition of an Aboriginal person. As a result nearly half the residents of the stations have to leave their homes.



1890

Jandamarra, an Aboriginal resistance fighter, declares war on European invaders in the West Kimberley and prevents settlement for six years.



In the 1890s Western Australia gives increased law enforcement powers to its justices of the peace who can sentence Aborigines to three years gaol or 24 lashes for offences such as sheep stealing. However, no Western Australian jury convicts a European for killing an Aboriginal, even though in one case a European had tied an Aboriginal person to his horse and dragged the man along the ground to his death.



1891

2 May - a man hunt lasting almost three years followed the spearing by Aboriginal people of S Murskiewicz at Dora Dora Creek, 68km from Albury. The two Aboriginal people responsible were finally caught in Queensland.



1897

The Queensland Aboriginals' Protection and Restriction of Sale of Opium Act established reserves and provides for the appointment of protectors. Europeans are permitted to employ Aboriginal people but Chinese people are not. This Act with some amendments in 1901 and 1934 remains the chief statement of Queensland Policy until 1939 when a new Act is passed.



Jandamarra, Kimberley's resistance fighter is shot and 19 former Aboriginal prisoners, who he had freed and were fighting with him, are also shot and killed.



1900

During 1900 Jimmy and Joe Governor, and Jackie Underwood kill seven Europeans in NSW because Jimmy Governor took offense at slurs passed upon his European wife. Joe was later shot dead and Jimmy and Underwood were arrested.



Aboriginal Massacres


Nailed to trees proclamation boards were designed to show that colonists and aboriginals were equal before the law, and incorrectly depicted a policy of friendship and equal justice which simply did not exist.


It has been estimated that at the time of first European contact, the absolute minimum pre-1788 population was 315,000, while recent archaeological finds suggest that a population of 750,000 could have been sustained, with some academics estimating a population of a million people was possible.


In the 19th century, smallpox was the principal cause of Aboriginal deaths. Smallpox is estimated to have killed up to 90% of the local Darug people in 1789.

The first massacre of Tasmanian Aboriginal people occurred at Risden Cove in 1804, when Lieutenant John Bowen and his troops fired on a group which included women and children. By 1806 clashes between Aboriginal people and settlers were common. The Tasmanians speared stock and shepards; in retaliation Europeans gave them poison flour, abducted their children to use as forced labour, and raped and tortured the women.


Mass killings of Tasmanian Aborigines were reported as having occurred as part of the Black War.
In combination with impacts of introduced infectious diseases, to which the Tasmanian Aborigines had no immunity, the conflict had such impact on the Tasmanian Aboriginal population that they were reported to have been exterminated..

In February 1830, the government offered a bounty of £5 per adult and £2 per child, for Aborigines captured alive.
By 1900 the recorded Indigenous population of Australia had declined to approximately 93,000.





Goulbolba Hill Massacre, Central Queensland a large massacre involving men, women and children. This was the result of settlers pushing Aboriginal people out of their hunting grounds and the Aboriginals being forced to hunt livestock for food. A party of Native Police, under Frederick Wheeler, who had a reputation for violent repressions, was sent to "disperse" this group of Aboriginals, who were 'resisting the invasion'. He had also mustered up a force of 100 local whites. Alerted of Wheeler's presence by a native stockman, the district's aborigines holed up in caves on Goulbolba hill. According to eyewitness testimony taken down from a local white in 1899, that day some 300 Aboriginals, including all the women and children, were shot dead or killed by being herded into the nearby lake for drowning.







In 1833 or 1834 tension turned into a full fledged conflict in a dispute over a beached whale. The Convincing Ground is located in Portland Bay southwest of Melbourne, near the coastal town of Portland in the Shire of Glenelg and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Reports say up to 200 Aborigines were killed, including women and children

George Augustus Robinson visited the site of the massacre in 1841 and talked with local squatters and made the following official report:

Among the remarkable places on this coast, is the 'Convincing Ground', originating in a severe conflict which took place in a few years previous between the Aborigines and the Whalers on which occasion a large number of the former were slain. The circumstances are that a whale had come on shore and the Natives who fed on the carcass claimed it was their own. The whalers said they would 'convince them' and had recourse to firearms.

The reason for this uncertainty over casualties and the actual date of the massacre appears to stem from the fact that the incident was only reported and documented several years after its occurrence.





Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846



The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with ...

I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging.


 For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 450 have been murdered altogether..."









Lionel Rose Australian Boxing Legend




Lionel Rose the eldest of nine children and Australian Boxing Legend, died on 8 May 2011 aged 62 after an illness which lasted for several months.
Few Australian sportsmen captured the attention of the nation quite like Lionel Rose,  Lionel was a true legend of boxing, and a icon amongst the aboriginal community, and a hero to all Australians.

Lionel Rose grew up in hardship, learning to box from his father, Roy, a useful fighter on the tent-show circuit. According to the boxing historian Grantlee Kieza, Lionel Rose "sparred with rags on his hands in a ring made from fencing wire stretched between trees".




He came under the tutelage of Frank Oates, a Warragul trainer (whose daughter Jenny he later married). He won the Australian amateur flyweight title at age 15.


Lionel Rose began his professional boxing career, outpointing Mario Magriss over eight rounds. This fight was in Warragul, but the majority of Rose's fights were to be held in Melbourne. Along the way he was helped by Jack and Shirley Rennie, in whose Melbourne home he stayed, training every day in their backyard gym.





Lionel Rose challenged Fighting Harada for the world's bantamweight title (picture above) on 26 February 1968, in Tokyo. Rose made history by becoming the first Aboriginal to be a world champion boxer when he defeated Harada in a 15-round decision.. This win made Rose an instant national hero in Australia, and an icon among Aboriginals. A public reception at Melbourne Town Hall was witnessed by a crowd of more than 250,000. ( I dont think Anthony Mundine would get that kind of support, maybe 20 people at most)





On 2 July of that year, he returned to Tokyo to retain his title with a 15 round decision win over Takao Sakurai




On 6 December, he met Chucho Castillo at the Inglewood Forum in Inglewood, California. Rose beat Castillo by decision,( picture below) but the points verdict in favour of him infuriated many in the pro-Castillo crowd, and a riot began: 14 fans and fight referee Dick Young were hospitalised for injuries received.


Even Elvis Presley wanted to meet him, when Rose defended his title in California later that year, requesting to meet him.

"I was in awe of him, but he said he was in awe of me," Rose recounted of the meeting in an interview.




Lionel Rose compiled a record of 42 wins and 11 losses as a professional boxer, with 12 wins by knockout.


Lionel Rose was Australian of the Year in 1968, the first Aboriginal to be awarded the honour. The same year he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).




In retirement, Lionel Rose became a successful businessman. He was able to manage his money and make good financial decisions, and he enjoyed the monetary benefits his career brought him. Rose was showcased in 2002 in the The Ring section 'Where are they now?'.


During his off time from boxing in the 1970s, Rose embarked on a successful singing career in Australia having hits with "I Thank You" ( Listen Here ) and "Please Remember Me" in 1970. The song "I Thank You" was a nationwide hit.



Rose remains one of only four Australian-born fighters to win a world title overseas.
Jeff Harding and Jimmy Carruthers also achieved the feat, while the latest came on the same day as Rose's death, with Daniel Geale defeating German champion Sebastian Sylvester for the IBF middleweight title.






A person like Lionel Rose, who becomes a hero and a legend in his sport is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men.











Famous Australians Lowitja O'Donoghue




 Lowitja O'Donoghue
One of the most admired and influential leaders in Australian history.
Lowitja has lots of charm, warmth and a great sense of humour. Those qualities are balanced by her mental strength and determination, which today, makes her one of our greatest ever Australian leaders.


Lowitja was born in 1932 in a remote Aboriginal community. In August 1932, Lowitja was a infant newly born into the Yankunjatjara tribe in the remote North-West Reserve of South Australia. Her mother was a full blood of the tribe, and her father the owner of a pastoral station which later passed into the hands of the McLachlan family. This was not a casual relationship and Lois is the youngest of five children born to the same parents.




In 1934, members of the frankly paternalistic United Aborigines' Mission visited her Yankunjatjara tribe at Indulkana, 200 miles north of Coober Pedy. They persuaded her mother it would be best for the child to be brought up at the Mission's Home for Children at Quorn. Without in any way approving such a policy, Lowitja acknowledges that she had a happy childhood there, and later at the Colebrook home at Eden Hills.

During that time, her mother did not know where her family had been taken, Lowitja was not to see her mom for 33 years.


Lowitja's first job was as a nanny looking after six kids with a family in Victor Harbor some 100 km south of Adelaide.

After a long struggle to win admission to a training hospital, Lowitja became the first black nurse in South Australia.



From 1950 to 1953 O'Donoghue worked as a nursing aide in Victor Harbor.

In 1954 Lowitja was in the first intake of unqualified students to attend the Royal Adelaide Hospital which offered good nursing career prospects. She qualified as a nurse and worked at the Royal Adelaide Hospital until 1961, being appointed a charge nurse just before leaving

She spent time with the Baptist Church working in Assam, northern India as a nurse relieving missionaries who were taking leave back in Australia.

After returning in 1962, she worked as an Aboriginal Liaison Officer with the South Australian Department of Education. She later transferred to the SA Department of Aboriginal Affairs and was employed as a Welfare Officer based mainly in the north of the state, in particular at Coober Pedy, some 200 kilometres south of her birthplace.

In 1967 Lowitja joined the Commonwealth Public Service as a junior admin officer in the Adelaide office of the newly formed Department of Aboriginal Affairs. After eight years she became the Director of the Department's office in South Australia, a senior officer position, responsible for the local implementation of national Aboriginal welfare policy.




In 1990 Lowitja was appointed Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission a position she held until 1996.
.
In 1976, Lowitja was the first Aboriginal woman to be inducted into the new Order of Australia founded by the Labor Australian Commonwealth Government. The award was in recognition of her work in the welfare field

Lowitja was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1983, and was named Australian of the Year in 1984, for her work to improve the welfare of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 1999.

Lowitja has received honorary doctorates from Murdoch University, the University of South Australia, the Australian National University, the Queensland University of Technology and Flinders University. In 2000 she was made an honorary professorial fellow at Flinders University and was a visiting fellow at Flinders University.



She is a National Patron at the The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre.

 Lowitja was inducted into the Olympic Order in 2000.

In 2005  Lowitja was made Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great by Pope John Paul II.



Dame of the Order of St Gregory the Great





•1977 Member Order of Australia

•1982 Advance Australia Award

•1983 Commander of the Order of the British Empire

•1984 Australian of the Year

•1992 SA Great Award

•1993 Honorary Doctorate: Murdoch University, WA

•1993 Honorary Doctorate: University of South Australia, SA

•1995 Honorary Doctorate: Australian National University, ACT

•1995 Honorary Fellowship: Royal College of Nursing, Australia

•1996 Honorary Doctorate: Queensland University of Technology, Queensland

•1996 Honorary Doctorate: Flinders University of South Australia

•1998 Honorary Fellowship: Royal Australasian College of Physicians

•1998 Australian Living National Treasure

•1999 Companion of the Order of Australia

•2000 Honorary Professional Fellow: Flinders University of South Australia

•2000 Olympic Order 

And most of all a real true blue Aussie we can all be proud of !








Aboriginal Cooking Methods


Aborigines lived as Hunter-gatherers. They hunted and foraged for food from the land.
Australian Aboriginal cooking methods are unique, most of them originating in and around outdoor fires. Boiling and barbecuing are newer techniques that they have learned.
Aboriginals ate a balanced diet before the invasion of the British Crown, including seasonal fruits, nuts, roots vegetables, wattles, other plant food, many types of meats, and seafood.


Aboriginal Cooking Methods


 Roasting on hot coals:

· The basic technique for cooking flesh, including most meats, fish and small turtles.
A further slow roasting, involving covering with coals and ashes may have then
been employed to thoroughly cook the meat or to soften an otherwise tough meat.
After cooking, the meat would be quickly consumed.
· For game, such as a kangaroo, the fur would first be singed off in the flames. As
the carcase started to swell, it would be removed from the flames, gutted and the
remains of the fur scraped off with a sharp implement. By this time the fire would
be a bed of hot coals on which the carcase would be further cooked. It is unlikely
that cooking would be complete by this method, the meat would be rare but
probably relished by all, particularly the men of the group.
· Smaller game would be more thoroughly cooked by this method.
· Shellfish would be cooked briefly on the coals at the side of a fire so that, as soon as
the contents started to froth, they were removed from the heat. This method
avoided the shellfish being overcooked and tough.

Baking in the ashes

Dampers and various types of bread were baked in the ashes. Care was taken to only
use the correct type of wood from which the ashes were obtained. Some woods
imparted an unpleasant taste or even caused irritation or discomfort to the users. most
wattles seemed to have been successfully used for baking in the ashes, yielding a fine
ash that did not cause irritation. Witchetty grubs only required to be briefly rolled in
the hot ashes to cook them. Often damper or goanna would be placed on the hot
ground beneath the ashes and covered with more ash to cook. A scooped out hollow
was often made in which to cook yams and other small vegetables by then covering
them with a further layer of ash and coals.





Steaming in a ground oven

Aboriginal cooking methods using ancient ground ovens still exist, particularly in the Wiradjuri area, along the Darling,
Murrumbidgee and Lachlan Rivers. At Lake Urana in western NSW I have seen such
ovens and only recognised them after having them explained to me. The ovens were
prepared by digging out a pit about 90 cm long and 60 cm deep, taking care to collect
any clay from the digging. The clay, usually fashioned into smooth lumps, would be
placed aside until the pit had been filled with selected firewood and then placed on
top. As the wood burned, the clay would dry quickly and become very hot. These
clay lumps, nearly red hot, would be removed from the pit using sticks for tongs, the
pit swept out and quickly lined with green leaves or grass on which small game such
as possums would be lain, covered by more green grass and weighed down by the clay lumps. All this was covered with earth from the original excavation to prevent loss of
steam. This method of cooking produced excellent results. In areas such as Arnhem Land, wrapping in moist paperbark from the Melaleuca trees is still a popular method
of cooking vegetables and meat in a ground oven. Iron particles in ground ovens
became aligned according to the magnetic field of the earth at the time the ovens were
last used – from this the age of the ovens could be calculated, a bonus for
archaeologists.




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