Thomas Dunolly (1856–1923) was an early

Indigenous Australia Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

n rights activist. He was a member of the

Dja Dja Wurrung The Djadjawurrung or Dja Dja Wurrung, also known as the Djaara or Jajowrong people and Loddon River tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people who are the traditional owners of lands including the water catchment areas of the Loddon and Avoca ...

people. The surname Dunolly is the name of the township where he was born. Dunolly attended the Aboriginal school at Franklinford before being forcibly resettled at

Coranderrk Coranderrk was an Aboriginal reserve run by the Victorian government between 1863 and 1924, located around north-east of Melbourne. The residents were mainly of the Woiwurrung, Bunurong and Taungurung peoples, and the first inhabitants chose ...

Reserve in 1864. In the 1880s he played an important part in the first organised protests by aborigines in the campaign to save Coranderrk.Bain Attwood, pp37-45, ''My Country. A history of the Djadja Wurrung 1837-1864'', Monash Publications in History:25, 1999, As Dunolly was younger with more literacy skills than

William Barak William Barak ( March 1823 – 15 August 1903), named Beruk by his parents, the "last chief of the Yarra Yarra tribe", was the last traditional ngurungaeta (elder) of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, the pre-colonial inhabitants of present-day Melbo ...

and the other protest leaders, he acted as principal scribe for the protests which included writing letters to newspapers, petitions, statements of evidence and letters to bureaucrats and politicians.Bain Attwood, pp. 18–19, ''Rights for Aborigines'',

Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...

, 2003, Despite the protests the 1886 Aborigines Protection Act, commonly called the

Half-caste act ''Half-Caste Act'' was the common name given to Acts of Parliament passed in the colony of Victoria (''Aboriginal Protection Act 1886'') and the colony of Western Australia (''Aborigines Protection Act 1886'') in 1886. They became the model fo ...

, was enacted which banned children of mixed parentage and over 13 years from living on stations and reserves and imposed stricter controls on those allowed to remain. This split many families and decimated the workforce of Coranderrk, which allowed the Board for the Protection of Aborigines to push further for the closure of Coranderrk, finally succeeding on 31 January 1924.

References

External links

Thomas Dunolly letter, 17 November 1881
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Museum Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation that includes a number of museums and related bodies in Melbourne. These include Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum, Scienceworks (Melbourne), Scienceworks, IMAX Melbourne, a research institute, the UNESCO W ...

online Encounters - Coranderrk {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunolly, Thomas 1856 births 1923 deaths Australian Indigenous rights activists Dja Dja Wurrung People from the Colony of Victoria