Layer

NameWA Journey Ways - Aboriginal Camps Around WA
DescriptionBefore, and for some time after the 1967 referendum Aboriginal people were subjected to law and social policy that controlled every aspect of their lives. They were excluded from all the supports (hospitals and public housing) and payments (wages, pensions, dole, child benefit) given to non-Aboriginal people. They were subjected to curfews and condemned to absolute poverty. Many lived in ancient camping grounds or reserved lands until they were cleared out.
TypeSite
Content WarningThis layer contains historical information about Aboriginal people that may be distressing. It contains names of people who have passed away.
ContributorDr Bill Pascoe
Entries13
Allow ANPS? No
Added to System2022-10-16 19:10:21
Updated in System2022-10-16 19:36:51
Subject indigenous, aboriginal, history, noongar, camps
CreatorDr Francesca Robertson, Dr Noel Nannup, Alison Nannup
PublisherWA Journey Ways is a collaboration of Kurongkurl Katitjin, Edith Cowan University and WA Main Roads
Contact
Citation
DOI
Source URLhttp://batchelorpress.com/node/386
Linkbackhttp://batchelorpress.com/node/386
Date From
Date To
Image
Latitude From
Longitude From
Latitude To
Longitude To
LanguageEN
LicenseDo not use without permission.
Usage RightsSome material condensed from Aboriginal Journey Ways Project (Robertson and Nannup, 2016-2019), some from Denise Cook’s PhD (Murdoch University, 2018) now available in a book ‘That Was My Home: Voices from the Noongar Camps in Fremantle and the Western Suburbs’, Denise Cook, UWA Press. Other material as referenced. Permissions provided for TLCMap. Do not re-use without permission.
Date Created (externally)

Gudjawarral Reserve, Yirramagurdu (Roebourne)

Placename
Gudjawarral Reserve, Yirramagurdu (Roebourne)
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-20.7475
Longitude
117.1402778
Start Date
1930
End Date
1975

Description

When an area was carved out for a station in the Pilbara in the early 1880s the land included the people who traditionally lived there. They became the slaves of the station owner. Life under this regime was hard and brutal but they remained on their land and were able to take care of sacred sites and pass on law and conduct ceremony. When people got too old or were sick or injured in their work they were taken and dumped on a ration station. Later they were rounded up and taken to coastal towns. There was a reserve at Yirramagurdu (Roebourne) called Gudjawarral. This had no amenities, no tap, no toilet no buildings. After the referendum in 1967 station owners were required to pay Aboriginal workers full pay. Rather than do this many owners rounded up the Aboriginal people and trucked them to the nearest reserve. Suddenly at Gudjawarral (and other reserves) there were hundreds of people. One tap and a cement tub was installed, people had to construct tents and shacks out of what they could find. Many children died there of preventable diseases incurred by poverty, poor nutrition, overcrowding and no access to medicines (Condensed from Robertson and Nannup, 2017).

Extended Data

Source
Condensed from Robertson and Nannup, 2017

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb98e
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/386
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Thomas's Field, Medina

Placename
Thomas's Field, Medina
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-32.23301389
Longitude
115.7981806
Start Date
1920
End Date
1930

Description

Thomas Oval and Kelly Park, known to locals as Thomas's Field was probably a traditional camp, it was still used as a camp in the 1920s (Cook, 2016)

Extended Data

Source
Cook, 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb98f
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/387
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Chalk Hill, Medina

Placename
Chalk Hill, Medina
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-32.25027778
Longitude
115.7913889
Start Date
1900
End Date
1959

Description

Camp of the late Mr S. Gentle, (situated beside the bend in Gentle Road directly by South Hill Lookout). It was named in memory of the respected fringe dweller. There is also a camp located in the open Banksia, scrub on the South-Western slope of Chalk Hill. This area was populated as late as the 1950s. [start date of 1900 estimated during data processing] (O'Connor, Bodney & Little, 1985 (condensed from Denise Cook PhD, 2016)

Extended Data

Source
O'Connor, Bodney & Little, 1985 (condensed from Denise Cook PhD, 2016)

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb990
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/388
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

East Fremantle

Placename
East Fremantle
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-32.0558
Longitude
115.7491667
Start Date
1899
End Date
1899

Description

In 1899, Chowall killed Curenit after a quarrel at the Noongar camp near what was then Plympton and is now East Fremantle. Chowall, who was known as Hoppy, was from the Esperance area. Plympton was located between the river and Marmion Street, west of what later became the Richmond Raceway. This was the first part of East Fremantle to be developed when workers’ cottages were built there from 1890. (A Dangerous Native, The West Australian, 6 October 1899, Cited in Cook, 2016)

Extended Data

Source
A Dangerous Native, The West Australian, 6 October 1899, Cited in Cook, 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb991
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/389
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Now 256 Victoria Ave

Placename
Now 256 Victoria Ave
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.95779167
Longitude
115.8653806
Start Date
End Date

Description

Possibly a camp used by Fanny Balbuk. Was then known as Pensioner Terrace.

Extended Data

Source

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb992
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/390
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Mary Crescent Reserve, Eden Hill

Placename
Mary Crescent Reserve, Eden Hill
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.88966111
Longitude
115.9570222
Start Date
End Date

Description

"This was one real famous meeting place. Nyungars never used to camp in the swamp there just in the hills around. They had their water wells dug on the other side of the hills. All houses now. Used to play two up here, and cards. Used to hold corroborees too." (O’Connor,Bodney and Little, “Preliminary Report on the Survey of Aboriginal Areas of Significance in the Perth Metropolitan and Murray River Regions” 47 Cited in Cook, 2016)

Extended Data

Source
O’Connor,Bodney and Little, “Preliminary Report on the Survey of Aboriginal Areas of Significance in the Perth Metropolitan and Murray River Regions” 47 Cited in Cook, 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb993
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/391
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Maamba Welshpool reserve

Placename
Maamba Welshpool reserve
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.99833333
Longitude
115.9622222
Start Date
1899
End Date
1908

Description

In 1899 the Governor of Western Australia, John Forrest, gazetted a 500-acre reserve at Welshpool. It was intended be a central living area for Aborigines in the Perth metropolitan area who were physically incapable of working. It was thought they could camp there while their families grew flowers, fruit and vegetables for the local market and for themselves. Charles Timbul (Timble) and Ngilgie were the first residents at Welshpool Reserve. Unfortunately Nyoongars from all over the area were moved there as the new Chief Protector of Aborigines, Henry Prinsep, wanted all Aborigines in the metropolitan area moved to reserves. In 1903 it became a ration station but by 1908 was deserted. 1903 at Maamba: "They’d have a billy of tea with them. I suppose they drank it on the way and then mother’d make them a big billy of tea and they’d really enjoy the day out. And I think they used to come about, oh perhaps every couple of months or something. And I know I used to be very fascinated with them, to hear them talk. No boots and stockings on the nor anything, as tough as could be. But mother was very fond of the natives." (Melville or Melva Caporn. Melba White, oral history, 27 September 1979, 2. Police, Gazette, August 1952, 318. Bodney, Melva, @ Bodney, Melba, Cited in Cook 2016)

Extended Data

Source
Melville or Melva Caporn. Melba White, oral history, 27 September 1979, 2. Police, Gazette, August 1952, 318. Bodney, Melva, @ Bodney, Melba, Cited in Cook 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb994
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/392
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Victoria Avenue, Dalkeith

Placename
Victoria Avenue, Dalkeith
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.98888889
Longitude
115.7841667
Start Date
End Date

Description

In the 1920s a resident recalled Aborigines camping each summer in a large stand of Wattle trees which ran down to the beach. "We did not see much of them except when occasionally they asked for water. This was not often, and we worked out they must have got their water by digging a hole in the beach sand a yard or two from the high tide mark anywhere along the beach. This water was a bit brackish but drinkable. Hence the name Freshwater Bay." (Ern Middleton, “I remember Swan River Playground,” unreferenced and undated newspaper article, Freshwater Bay Museum, PAS Aborigines Camps/Housing. Cited in Cook 2016).

Extended Data

Source
Ern Middleton, “I remember Swan River Playground,” unreferenced and undated newspaper article, Freshwater Bay Museum, PAS Aborigines Camps/Housing. Cited in Cook 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb995
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/393
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Mount Shackleton

Placename
Mount Shackleton
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-32.03598056
Longitude
117.9212028
Start Date
End Date

Description

"When we first came the farmer told us there was good water up there. We found a big gnamma, it is still there, it is about eleven feet deep and always full of water. Dad built us a shack out of hessian and tin. There’s a big stone Mum where mum used to boil the water for washing our clothes. I was the fourth of seventeen children. I had the best childhood. My Mum was beautiful, she had love equally for all of us, no favourites. Dad was away a lot shearing, he was very strict but there was no doubt of his love for us. There was just our family there, now and again other people would come and stay but not for long. As an older boy I used to help catch our food. If you went up to the top of the hill there’s the best view, you can see for miles across the salt lakes. About three or four times in my life I have seen them in flood, it’s a wonderful sight. Islands form and rabbits and other animals are trapped. We went down to the lakes for food; it was our pantry! We caught ducks to eat, there were eggs, duck eggs all year around swans eggs in Makaru when the rains come. There were kangaroos, emus, snakes and goannas. There was kwardiny, which are like carrots but taste hot like chilli. There was a special way of digging them out and cutting them so that they will keep growing, there are tubers under certain trees that taste like potatoes. I reckon that we got about seventy per cent of our food from the land, the rest we got from rations of flour, sugar and tobacco. Then there was Dad’s wages and Mum worked as a cleaner, she cleaned the butcher’s and the baker’s shop." (Kevan Davis in Wyalkatchem, The Nyoongar Story, Davis, Davis and Robertson, 2017, Printed at Edith Cowan University.)

Extended Data

Source
Kevan Davis in Wyalkatchem, The Nyoongar Story, Davis, Davis and Robertson, 2017, Printed at Edith Cowan University.

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb996
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/394
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Westcare Accommodation Village

Placename
Westcare Accommodation Village
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.95429722
Longitude
115.8003222
Start Date
End Date

Description

The Shenton Park camps were in bush off Lemnos Street, just west of the Victoria Hospital for Infectious Diseases, more recently known as Royal Perth Rehabilitation Hospital – Shenton Park Campus. (Philippa Martyr West of Subiaco: A History of the Shenton Park Campus 2.ed. Perth: Department of Health, 2009 Cited in Cook 2016)

Extended Data

Source
Philippa Martyr West of Subiaco: A History of the Shenton Park Campus 2.ed. Perth: Department of Health, 2009 Cited in Cook 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb997
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/395
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Caversham

Placename
Caversham
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.87555556
Longitude
115.9744444
Start Date
End Date

Description

"My uncles and my mother and I used to go up and do all the grape picking up around Caversham and West Swan, places like that. That was in about January and February we’d pick the grapes. And then later years when I left school, we used to go and dig potatoes down the southwest. We used to go down twice a year for that. In May, digging in the swampy country around Benger, you were up to your knees in mud trying to dig potatoes. In the summer months, we used to go down in October to Roelands, Brunswick Junction and Burekup and ‘cause they get the potatoes growing on the side of the hills more or less." (Corrie Bodney, oral history, 31 January 2007, 27 Corrie Bodney, conversation 17 April 2013. Cited in Cook 2016)

Extended Data

Source
Corrie Bodney, oral history, 31 January 2007, 27 Corrie Bodney, conversation 17 April 2013. Cited in Cook 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb998
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/396
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Swanbourne

Placename
Swanbourne
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.97303889
Longitude
115.7702194
Start Date
End Date

Description

"I was born in the bush off Alfred Road and what they call Narla Road now. It’s where the Swanbourne Primary School is now built. It was Crown land in that part of the country. We just camped all through it, and it’s been a camping ground for thousands of years, you know of Aboriginal people there." Corrie Bodney, oral history, 18 January 2007. "Our camp was made of scrubs and sticks and bits of tin we picked up off the land and there, old hessian bags and so on. Just a pair of old sticks put up and just sort of made us some sort of framework to put the other piece across in the forks. And just put the boughs across and made some kind of little bit of roof… So it was pretty rough, no beds, we slept on the sandy ground. We had some old blankets and stuff to keep us warm. You used to get some government blankets and rations I think from the Native Welfare Department. The tip used to be like a shopping centre where we’d go to get a lot of stuff…We had open fires for cooking. Mum used to make us dampers and stews. We used to come to Claremont to the fish and chip shop and buy all the fish bones and fish heads and soap." (Corrie Bodney, oral history,18th January 2007, cited in Cook, 2016).

Extended Data

Source
Corrie Bodney, oral history,18th January 2007, cited in Cook, 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb999
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/397
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18

Jolimont

Placename
Jolimont
Type
Other

Details

Latitude
-31.95255833
Longitude
115.7883194
Start Date
End Date

Description

In 1939, Judy used to walk with her grandmother from her home in Nicholson Road, Subiaco, across to the airfield, which is now part of McGillivray Oval, west of the camps. She remembered that there were no roads, it was all bush, with big trees. In the bush, they came across isolated camps, there was never anyone there. Some camps were tin humpies others were made from rags – stuff people had thrown out – resting on a framework of big sticks. The rag and stick camps were a curved shape, like a quarter of an apple resting on the ground. Judy Mitchell, conversation, 13 March 2013 Beryl Hoffman, oral history, September 27, 2012, 3I4, 36 cited in Cook, 2016)

Extended Data

Source
Judy Mitchell, conversation, 13 March 2013 Beryl Hoffman, oral history, September 27, 2012, 3I4, 36 cited in Cook, 2016

Sources

TLCMap ID
tb99a
Linkback
http://batchelorpress.com/node/398
Created At
2022-10-16 19:30:37
Updated At
2023-12-11 17:48:18
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