Thomas Dunolly (1856–1923) was an early Indigenous Australian rights activist. He was a member of the Dja Dja Wurrung people. The surname

Dunolly Dunolly is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Dunolly - Maryborough Road, in the Shire of Central Goldfields. At the 2016 census, Dunolly had a population of 893, down from 969 in 2006. History The town began during the Victorian Go ...

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 Taungurong 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, 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 ...

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 went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...

, 2003, Despite the protests the 1886 Aborigines Protection Act, commonly called the Half-caste act, 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
-

Museum Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facil ...

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