A vibrant tapestry of Coorong’s history with our handpicked and regularly updated Coorong Charters. These curated snapshots offer you a glimpse into the lives of past and present Coorong personalities who have left an indelible mark on the landscape.
From the stories of indigenous communities to the legacies of European settlers, environmental champions, and cultural icons, artist, each charter is a journey through time and culture. Celebrating the diverse and captivating stories of its people.
1. David Uniapon
Born at the Point McLeay Mission on the banks of Lake Alexandrina in the Coorong region of South Australia, Unaipon was the fourth of nine children of James and Nymbulda Ngunaitponi. Unaipon began his education at the age of seven at the Point McLeay Mission School and soon became known for his intelligence, with the former secretary of the Aborigines’ Friends’ Association stating in 1887: “I only wish the majority of white boys were as bright, intelligent, well-instructed and well-mannered, as the little fellow I am now taking charge of.”
Unaipon left school at 13 to work as a servant for C.B. Young in Adelaide where Young actively encouraged Unaipon’s interest in literature, philosophy, science and music. In 1890, he returned to Point Mcleay where he apprenticed to a bootmaker and was appointed as the mission organist. In the late 1890s he travelled to Adelaide but found that his colour was a bar to employment in his trade and instead took a job as storeman for an Adelaide bootmaker before returning to work as book-keeper in the Point McLeay store.
On 4 January 1902 he married Katherine Carter (née Sumner), a Tangane woman. He was later employed by the Aborigines’ Friends’ Association as a deputationer, in which role he travelled and preached widely in seeking support for the Point McLeay Mission. Unaipon retired from preaching in 1959 but continued working on his inventions into the 1960s.
Inventor
Unaipon took out provisional patents for 19 inventions but was unable to afford to get any of his inventions fully patented. His most successful invention (provisional patent 15 624), a shearing machine that converted curvilineal motion into the straight line movement which is the basis of modern mechanical shears, was introduced without Unaipon receiving any financial return and, apart from a 1910 newspaper report acknowledging him as the inventor, he received no credit.
Other inventions included a centrifugal motor, a multi-radial wheel and a mechanical propulsion device. He was also known as the Australian Leonardo da Vinci for his mechanical ideas, which included pre World War I drawings for a helicopter design based on the principle of the boomerang and his research into the polarisation of light and also spent much of his life attempting to achieve perpetual motion.
Writer and lecturer
Unaipon was obsessed with correct English and in speaking tended to use classical English rather than that in common usage. His written language followed the style of John Milton and John Bunyan.
Unaipon was inquisitively religious, believing in an equivalence of traditional Aboriginal and Christian spirituality. His employment with the Aborigines’ Friends’ Association collecting subscription money allowed him to travel widely. The travel brought him into contact with many intelligent people sympathetic with the cause of Aboriginal rights, and gave him the opportunity to lecture on Aboriginal culture and rights. Although he was much in demand as a public speaker he was often refused accommodation and refreshment due to his race.
Unaipon was the first Aboriginal writer to publish in English, the author of numerous articles in newspapers and magazines, including the Sydney Daily Telegraph, retelling traditional stories and arguing for the rights of Aborigines.
Some of Unaipon’s traditional Aboriginal stories were published in a 1930 book, Myths and Legends of the Australian Aboriginals, under the name of anthropologist William Ramsay Smith. They have recently been republished in their original form, under the author’s name, as Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines.
Other
Unaipon was a recognised authority on ballistics.
Unaipon was also a researcher and witness for the Bleakley Enquiry into Aboriginal Welfare and lobbied the Australian Government to take over responsibility for Aborigines from its constituent states.
In 1936, he was reported to be the first Aborigine to attend a levée, when he attended the South Australian centenary levée in Adelaide, an event that made international news.
Unaipon proposed to the government of South Australia to replace the office of Chief Protector of Aborigines with a responsible board. He was arrested for making an attempt to provide a separate territory for Aborigines in Central and Northern Australia.
Unaipon returned to his birthplace in his old age, where he worked on inventions and attempted to reveal the secret of perpetual motion. The last full-blooded member of the Portaulun (Waruwaldi) tribe, Unaipon died in the Tailem Bend Hospital on 7 February 1967 and was buried in the Raukkan (formerly Point McLeay) Mission Cemetery. He was survived by a son.
Legacy and tributes
An interpretive dance based on Unaipon’s life, Unaipon, was performed by the Bangarra Dance Theatre, while the David Unaipon Literary Award is an annual award presented for the best of writing of the year by unpublished Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors.
The David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of South Australia is named after him, as is Unaipon Avenue in the Canberra suburb of Ngunnawal.
Fifty-dollar note
An Australian $50 note featuring David Unaipon’s image.
The background features the Raukkan mission and Unaipon’s mechanical shearer.
Allan “Chirpy” Campbell, reported to be a great-nephew of David Unaipon, failed in an attempt to negotiate a settlement with the Reserve Bank of Australia for using an image of Mr Unaipon on the Australian $50 note without the permission of the family. Mr Campbell’s argument was that the woman (now deceased) originally consulted by the Reserve Bank was not related to Mr Unaipon.
2. The Birdman of the Coorong
John, Francis Peggotty was born in country Limerick in 1864. He was born a tiny baby and grew to be a very small adult with childlike features which he used to the disadvantage of his victims. For reasons unclear, John travelled to South Africa in his late teens where he learnt to manage and ride ostriches.
With the stature of a seven year old child riding atop an ostrich was of no effort to him or the bird. On his return to England Peggotty became a thief with a difference. Being so small he scampered down chimneys of the wealthy and stole jewellery – gold jewellery being his fancy. Eventually this trade caught up with him as he had a tendency to flaunt his ‘winnings’ by draping the lode over his body and parading around half naked.
He was labelled the most eccentric bushranger in the history of Australia as he was often seen stripped to the waist and wearing stolen gold jewellery whilst brandishing two ornamental pistols and riding an ostrich.
Peggotty was credited with more than a dozen hold-ups and murder of several travellers in the area before his career ended in September of 1899. A fisherman by the name of Henry Carmichael was less than impressed by being held-up by the diminutive, jewellery laden, ostrich rider and gave chase on his horse. He was a crack shot and had a long range rifle which wounded the rider and killed the ostrich.
By the time Carmichael reached the ostrich corpse the wounded Peggotty had scampered off leaving a thick trail of blood in the sand. He had made it to thick scrubland so Carmichael was not willing to pursue this armed man under cover. Peggotty had at least 2 bullets in his body and was bleeding profusely – Carmichael new that he would perish in the sand hills of the Coorong and so departed to report his impending death to the authorities. Peggotty’s body was never found, his bones still lie in the Coorong along with at least 1 million dollars’ worth of gold and jewellery.
3. Major Sumner
Major Sumner is a world renown performer and cultural ambassador of Ngarrindjeri arts, crafts, martial arts and traditional culture. His work spans performance, traditional dance and song, cultural advice, and arts and crafts, such as wood carving, and martial arts techniques using his handcrafted traditional shields, clubs, boomerangs and spears. He is a strong supporter of innovative art and has featured in many media productions and cultural collaborations.
In 2011, Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner crafted the first Ngarrindjeri bark canoe [Moogy’s Yuki] on Ngarrindjeri/ Boandik country in South East SA since over 100 years, reconnecting his communities with the traditional art of canoe-building, while using a high-tech cherry picker to get up the tree. He is constantly reminding his audience to consider that Ngarrindjeri culture is a living culture, spanning thousands of years.
In 2010 he initiated the inaugural Ringbalin Murrundi Rover Spirit project, reigniting the ceremonial fires along ancient trade routes of the Darling and Murray Rivers, which is continuing as an annual arts project. He was also a co-producer of the Ringbalin interactive project (2012).
Major Sumner lives and works in Adelaide and Camp Coorong, South Australia. He serves as a Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority board member, as a board member of Black Dance Australia, and as the artistic director of the Tal Kin Jeri dance group. His company performs regularly at festivals, events and community celebrations.
4. Ellen Trevorrow
Ellen Trevorrow is a world-renown artist and cultural weaver with over 35 years experience. Her woven works and sculptures are exhibited at events and galleries internationally [including the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of South Australia].
Thousands of individuals and groups have visited Camp Coorong and participated in her weaving and cultural storytelling workshops. Sharing her culture through weaving with the younger generations is a key focus for Ellen. She will utilize her artworks and stories as a part of her facilitation across the initiative.
Ellen Trevorrow lives and works on Ngarrindjeri country at Camp Coorong, a 10 minute drive east of Meningie, in South Australia. She is the manager of Camp Coorong, Centre for Cultural Education and Race Relations as part of the Ngarrindjeri Land And Progress Association. She also serves on the board of the Ngarrindjeri Regional Authority.
5. Damien Shen
Damien Shen is a South Australian man of Ngarrindjeri (Aboriginal) and Chinese descent. As an artist he draws on both of these powerful cultural influences to create works of intense personal meaning. In using his artistic talent to share his story he aims to open the eyes of viewers to new ways of seeing Australian identity and Aboriginal art.
Damien Shen constantly pushes his practice across different mediums. From time consuming, labor intensive drawings and paintings to bleeding watercolors, printmaking and photography, he is constantly constructing and deconstructing the world around him. Through this imagery he better understands his identity and the identity of those that help to shape the world he lives and the content remains relevant to contemporary Australian issues around race, history and politics.
In February 2016, Damien Shen was the winner of the Blake Prize (emerging category), December 2015, the winner of the Prospect Portraiture prize, and a finalist in the prestigious Whyalla Art Prize and Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award along with being hand-picked for the Art Gallery of South Australia’s Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art.
Damien Shen lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia.
6. Mark Koolmatrie
Munkanboli [ mun-kan-bol-ly ] — a First Nations figure of wisdom and knowledge.
A member of the Ngarrindjeri, our people comprise 18 distinct Lakinyeri (clans). My heritage is deeply rooted in the Ramindjeri, Yaralde, Meintangk, Warki, and Tangani Kukabrak Tribes. Our families are custodians of the Coorong region, the lower lakes of southern South Australia, the Fleurieu Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, and all their encompassing lands, waters, and cosmology.
Born in Meningie by Lake Albert, I relocated to Gum Park and Block K on Raukkan land in 1968. My foundational years were spent at Raukkan Aboriginal School, nestled by Lake Alexandrina — the heart of the Ngarrindjeri Nation. My pride in my heritage and the Raukkan Community has never wavered.
- Won State Landcare Award in Aboriginal Land Management Category 2021
- Won Bronze in 2021 TicSA Tourism Awards for South Australia
- Won Gold in 2022 TicSA Tourism Awards for South Australia
- Won Gold in 2023 TicSA Tourism Awards for South Australia
- Won National SEA Bizcover Award for Change Category in National Business Awards
7. Glen Hill
Glen is known in the region as The Wild Man of the Coorong because let’s face it, he IS wild! Coorong Wildside Tours offers a range of personalised experiences in the Coorong and they know the region like the back of their hand so they can even tailor a tour to your needs. I tried the Seafood and Seals tour but don’t expect a relaxing cruise with Glen. Glen is all about fun and giving his customers a raw and wild time on the water… I mean, I wasn’t expecting to be driving his boat, or doing donuts, but hey, C’est la vie!
Coorong Wildside Tours takes you to places where other boats can’t and that’s why they have such a great rep. Once you’ve had your fun on the water it’s lunch time and they sure do serve up an incredible seafood feast. Their Coorong Mullet Burgers and Salt and Pepper Carp were A-grade.
