Lake Condah Mission, also known as Condah Mission, was established in 1867 as a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

mission, approximately from

Lake Condah Lake Condah, also known by its Gunditjmara name Tae Rak, is in the Australian state of Victoria, about west of Melbourne and north-east of Heywood by road. It is in the form of a shallow basin, about in length and wide. The lake is locate ...

, which was traditionally known as Tae Rak, and about to south-east of the small town of

Condah Condah is a small town in south west Victoria, Australia and is located on the Henty Highway north of Heywood. At the 2006 census, Condah and the surrounding area had a population of 272. It is about to north-west of Lake Condah, Budj Bim Na ...

. The site of the

mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

, on north of

Darlot Creek Darlot Creek, also known as Darlots Creek or Darlot's Creek, arises in Lake Condah in south-western Victoria, flows through the wetlands in the Budj Bim heritage areas, past the site of the Lake Condah Mission, and joins the Fitzroy River at the ...

, was formally reserved in 1869, and the Mission continued operations until the

reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US vi ...

was finally revoked in 1951, with most of the land handed over to the

Soldiers Settlement Scheme Soldier settlement was the settlement of land throughout parts of Australia by returning discharged soldiers under soldier settlement schemes administered by state governments after World War I and World War II. The post-World War II settlemen ...

to provide land for white veterans of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The area had been home to the Kerrup Jmara people, a clan of the

Gunditjmara The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their ...

. The Mission lands were returned to the Gunditjmara on 1 January 1987. The Mission was mentioned in the '' Bringing Them Home Report'' (1997) as an institution that housed

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

children removed from their families. It is now part of several

Budj Bim heritage areas Budj Bim heritage areas includes several protected areas in Victoria, Australia, the largest two being Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape and the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape. Within the latter, there are three Indigenous Protected Areas: the ...

, including the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape inscribed on the

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNES ...

Lake Condah

The Kerrup-Jmara ("people of the lake") are a clan of Gunditjmara Aboriginal people, who lived around the shores of the lake, then known as Tae Rak, for thousands of years pre-dating the arrival of Europeans, and had specific responsibility for it. See also attached documents: National Heritage List ''Location and Boundary Map'', and ''Government Gazette'', 20 July 2004. Lake Condah had first been happened upon by European settlers in 1841, when David Edgar and William Thompson Edgar were travelling through the area. Edgar gave it the name Lake Condon. Anglican pastoralist Cecil Pybus Cooke, who in 1849 acquired Lake Condah station, had changed the name of Lake Condon to Lake Condah in the mistaken belief that it meant "

black swan The black swan (''Cygnus atratus'') is a large waterbird, a species of swan which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. Within Australia, the black swan is nomadic, with erratic migration patterns dependent upon c ...

", which lived on the lake. The Gunditjmara people were driven off their lands by the new settlers, and some were relocated to the Mission, although not without resistance, in the

Eumeralla Wars The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District area of south west Victoria. The wars are named after the region ...

1867: Establishment

Cooke had good relations with the local Gunditjmara people, which was partly why the land was selected by the Anglican Mission board for an Aboriginal mission. Cooke donated the land and £2,000 for the construction of an Anglican church, with the rest of the land ( initially, but reduced to ), handed over by the government in 1867. The site, on north of Darlot Creek, was formally reserved in 1869, the same year that the

Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines Aboriginal Protection Board, also known as Aborigines Protection Board, Board for the Protection of Aborigines, Aborigines Welfare Board (and in later sources, incorrectly as Aboriginal Welfare Board), and similar names, refers to a number of hi ...

was created by the ''

Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 The ''Aboriginal Protection Act 1869'' was an Act of the colony of Victoria, Australia that established the Victorian Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines, to replace the Central Board Appointed to Watch Over the Interests of the Abo ...

''. The location of the buildings was about west of Lake Condah, off the Condah Estate Road. The mission was overseen by the various incarnations of the Victorian Central Board Appointed to Watch Over the Interests of Aborigines (1860–1869), Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines, Colony of Victoria (1869–1900) and the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines, State Government of Victoria (1901–1957). The first missionary appointed to run the mission was Job Francis, a former Moravian missionary, who was appointed to oversee the removal of the inhabitants of the

Framlingham Framlingham is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Suffolk, England. Of Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon origin, it appears in the 1086 Domesday Book. The parish had a population of 3,342 at the 2011 Census and an estimated 4, ...

Mission, most of whom, however, refused to move or moved and then returned to Framlingham. After a few changes of superintendent, another former Moravian missionary, Heinrich Stähle, took over in April 1875. He was considered a disciplinarian (and therefore a good superintendent), who kept the residents under strict control. He refused to allow them to work on neighbouring farms; he would not permit family members to move onto the Mission; and he considered rations as a reward rather than a right. The residents used grasses to make fish traps in order to supplement their diet. The mission language was English, and use of

Aboriginal languages Aboriginal language may refer to: * Indigenous language * Australian Aboriginal languages * Taiwanese aboriginal languages * Indigenous languages of the Americas * Aboriginal Malay languages The Malayic languages are a branch of the Malayo-P ...

was frowned upon. Annual reports reveal that deaths outnumbered births at the mission; by 1905 the number of children was so low that the school was reduced to part-time operation. There was a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

cottage and kitchen,

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

, children's

dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

and storage building. A number of the buildings were

weatherboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of these terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'' in modern Americ ...

, but local

bluestone Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including: * basalt in Victoria, Australia, and in New Zealand * dolerites in Tasmania, Australia; and in Britain (including Stonehenge) * felds ...

(

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

) was also used build the houses, and the church (from 1883–1885). The church was named St Mary's, and consecrated by

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

Bishop Thornton in 1885. There were 26 buildings in total, with cultivated. By 1871 there were about 80 residents, and by the late 1880s about 120.

1886: The ''Half-Caste Act''

In 1886 the so-called '' Half-Caste Act 1886'' was passed, which provided for the removal of "

half-caste Half-caste (an offensive term for the offspring of parents of different racial groups or cultures) is a term used for individuals of multiracial descent. It is derived from the term '' caste'', which comes from the Latin ''castus'', meaning p ...

" (part-European) Aboriginal people from reserves. The ''

Aborigines Act 1910 Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: * Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

'' rescinded that decision, and many people returned. In March 1898, the Church Mission Society handed over ownership of Lake Condah and

Lake Tyers Mission Lake Tyers Mission, also known as Bung Yarnda, was an Aboriginal mission established in 1863 on the shore of Lake Tyers in Victoria‘s Gippsland, region as a centralised location for Aboriginal people from around Victoria. History The Lake T ...

s to the Church Missionary Association. Government-appointed school teachers taught at the mission. After Stähle retired in 1913, an army captain acted as superintendent, before the mission closed at the end of 1918. Many residents of the mission responded to the call for volunteers for

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and at least eighteen young men died in service; however, upon the surviving veterans' return, their requests for land were refused. The last residents were transferred to Lake Tyers apart from four elderly people, who were allowed to remain under the supervision of the local police constable. The residents' request for the land to be handed over to them for farming was refused, and blocks of land were sold to

hite Hite or HITE may refer to: *HiteJinro, a South Korean brewery **Hite Brewery *Hite (surname) *Hite, California, former name of Hite Cove, California *Hite, Utah, a ghost town * HITE, an industrial estate in Pakistan See also *''Hite v. Fairfax ...

soldier settlers. Former residents living in the area continued to attend the church and send their children to the mission school, which continued to operate until June 1948.

1950–51: Closure

In 1950 it was decided that the Mission would close, and the church and other facilities were destroyed to facilitate this. According to Noel Learmonth's ''Four Towns and a Survey'': "Condah Mission Station Church, 1885. Destroyed 1950. Stones used to enlarge Church of England

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

and to pave cowyards". Other sources say that the church was demolished in 1957. The government wanted the Aboriginal people to move to the local towns of Hamilton,

Warrnambool Warrnambool ( Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Al ...

, Heywood and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

; however some Gunditjmara people continued to live in the area until the late 1950s, mostly living off the land, catching fish and hunting for rabbits and other animals, which were sometimes sold. In 1951, the reserve, with the exception of three small areas – the cemetery, the access road to it and an area of comprising the mission buildings – was revoked and the land was handed over to the Soldiers Settlement Commission. The Gunditjmara who had served in the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

during

were excluded from the claims for land – a repeat of what happened after World War I. These 43 acres were all that the people had left of the originally allocated 83 years earlier by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, as compensation for the loss of their traditional lands.

1987: Return of the land

The mission lands were returned to Gunditjmara people, specifically the Kerrup-Jmara Elders Aboriginal Corporation, on 1 January 1987, following the ''

Aboriginal Land (Lake Condah and Framlingham Forest) Act 1987 Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: * Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

'', when the former reserve was vested to the Kerrup Jmara Elders Corporation. The transfer included "full management, control and enjoyment by the Kerrup-Jmara Elders Aboriginal Corporation of the land granted to it". The National Parks service and the Kerrup-Jmara people undertook a project in which part of the Mission was recreated, with buildings rebuilt, including tourist accommodation. The Kerrup-Jmara Elders Corporation entered liquidation during the 1990s. The reserve was first handed to the Winda Mara Aboriginal Corporation to manage the lands, before they were vested to the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (Registered Native Title Corporate) in March 2008 by the Commonwealth government. , GMTOAC continue to hold and manage the land.

21st century: Heritage listing

The mission land was included in the area described as "The Mt Eccles Lake Condah Area: About 7880ha, 6km south west of Macarthur, comprising Mount Eccles National Park, Stones State Faunal Reserve, Muldoons Aboriginal Land, Allambie Aboriginal Land and Condah Mission", which was declared part of the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape in July 2004 under the ''

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cultu ...

''. On 6 July 2019, the Mission was included in Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site on that date.

Legacy

Lake Condah Mission Station was mentioned in the '' Bringing Them Home Report'' (1997) as an institution that housed Indigenous children removed from their families.