Our Ancestors

Family groups

The Waywurru people had strong and enduring kinship connections on-country. Even after the introduction of Aboriginal Reserves in the 1860s, those who had been (re)moved (sometimes forcibly) to Reserves or Missions, continued to maintain relationships with kin not only within the Reserve system, but also with kin who remained on-country. Waywurru people in the Reserve system communicated with kin via letters, and some returned to country as circumstances permitted. These historical connections of people to each other and to Waywurru country defines Waywurru today.

We are continually learning more about our ancestors. These are some of our Waywurru ancestors, many of whom were born prior to European invasion.

(‘Bonkambia’ or ‘Ponkambia’ is a Waywurru word for ‘Chief’.)

Bonkambia (King) Brangy and Queen ‘Big’ Mary of the Ovens River

King Brangy (d.1882) was King of the Ovens River people, and was principally associated with the Oxley Flats-Milawa-Whorouly area. This family included King Brangy and Big Mary’s four daughters, Mary (Maryann) Brangy (married name Barber), Kitty Brangy (married names Abbott, Friday), Amelia Brangy, and Edith (Eda, Ada) Brangy (married name Davis). It also included Mary Jane Milawa, who was originally from Benalla and was Big Mary’s sister.

Bonkambia (King) Billy Elangeit and Queen Mary of Barwidgee

King Billy was Bonkamia of the Barwidgee area, which in historical context is the Mudgegonga area. This family included King Billy and Mary’s grand-daughter Maggie Stone McDonald (married name Margaret Nelson, aka ‘Granny Mag’) from their daughter Mary Jane, who died in childbirth at Kiewa. Merriman (Minnup), a self-described Pallangan-middang man, whose country was Murmungee, was reportedly King Billy’s son. Merriman was said to have participated in the Faithfull Massacre of 1838.

This family travelled with an extended kinship group which also included Dhudhuroa man Neddy Wheeler and his wife Charlotte (who may have been born at Chiltern); and also Neddy Mitchell, who adopted his surname from the local Mitchell family of squatters associated with Tangambalanga and other nearby stations.

In the late 1850s, this group was known to corroboree on an annual basis in Beechworth. They were photographed in Yackandandah in 1869/70 by Thomas Washbourne.

In 1873, King Billy and Queen Mary’s grand-daughter Maggie Stone McDonald was picked with children from Wangaratta and Yackandandah, including with Ada and Amelia Brangy, Tommy Smythe (see below), Jenny McCulloch (see below) and two others, and removed to Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve at Healesville. The sadness this caused was so great it was said to have killed Queen Big Mary Brangy.

Bomkambia (King) Billy Koogaroo and Queen Emily

Bonkamia Koogaroo King Billy (b. c. 1821-d.1876) and Queen Emily were known to camp at Tangambalanga and Oxley (where King Billy died near the Oxley Flats Road). Queen Emily was recorded as presiding over a corroboree in Wangaratta in 1877 after her husband was only recently deceased, where Tommy Reid, Wellington (Old Wellington) and Charlie Rose were also present. Bomkambia Koogaroo is often confused with the older King Billy of Barwidgee.

Tommy Reid and Lydia Beaton

Tommy Reid adopted the surname of local squatting family Reid, who had stations at Carraragarmungee (which had its ‘head station’ at present-day Tarrawingee) and at Yackandandah. Tommy Reid’s family also included Tommy’s niece, Lydia Beaton (de facto name Edmunds, married name Briggs, b. c.1851-d.1885). Lydia was recorded on her marriage certificate (to John Briggs) as having been born in Beechworth. Her parents were mother Mary and father Tom Beaton (listed as Aborigines on Lydia’s marriage certificate to John Briggs). Lydia’s father was possibly the same man as ‘Beaton,’ who worked on David Reid’s Yackandandah (‘Mill End’) station. Meanwhile, Tommy Reid may have also been related to (or associated with) Fanny Reid, who was known at Wangaratta.

John Pierce Jnr

John Pierce (Junior), (b.1841-d.1877), was born at Albury to Mary from the King River, and stock-hand father John Pierce, who at the time of John Junior’s birth worked on Mungabareena Station. ( John Pierce Senior also had a ‘legitimate’ non-first nations son called John Pierce). Although born at Mungabareena, John Pierce Junior lived almost his entire life between Tarrawingee (where he married Mary Elizabeth Hart at Reidsdale in 1860) and the King Valley, where he worked as a stock-keeper on McCartney’s Oxley station, and on Dominick Farrell’s Edi station. His children were William, Millicent ‘Ellen’, Mary Emily, Alice Elizabeth and John and Thomas Hart.

John Pierce Junior is listed in the Victorian Police Gazette of 1876 as an ‘associate’ in cattle thieving of the ‘Johnstons, Guinns [ie: Quinns] and Kellys, notorious cattle stealers’ (of Ned Kelly fame).

Paddy Swift

Paddy Swift was born at Oxley between 1842-48, and died on Ournie station, NSW in 1922. Although having converted to Evangelical Christianity at Rev. Matthews’ Warangesda mission in the 1880s, Paddy also worked as a horse trainer, training steeple-chasers on Ournie station (backed by station owners the Chenery brothers). In a newspaper article in 1887, Paddy is recorded by the journalist as being from the ‘Nanga’ tribe of Oxley. This reportage has been construed by modern academics as ‘Pangerang’, although his place of birth suggests that his ‘tribe’ was the Waywurru local group of ‘Pallanganmiddang’. Paddy Swift states his mother’s name as Kate (Kitty) Brangy on his marriage certificate to Emily Manager in 1896. Even though he and Kate were about the same age, this still suggests a kinship tie with the Brangy family of Oxley.

Tommy and Jenny Bond

Tommy Bond (aka Bundoway, d.1881) and his wife Jenny (d.1882) spent their last days on Malloney’s Creek, Oxley. (Their surname Bond was probably adopted from the early store keeper named Bond at Wangaratta, or possibly William Carpenter Bond who served as district pound keeper in Benalla and was on good terms with local first nations people.) Jenny was a niece of Tommy Smythe (b. c. 1843-8), whose surname was probably adopted from the Commission of Crown Lands who resided at Benalla in the 1840s, Henry Wilson Hutchinson Smythe. Tommy and Jenny Bond also cared for Old Yarry/Blind Yerry prior to his death at Tarrawingee in 1880.

Please note: All information is believed to be correct at the time of publication, and can be referenced to primary historical documents. It has been compiled by Megan Carter and Jacqui Durrant.