Jackey Jackey (also spelt Jacky Jacky) (c. 1833–1854), Aboriginal name Galmahra (or Galmarra), was the

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia 50,000 to 65,000 year ...

guide and companion to surveyor

Edmund Kennedy Edmund Besley Court Kennedy J. P. (5 September 1818 – December 1848) was an explorer in Australia in the mid-19th century. He was the Assistant-Surveyor of New South Wales, working with Thomas Mitchell (explorer), Sir Thomas Mitchell. Kenned ...

. He survived Kennedy's fatal 1848 expedition into

Cape York Peninsula The Cape York Peninsula is a peninsula located in Far North Queensland, Australia. It is the largest wilderness in northern Australia.Mittermeier, R.E. et al. (2002). Wilderness: Earth's last wild places. Mexico City: Agrupación Sierra Madre, ...

(in present-day

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

) and was subsequently formally recognized for heroic deeds by the

Colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...

in words engraved on a solid

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

breastplate A breastplate or chestplate is a device worn over the torso to protect it from injury, as an item of religious significance, or as an item of status. European In medieval weaponry, the breastplate is the front portion of plate armour covering th ...

gorget A gorget ( ; ) was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the English medieval clothing, medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon (headgear), chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather Collar (c ...

, which read as follows:

Presented by His Excellency Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy K.D. Governor of
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, to Jackey Jackey, an Aboriginal native of that colony. In testimony of the fidelity with which he followed the late Assistant Surveyor E.B.C. Kennedy, throughout the exploration of York Peninsula in the year 1848; the noble daring with which he supported that lamented gentleman, when mortally wounded by the Natives of Escape River, the courage with which after having affectionately tended the last moments of his Master, he made his way through hostile Tribes and an unknown Country, to Cape York; and finally the unexampled sagacity with which he conducted the succour that there awaited the Expedition to the rescue of the other survivors of it, who had been left at Shelbourne Bay.

In the 1970s Australian school textbooks, such as

Margaret Paice Margaret Dawn Paice (1 September 1920 – 19 November 2016) was an Australian children's writer, commercial artist and book illustrator. Early life and education Margaret Dawn Cantle was born in Brisbane, Australia on 1 September 1920, daugh ...

's ''Jackey Jackey'', were published recording Jackey Jackey's life and achievements:

To the people of his tribe he was Galmarra, the Songman; to the men of the ill-fated Kennedy expedition he was Jackey Jackey, the young Aborigine. This slightly built teenager was to be their strength as they faced the mangrove swamps and tropical jungles.

The name "Jackey Jackey" since entered general Australian and Aboriginal Australian

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

For whites it was a generic dismissive, denying blacks their individuality and hence their dignity. To blacks it meant a collaborator, the subservient native complicit in his own people's dispossession.

Biographical details

As a young man, Galmahra seems to have grown up and lived at Jerrys Plains near

Muswellbrook, New South Wales Muswellbrook ( ) is a town in the Upper Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney and north-west of Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle. Geologically, Muswellbrook is situated in the northern parts of the Sydney bas ...

, most likely as a member of the local Australian Aboriginal nation:Beale, Edgar (1967) ' Jackey Jackey ( - 1854)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press
Online Edition accessed 9 May 2010 the

Wonnarua The Wonnarua people, otherwise written Wanarruwa, are a group of Aboriginal Australian people united by strong ties of kinship, and who survived in family groups or clans scattered along the inland area of what is now known as the Upper Hunter ...

. Tindale, Norman (1974) Online Portion of Map of Australian Aboriginal 'Tribal' Boundaries including "Wonnarua' (NSW)
Accessed 15 May 2010 In April 1848, still a young man, Galmahra was asked to accompany and help guide Assistant Surveyor

and team (including botanist William CarronCarron, William (1849) "Narrative of an expedition undertaken under the direction of the late Mr. Assistant Surveyor E. B. Kennedy, for the exploration of the country lying between Rockingham Bay and Cape York;, one of the survivors of the expedition"
Accessed 8 May 2010) on an expedition through unknown country heading up into

. On that expedition Galmahra proved his value (including bush skills) and turned out to be a loyal and resilient member of the expedition upon whom Edmund Kennedy increasingly relied until he died, speared by

Yadhaykenu The Yadhaykenu, otherwise known as the ''Jathaikana'' or ''Yadhaigana,'' are an Aboriginal Australian tribe of northern Queensland. The name appears to be an exonym from the Western and Central Torres Strait (Kalau Lagau Ya) yadaigal (Kaurareg d ...

(a.k.a. Jathaikana) people in the northern Peninsula area (December 1848), somewhere near the Escape River. Following an inquiry into Edmund Kennedy and other expedition members deaths, Galmahra became more generally known to the colony of New South Wales as Jackey Jackey: an

to be honoured for his loyalty, heroic deeds, and general assistance to the expedition.Sydney Morning Herald (7 March 1849) "Correspondence: Jackey Jackey"
Accessed 10 May 2010 By March 1849 a

lithographic Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

of 'Jackey Jackey' had been produced for sale,Prints and printmaking Australia Asia Pacific, ''Jacky Jacky'' (lithographic portrait by Charles Rodius) online database entry
Accessed 16 May 2010 and by the beginning of 1851 the Governor of New South Wales had presented him with a specially made, pure silver breastplate (see above) plus a £50 bank account

gratuity A gratuity (often called a tip) is a sum of money customarily given by a customer to certain service sector workers such as hospitality for the service they have performed, in addition to the basic price of the service. Tips and their amount ar ...

.Sydney Morning Herald (31 December 1850) "Jackey Jackey" (regarding Silver breastplate)"
Accessed 10 May 2010 Galmahra never wore the breastplate, never accessed the £50 bank account, and did not seem to have otherwise been fully engaged or employed by the colony. Instead he gained a reputation for enjoying his alcohol and, in 1854, after drinking too much during an overland journey to

Albury, New South Wales Albury (; ) is a major regional city that is located in the Murray River, Murray region of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of the twin city of Albury–Wodonga, Albury-Wodonga and is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of ...

, fell into a campfire and died.

Online newspaper articles

* * * *

Places named after Jackey Jackey

* Jackey Jackey Creek (also known as Jacky Jacky Creek), near

Bamaga Bamaga ( , ) is an Indigneous town and locality about from the northern tip of Cape York in the north of Queensland, Australia. It is within the Northern Peninsula Area Region. It is one of the northernmost settlements in continental Australi ...

, Queensland * Jacky Jacky Range,

Shire of Cook The Shire of Cook (The Shire) is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Australia. The Shire covers most of the eastern and central parts of Cape York Peninsula, the most northerly section of the Australian mainland. It covers an area ...

, Queensland * Jackey Jackey Airfield, near Bamaga, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, where there is a monument commemorating himJackey Jackey
monumentaustralia.org.au. Retrieved 6 July 2024. * Galmarra Street,

Ngunnawal, Australian Capital Territory Ngunnawal () is a suburb in the district of Gungahlin in Canberra, Australia. The suburb is named in tribute to the Ngunnawal people, the original inhabitants of the area. The suburb was gazetted on 24 April 1992. Ngunnawal is adjacent to the su ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackey, Jackey Explorers of Australia 1830s births 1854 deaths History of Australia (1788–1850) Indigenous Australian guides

Biographical details

Online newspaper articles

Places named after Jackey Jackey

See also

References

External links