SWAN RIVER FAMILIES
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The families that came and passed on through those areas
was Bill and Lena Wallam
and they sons
John Thomas Wallam
Donald Alfred Wallam
Percy and Dough Wallam
Reg wallam

Old Lukey Wobber had a mia mia built
along the west side of Bennet Brook
he and his wife Edna Tomber
? yadan
Mercy Edwards
and Jimmy Farrell

Old Bonny Leyland
which is my mother’s brother
camped in that area

There was an old white lady
who tried to help the Aboriginal people in the camp days there
she was called Sister Ingram

there was an old weatherboard house that the white men built
she tried to look after some of the kids
but that fell through

the kids that she had under her care then
were Maggie Gentle and Irwin Gentle
and a lot of other kids
the Clarksons and the Parfits

But the whole of that area
along Bennett Brook is also where Daisy Bates
the old white woman
who came onto the scene
with her white race
looked after Aboriginal peoples
along the Hammersley property there

Where she camped
with the Blackfellas
More or less
trying to get information from them
for her own personal reasons
to put down in white man’s books

There was an old brick house there
Aboriginal families lived in there one after another
as far back as I can remember
Old Billy Womdine and Minnie
and they sons and daughters
Maitland whose dead
Cyril
Billy
Teresa and Mable

Then there was old Ted Wilkes and Enid
Before that was Barney and Joyce Clarkson
and they sons and daughters
Arnie
Eric
Thelma
Fanny
Sadie and Aggie

All up along that Bennet Brook
around grove and swamp
was the camping grounds
for all these grape pickers
in the seasonal grape seasons
in January and February

There’s old ? and Muriel ?
old Cecil Edgell
even old ?
Sam Dab and Bertha Morrison
sally Morrison
George Winmar
old Lola Morich
and her family used to live around there

So the area itself is
and the brook itself
is older than the swan river

And we still live on that Dreaming Track

Further up in the Caversham area
live Mable Moore and Jack Moore
and they sons and daughters
John Moore
Les Moore
Clara Moore
Cathleen Moore
John Moore the oldest son is still alive
Cathleen Moore the youngest girl is still alive
Clara’s dead and Les is dead

Also lived up in that area was
old Freddy ? and leia
and old man Jacobs
Les and his wive and their families
Tom Hill was there is dead
Pauline she’s dead
and the ? sister ? and her husband

So the whole of the valley
is full of Aboriginal existence
before the white man come
and after the white man come

You go further up the swan valley
to the Upper Swan
all the Egans and the Picketts
used to come from Northam and New Norcia
to do the grape seasonal pickings
all around the brick kilns
was the Hindiges and the Moodys and the Meads

So the whole of the Swan Valley
is full of the history of Aboriginal people
and this is where the Fringedwellers stop now
on the fringes of the town

Lockridge and Eden Hill
Eden Hill
before the houses was there
was all camps all around there

There was the Brophos and the Kicketts
and the Mortons and the Adelines
and the Nichols and the lot?
and the Dysons and the Corbets
and the Nettles

So the whole of the area is full of Aboriginal history
the Fringedwellers know
where the running springs used to be now
used to be
but they gone now
the fishtraps are still here
and all this history
the white man doesn’t want to recognise it

Where the Fringedwellers live now
used to be the pads
along the fences
where the blackfellas used to go
from the camps
down and across Bennett Brook
into the Caversham vinyard areas
to do their work

Tuppence and thripence and sixpence a bucket
pounds shillings and pence days
two shillings you could buy 4 loaves of bread
your bus fares would be sixpence
going to the pictures would be one and thripence
means 13 cents now
it used to be then

© Copyright Swan Valley Nyungah Community 1992, 2007

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