1950s

Birth of Sandra Lee. Her parents are Mavis and Ted Halvorson. Her grandmother is Martha Stubbings born in 1925.

Birth of Julie Janson in Boronia Park on the Lane Cove river, her father Neville Janson is known as Jedda.

Charles Lyon, born in Foster is living in Sydney with his wife Peggy in close contact with other activists including Bert Groves.

Birth of Auntie Sandra Lee nee Halvorsen, she marries Terry Lee in 1970.

Monty Stubbings recalls life in the Gully, “We in the Gully were regarded by the townsfolk like the moon. That’s how I think of it. You know how the moon is just there, you take it for granted? But you don’t really want to visit it as it’d involve a bit of fear. You like the moon don’t you? It’s just there and as long as long as there’s no trouble. It’s just there. We were separated but together. So far apart but so close. That’s how I see how the town regarded the Gully. They did their business with us and us with them but we were separate. “We didn’t roam about Katoomba like people here do now. We came to Katoomba for special needs, for food or to see somebody… And the older people went to a particular pub or the wine bar – and always we all took the same tracks in and out of the Gully… You went the same pathway through Katoomba. You didn’t roam about. Even though there were shops and things, you just kept to our tracks through Katoomba.” Johnson, p. 127.

A monument to the “Lost Tribes of the Hawkesbury” is raised at the site of the old Sackville Reserve, at the Public Recreation Reserve off Holes Drive, Sackville. The monument is soon forgotten, however, after blackberries surround it, and it is not re-discovered for decades.

Auntie Sharyn Halls and Ann McNally recall life in the Mountains: Sharyn: “…and when Dad made my brother Lenny and I not talk to any one of our relatives in the late 50s, that’s exactly what we did. We did not talk or have contact with anyone who had Aboriginal blood. It was dangerous and he knew that we could have been taken away… you just kept your mouth shut to protect your family and you denied everything. You watch, you listen and you learn. That’s what he said.” Ann, “Keep your mouth shut and act white that was his big thing. He was so particular. Even going to their place for dinner! I’d go there for dinner and even as an adult you’d get whacked over the knuckles if you had your elbows on the table or if you left the lid off something you had to do it all the proper way. He was fanatical about it.” Sharyn, “He was so particular about the way you ate, the way you dressed, the way you sat at the table. You had to be perfectly clean, dressed, everything, straight down the line.” Ann, “White! Acting white.” Johnson, p. 145.

Gordon Morton’s family leaves the homestead at Rooty Hill for St Mary’s. Soon after the place is demolished.

Aunty Ethel Cooper dies at the Gully.

Dennis Foley watches two children removed from Chester Hill North Primary school Video, ‘Children removed from Chester Hill North’

The Gully community at Katoomba is destroyed following the construction of a racetrack in the Upper Katoomba Falls Creek Valley. Johnson, p. 84. Many of the community from the Gully leave the Blue Mountains altogether. Video,‘Moving from the Gully’ and, ‘Uncle Llew’s house at the Gully’

Many of the track ways through Burragorang Valley are cut off by the inundation of the Burragorang Valley for Sydney’s water supply. The Koori community is forced to scatter in all directions.

Burragorang Valley people are affected by the dedication of the Blue Mountains National Park.