Ulgundahi Island is a heritage-listed Aboriginal site, formerly an occupational settlement, with ongoing usage as farmland and as a site of ongoing significance, at Clarence River by North Arm, Maclean, Clarence Valley Council, New South Wales, Australia. The property is owned by the Yaegl Local Aboriginal Land Council. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 24 December 2004.
History
Ulgundahi Island has been a site of occupation since 1880 when many Aboriginal people retreated to the island when Europeans had introduced diseases and the land had been taken up by European farms.
In 1904, a portion of Ulgundahi Island was gazetted as an Aboriginal reserve under the control of the Aboriginal Protection Board (APB) and in 1907 the whole of the island was included in the Reserve. The name Ulgundahi Island, is to have come from a Yaegl word meaning "shape of an ear". Several families already resided on the island and it was reported in 1904 that eight acres be set aside for a Reserve and that supplies of roofing iron and tanks should be delivered immediately. Concerns by European residents had been expressed about Aboriginal camps on the fringes of nearby townships and in 1908 the APB relocated families from Ashby onto Ulgundahi Island increasing the resident population to 60. In 1909, Aboriginal people from Harwood Island fled to Ulgundahi Island due to a European farmer burning down the camp of more than 40 bark dwellings.
The basis of settlement at the island was farming, each head of a family having an average of about three to four acres, while child endowment of 5/weekly was paid in respect of each child under the required age, and there was a scale of rations to the extent of 10/ weekly for those who need it, with two outfits of clothing and a blanket yearly for each person. The allocation of 3–4 acres to each family to cultivate for maize, cane and vegetables, no doubt to encourage industry any surplus produce could be sold.
Rations were supplied for children but not to adults as a rule. For any adult that wasn't able to earn sufficient, the following weekly ration was provided with a half a ration for each child: – Flour, 8 lbs; sugar, 2 lbs; jam 4oz; dripping, 8oz; potatoes, 2 lbs; onions, 8ozs; baking powder, 4ozs.
The APB provided clothes which were all the same, black trousers and blue shirts for boys and purple dresses for the girls and no shoes. Medicine was given by the Manager, regardless if it was needed or wanted, quinine, caster oil, cod liver oil and kerosine were some things given regularly.
In 1908, the APB appointed a European manager who was also to be the school teacher to Ulgundahi Island, who resided at Ashby and attended the island each day by boat. In the same year the Aboriginal Provisional School was established on the Island and other buildings included a building, outhouses and a tank. A number of children from the island attended the Maclean School and it was said that parents of European children attending the school objected to the Aboriginal children from Ulgundahi being allowed to go to the same school. There was very little taught to the children of the island.
In 1910 a small church was built by the residents of the island. A report in January 1921 states that Mr John Cameron paid the balance of funds needed and furnished the church. Until 1910 the minister Rev. Scott Neil visited the island regularly to take services. His sister took Sunday School classes and became involved with the welfare of the women and children. Other denominations became involved from time to time, especially the Baptists, Free Presbyterians and Salvation Army. An organ was later provided which was played by Mrs Blakeney.
The families were not compelled to remain on the island by the authorities, though with a hostile European society and the power of the manager to allocate an absent family residence to others, these were enough reasons as to what influenced people to remain on the island. There was conflict between isolation and assimilation as the children were trained only for employment for the white community as farm labourers for the boys or in domestic service for the girls.
Men would harvest the cane and take it to Harwood mill. Each home on the island had its own fruit - peaches, oranges, mangoes, passionfruit and grapes. Those who had vegetable gardens would pick and prepare them for the markets. Any money that was earned from the sales of either cane or vegetables all went back to the APB, never to the person who sold it. It was reported in 1911 by the APB that this goal had practically been achieved, with only one person in receipt of rations.