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Woollarawarre Bennelong was a Wangal man from the Parramatta River. He was born around 1764 and died at Kissing Point on 3 January 1813. He's the most famous Aboriginal person of the first years of the colony, and probably the most misunderstood. He was kidnapped at Manly in November 1789 and held at Government House, and he escaped in May 1790. That September he was there when Governor Phillip was speared at Manly, and a month later he chose to come in to Sydney on his own terms. Phillip built him a little brick hut on the point that now carries his name and the Opera House. In December 1792 he sailed to England with his young kinsman Yemmerrawanne, who never came home. Bennelong came back in 1795, and later he led his own people at Kissing Point. He was buried in James Squire's orchard at Putney, and in 2011 researchers announced they'd pinpointed the spot. Below I've told the full story first, and then my original 2015 post, the Sun-Herald article on the grave finding, follows in its own section.
Early Life – A Wangal Man of the River
Bennelong was Wangal. Keith Vincent Smith, in the Dictionary of Sydney, centres the clan's heartland on The Flats, now Homebush Bay, "with its salt marsh, reed swamps and mudflats, a rich fishing ground". Wangal Country ran along the south bank of the Parramatta River east to Memel (Goat Island), ending at Gomora (Darling Harbour), where the Cadigal began.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography's 2026 entry by Emma Dortins says his father's name may have been Goorah Goorah and his mother's Gagulh. He had three sisters, Wariwear, Karangarang and Worogan, and five names: Wollarrebarre (Woollarawarre), Wogultrowe, Bannellon (Bennelong), Boinba and Bundebunda. Bundebunda meant "hawk". David Collins wrote that "Bennillong told me, his name was that of a large fish, but one that I never saw taken."
Smith works out that Bennelong would have been about six when Cook's Endeavour spent a week at Botany Bay in 1770. As a young man he was initiated, with scars raised on his chest and arms and an upper front tooth knocked out. He was in his mid-twenties when the First Fleet arrived in January 1788. Then came smallpox in 1789. Bennelong survived, but he told the British it killed about half his people, his first wife among them. Her name isn't recorded.
Captured at Manly – 25 November 1789
Arabanoo, the man Phillip had kidnapped earlier that year, died of smallpox in May 1789. Phillip then ordered Lieutenant William Bradley of HMS Sirius to bring in "a Man or two". On 25 November 1789 at Kayeemy, Manly Cove, Bradley's men held out two big fish, and Bennelong and Colebee waded out for them. Bradley wrote it all down afterwards, and he wasn't proud of it:
"They eagerly took the fish, they were dancing together when the Signal was given by me, and the two poor devils were seiz'd & handed into the boat in an instant… It was by far the most unpleasant service I was ever ordered to Execute."
The ADB adds that the people on shore showered the boat with spears and the British fired back as they got away.
At Sydney, Tench judged Bennelong "about twenty-six years old, of good stature, and stoutly made, with a bold intrepid countenance, which bespoke defiance and revenge". Colbee escaped in December. Captain John Hunter thought Bennelong was "much more cheerful after Co-al-by's absence", which he took to mean that Colbee was the more senior man. (There's more on Colbee in his own page.)
Six Months at Government House
Bennelong picked up English fast and taught the officers a great deal. Smith credits him with giving Phillip the names and locations of the Sydney clans, and the Aboriginal name of Parramatta. Tench noted that unlike Arabanoo he took to British food and "would drink the strongest liquors" with delight. In February 1790, still in his shackle, he threw a spear about 90 metres into a strong wind at South Head. On the way back the boat stopped near Rose Bay and he spoke to a woman he was "very fond of", Barangaroo.
The Escape – 3 May 1790
His leg iron came off in April 1790. Then, Smith writes, at two o'clock on the morning of 3 May 1790 Bennelong said he felt sick and asked to go downstairs. Once outside he stripped off his English clothes, jumped onto an empty water butt and leapt the paling fence. Phillip told Joseph Banks that it "proves that nothing will make these people amends for the loss of their liberty".
The Spearing at Manly – 7 September 1790
In September 1790 a whale washed up at Manly, and Smith says about 200 people gathered for the feast. Bennelong and Colebee were among them. Bennelong sent Phillip a lump of blubber and asked him to come over. Phillip arrived, Bennelong shook his hand, called him beanga, father, and joked with Lieutenant Henry Waterhouse. Bennelong put a fine barbed spear down in the grass. Then he introduced an older man as his "very intimate friend". Phillip threw down his sword as a sign of peace, and the man, Willemering, a clever man from Broken Bay, picked up that spear and threw it. It went into Phillip's right shoulder. "For God's sake haul out the spear," Phillip begged Waterhouse.
Was it a set-up? Smith thinks it "seems in retrospect to be a ritual spearing or 'payback' arranged by Bennelong and Colebee for the deprivation of their liberty". The ADB lays out the range of views, from a misunderstanding, to deliberate non-lethal payback, to Bennelong as a bystander "whose attempt at diplomacy was hijacked", to Bennelong as the organiser. Either way, Phillip ordered no reprisals, and things changed fast.
Coming In, and the Hut at Bennelong Point
On 8 October 1790 Bennelong and his friends "came in" peacefully to Sydney. It was on his terms. He visited Phillip regularly for dinner, and the ADB describes him "largely damping down retaliatory responses" through the conflicts that followed. One of those came in December 1790, when his friend Bangai was shot dead near Dawes Point. Wikipedia says Bennelong led a counter-raid, and that he and Phillip had patched things up again by February 1791.
At Bennelong's request, Phillip built him a brick hut "on a point of land fixed upon by himself", the headland of Tubowgulle on the east side of Sydney Cove. Smith gives its size as 12 feet square, with a tiled roof and an outside fireplace. The two men also exchanged names. Bennelong gave Phillip the name Wolarawaree and, as Tench put it, called him "Been-èn-a (father), adopting to himself the name of governor."
The ADB makes another point worth knowing: Bennelong and Pemulwuy, the Bidjigal resistance leader, "were not opposed". They spent time together at Bennelong Point.
Barangaroo and Bennelong's Other Wives
His second wife was Barangaroo, a Cammeraygal woman, older than him and a formidable fisherwoman. She broke his fish-gig on the rocks when he first went across to see the Governor, and she refused British wine and clothes. Her story is told in full on her own page. Their daughter Dilboong lived only a few months. Barangaroo died in 1791, and Bennelong cremated her with her fishing gear. Collins described him gathering her ashes into a mound with great care and "heartfelt affection".
In November 1790, Smith says, Bennelong was badly gashed in a fight at Botany Bay with the Gweagal elder Mety and took Mety's daughter Kurubarabulu back to Sydney. She stayed with him until he sailed for England. Later in life he married Boorong, the sister of the Burramattagal leader Bidgee Bidgee, and their son Dicky (Digidigi) was born in 1803.
England – 1792 to 1795
On 10 December 1792 Bennelong and his young kinsman Yemmerrawanne sailed with Phillip on the Atlantic. The ADB says they were the first Aboriginal people known to have visited England.
In London they lodged with William Waterhouse at 125 Mount Street, Mayfair. They got new clothes, and an ink sketch signed "WW" shows Bennelong in frock coat, ruffled shirt and spotted waistcoat. From the expense claims, Wikipedia says, historian Jack Brook reconstructed their outings to St Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, the theatre, and bathing from a hired boat. On 16 April 1794 they attended the impeachment trial of Warren Hastings at Westminster.
Did Bennelong meet King George III? It's often said he did. Smith says the claim that he was presented at court on 24 May 1793 "cannot be substantiated", and that the Royal Archives had no record of him. He thinks Bennelong may at least have glimpsed the King in the royal box at Covent Garden on 24 February 1794.
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Yemmerrawanne
England was hard on them both. In September 1793 a London paper described them walking near Mount Street, sick and dispirited, needing sticks to walk, and "constantly dejected". In October they moved to Eltham in Kent to stay with Edward Kent. Yemmerrawanne died there of a lung complaint on 18 May 1794. Smith says he was only nineteen, though the ADB gives his dates as c.1775–1794. He's buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist at Eltham.
The Long Way Home
Bennelong boarded HMS Reliance at Chatham on 30 July 1794, then waited months while she sat in port. By January 1795 John Hunter, the new governor, feared he was so ill and "broken in Spirit" that he might die. The ship finally sailed on 2 March 1795 and anchored in Sydney Cove on 7 September 1795. Wikipedia says the surgeon George Bass, also aboard, nursed him and learned some of the Sydney language from him. Smith adds that Bennelong had been away two years and ten months, eighteen months of it on ships.
Home Again
He came back to find Kurubarabulu with another man, and his brick hut was pulled down that November. On 29 August 1796 he dictated a letter to Mr and Mrs Phillips in England, thanking Mrs Phillips for nursing him and asking for stockings and handkerchiefs. The ADB calls it "the earliest piece of writing produced by an Aboriginal author". One line stands out: "Not me go to England no more. I am at home now."
In 1802 a French officer, Pierre Bernard Milius, invited him to sail to France. Smith says Bennelong answered that "there was no better country than his own and that he did not wish to leave it".
Kissing Point – Leader on the River
The old story is that Bennelong ended up a drunk, despised by both peoples. Smith and the ADB both reject it. In 1797 he officiated at an initiation ceremony on the north shore. Some time after 1803 he re-established himself as leader of a group of about 100 people on the Parramatta River west of Ryde. The ADB explains that his Wangal people had joined with the Burramattagal and Wallumedagal at Kissing Point, on Wallumedagal Country on the north bank, "where boat keels 'kissed' the river mud". His marriage to Boorong bound the river clans together.
He still visited governors Hunter, King, Bligh and Macquarie, and he kept on good terms with the settlers along the river, the brewer James Squire above all. The ADB notes there's no sign he joined the fighting on the Cumberland Plain in those years. "Perhaps a deliberate policy," it suggests. He still took part in ritual payback battles, sometimes taking punishment, sometimes giving it.
Death – January 1813
Bennelong died at Kissing Point on 3 January 1813. That's the date given by the ADB, the Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia. The Sydney Gazette said he died "on Sunday morning last", and 3 January 1813 was a Sunday. The Gazette's obituary was savage, calling him "a thorough savage" whose "propensity for drunkenness was inordinate". The ADB says that view "has tinted—and tainted—many subsequent biographies".
The account Smith trusts most came in 1815 from Old Phillip, brother of Gnung-a Gnung-a "Collins", who said Bennelong "died after a short illness" and that they buried him and his wife at Kissing Point. Not long afterwards about two hundred men fought a great ritual battle in his honour. A passenger on the Henrietta saw it and wrote that "the spears flew very thick, and about thirty men were wounded".
Burial in Squire's Orchard
Bennelong was buried in James Squire's orchard. Boorong, who also died in 1813, lies with him. Nanbarry, Colebee's nephew, died in 1821 and asked to be buried in the same grave, and Smith calls that the greatest mark of respect there could be. In July 1821 Lieutenant Allen Gardiner wrote that "Both Ben-ni-long & his Gin are interred in the Garden of this farm." Bidgee Bidgee kept visiting the grave, and Wikipedia says he asked to be buried there too, though nobody knows where he was.
The 2011 Grave Finding – The Sun-Herald Story
On 20 March 2011 Peter Mitchell, an environmental scientist then working with Macquarie University, announced that he'd located the grave under a house at 25 Watson Street, Putney. In November 2018 the NSW Government said it had bought the house and would make the site a public memorial. Here's the Sun-Herald story by Eamonn Duff that I saved back in 2015:
History unearthed ... a painting of the kidnap of Bennelong.Photo: Courtesy of Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
An unlikely friendship between a colonial brewer and the first Aboriginal statesman has helped to reveal Bennelong's final resting place, writes Eamonn Duff.
Woollarawarre Bennelong is immortalised in every school history book recounting the early years of white settlement in Australia. James Squire, meanwhile, is an ex-convict brewer whose name has recently gained popular currency as a commercial beer brand.
What most people wouldn't realise is that in the early 19th century, these two were the best of mates. In fact, the history books will soon be rewritten to include the fact that it was this unlikely friendship that has ultimately led to one of the most significant historical finds of the past century.
When Bennelong's remarkable life ended on 3 January 1813, not only did he die on James Squire's farm along the banks of the Parramatta River - he was buried in the brewer's orchard.
While the grave disappeared beneath generations of urban sprawl, The Sun-Herald can reveal there is sufficient historical evidence about Squire's acreage and Bennelong's final resting place for environmental scientist Peter Mitchell and surveying experts to finally locate the sacred site, 198 years on.
Before Bennelong met Squire or any other white man, he had been a senior member of the Wangal tribe, who called themselves the Eora, meaning ''the people''.
But on November 25, 1789, almost two years after the landing of the First Fleet, his life would change forever. Lured to the water's edge at Manly Cove with a gift of two fish, as Lieutenant William Bradley recorded, Bennelong and fellow tribesman Colby were seized by colonists, bundled into a waiting long boat and taken to the settlement of Sydney.
The kidnapping was conducted under the orders of Governor Arthur Phillip as part of a plan to learn more about the Aboriginal people, their language, customs and cultures.
In his journal account titled The Settlement at Port Jackson, First Fleetmarine Watkin Tench described Bennelong ''to be about 26 years old, of good stature and stoutly made with a bold intrepid countenance which bespoke defiance and revenge''.
Colby escaped within a week but intrigued by all the attention, Bennelong stayed. He proved to be a swift learner and in no time was communicating in reasonable English and adopting what must have seemed like a bizarre series of traditions, including formal dining etiquette. In turn, he taught the settlers the ways of his people.
After six months, however, it seems Bennelong was yearning for his old life. Early one morning, he fled the governor's house and returned to the Eora. But fascinated, perhaps, by this strange world he'd witnessed, he maintained contact.
He organised for the governor to visit him at Manly in September 1790, but the outcome was Phillip was ambushed and speared in the shoulder.
It has always been suggested that the attack may have been prompted by Bennelong as payback for his kidnapping.
Either way, further bloodshed was avoided after Phillip was finally convinced that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding.
From then on, historians agree, a close, genuine friendship developed between these two figures. In October 1790, the Eora arrived at the colonial settlement of Sydney under an agreement which ushered in a new era of peace. No more kidnappings. No more ambush attacks.
Thanks to Bennelong's intermediary skills, the two vastly different cultures would now live, communicate and trade as one.
For Bennelong, it was arguably his greatest achievement. It strengthened his standing among his own clan and it brought him new-found respect among the colonists - who in modern-day terms practically handed him the keys to Sydney.
Bennelong was now dining with the fleet's elite. Governor Phillip, meanwhile, had a brick dwelling built for him at Tubowgule, now known as Bennelong Point, the site of the Sydney Opera House.
The two men also exchanged names - Bennelong was known as ''Governor'' while Phillip became ''Woollarawarre'', and later ''beanga'' meaning ''father''.
But in December 1792, after five years as governor, Phillip decided to return to England. Much to Bennelong's delight, he was invited to sail too. The pair apparently arrived in London to much fanfare, their unique bond celebrated as proof that two people from such contrasting backgrounds could exist in harmony.
But as Dr Kate Fullagar points out in her 2009 Aboriginal history study Bennelong in Britain, historians these days are deeply divided about Bennelong's trip to Britain. She states: ''They split between those who claim it was an instance of patronising celebration and those who declare it was more an example of gross exploitation.''
Certainly, most available literature portrays Bennelong as a man in his element, a holidaying stranger who indulged in all the trappings London's high society could offer.
He grew accustomed to wearing ruffled lace shirts and fancy waistcoats typical of the period. While there is also some debate about whether or not he met George III, he is documented visiting Parliament once, attending the Warren Hastings trial and the House of Commons on 16 April 1794. He was said to have dined ''as elegantly as the Englishmen, bowed, toasted, paid the ladies compliments and loved wine''. Unfortunately, the demon drink would eventually prove to be his undoing.
After growing increasingly ill and homesick, Bennelong farewelled his old friend Phillip and in September 1795, alongside the colony's new governor, Captain Hunter, he returned to Australia.
Once home, colonial writers claimed that drink consumed him and that he was shunned by both peoples, but current historians such as Keith Vincent Smith (Dictionary of Sydney) and Emma Dortins (Australian Dictionary of Biography) say the record shows he kept his standing among his own people.
He moved to the north side of the Parramatta River, between Kissing Point and Parramatta where, according to written evidence, he became a leader of a hundred-strong local clan.
In the same year that Bennelong returned from Britain, Squire arrived on the same side of the Parramatta River after being handed a 30-acre (12-hectare) land grant.
In the years that followed, the canny brewer purchased further plots from struggling farmers. By 1806, he had amassed more than 1000 acres on which he grew hops and established the first brewery.
While there is no evidence to explain how Bennelong and Squire first met, historians surmise that Bennelong regularly ''wandered'' on to the brewer's property and that over time, the pair became such good friends he later lived on the land.
Bennelong eventually died at the farm on 3 January 1813, after a short illness according to his countryman Old Phillip. (A later story that he drowned in a vat has no support in the historical record.)
Either way, the brewer insisted on burying his dear friend personally and later erected a plaque in his honour. The Reverend Charles Wilton, minister of the parish of the Field of Mars, later wrote (after Nanbarry was buried there in 1821): ''He lies interred, between his wife and another chief (Nanbarry), amidst the orange trees of the garden.''
A few days later, Bennelong's obituary in the Sydney Gazette was far from flattering, stating: ''His propensity for drunkenness was inordinate and when in that state he was insolent, menacing and overbearing.'' A contributor for the newspaper wrote the tribesman had been ''much addicted to spirit drinking and for the last five months of his life was seldom sober''.
While Bennelong has rested in peace, the world above has continued to develop.
An archived photograph taken of Squire's property circa 1900 is said to show ''the known grave site of Bennelong'', with a Mitchell librarian having noted on the back: ''Very near the righthand corner was the black man's grave, a slightly raised mound covered with old bricks made in Squire's time.''
The unmarked site was allegedly found again in 1927 by Charles Watson, a descendant of Squire, who was told by his mother about a black man's grave underneath a tennis court that had been built behind the brewer's old house.
In the decades that followed roads were laid down, further clouding Bennelong's location. In 1970, a local elderly man who had visited the site in 1927 with Watson insisted the grave was now part of a suburban allotment on the intersection of two streets in Putney.
Today, a memorial plaque sits in Cleves Park, Putney, to mark the approximate area where he is believed to be buried. After almost two centuries, the speculation is finally over.
Legacy
His name is everywhere. Bennelong Point, where his hut stood, is home to the Sydney Opera House, and one of its restaurants is called Bennelong. The federal seat of Bennelong, created in 1949, takes in Putney, and Wikipedia says it was the first electorate named after an Indigenous Australian. There's Bennelong Park at Kissing Point, a plaque in Cleves Park, Putney, and the Bennelong Bridge across Homebush Bay, opened in 2016 in the old Wangal heartland.
The ADB sums up what it thinks he was after all along: "to preserve and remain embedded in kin networks". Two hundred men turning out to fight in his honour suggests he managed it.
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Timeline
- c.1764 – Born, Wangal clan, Parramatta River.
- January 1788 – First Fleet arrives.
- 1789 – Smallpox kills his first wife. Arabanoo dies in May.
- 25 November 1789 – Kidnapped with Colebee at Manly Cove.
- 12 December 1789 – Colebee escapes.
- 3 May 1790 – Bennelong escapes over the Government House fence.
- 7 September 1790 – Phillip speared by Willemering at Manly.
- 8 October 1790 – Bennelong "comes in" to Sydney. A brick hut is later built for him at Tubowgulle (Bennelong Point).
- 1791 – Barangaroo dies and is cremated.
- 10 December 1792 – Sails for England with Phillip and Yemmerrawanne on the Atlantic.
- 16 April 1794 – Attends the Warren Hastings trial.
- 18 May 1794 – Yemmerrawanne dies at Eltham.
- 2 March 1795 – Reliance sails. It arrives at Sydney Cove on 7 September 1795.
- November 1795 – His hut is demolished.
- 29 August 1796 – Letter to Mr and Mrs Phillips.
- 1797 – Officiates at an initiation on the north shore.
- 1803 – Son Dicky born. Bennelong leads the Kissing Point group.
- 3 January 1813 – Dies at Kissing Point. Buried in James Squire's orchard.
- 1821 – Nanbarry buried in the same grave.
- 1949 – Federal seat of Bennelong created.
- 20 March 2011 – Grave site at 25 Watson Street, Putney announced.
- 2016 – Bennelong Bridge opens.
- November 2018 – NSW Government buys the Watson Street house for a memorial.
Where the Sources Disagree
- Date of death. The ADB, the Dictionary of Sydney and Wikipedia say 3 January 1813, and the Gazette's "Sunday morning last" fits that date. The 2011 article as I first saved it said 2 January (now corrected).
- How he died. Old Phillip said "after a short illness". A later story that he drowned in a vat has no support in the sources I read.
- Meeting the King. Sydney Barani says he "was presented to King George III on 24 May 1793". Smith and Wikipedia say there's no evidence for it.
- When the spearing happened. Sydney Barani says May 1790. Every eyewitness-based source gives 7 September 1790.
- When he got home. Wikipedia and Sydney Barani say he returned in February 1795. Smith gives sailing on 2 March and arrival on 7 September 1795.
- Barangaroo's labour. Karskens says Bennelong wanted her to give birth at Government House and she refused. Sydney Barani says it was she who wanted Government House and that Phillip sent her to the hospital instead.
- Where Barangaroo was cremated. Smith and Wikipedia say in Phillip's garden. Collins doesn't name the place of the pyre.
- His age. Tench guessed 26 in 1789. Smith says about 24 in January 1788. Both fit roughly with c.1764.
- Was he "shunned"? Older accounts, including the 2011 Sun-Herald article, said he was exiled from both communities. Smith and the ADB say the record shows him leading a 100-strong group at Kissing Point, and point to the 200 men at his memorial battle.
- The Wilton quote. Rev. Charles Wilton described the grave as "between his wife and another chief (Nanbarry)". Nanbarry wasn't buried there until 1821, so the description must date from after that.
My Earlier Posts
- Barangaroo – Cammeraygal Fisherwoman, Wife of Bennelong
- Colbee (Colebee) – The Cadigal Man Kidnapped with Bennelong at Manly
- Bennelong Point – Circular Quay East
- The Sydney Opera House – From Cattle Point and Bennelong Point to Fort Macquarie and Utzon's Sails
- Fort Macquarie – Bennelong Point
- The Man O'War Steps – Farm Cove – The Navy's Landing at Bennelong Point
- Manly – From Kai'ymay and Phillip's 'Manly Cove' of 1788
- First Government House – Corner of Bridge Street & Phillip Street
- Sydney Cove – 1788
- Bungaree – The Broken Bay Man Who Sailed Around Australia with Flinders
- Cora Gooseberry – Queen Gooseberry – Widow of Bungaree
- Philip Gidley King – Third Governor of New South Wales
Sources
- Emma Dortins, "Bennelong (c.1764–1813)", Australian Dictionary of Biography (Indigenous ADB), 2026 – https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bennelong-1769
- Keith Vincent Smith, "Woollarawarre Bennelong", Dictionary of Sydney – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/woollarawarre_bennelong
- Keith Vincent Smith, "Willemering", Dictionary of Sydney, 2016 – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/willemering
- Grace Karskens, "Barangaroo and the Eora Fisherwomen", Dictionary of Sydney, 2014 – https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/barangaroo_and_the_eora_fisherwomen
- "Bennelong", Sydney Barani (City of Sydney) – https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/bennelong/
- "Bennelong", Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennelong
- Watkin Tench, A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson (1793), Project Gutenberg – https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3534
- David Collins, An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, vol. 1 (1798), Project Gutenberg – https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12565
- Eamonn Duff, "Bennelong's grave found under a front yard in Sydney's suburbs", Sun-Herald / Sydney Morning Herald, 20 March 2011 (reproduced above)
- Images: Wikimedia Commons, as credited under each picture. The pictures in the 2011 article section are from the original Sun-Herald story.