Australian Dictionary of Biography

Bennelong, 1798?

National Library of Australia, 9353128

Bennelong (c. 1764–1813), Aboriginal conciliator and diplomat, was born into the Wangal clan of Sydney Harbour’s south-western shore. His father’s name may have been Goorah Goorah and his mother’s Gagulh. He had three sisters, Wariwear (b. c. 1767), Karangarang (b. c. 1770), and Worogan, and was known by five names: Wollarrebarre (Woollarawarre), Wogultrowe, Bannellon (Bennelong), Boinba, and Bundebunda. The last may have been a totem name, meaning hawk. Some of his other names may have been adopted from or conferred by others, the exchange of names being a common practice among his Countrymen and women, signalling respect and friendship. He had close kinship and language ties with the peoples from Georges River and Kamay (named Botany Bay by the British) in the south, northward across Sydney Harbour to Pittwater, and to Parramatta in the west.

Bennelong was around twenty-five years old when the British fleet captained by Arthur Phillip arrived in his Country, appearing first at Kamay before establishing a base at Warrane (named Sydney Cove by the British) on the southern shore of Port Jackson in January 1788. During the first decades of colonisation, Bennelong, while maintaining Country and family connections, laws, and business, negotiated a relationship with the British that made him one of the most well-known Aboriginal men of his generation. Yet few of the many references to him in colonial records convey much about his own perspective or place among his own people, leaving many unanswered questions.

The smallpox epidemic of April 1789 killed Bennelong’s first wife and many other Eora (the local word for people), including Arabanoo, who had been kidnapped by the colonists with the intention of using him as a mediator and translator. In this early period relations between the British and Eora were strained: the latter generally avoided the settlement and at the same time launched multiple attacks on convicts and British watercraft around the harbour and at Kamay.

Governor Phillip resolved to improve relations by forcibly bringing another Aboriginal man into the settlement as an envoy and interpreter. In November 1789 a British party travelled north to Manly where Bennelong was captured along with his older relative Colebee. They and many other Eora had travelled to Gamaragal (Cammeraygal) Country to partake in a whale feast. Offered two large fish from the colonists’ boat, they waded out to it and were violently seized and cuffed. The people on shore shouted in alarm and showered the boat with spears. Fire was returned by the colonists as they rapidly exited the cove with their two prisoners. It is not known whether either man had played a role in the skirmishes and unrest of the previous months.

After close to a month at the settlement, held under guard and in shackles, Colebee escaped. Bennelong, however, remained in captivity for six months, sharing information with the British and learning about them. He told the colonists that about one-half of his people from around the harbour had died of smallpox. From the colonists he learned about the British officer class and the governor himself. His role as an interlocutor was greatly enhanced by his linguistic proficiency and ability to translate between his own people and the colonists; indeed, the British commented on how quickly he learnt English while they struggled to learn his language. Many have speculated about whether Bennelong was prevented from leaving the settlement or chose to remain there, motivated by personal curiosity or for strategic reasons.

Bennelong left the settlement in May 1790 and avoided it for some months thereafter. During this time he established a relationship with Barangaroo, an older, self-possessed Gamaragal woman who commanded respect from her own and neighbouring clans and colonists alike; their daughter Dilboong died when only a few months old. Bennelong took a second wife in 1790, a much younger Gweagal (Geawegal) woman named Kurubarabula, possibly to settle a conflict between Wangal and Gweagal clans.

In September 1790 Bennelong played a part in one of the most intriguing episodes of the Eora’s early interaction with the colonists: he invited Governor Phillip to Manly and warmly greeted him while Willemerring, a karadji (clever man and healer) from Broken Bay, struck the governor with a spear. Interpretations of this incident and of Bennelong’s role in it have been lively and various—from a misunderstanding to an intentionally non-lethal payback for Arabanoo’s death and Colebee’s and Bennelong’s capture. While some see Bennelong’s role as that of a bystander whose attempt at diplomacy was hijacked for another purpose, others see him as having played the main orchestrating role.

Bennelong expressed concern for the governor’s health, later initiating a practice of regular visits to the settlement, especially Government House, in which clan members also participated. In this Bennelong can be seen as having initiated a shift in policy of the local First Nations groups. He maintained regular communication with Phillip, and the two men weathered multiple conflicts, largely damping down retaliatory responses and helping to steer the Eora and colonists along a pathway of mutual tolerance.

A small brick house was built for Bennelong at his request on the eastern point of Sydney Cove, now called Bennelong Point. He and Phillip exchanged names in a gesture of mutual respect: Bennelong gave Phillip one of his names, Woollarawarre, and took the name ‘governor’ for himself, using it occasionally. Such incidents have led historians to contrast Bennelong ‘the conciliator’ with the Bidjigal (Dharawal) man Pemulwuy (c. 1750–1802), who is cast as ‘the warrior’ for his role in resisting the British invasion, but the two men were not opposed; they spent time together at Bennelong Point where they may have discussed the impacts of the ongoing British presence on their clans and strategies for both adapting to and combating it. Over time they both used a mixed approach of conciliation and aggression.

Phillip returned to England in December 1792. Bennelong and his younger relative Yemmerawannie (c. 1775–1794) travelled with him, a result of Bennelong’s close relationship with Phillip. They were the first Aboriginal people known to have visited England. Unlike earlier travellers from the Americas and the Pacific, they were not treated as formal ambassadors; however, they visited theatres and had their portraits painted. Yemmerawannie became sick and died of respiratory disease while in England. After caring for him and administering last rites Bennelong waited alone to return home, spending several months aboard the Reliance before it set sail in early 1795. Surgeon John Hunter was concerned for Bennelong’s health, as he suffered from the cold, from homesickness, and from disappointment at the long delay.

When Bennelong finally reached home in September 1795, he found that his wife Kurubarabula had left him. He also found a more populous and rapidly expanding colony. Land grants proliferated along the Parramatta River and a land rush was in train along the Hawkesbury, heightening the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal peoples and Country. A year after his return, Bennelong dictated a letter to Mr Phillips, whom he had come to know in England. The text of the letter has been preserved and is known as the earliest piece of writing produced by an Aboriginal author. Bennelong included news of his wife’s leaving, announced his intention not to travel to England again, and stated that he was living at the governor’s house. He conveyed polite English greetings to Mrs Phillips, acknowledging her care for him when he was sick, and Lord Sydney, Governor Phillip’s patron, wishing them good health. Bennelong also made requests for gifts of stockings, shoes, and handkerchiefs, which he likely wanted to be able to give to other Aboriginal people to aid him in remaking relationships as he settled back in at home.

In the mid-1790s, perhaps during his absence, Bennelong’s own clan, the Wangal, had joined with the Burramattagal and Wallumedagal peoples, each having a shared role as custodians of the Parramatta River. They created a new settlement on Wallumedagal Country at Kissing Point, a shallow stretch of the river where boat keels ‘kissed’ the river mud. As the century turned, Bennelong married into this group, becoming a senior member and basing himself on the north side of Parramatta River.

Across the final decade of his life Bennelong appeared much less frequently in the records of the colony and was written about with less sympathy and curiosity: interest in Aboriginal people and customs was waning and writers in the colony could not comprehend why Bennelong, having travelled to England and gained competence in many aspects of British culture, had returned emphatically to his own people and way of life. He married for the fourth time: his new wife, Boorong, about twelve years younger than himself (c. 1777–c. 1813), was the sister of Bidgee Bidgee, a leader of the Burramattagal clan who were neighbours of Bennelong’s Wangal people. The bond consolidated relationships between these two long-associated river clans now based together at Kissing Point. The couple had a son, Digidigi (often called Dicky in the colonial records), in 1803.

Continuing his practice of visiting the colony and its leaders from time to time, Bennelong called on governors John Hunter, Philip Gidley King, William Bligh, and Lachlan Macquarie, though far less frequently than he had called on Phillip. He also maintained relationships with local colonists on the Parramatta River to help ensure a safe and durable place for his group at Kissing Point. Violent conflict occurred between Aboriginal groups and colonists around the Cumberland Plain across this time, but there are no records or indications that Bennelong was involved in these engagements, and it was perhaps a deliberate policy of his not to participate.

Bennelong’s involvement in several gatherings and payback rituals was recorded during this period, in which he both faced punishment himself, supported by others, including his long-time Gadigal associate Colebee; and played the role of punisher, making sure that Aboriginal Law was enacted. Such gatherings included participants from other coastal clans, including Gweagal, Kamaygal, and Gadigal peoples.

On 3 January 1813 Bennelong died. A Sydney Gazette notice the following week illustrated both his fame in the colony and how little he had conformed to British expectations: despite the colonists’ ‘kindest’ efforts to ‘civilise’ him, it was reported that he remained a ‘thorough savage, not to be warped from the form and character that nature gave him’ (Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser 1813, 2). This understanding of Bennelong, as a man who showed great promise but then fell from grace, has tinted—and tainted—many subsequent biographies.

Some three months after Bennelong’s death a large commemorative battle was staged in his honour. About two hundred Aboriginal men gathered to exchange flurries of spears, encouraged by many Aboriginal women and children. That so many participated suggests that Bennelong succeeded in his own life’s mission, which, it seems, was to preserve and remain embedded in kin networks.

Bennelong was buried in James Squire’s orchard at Kissing Point. His fourth wife Boorong, who also died in 1813, was buried alongside him, as was Nanbarree, a younger member of the neighbouring Gadigal clan, following his death in 1821. Into the 1820s Bennelong’s grave was visited by Bidgee Bidgee, who continued as a leader of the conglomerate clan Bennelong had helped to bring together on the Parramatta River. Bennelong and Boorong’s son Digidigi, who was nine years old when Bennelong died, married Dharug woman Maria Lock and continued as a spokesman for Aboriginal people until his own death in 1823. The electoral division of Bennelong was created in 1949. Several significant sites in Sydney, including Bennelong Point (the site of the Sydney Opera House), Bennelong Park, and Bennelong Bridge (opened in 2016), also bear his name.

Emma Dortins is a person of European descent. She was living on Gadigal Country when she wrote this biography.