posted on 2024-11-18, 15:02authored byMichael Organ
The following compilation of historical manuscript and published material relating to the Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines for the approximate period 1770 to 1900 aims to supplement that contained in the author's Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770- 1850 (Wollongong University, 1990). The latter was compiled in a relatively short 18 month period between 1988 and 1989, and since then a great deal of new material has been discovered, with more undoubtedly yet to be unearthed of relevance to this study. As a result the present document contains material of a similar nature to that in the 1990 work, with an added emphasis on items from the period 1850 to 1900. Also included are bibliographic references which bring up to date those contained in the previous work. All told, some 1000 pages of primary sources and references to published works are now available on the Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines for the approximate period 1770 to 1900, though an attempt has been made to include items from this century which outline some of the history of the central Illawarra and Shoalhaven Aboriginal communities. Important documents reproduced in this volume included blanket issue returns from the period 1827-30; index entries concerning Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines taken from the Colonial Secretary's Correspondence and Aboriginal Protection Board files at the Archives Office of New South Wales, covering the period 1868-1900; 1820s material from the Alexander Berry Papers (Mitchell Library), including references to his collecting of Aboriginal skulls; dreaming stories from various sources; reports of the Lake Illawarra Aboriginal Mission from the turn of the century; and references to the Coomaditchie Reserve at Port Kembla, which survives to this day. References to numerous published and unpublished archaeological reports are also included. An alphabetical listing of over 2100 Illawarra and Shoalhaven Aboriginal words compiled from historic references is included as an appendix.
History
Citation
This report was originally published as Organ, MK, Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines, 1770-1900, Report to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Canberra, 1 December 1993, 348p. This is volume 2. The original volume Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1850 (University of Wollongong 1990) is available here: http://ro.uow.edu.au/uowbooks/7/