James Dawson (5 July 1806 – 19 April 1900) was a prominent champion of
Aboriginal interests. He was born at Bonnytoun,
Linlithgow
Linlithgow (; gd, Gleann Iucha, sco, Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a ...
, Scotland, the son of a
whisky distiller. He arrived in
Hobsons Bay
Hobsons Bay is a small open bay in Victoria, Australia, and is the northernmost part of the larger Port Phillip Bay. Its western and eastern boundaries are marked by Point Gellibrand in and Point Ormond in respectively, and defines the coas ...
,
Port Phillip
Port Phillip (Kulin languages, Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped bay#Types, enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, ...
, Australia on 2 May 1840 with his wife Joan Anderson Park, niece of
Mungo Park. He tried dairy farming in the
Yarra valley for a time but moved to broader pastures in the
Port Fairy
Port Fairy (historically known as Belfast) is a coastal town in south-western Victoria, Australia. It lies on the Princes Highway in the Shire of Moyne, west of Warrnambool and west of Melbourne, at the point where the Moyne River enters the S ...
district in 1844. For the next 22 years Dawson was in partnership in a cattle and sheep station, "Cox's Heifer Station" later named Kangatong, some 10 miles east of
Macarthur.
In 1866 he left the district and settled for a while near Melbourne, but later moved back to the
Camperdown area living at Wuurung Farm on the edge of
Lake Bullen Merri
Lake Bullen Merri and its smaller northern neighbour Lake Gnotuk are a pair of crater lakes near Camperdown in south western Victoria, Australia.
Lake Bullen Merri has brackish water quality whereas Lake Gnotuk is hyper saline (twice as salt ...
, where he became Local Guardian of the
Aborigines in 1876. In 1882, he returned from a trip home to Linlithgow to find that the last survivor of the
Djargurd Wurrung
The Djargurd Wurrong (also spelt Djargurd Wurrung) are Aboriginal Australian people of the Western district of the State of Victoria, and traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and Lake Corangamite.
Language
The Djargurd ...
, Wombeetch Puyuun, had died and was buried outside the Camperdown cemetery. After an unsuccessful appeal for public support to finance a memorial in the cemetery he had a granite obelisk erected at his own expense and had Wombeetch Puyuun's remains reburied at its foot. The obelisk has two dates, 1840 and 1883, which mark the mere 43 years it took for white settlement to displace the Djargurd wurrung from the Camperdown area.
James Dawson and his daughter,
Isabella Park Taylor (1843–1929), shared a deep interest in Aboriginal civilisation. They used their years at Kangatong to study the languages and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the volcanic plains, and to which in 1881, he published the work ''Australian aborigines: the languages and customs of several tribes of aborigines in the western district of Victoria, Australia'', and a second edition in 1900. He vigorously defended Aboriginal interests against government officials, politicians, his fellow squatters and others, a crusade that he kept up until his death in 1900 at Camperdown at the age of 93.
References
* Dawson, James. (1881). ''Australian Aborigines: The Languages and Customs of Several Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, Australia''. Robertson (reissued by
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 2009; )
* "Prehistory of Australia", published by Allen & Unwin in 1999, John Mulvaney & Johan Kamminga.
* West Lothian Courier, 2 June 1900, page 5.
* Camperdown Chronicle, 21 April 1900.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, James
1806 births
1900 deaths
Australian indigenous rights activists
People from Linlithgow
Scottish emigrants to colonial Australia