Some

Indigenous Australians 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 ...

are remembered in history for leadership prior to European colonisation, some for their resistance to that colonisation, others for assisting Europeans explore the country. Some became infamous for their deeds, and others noted as the last of their communities.

Prior to 1788

* Cumbo Gunnerah – 18th century leader of the Kamilaroi people near

Gunnedah, New South Wales Gunnedah is a town in north-eastern New South Wales, Australia and is the seat of the Gunnedah Shire local government area. In the the town recorded a population of 9,726. Gunnedah is situated within the Liverpool Plains, a fertile agricultur ...

1788–1888

William Barak William Barak, named Beruk by his parents, (1823 – 15 August 1903), 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 Melbourne, A ...

(1824–1903) –

ngurungaeta An Ngurungaeta is a Woiwurrung head man or tribal leader of clans of the Woiwurrung tribes and Taungurung Ngurai-illum Wurrung. Ngurungaeta held the same tribal standing as an Arweet of the Bunurong and Wathaurong people. The current Ngurungaeta is ...

Wurundjeri The Wurundjeri people are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the Traditional Owners of the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, covering much of the present location of Narrm (Melbourne ...

, police tracker, then artist *

Bennelong Woollarawarre Bennelong ( 1764 – 3 January 1813), also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong serv ...

– representative of the

Eora The Eora (''Yura'') are an Aboriginal Australian people of New South Wales. Eora is the name given by the earliest European settlers to a group of Aboriginal people belonging to the clans along the coastal area of what is now known as the Sy ...

People at the time

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

was settled * Barangaroo – a

Cammeraygal The Cammeraygal, variously spelled as Cam-mer-ray-gal, Gamaraigal, Kameraigal, Cameragal and several other variations, are one clan of the 29 Darug tribes who are united by a common language, strong ties of kinship and survived as skilled hunte ...

woman who served the colony as an intermediary under Governor Phillip * Billibellary (1799–1846) –

of the

-willam clan *

Calyute Calyute (''Floruit, fl.'' 1833–1840), also known as Kalyute, Galyute or Wongir, was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader who was involved in a number of reprisal attacks with white settlers and members of other tribes in the early days of ...

– leader of the Pindjarup people at the time of the Battle of Pinjarra *

Derrimut Derrimut is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Brimbank Local government area. Derrimut recorded a population of 8,651 at the 2021 census. Located on the l ...

– Bunurong elder during European settlement of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Dundalli Dundalli (c. 1820 – 5 January 1855) was an Aboriginal lawman who figured prominently in accounts of conflict between European settlers and indigenous aboriginal peoples in the area of Brisbane in South East Queensland. Traditionally described ...

(1820–1855) – Resistance leader in South East Queensland during European Settlement *

Jackey Jackey Jackey Jackey (also spelled Jacky Jacky) (1833–1854) is the name by which Galmahra (a.k.a. Galmarra), the Aboriginal Australian guide and companion to surveyor Edmund Kennedy was known. He survived Edmund Kennedy's fatal 1848 expedition into ...

– assisted Edmund Kennedy expedition into Cape York and awarded solid silver breastplate for heroic deeds. *

Jandamarra Jandamarra or Tjandamurra (c. 1873—1 April 1897), known to European settlers as Pigeon,
in: Taylor (2004) w ...

–

Bunuba The ''Bunuba'' (also known as Bunaba, Punapa, Punuba) are a group of Indigenous Australians and are one of the traditional owners of the southern West Kimberley, in Western Australia. Many now live in and around the town of Fitzroy Crossing. ...

man who resisted European occupation *

William Lanne William Lanne (1835 – 3 March 1869), also spelt William Lanné and also known as King Billy or William Laney, was an Aboriginal Tasmanian man, known for being the last " full-blooded" Aboriginal man in the colony of Tasmania. Early lif ...

– King Billy, last surviving male of the Oyster Cove clan of

Tasmanian Aborigine The Aboriginal Tasmanians (Palawa kani: ''Palawa'' or ''Pakana'') are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and ...

s * Mannalargenna – Tasmanian Aboriginal Person of the Plangermaireener people *

Mokare Mokare (c. 1800 - 26 June 1831) was a Noongar Aboriginal man from the south-west corner of Australia, who was pivotal in aiding European exploration of the area. Life Mokare was from the Minang clan of Noongar people. He had at least two b ...

–

Noongar The Noongar (, also spelt Noongah, Nyungar , Nyoongar, Nyoongah, Nyungah, Nyugah, and Yunga ) are Aboriginal Australian peoples who live in the south-west corner of Western Australia, from Geraldton on the west coast to Esperance on the so ...

guide and peacemaker * Johnny Mullagh – Aboriginal cricketer who was known for his remarkable performance in the 1868 Aborigine cricket team's tour of England. *

Musquito Musquito (c. 1780, Port Jackson – 25 February 1825, Hobart) (also rendered Mosquito, Musquetta, Bush Muschetta or Muskito) was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader, latterly based in Van Diemen's Land. New South Wales and Norfolk Islan ...

– originally from Sydney, became a

bushranger Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery under ...

following transportation to

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

Tommy Windich Tommy Windich ( – ) was an Indigenous Australian member of a number of exploring expeditions in Western Australia in the 1860s and 1870s. Tommy Windich (or Windiitj) was born around 1840 near Mount Stirling in Western Australia. Little is known ...

– Western Australian explorer * Pemulwuy – member of the

people (Botany Bay) area *

Fanny Cochrane Smith Fanny Cochrane Smith (December 1834 – 24 February 1905) was an Aboriginal Tasmanian, born in December 1834. She is considered to be the last fluent speaker of the Flinders Island lingua franca, a Tasmanian language, and her wax cylinder recor ...

– first Tasmanian Aboriginal Person born on Flinders Island * Truganini – last surviving full-blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal Person *

Tullamareena Tullamareena (or Tullamarine, Dullamarin) was a senior man of the Wurundjeri, a Koori, ( Aboriginal) people of the Melbourne area, at the time of the British settlement in Victoria, Australia, in 1835. He is believed to have been present at ...

– member of Wirundgeri, Melbourne *

Simon Wonga Simon Wonga (1824–1874), ngurungaeta and son of Billibellary, was an Aboriginal Australian elder, elder of the Wurundjeri people, who lived in the Melbourne area of Australia before European settlement. He was resolute that his people would su ...

(1824–1874) –

of the

people around

who secured land 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 Taungurong peoples, and the first inhabitants chose ...

, and the suburb Wonga Park was named after him * Yagan – Western Australian leader in 1830s * Wylie – Aboriginal guide who stayed with Edward John Eyre in their crossing of the Nullarbor * Mullawirraburka – Kaurna leader preserving his language and culture during colonisation

1888 onwards

* Bill Dunn, involved in the

Pilbara Strike The 1946 Pilbara strike was a landmark Strike action, strike by Indigenous Australian pastoral workers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for human rights recognition, payment of fair wages and working conditions. The strike involved at l ...

, and the first Aboriginal man to be granted a pastoral lease in Western Australia. * Windradyne (or ''Saturday'') of the Wiradjuri, a notable figure of the Aboriginal resistance during the

Bathurst War The Bathurst, New South Wales, Bathurst War (1824), was a war between the Wiradjuri nation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the successful Gregory Blaxland, Blaxland, William Lawson (explorer), Lawson, and William Wen ...

Yuranigh Yuranigh (approx. 1820 – April 1850) was an Australian Indigenous guide and stockman. Yuranigh was born in New South Wales and died in New South Wales. Yuranigh accompanied Thomas Mitchell as an Aboriginal guide on his 1845–46 expedition to ...

who provided vital assistance to Thomas Mitchell's 1845 expedition. Highly honoured by the Wiradjuri * Billy Drumley (1853–1951) – community leader *

Nemarluk Nemarluk (1911? – August 1940) was a fierce Aboriginal warrior who lived around present-day Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia. He fought strongly against both white and Japanese intruders who had come, unasked, into his people's trib ...

– leader of the Chul-a-mar, who fought European and Japanese around Darwin in the early 20th century *

Umbarra Umbarra, or King Merriman (died 1904) was an elder of the Djirringanj/Yuin people of the Bermagui area on the South Coast of New South Wales. Although Aboriginal people traditionally did not have kings or chiefs, only elders, the white colo ...

(King Merriman) – late 19th century elder of the Yuin around

Bermagui, New South Wales Bermagui is a town on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia in the Bega Valley Shire. It lies on the shores of the southern end of Horseshoe Bay. The name is derived from the Dyirringanj word, ''permageua'', possibly meaning "canoe with ...

* Cissy McLeod (1896–1928) *'Neighbour' – awarded the Albert Medal for Lifesaving *

Marion Leane Smith Marion Leane Smith (1891–1957) was an Australian-Canadian nurse. She is the only Aboriginal Australian woman known to have served in the First World War.Nicole BrangwinParliamentary Library Lecture—Aboriginals in the First Australian Imperia ...

–

First World War 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 ...

nurse

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Indigenous Australian Historical Figures Indigenous Australian historical figures

Historical figures A historical figure is a significant person in history. The significance of such figures in human progress has been debated. Some think they play a crucial role, while others say they have little impact on the broad currents of thought and social ...