1920s

All of the remaining Lock family have been forcibly removed from the Plumpton reserve.

All of the remaining Lock family have been forcibly removed from the Plumpton reserve.

The Gully continues to grow. An Australian Inland Mission (AIM) visitor reports there are 7 dwellings in the Gully.

Merv Cooper, a Gully resident born in 1916, remembers that in the Valley, “There were people, very dark people, who would come from different areas to my Grandmother’s home and camp around the area for a few days and during that time they would paint their faces. We were put to bed early and told not to come out, that the Hairy man would get us. We would hear chanting and the next morning they were all gone. There was a spot in the Upper Gully we were told not to go near as there were spirits there. As children we were very afraid. One day while picking blackberries, we saw a worn spot surrounded by thick scrub. We learned later on that it was a spot where corroborees were held.” Johnson, p. 113. Video, ‘The Old people of the Gully’

An Aboriginal woman from Trangie requires a pass to go to Sydney to look for her sick husband. Sometimes requests for travel are not granted by the Aboriginal Protection Board. Johnson, p. 134.

Bessie Lock born in Plumpton in 1907, is removed from Plumpton in 1923. Father unknown, mother deceased. She is sent away and returned to Sydney in 1928. One placement is 115 Kurraba Road, Neutral Bay. (Register of Wards, no. 336).

The Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association (AAPA) is seen in the public media. Its chief spokesman is Fred Maynard, a Hunter River Koori. Goodall, pp. 149-150.

The Universal Negro Improvement Association [UNIA] attracts many Koori members to it. Its founder was Marcus Garby. Maynard, p 29-31. The later AAPA treasurer promised support from 10,000 Koori people in NSW. Maynard.

Sydney newspapers accuse the Aboriginal Protection Board of hastening the disappearance of the Aboriginal girls by isolating the girls in the city. The arguments are that girls are unlikely to meet Aboriginal men and – it being unthinkable that they should marry white men – the result will be necessarily fewer Koori people. Goodall, p. 152.

Aboriginal Reserve no. 17023 (St Joseph’s Farm) in the Burragorang Valley is revoked. When the camp is closed, besides Salt Pan Creek and La Perouse, some people travel to the Cox’s River near the Wollondilly Junction and some go to the Gully at Katoomba.

Harold Hall remembers that Andy Barber was a member of the cast of the film “Fisher’s ghost” made in 1924. Andrew played the role of a Black tracker.

Three little children are removed by the Aboriginal Protection Board from the Gully. Johnson, p. 143. When families see the big black car coming down the street , they tell the children to run and hide in the bush.

Birth of Neville Walter Janson in Willoughby. His mother Ruby Reynolds is a descendant of Mary Ann Bartle and Mary Thomas from Freeman's Reach Darug family.

Martha Everingham dies at Tizzana Winery, Ebenezer. She is buried at the St Thomas Church Cemetery in Sackville Reach and not with other Koories in the Aboriginal burial ground behind Lilburn cottage near Sackville Reserve. She is reported to be ‘the last of the full-blood tribe’.(BDM NSW 18977/1926). She is 80 years old.

The Megalong Valley reserve is revoked.

Dorothy Maloney writes about the Milligan family of the Hawkesbury River, consisting of Eva Milligan, her four children, an aged grandfather and a disabled uncle. Their only regular income is a war pension. Maloney writes: ‘the little hut is quite unfit for such a family to live in. It is neither rain nor wind proof. The wind whistles through it and that the children have not died of Pneumonia or other similar diseases is remarkable evidence of the hardy-hood of the Australian people. Furniture, utensils, or ordinary comforts are conspicuously absent and the surroundings, taken as a whole, are complete evidence of the callousness of the Government regarding the welfare of the remnants of the original owners of this country. Maynard, p. 98.

Evidence suggests the Australian Aboriginal Progressive Association is hounded and harassed by the NSW police, acting on behalf of the Aborigines Protection Board. Maynard, p. 8. For white Australians, the most unsettling aspect of the Aborigines Progressive Association was the fact that it was led by a self-educated and well-educated Aboriginal man with a great command of both the spoken and written word. Maynard spoke and wrote passionately and insightfully about the injustices and atrocities committed against Aboriginal people. He spoke of things that many white people did not know or were not aware of, or simply did not want to know. Maynard, p 7.

Alfred Everingham and Sarah Lock have daughter Alethia Joan Everingham.

Birth of Mavis Jones, she marries Edward Halvorsen.

Death of Jerome Locke, a Black trooper. His mother was Jane Locke and father John Locke.