File 1: Photograph album relating to United Aborigines Mission, Ooldea, South Australia and Warburton Ranges, Western Australia, 1937-1942

PXA 7774/Box 1

file

1937-1942

Graphic Materials, Photographs

9680409

1 album (123 photographic prints)

Page 1
1. Official photo United Aborigines Mission, May 1937
2. Ration Shed. Our first home!
3. Home in relation to Mission
4. Our second home [corrugated tin shack]
5. Our second home [corrugated tin shack]

Page 2
1. Boys’ Bedroom!
2. Dining Room, Girls’ Bedroom at back
3. Original Ration Shed in background [group of children in foreground]
4. Home children [nine girls]
5. Dinner time
6. [Group of children]
7. Schoolchildren [with teacher Dora Wakerley]
8. Brush Shed. Church and Schoolroom

Page 3
1. Ooldea Siding. Tea & Sugar Train
2. Sandhills on way
3. Tea & Sugar Train. Waiting for Stores
4. [Sandhills]
5. Mission is 80ft down this sandhill
6. Young buck [young man with nasal bone piercing]

Page 4
1. Typical country
2. Putting in nose bone
3. Last ½ mile to Mission. All goods carted this way
4. The trailer [hand-drawn cart]
5. The Ooldea Soak. Crystal clear water
6. Tree planting
7. Two scallywags [two women]

Page 5
1. A daily chore [boy at hand wash basin]
2. A good day hunting [children with caught rabbits]
3. Toomoo [young girl]
4. Home girls
5. Our family / Children in our care: From L to R. Munyeera, Koonjilla, Toomoo, Queerda, Mona, Kungulla, Emeeary, Myra, Bangul, Helen, Mabel, Noorbing, Meeda, Lorna, May, Iona, Rubina, Hughie, Louie, Nandatharra, Mungatinna, Tommy, Colin, Mulla Budgeeda, Gooragadell, Minning, Mindinungoo, Ambing, Yargama, Illygilly, Wiljinungoo, Jimmy, John, Mundoo

Page 6
1. Off for a picnic on the Nullabor [children on back of a truck]
2. Mulla Budgeeda [young boy]
3. Family
4. Quondongs for jam making
5. Christmas frocks
6. Boys’ delight [boys with gym equipment]

Page 7
1. On the job [two boys milking a goat]
2. [Goats at watering trough]
3. [Watering trough] Our third home in background
4. Soa dug in our garden for children
5. Ningulla & Gooroodugell
6. Removing water pipe line used to supply engines on East West Rly [Railway]

Page 8
1. Washing day every day
2. All boards sawn from discarded railway sleepers [shed being built]
3. Blackstone kero engine used to saw up old sleepers bought at 6d each
4. Bearers were ½ sleepers strapped onto full sleepers in sand
5. Completed Girls’ Dormitory
6. The old buckboard. Harry holding it up

Page 9
1. [Group of Aboriginal children]
2. [Women and children]
3. Women bring babies & children from camp to have bath & change of clothing [woman and infant]
4. Women bring babies & children from camp to have bath & change of clothing [woman and infant]
5. [Large group of adults with children]
6. Waiting for rations [two women seated on ground]

Page 10
1. Well decorated [shirtless man before men’s ceremony]
2. Well decorated [man with body painted for men’s ceremony]
3. Bush cat (myee karnbee) [man with spear and woomera holding caught animal]
4. Corroboree dress [men decorated for ceremony]
5. [Two men applying body paint]
6. [Five men ready for ceremony]

Page 11
1. The well dressed man!
2. Note headgear! [young men ready for ceremony]
3. [Decorated ceremonial poles]
4. Note bugardee [bun] & feathers [dalyerba]. Fully initiated now

Page 12
1. Rabbit tails on whiskers [man wearing stockman’s gear with beard decorated for ceremony]
2. [Group of men prepared for ceremony]
3. Preparation
4. Spears 8ft or more [man with spear]
5. [Three men painted up for ceremony]
6. Dog corroboree [men posed in ceremonial dress]

Page 13
1. [Man showing chest scars]
2. Congoon [sleepy fellow]
3. [Man with body paint]
4. Those we met [woman seated with leg bandaged]

Page 14
1. Another sandstorm on the way. Everybody & everything smothered in sand. Note windmill
2. Spinifex
3. Sand storm on way
4. Blow hole near Ooldea
5. Harry & Violet [the camel]
6. Ungitarra [senior woman]
7. Kaditcha shoes, nose bones
8. [Men with camels]

Page 15
1. Young marrieds [two women with babies]
2. Home
3. Nose, fingers, feet eaten away by yaws
4. Home
5. In camp [women with dogs]
6. Camp children
7. The fattest baby ever
8. Munyeera [teenage girl]

Page 16
1-6. Supt’s house under construction
7. “Road” from Rly to Mission. Had to spinifex it to get over it
8. Bringing home a load of sleepers
9. Seeds in hair to keep off flies

Page 17
1. The Mission in 1942
2. Some snake [man with caught snake]
3. Bush cat [man with caught cat]
4. Home No. 3
5. Wedgetail eagle – 8ft6” wingspan; Kitchen of 3rd home in background
6. [Man seated, painted up for ceremony]

Page 18
1. [Group seated outside a camp humpy]
2. Ulcers [man seated with leg wounds]
3. Young bucks [two young men]
4. Home

Page19
1. [Group of men seated on ground]
2. Men of the tribe
3. Tribal markings [scarification of back and shoulders]
4. [Men of the tribe]

Page 20
1. This man was still alive when Harry found him. Deliberately left to die. He wanted one of our girls for wife but wrong kinship so speared and left in bush
2. [Man with upheld shield]
3. Leaving to locate sick man 3 miles away [Man on horseback]
4. [Senior Aboriginal man]
5. Two witch doctors

Page 21 (inside back cover)
1. [Man prepared for ceremony with spear, woomera and boomerang]
2. [Large group of children with hands in prayer]
3. [Six children]
4. [Woman in camp with children and dogs]

Restricted - This collection contains confidential, personal and/or culturally sensitive information: Access is mediated by the Indigenous Engagement Branch. Please complete an Ask-a-Librarian request
For access to this collection please submit your request through Ask a Librarian

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Titles from captions beneath photographs, unless indicated by square brackets

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are kindly advised that this collection includes images and names of people who have passed, and depictions of men’s ceremonies and funeral practices.

Some captions in the photograph album may reflect the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written, but are now considered inappropriate in today's context.

In pen on title page: 'United Aborigines Mission, Ooldea, S. Australia, May 1937-1938. Returned 1942, Ooldea - 427 miles west of Port Augusta, S.A. On to Warburton Ranges, W.A'.

Photographs were removed from their albums for conservation purposes in 2024.