The Tweed Times and Brunswick Advocate

1Aug1894: Harry Tanna, Tom Upuiah and George Kainoa in court.
11Jan1899: Blackfellow named Richmond Billy has a 'reputation as a very troublesome man.'
8Aug1899: 'Dunbible Bob' drunk.
1May01: King Jacky Merrilegs passed away last week, and was buried by his tribe on Sunday. The dusky monarch affected some dignity as he strode along the street in discarded police uniform, adorned, of course, with his brass plate.
Jimmy Tonga, Harry Oba and George Kaainoa drunk
20Jan04: Editorial The Kanaka and the Canegrower. Within a few weeks some 600 men will be required by the cane growers of the Tweed and district, and where these men are coming from is a matter of grave concern. Kanaka labour is becoming scarcer every year, and the white labour hasn’t so far shown any inclination to fill up the gap that is gradually growing more and more apparent. The cause is pretty well as plain as the effect, and the remedy is the only matter that should stir the minds of men at the present time….
 Many years ago the greed of commercial men in the Northern State prompted them to recruit kanaka labour from the islands of the Pacific, with the excuse that such was necessary for the preservation of the sugar industry. Having once got them into Queensland the matter of introducing them to the canefields of this state was a trifling one. The black man seems to have crept into the industry here at a time when white labour was plentiful, reliable and cheap, and every effort was made to prove that he was far and away a better man than his white competitor, yet to this day there are numbers of large canegrowers who prefer white to black labour, though they want the white man whom they were used to before the kanaka intruded his presence on us. Even at the present time many farmers will employ nothing but white labour but they are fortunate enough to secure the right stamp of white man – the white man they knew before he was contaminated and degraded by association with the imported slaves of the black skin and smellful carcase. That he has been contaminated and degraded seems certain, for although old hands assert that the kanaka as a worker is not to be compared with the white labourer of the early days, at the present time the white worker is mostly a slothful, sneaking, unreliable beer drinker, without any laudable ambition, without principle, and without pride. It isn’t to be wondered at. The cause has faithfully produced the effect.
 … Meanwhile what are the sugar planters going to do for labour? ….
27Feb04: Editorial The Sugarcane Case. Meeting Tweed growers at Tumbulgum. ……Knox (of CSR) certainly has a grievance against the Federal Parliament with the ‘White Australia’ policy, because Knox’s beloved nigger has got to go. We know very well that the expensive white man would stand no more chance here than he seems to be having in South Africa at the present time if large concerns like the CSR Co could have a free hand and flood the country with Asiatic labour….

20May05: Charley Silva of Chindera built house for Hendrick Gappo at Duranbar in Jun1900. Court case. Peter Ababoo and Laughing Tommy witnesses and a number of countrymen.
20May05: Tweed Sugar Stats. 367 growers, 203 whom employ white labour and 164 who preferred black. They cultivated 6305 acres between them – 4598 white and 1707 black… Total NSW 1304 growers employ white and 222 employ black….
27May05: Climatic Influences and White Labour. Conference Cairns wants Polynesian Exclusion Act amended to employ kanakas.
3Jun05: Is Tommy Tanna to Go. Premier… says that all particulars with reference to Kanakas employed on the Northern Rivers will be forwarded on to Mr Reid, particularly concerning those who have white wives and piebald children. Mr Carruthers further added that he did not think the married Kanakas and their families would be deported. Reid’s answer can easily be conjectured: Tommy has – hasn’t to go!
3Jun05: …salvation of the sugar industry in those parts (Nth Qld) is entirely dependent upon the sugar bonus to white growers. In other words, if no bonus is given to white growers when the kanakas receive, in obedience to the mandate for a White Australia, their marching orders for the South Sea Islands, then the sugar industry of the northern parts of Queensland will practically go with them…. But the question of immediate concern to the growers hereabouts is: Will the Federal Parliament, in the event of continuing the bonus in Northern Queensland, allow it to remain operative in southern regions?....
7Jun05: Black on White. … If the Kanaka must go, could not Papuans be introduced from New Guinea…. If the Australian aboriginal can go unfetted from end to end of the Commonwealth, why cannot the Papuan do likewise…
9/10Jun05: Jimmy Williams of Ceylon living Macpherson Range charged Joseph Groves from stealing oranges from the Garden of Eden.
(Jimmy Williams could be confused with Jack Williams simply described as ‘coloured person’ (or ‘cullud pusson’), the same designation the Kanakas were sometimes given. It’s likely he was the same bloke identified as aka Goolooka, a ‘Cingalese/Singhalese’ (from Ceylon), who was mainly a Murbah menace. But also sprung at St Helena in mid 1906.
Jimmy Williams was a 50yr old Cingalese of New Brighton in 1935 when he started terrorising the new settlers. He went about the area pulling down the fences of the new purchasers who he figured were encroaching on his land. In court Jimmy allegedly stated that, because he held about 22 acres by ‘permissive occupancy’, he was under the impression he owned the whole of New Brighton…. and had been paying rates to the Byron Shire.)
+Rockhampton = Kanakatown

28Jun05: Sugar Stats
8Jul05: Heard on the Rivers: That a farmer wants to know whether a Kanaka is to be inoculated against blackleg…
That the Kanakas who are felling timber at Mullumbimby find the work a bit harder than cane cutting
That Mr Deakin placed a white Australia in the foreground of his programme
That this provides an excellent bait for the support for the Labour Party
15Jul05: Alex Oba, a small South Sea Islander, …unsound mind… sent to Gladesville.
19Jul05: Mr Moffitt of Billinudgel, the only cane grower of any consequence in the locality, was a likely employer. (James Moffatt had purchased at Billinudgel in about 1900 at £6/acre and grew sugar from 1903, becoming one of the first suppliers to the Condong mill. Allegedly the first to select Billi and spent 10yrs in cane. Mr. P. Walker was another large grower identified in 1907. Tyagarah was also a leading cane growing area but by late 1905 most farmers had changed over to dairying.)
22Jul05: The Kanakas are having a royal time of it at Tumbulgum, being ‘on the spree’ since Tuesday night last??
That if the Kanakas are going to spread leprosy, the sooner they are packed back…
13Sep05: Henry Bob, aborigine stealing from a Cingalese hawker Cudgen.
27Sep05: Joseph King, a half caste Portugese… A few Kanakas had a lively time… the introduction of the Richmond River black blood…
4Oct05: …Deliah endeavouring to lure kanakas into her spiders parlor
The opium smuggling of the heathen Chinese continues
That Murbah has a real magpie hue lately owing to the prevalence of so many blacks in town
11Oct05: Alex Ching, an aborigine…
That the Salvation Army appears to have ‘christianised’ many heathens on the North Coast
That several Kanakas have testified to being saved
That an effort should be made to entice Ram Sukh and others to the fold.
A Kanaka was seriously injured at Main Arm when a tree fell on him
14Oct05: A good story is told of a Tweed Kanaka, who wears a real guersney labelled ‘Salvation Army’. Self denial week had come around and the Kanaka admonished a fellow convert…
18Oct05: William Graham, native of the West Indies drowns Tweed River. 60yrs of age and 30yrs NSW. Native of New Providence Island.

1Nov05: The Blackman has been cut out of the cane brake only to be brought into competition with the white man in scrub felling. Will the Fed Govt give a bonus to white-felled timber?
Editorial A Genuine Grievance.  The white grower is paid 4s 6d per ton bonus… As it takes about 10 tons of cane to produce a ton of sugar the exercise duty then is 1s 6d per ton and as the grower has really to pay that duty
22Nov05: A nigger as black as the ace of spades walked into the Times’ office yesterday…
A Kanaka clergyman died at Cudgen and was buried on Saturday last.
29Nov05: The color line is not finely drawn at the Tweed, and anti-alien legislation in the shape of sugar bounty has not led to the deportation of the Hindoo or Kanaka. Tommy Tanna is still much in evidence….
'Carpenter Jack’ and aborigine.
13Dec05: Kanaka named Bob Penticost drowned North Arm. Usually resides Cudgen.
That there was a gay profusion of  ‘colour’ at the court house…
That the Honguracker and Bukabuke clans were well represented
Cane lands Tyagarah only employing one gang. Farmers turning to dairying
16Dec05: Colored Canegrowers in Conference. Meeting at home of Peter Hansen (Portugese) at Terranora over white bounty. + Bob Limon?Samoa + West Indians. There was an element of pathos at the meeting….
The average Kanaka possesses a certain amount of native wit… Willi Palmer.
20Dec05: Alex Chiung, aborigine, steals from Henry Bob, aborigine…
30Dec05: Some aborigines were deplorably drunk in town last Saturday
Cingalese murdered Const Price at Mackay

6Jan06: Henry Bob aborigine working for Alex Myers Condong Range steals gun
A coloured woman actually washes the duds of a local barracker for ‘white Australia’
The Kanakas made the best use of Saturday for a final booze prior to the coming force of the new Liquor Act
One of the South Sea Island ‘boys’ trod on a bull rout on Middle Arm
At the end of the year there are to be no Kanaka workers in Australia…. Generally it is said the smoky coloured gentlemen are delighted at the idea…
10Jan06: Seccombe of Nambucca has secured a gang of 30 Tweed Kanakas… to harvest paspalum seed
24Jan06: Seccombe secures another batch of Kanakas. Bob Munday, aborigine…
31Jan06: It must be 118 years since Captain Phillip Cook…so long as there were plenty of ‘possums to satiate the sharp appetite of the dusky potentates who ruled over Tumbulegum, Cudgen… Neither was there any occasion in those days for a liquor Act…
3Feb06: ‘Long Bob’, aborigine, champion axeman Tweed
14Feb06: William or Tommy Tanna employed by Fenwicks at Ballina… shot policeman Sydney
Heard on the Rivers: That Tommy Tanna keeps up his reputation for running amok occasionally.
17Feb06: Another ‘Yellow Peril’ scare is passing over Australia. Tanna the Kanaka who murdered Const Wallace…
21Feb06: Ernest Golden a prohibited person
24Feb06: That some of the Kanakas are following the example of the Syrian Malouf and intend contesting the might of the Commonwealth…
6Mar06: Population Stats. 131 aliens Tumbulgum and 73 Cudgen.
7Mar06: 8 Kanakas left Southport on Saturday for the Tweed in a 25ft whaleboat
10Mar06: Cane growers Nth Old leasing to Chinamen
24Mar06: Despite deportation there will still be 5000 kanakas in Qld.
28Mar06: Employment of bona fide Australian aborigines since 21Dec last will not be considered as disqualifying for bounty… sugar cane

11Apr06: Kanaka Deportation. Argument before Kanaka Commission that… Inhuman to send Christianised boys back to heathen villages
14Apr06: White Australia/South Africa. + Sugar Bounties Act. Min Wages set out. Aborigines one third white.
9May06: Disturbance Saturday night between certain whites and the kanakas and a good deal of stone throwing resulted… There are certain women in this town pursuing a calling that is anything but morally edifying… Vigorous police action at Lismore recently cleaned that town of its moral scum…
23May06: Resolution of Presbyterian Church against deportation.
26May06: So far this year 829 Kanakas deported. History of Tweed article
9Jun06: Kanakas employed timber felling Cudgera
13Jun06: Some Kanakas married to Aboriginal women complicates deportation. Article Cane Growing.
20Jun06: The Kanakas are still buying American tinned beef on the principle that ‘where ignorance is bliss.’
7Jul06: Gilbert and Dolly Comet, aborigines
11Jul06: Aboriginal named Gilbert Comet… He and his better ebonised half… A white Comet would have told a different tail and exculpated Mrs Comet from blame.
14Jul06: In the South Sea Islands Kanaka boys have to buy their wives, pigs being the medium of barter. No wonder they want to stop in Australia…
21Jul06: Editorial Notes. White Aust… With the Kanaka gone, the white worker carries the industry in the palm of his hand…
Jack Brown murder case ……the whole thing is the result of a secret society to keep up a white Australia. The plan was to have a revolution against the blacks and Chinese, and kill them off. There are a number in the society, but we have kept it very quiet until we got some money to buy arms. We have had some drills and practice at bayonet work. He gave the names of a couple of Ballina boys, who, he said, were members of the Society.
The Despised Aboriginal. Mr Telfer of Missionary of the NSW Aborigines Mission in town for the temporal and spiritual uplifting…. And seeking to arouse the interest of the public on behalf of this dying race.

4Aug06: Coloured man Joe King of Gundurimba.
18Aug06. Strike on the Canefields… For those who have so long striven to demonstrate the possibility of a white Australia, it does not come as a solace…
29Aug06: Kanaka Deportation. Appointment of people under provisions of Pacific Island Labourers Act to bring before the courts unemployed Kanakas so their deportation might be enforced before the end of the year…
Murders by Chinamen and Hindoos are becoming monotonous
Even the Kanaka is business like. … informed employer he couldn’t get to work because had a funeral on Tweed
29Sep06: The Kanaka Problem. Commonwealth had no prerogative to expel an alien?
27Oct06: Two kanakas were recently married to two Queensland aborigines at Townsville. Advance White Australia
Thus Lismore Chronicle:- Negro cannibals….
Kanaka charged with vagrancy.
25 aborigines attend North Lismore Church of Christ Temperance Hall. (Northern Star?)
3Nov06: All Darktown seemed to be present in the Police Court yesterday.
A Kanaka giving evidence at the Police Court…
Joseph Howell, alias Palmer, assault of Sara Sou (living tent Bilamble) at Duroby. Jack Palmer, bro of Sam, living tent. Ada Muady + Johnnie Mutlap.
7Nov06: The clergymen who think the Kanaka the equal of  the white man should have been at the police court on Friday. The mental and moral degradation of the Kanaka… deplorable.
It is reported that …Qld sugar… to introduce 50 Italians.
10Nov06: One or two young fellows showed their miserable stamp of manhood at the entertainment on Wednesday evening by making an unfortunate aboriginal woman…
24Nov06: Charles Paye, a colored man, … indecent language Tumbulgum
A colored man giving evidence in court, quoted his employer, also a ‘cullud passun’… could get a white man to do job for less… Isn’t this a reflection on the prestige of the white worker? – Ed.
John Brown to be hanged Grafton. White Australia. murder Ballina)
The man De Silva… trial Brisbane. Alleged murder.
19Dec06: Oba, a Kanaka, firing gun at SS Booyong, Cudgen… not altogether mentally sane.
29Dec06: A kanaka was taken to the lockup on a hand cart… a case of ‘wheel or woe.’

5Jan07: Joseph Pentacost, Kanaka, 12yrs on Tweed, assaulted Emma Chauver, housekeeper for Charley Paye, ‘a colored man’, Tumbulgum. Willie Mudlop, another coloured man… + Dick Palmer, and Hindoos Bobadeen and Sahib Deen.
A ‘cullud pusson’ with the euphonious name of George de Silva…impersonating a trooper. The experience cost the darkie four months imprisonment.
Court Briefs. Witness Charlie Pay – a coloured gent – beamed with smiles…euphonious name of Pentacost…. Bobadeen a witness more frequently alluded to as Sardice by the boys… Distances are apparently no object to coloured gents.
2Mar07: Sugar Industry. Italian Immigrants…. Mr McDonald had no objection to Italians, for the Labour Party’s experience of them was that in Queensland they were some of the best unionists they had…. Senator Turley had no objection to Southern Europeans as a people, but thought that Britishers should first be engaged…They have permits for 1050. They will still have to get 4000…. Mr Page said Do you mean to tell me that one European is no better than one kanaka.   Already 2000 kanakas have been deported. We are sending away 2000 more…
Chinese in the North… NT article
16Jan07: Mr Caulfield will supervise deportation of Kanakas from Northern Rivers of NSW
M’Adoos’ property near Chindera
26Jan07: Another of an old dusky identities, in the person of Ching, died at Kynnumboon on Tuesday. He was about 80yrs of age.
A neat tombstone… Chindera… Sam Lindo, Kanaka, buried. The stone was erected by the Cudgen ‘boys.’
30Jan07: Some of the kanaka boys are not looking upon the deportation scheme as a good move…. Coloured man injured tree felling Cudgen
Novel sight… 5 or 6 kanakas and baggage driven through town in a spring cart, driven by a couple of piebald horses. White ones would have looked better

9Feb07: Jack Crofton, aborigine, Bungalore (Numbulgum)
16Feb07: Jack Crofton trial
22Feb07: Jack Api, kanaka, Lismore court for shooting at a steamer
2Mar07: Malla Bucks, coloured man, refused hawkers license on police objection.
6Apr07: Rev Bell farewelled by the Cudgen ‘boys’. The chair was occupied by Stephen Coleman, who, for a kanaka, made an excellent speech….
Lyle Roberts, aborigine, before Lismore court
10Apr07: A Byron Bay scribe says that the late King Bobby is credited with having commanded a tribe of dusky heroes, numbering between 130 and 150, who gave battle several times to the Richmond and Tweed, and he has marks of wounds received in the combats.
Kanakas – Aust born children
24Apr07: Jack Crofton not guilty
18May07: The aborigines who recently fought a duel with razors near Kyogle…
Death occurred at Grafton at the Aborigines Home of King Tommy, chief of the natives… 100yrs old
18May07: Jimmy Mooney, an aborigine… Woodburn… murder of his gin.
3Jul07: The aborigines who caused the fun on the bridge on Sunday… one female
17Jul07: George Kaainoa, painter, signwriter and decorator
31Jul07: Jacky Crofton Case. Police transferred.
3Aug07: Two females – a study in black and white – … Johanna, an aborigine… Mudlo, the wife of a Kanaka North Tumbulgum… + Florence

3Aug07: George McCurdy, a Richmond River aborigine, arrested
A baldy headed Kanaka – a rather rare phenomenon – was present at court…
White wife of a Kanaka, fined
7Aug07: An important advertisement… People who employ unregistered Kanakas are liable for fine of £100.
Kanakas and Aborigines in a drunken condition is a common sight on the Tweed….
About 30 of the Cudgen Mill Kanakas are going back to the islands, and it is feared that a shortage of labour will be seriously felt at the mill, where crushing commenced last week.
14Aug07: Joe Solomon, a South Sea Islander, bad language. (+P. Sheehan, assaults Antasia Aloez of Sydney Oyster Saloon)
17Aug07: A man who had some kanakas on a contract job… As the Kanakas had to throw up the job through no fault of their own… therefore not a broken contract.
The Black Evil Again. Johnny Solomons of Solomon Islands at Chinderra, alleged rape.
21Aug07: The Northern Star reports the death of King Harry, alias Sugarbag, a noted Richmond River aborigine, at over 80yrs of age.
Frank Julius of the South Arm has 16 scrub fellers working on 300 acres of Mr Salomon.
People cannot understand why the Kanaka Joe Solomons was not handcuffed
The Chindera Outrage. Joe Solomons, a South Sea Islander…, has not been recaptured…
28Aug07: Condong Range. As a result of an advert that appeared in a local paper, all the Kanakas employed on the Range have got the sack. It is hoped their places will not be filled by a worse curse – the Hindoo.
31Aug07: The Chindera Outrage. Joe Solomons…

4Sep07: Joe Solomons committed for trial Lismore
Final notice to all Kanakas who have not registered – will be deported regardless.
14Sep07: On Wednesday Const W.J. Smith took several Kanakas to the Heads and handed them over to the deportation authorities
21Sep07: Constable Laidman charged with allowing Joe Solomon to escape.
25Sep07: Cudgen Court. Eliz Bamu v. Willie Api
5Oct 07: Jimmy Tonga Solomon sentenced to death.
19Oct07: A witness named Joe White gave evidence at court yesterday. Joe… humorist… black as ace of spades
23Oct07: Con Guinea returned to Tweed. +28203 white men and 7900 coloured in sugar industry last year. +Bob Munday, a Maori, fined for indecent language
2Nov07: Jimmy Salomon not to hang
6Nov07: Kanaka rejoicing in name Joseph Mallicola…
16Nov07: Philip Lamu supplying booze to aborigines Jimmy Merrylegs and Johanna. Condong Range
8Dec07: Kanakas leave Brisbane steamer Marloo
14Dec07: George Silva, Cingalese, supplying booze to aborigines.
+Billy Blush, aboriginal and Doyle, coloured man,
18Dec07: It is believed that all the Kanakas to be deported from Qld will have left by March next…

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Tweed Daily

20Jan14: Coons and Land. Sugar cane and Cabbage Tree Island.
21Jul15: Billy Bong kanaka of North Tumbulgum
21Jul16: Black and White: South Sea Island football team from ‘the Caves’ challenges Murbah white team but only 7 whites turn up.
14Dec17: Andrew Coolwell (colored) appeared on a charge of riotous behaviour.... Tweed Heads + George Page, Billy Richmond, Jack Crofton.
17Apr19: Jimmy Merrylegs, aboriginal of Murbah, died age 43.
2May24: Kanakas want to go home. Becoming old and cannot obtain pensions.
31Jul28: Peter Palmer, a colored farmer of Terranora..., dies age 78. Born New Hebridies. Worked for P. Maher.
14Nov29: Tweed Heads Chamber of Commerce on segregation of coloured children
13Aug34: All Blacks football team.
14Nov39: William Changato dies Mullum.

5Jun40: Silas Gangar, aborigine, dies Cudgen
10Dec40: Frank Mitchell, coloured labourer of Woodenbong.     
19Dec40: Nellie Addo of New Brighton.
8Oct41: John Corowa dies Billinudgel
26Dec41: Silas Toogooloo, South Sea Islander aged 75, died Chindera.
24Feb42: William Amos, aged 90, South Sea Islander, dies Cudgen. Living in a hut on O’Keefes estate, Cudgen
16Aug43: Billie Bong, Southsea Islander, dies Cobaki Rd., Tweed Heads
6/11Jul45: Series ‘Tweedside in the Eighties’ by Mackinnon. There were a large number of Kanakaks residing on Robb’s plantation at the time… and they would attend the races in great numbers. :……. another small building near the Imperial Hotel was occupied by a tawny-coloured individual named George Kainoor,…..…. Hygiene was not a feature of the establishment. (The bloke’s name was George Kinoa, aka Honolulu George, who was still living in Murbah at the time of the article, but died a short time later. He was a foundation member of the Murbah band, and ‘not a Hindu, but a native of Hawaii.’)
17Nov45: More about the Tweed Aborigines.
22Sep48: Acute shortage maternity beds Murbah means white women will be housed with aborigine women
29Jan49: I believe in a white Australia, says Mr Anthony MHR.
3Mar49: Death of James Noter Billinudgel
9Apr49: Dick Sickett of Yelgun obit
14Mar49: No compromise on White Australia – RSL Chief.
10Aug49: ‘Nigger Minstral’ show Murbah
21Sep49: Otto Redman, 72, dies Cudgen. Born Fila, New Britain, and been Aust 50yrs with brother Archie.

20Apr50: Harry Mussing dies Murbah. Born Ambyrm Island, New Hebridies. Forceably abducted by blackbirders for QLD canefields. Later made several trips back and forth as a recruiter. First man to plant bananas Eungella 40yrs ago. On R.G. McKenzie’s property. (Edward Mussing b. 1908 Murbah, died Japanese POW camp. Listed as an ‘Aboriginal POW’. Nephew David Runge, b. 1920 Murbah, also enlisted. Ida Faith Mussing, aka Faith Bandler, served Womens Land Army.)
26Feb52: Segregation Resented. L to E by John Mussing, Cobaki Rd., Tweed Heads. May I take the Liberty of asking you to publish this letter of how the colored population of the district are treated
At certain places they are directed to a place reserved for the colored people alone, and are not allowed to sit where they choose, the same as the whites do.
This act of segregation has been going on for some years.
On July 1, 1951, my wife and I wrote a letter to Mr H.L. Anthony, MHR, concerning the matter. In his reply to our letter Mr Anthony stated it was not a Federal matter and he therefore forwarded our letter to Mr S.T. Stephens, MLA, for attention. Mr Stephens passed our letter on to the Chief Secretary, and said as soon as he had a reply from the Chief Secretary he would convey it to us. So far we have had no reply from Mr Stephens
I have come to the conclusion that there has been nothing done concerning the matter. I’m sure the colored people of the Tweed district and Coolangatta are worthy of better treatment than they are receiving.
It appears to me that the act of segregation is neither a Federal nor a State matter. Where is the democracy the colored men of both world wars helped to preserve?
I may also mention that my brother, Pte. E. Mussing, 2/26^th Battalion, 8^th Div., paid the supreme sacrifice on the Burma Road, also that my nephew, Pte. D. Runge, 8^th Div., had both legs amputated as the result of Japanese atrocities. (Both boys were well known on the Tweed).
Is this the type of freedom they were defending for the colored people?

13May53: Death of aboriginal boxer Johnnie Slockie
6Sep56: James Toga, ‘Old Jimmy’, dies Murbah. Born Oaba New Hebrides. Wife Penny Battengara of New Calidonia.
17Aug57: All Blacks football team Mullum. Slockee, Lena, etc.
7Jan58: 8 coloured youths Tweed Heads court.
14May58: Citizenship no use to aborigines. Nicklin Qld.
23Jun58: All Blacks win Anthony Shield.
20Aug58: Petitioners seeking to keep aboriginal family from buying house near Nambucca Heads won fight
26Aug58: letter to Ed Ethnocentricism is Adhorent re Nambucca.
27Aug58: 250 citizens of North Lismore protest against moving Cubawee aboriginal reserve to North Lis.
15Sep58: All Blacks Rugby League team win Tweed Comp
25Sep58: Drounin residents protest over aboriginal family moving into street.
16Oct58: WA. Citizenship should be denied to aboriginals
2Dec58: Mrs George Slockee and daughters Kingscliff
11Jul59: Death of Thomas Slockee. Born 1919 Cudgen and went with parents to Mullum.

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Mullumbimby Star

21Jul10: Jack Crofton, aboriginal, … drunk at Brunswick Heads.
1Dec10: Aborigines earning up to 36s per week
29Jan11: Jack Crofton drunk
4May11: Mrs I. Slocky, a coloured woman, died aged 30. Resided near Brunswick Rd. Husband and 7 children. Oldest =12yrs, youngest = 2 days … and a large number of her own people attended the funeral. …. Of her own folk one man walked 50 miles to be present. The Slocky family are held in much estimation… The family are in rather poor circumstances… Subscriptions taken… [In 1920 Tom Slockey was identified as a Billinudgel resident. Probably connected to Thomas Slockee who died 11Jul59 Murbah. Born Cudgen 1919 (or 09 or 1899?) and went with family to Mullum. Married Clara Williams in Mullum at age 28. Banana grower of Mullum. Daughters Ivy Dodds and Joyce Appo Amerlia Watego. Dau Violet Slockee died Tweed Heads 1944. Thomas was a cousin of the Noters. Victor Slockee was fined Murbah 16Oct41. In 1957 L. Slockee was the star of the All Blacks Rugby Team in the Brunswick/Tweed competition – along with Ping Lena, T. Corowa, and J. Appo. They won the 1958 Tweed Rugby final. 2Dec58 Murbah Daily: Photo of Mrs George Slockee of Kingscliff with six daughters. 12 children, 55 grandchildren and 53 great grand children. 13May53: Aboriginal boxer Johnnie Slockie dies age 23. Born Tweed.]
15Jun11: Jack Williams, a coloured man,’… one month hard labour Grafton.
Early 1911 Brieflets carried a report on a lecture called The Yellow Peril by Prof T Mills in Sydney and added its own solution: Australians must take less interest in cricket and pay more attention to technical education if they would become a great nation. This was necessary, for the duty of solving the Asiatic problem was naturally laid upon Australia and America – the two white-populated countries that bordered the Pacific Ocean.

4Apr1912: ‘Mr Changato and two of his countrymen’ performed a rescue from surf at Bruns.  +Most of the Kanakas have left Cudgen Estate. The men are securing work at scrub felling.
16May12: John Black, aborigine, drunk.
14Mar13: Louis and Ida Changato come first and second in Senior girls Scripture class. W. Changato 1^st in junior boys. [William Changato passes Qualifying Certificate Exams 27Jan16. 19Jul17 Brother W Changato installed as an office bearer in the Brunswick Star Lodge of the PAF Society? Amy Lois Helena, Ida Catherine and Jane Changato all listed Train Street 1921. (Ida Cath m. Gordon Doug Reddacliff 1942. Amy m. Robert Armstrong 1935.)]
22May13: ‘Geelong’, aborigine, drunk (‘Geelong’ probably the Byron Bay identity ‘Cheelong’.)
12Jun13: ‘Appoo’ was 3^rd in final of Woodchop event at Kings Birthday Sports Carnival. Many Kanaka families called Appo on Tweed. L. Appo in sports day 1Jun16.
14Aug13: ‘Here and There’. Two residents were placed under the ‘black fellows act’ by the Bangalow bench last week.
9Oct13: James and Lena Notta
30Oct13: ‘Cheelong’, the well known Byron Bay aborigine…. Employed by Charlie Jarrett … ‘can do any class of work with the best white man’… outlived 3 wives.
13Sep13: Jack Crofton, ‘full blood’ aborigine…
7May14: Kanakas are doing fairly well at catching schnappers 3 miles out of Brunswick Heads… A party of aborigines have made a number of trips out for schnappers and been successful… Mr Farrugia (Maltese) also getting good catches.
(Just afterwards: Three Kanakas (no names) at Billinudgel pub and  no evidence was produced to prove that the men were Kanakas and that no evidence was produced to say that any of the coloured persons belonged to the South Pacific Islands or that they were served liquors, but publican was fined £10.

25Feb15: An American nigger was fined 2/6d. for drunkenness
9Dec15: J. Noonanois ill at Tweed Heads
13Jan16: Joe Zeen, coloured of Billinudgel, is said to be the champion milker on the North Coast. Besides being able to burst open the ends of cows teats, he has the reputation of squirting the bottoms out of buckets.
24May17: Half Castes of Aboriginal descent will be permitted to enlist in the AIF if it is demonstrated that one of the parents was European.
19Jul17: Bro W. Changato installed as an officer bearer in the Brunswick Star Lodge (PAF Society)
4Apr18: Jimmy Pannikin is dead?
24Apr19: Wanted – Two Kananas for Banana Chipping. 10/- per day.
16Oct19: W. Watego, returned soldier, recently acquired dairy farm Billinudgel, destroyed by fire. Surrounded by soldier settlement banana plantations.
4Dec19: Publican fined for serving Kanakas
29Apr20: Publican Billinudgel appealed against conviction serving Kananas
30Sep20: Dick Sijet, Michael Murphy, Thomas Dodd, Jack Turnside, Billy Monkland, Ted Phaidy and William McDermott, coloured individuals, were proceeded against…… on a charge of gambling on the railway station premises at Billinudgel. Playing cards on the platform.)
21Oct20: Tom Slockey, N. Camerea, P. Degotardi Billinudgel.
3Oct1929: The Agricultural Society’s ‘Nigger Social’ held at the Empire Theatre 10Oct29 also being advertised as the ‘Coon Social’ and everyone encouraged to come in fancy dress.  17Oct: ………..Certainly the greatest novelty of the season, and wild hilarity greeted the arrival of the coons.

18Oct41: John Corowa from the New Hebrides died Billinudgel aged 70. Been in the district 40yrs. Wife Eva (nee Williams) died Billinudgel 1928. John left sons Robert (Coolangatta), John and Leslie (Carool), Alfred and Arthur (Ayr) and daughters S. Corowa (Brisbane) and Olive Corowa and Mrs I. Ivey (Billinudgel). James Noter of Billinudgel was his brother. Buried Murbah with Pall Bearers: Thomas and Walter Slockey, Harold Togo, William Enares, Solomon Belaire and Arthur Sendy.
(James Corowa Noter b. 1916 Mullum, enlisted 1939. NOK James Noter.)

28Nov48: Myrtle Fanny Changato (nee Mortimer, b. 1902 Lindendale) wife of William Jnr., died aged 46 Mullum. Survived by husband and daughter Patricia. (William Snr and wife both died in 1939 Train Street Mullum. In late 1919, J. Changesi, probably Changato, was identified at Billinudgel when his banana plantation was partially burnt in a fire. He had initially gone to the Murbah district in 1895, married the English girl Jane Smith in 1896, took her home to meet the rellies in 1897 and returned permanently to Oz in 1899.)
William’s son William, born in Mullum in 1902, was growing bananas at The Pocket in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Amy and Ida Changato, resident in Train Street in 1921, later married Mullum identities Robert Armstrong and Gordon Reddacliff respectively. There was one other Changato daughter. I.C. Changato donated to the Bomb Relief Fund 7Oct40. (Money for British civilians)

18Feb49: Andrew Noter of Billinudgel, aged 38
1Mar49: James Noter, aged 75, banana grower of Billinudgel, dies. Born Tanna, New Hebridies. Landed Mackay 1893. Came to Cudgen 1899 but later moved to Billinudgel. Wife Lena and 13 children (all listed). Pallbearers: W. Bekue, W. Budd, P. Amberteil, P. Marlow, R. Bolt, R. Corowa, C. Phillips, E. Slockie, V. Slockie, M. Enares, R. Sickett, J. Magnolia, A. Yettica.
(James Notta, a South Sea Islander, and wife Lena Notto identified as Mullum residents in 1913, and in 1919 they and Richard Sickett identified as Kanakas of Billinudgel. Probably same Noter family from The New Hebrides identified post WW2 Middle Pocket, along with the Marlowe and Ivy families. Lena May Noter died in Murbah 1974. In 1959 Lou Noter of the All Blacks Rugby team in Tweed Association.

9Apr49: Richard (Dick) Sickett of Yelgun retiring to home island of Tauna in New Hebrides to live with niece. Wife and 2 daughters dead. Arrived Bundaberg late 1890s aged 16 with 100 others aged 16 to 21 to cut cane. Came to Billinudgel 1909 and worked at scrub felling. Later had 14 acres of bananas which he sold to Jim Eggins (later MLC) of Lismore. Recognised as ‘the uncrowned king of the south sea islanders’. He had ‘a white heart beneath a swarthy skin….’.

18Feb55: Body of old coloured woman, Mrs Nelli Addo…found hut New Brighton. Lived alone for many years

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Northern Star

28Feb94: Heerainulaa v. F. McQuilty. Debt
11Apr94: Aborigines refused treatment Casino Hospital
11Oct05: William Tackarack, a kanaka of Bilambil, assault charge. Lived on Tweed last 3yrs.
2Mar07: Column by Noogoora Burr: What are we coming to? We drive out the kanaka boy to bring in a horde of Italians. Better, far better, the devil you know than the one you do not. The kanaka boy can hold his own with the most of foreigners, too. Not that any of them are desirable, but we seem to be able to bring the kanaka to a higher moral life than most aliens. See under Italians.
16Mar07:  …But that does not get away from the fact of my remark, ‘that the Federal Government had driven out foreigners to bring others (Italians) in’… And he says again the kanaka is not any more undesirable than most other foreigners. Let us have ‘Australia for Australians’. No other cry should be heard in Australia. …Then for another phase of the question. Look how the Dago has a monopoly of fish and oyster saloons in Sydney and other large centres. Any true ‘Cornstalk’ or ‘Pelmo’ (letter writers) must feel quite elated as he walks along Pitt and King streets when he sees how the Dago has driven his countrymen out of the fruit and restaurant businesses. Oh no! we want population certainly, give us Britishers and look to our own birthrate; but foreigners we do not want.
12May08: Henry Lifu, a coloured man, drunk
22Jun08: Deported Kanaka Revenge. Murder Solomons. The white man would not have us in his country, so we will rid our country of the white man.
1Sep08: Mr Santo Watson, who left Lismore about 2mths ago on a return visit to his native home in the New Hebridies. Left 28yrs ago.
29Dec08: A Polite Defendant. Fikeria, an Indian, drunk. James Reid, an Egyptian, drunk. Budgee Carr (Indian), Natoo (Indian), drunk. Harry Latoo (South Sea Islander), drunk.
19Jan09: Letter to editor by Santo (well-known Islander of Lismore, who has been in the service of M WC Renwick for very many years) Left Lismore 6mths ago on 12mth trip to his native Island of Santo, New Hebrides. Murder of plantation owners.
20Jan09: Vanishing Kanakas. 20 given QLD permits last year to return
3Feb09: Repatriation of Kanakas.
5Mar09: James Williams, Cingalese, robbed
11Mar09: A Kanaka Trouble. Johnny Mile of Cudgen shot Tom Mye. Wit Jimmy Manakoola.
12Mar09: Armed Aliens.  Kanaka case. Plus White Australia.
29Dec09: Harry Latoo (South Sea Islander), drunk.

20Aug10: Charles Page, West Indian, assaulted. +Frank Despatista of Malta. House Chindera.
30Nov10: A coloured child died in Mullumbimby on Sunday…
29Dec10: Harry Lafoo drunk
10Jan11: White Mans Burden. How Australian Blacks are Wronged.
25Feb11: Australian Blacks. Awful Past Treatment.
24Oct11: Henry Lafoo, Kanaka , drunk. Plus George Thompson, aborigine          
2Feb12: Letter to Ed of Melbourne Age from William of Billinudgel, aborigine. ‘A Blackfellows View.’
1Aug12: Louis Theogose, half caste Cingalese, but native of Goa, India. Grafton murder.
24Dec12: Aborigine influx Lismore
11/12Apr13: Archie Rowles, Cingalese. Joe Aboo. Jack Saddick, Algerian.
10Oct13: Joseph Zeen, a Sydney native of coloured extraction…. assault Tygalgah
10Aug15: Jack Apr, Kanaka of Chindera. Charged with killing cow.
23Jun16: £80/acre for banana land Chindera
21Jul16: 5 Kanakas of Billinudgel enlisted Byron Bay
29Nov16: Two Aborigines drinking Tatts hotel
11Jul17: 4 half castes enlist Lismore
6Oct17: Lucy Lamos. Murder Chindera. Charlie Ambong, Christine Apoo
13Nov29: William Moore, aborigine, stealing from Aullia, Hindu of Caniaba, Dunoon Rd. + Steve Roberts aborigine. Italian witness Ballaran working for Hindu.
14Nov29: Segregation of coloured children Tweed Heads
7Jan30: Charlie Ah Ching, market gardener North Lismore, employs George Watego as share farmer for a couple of weeks. Watego next door neighbour Terania St and a waterside worker unemployed for last 12mths.
2May30: W. Changato riotous behaviour Mullum
3Jul33: Tweed All Blacks defeat Mullumbimby-Billinudgel. Record crowd Mullum. The dusky players won 21 to 12... Photos and names.
3Aug33: Tweed All Blacks to play Wallaroos Coleman's Point, Lismore, but risk disqualification from Tweed League for playing on a Sunday.
30Nov34: Fracas at Pederson home Yelgun - Phyllis Noter and sister Mrs Olive Gorman

Lismore Chronicle:

19Feb01: Assault of Kanakas Murbah. Willie Aramango farmer residing north arm Tweed River. Assaulted by yobbos. Joe Tanna present? Wife/housekeeper Maggie = Margaret Prendible.
20Sep01: A White Australia. Kanakas. Rev E.T. Dunstan
18Sep03: The White Australia Question. White cane cutters walk off Tweed. Job too hard but Kanakas finish it okay. White crew getting 6s per day with food.
10Jun04: George Develle, a native of the West Indies.
14Jun04: Thomas Tanna and Harry Luffo, dark skinned,….riotous behaviour.
23Sep04: Scared by the Blacks. Aborigines of Tweed.
11Oct04: Chinese Sugar Growers.
18Nov04: Willie May, a Kanaka of Nth Tumbulgum
2Dec04: Maclean. Jane Davis, a housekeeper for a number of kanakas accused of trying to poison them. Joe Williams.
23Dec04: Maclean. Jimmy the Chinaman. Frank Tanna, Kanaka owned the land on which 3 kanakas built boarding house. Jane Davis, ‘Jinny’, living with Tanna for 2.5yrs. Known him for 16yrs. Tommy Abrahms.
7Apr05: Harry Capps – the Aboriginal King of Alstonville… His Ebonised Majesty.

16May05: Premier says: There is a great feeling among many people in the north, on the Richmond and the Tweed, about the possibilities of the deportation of the Kanaka. An idea is prevalent there that the Kanakas are to be removed to their isles, in the course of a couple of years. Now, many of these are married, and have families, and own little plots of land. It would be a terrible thing if they were taken away; in fact, I think it would be a blot on our civilization. They would be taken away, and landed again in almost savage islands. And there are the white woman and children. I traveled with a clergyman, who said he had 186 Kanakas in one congregation, and he spoke highly of them. The Kanakas are in great distress of mind about the rumoured removal.
Here’s another thing. The story about the cutting down of wages is absurd. There was a strike in one of the sugar factories, the Kanakas declining to work for a lower wage. Their places were filled by the white man.
30May05: Deportation of Kanakas
11Jul05: Maclean Poisoning Case. Jane Davis, a little old-fashioned looking woman, of middle age…. Sentenced to death.
18Jul05: One disclosure in connection with the poisoning case at Maclean is not at all pleasant news to the residents of that pretty little little town; but, at the same time, it tends to show that people cannot be too careful in dealing with the detestable and dirty blacks who are swarming our coast. Just imagine a frail, little, old woman is indicted for attempting to poison a Kanaka, and after she is convicted it is discovered that the man she desired not is a leper, as also is another witness in the case, both of whom were dispatched to the lazarette, where they will end their days sooner or later – sooner for choice…. It was stated that the condemned woman is a victim to paralysis, but the probabilities are that she is sharing the same foul abomination as he whose dispatch she would hasten.
Such direful developments as referred to in the preceding Note should serve as a warning to the many wealthy farmers – and others, too – in this district who are prone to hug and worship the blackman in preference to one of their own color. Think of these degraded aliens – who are subject to the worse forms of disease – working on dairies and farms and sleeping huddled together like so many fleas in filthy rooms, to which their master’s children probably have access……. Goodness knows, some of the whites are bad enough in their habits, but to discover a clean living alien is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack.
28Jul05: A Rational White Australia. Favourable.
8Aug05: Kanakas – leprosy – Maclean.
15Aug05: Leprosy inquiry to extend to Hindoos.
8Sep05: for the year ended Dec1904 the Tweed produced 44,357 tons of cane, Richmond 87,363 tons and Clarence 67,630 tons. 50yrs later still the same order.
19Sep05: Harry Liffo, Kanaka, drunk Molesworth St.
29Sep05: A Gundurimba Affray. Joseph King, a native of Cape Verde Islands,…malicious wounding of Alfred Whitney.
James Henry Cappa, the Aboriginal King of Alstonville and its Dependencies….
10Oct05: William Tackarack, a Kanaka of Bilambil…. Indecent assault. Found guilty by jury despite counseling by judge to contrary.
17Oct05: Sarah Mattei, 41, drunk
7Nov05: Fire Terranora. Peter Hansen lost 10acres of cane. Total of 200acres lost.

5Jan06: Sugar Bonus Bills. 22% of growers Nth QLD hanging onto beloved Kanakas. 7000 to be sent back by end of year.
9Jan06: Deportation of Kanakas… The PM evidently is determined to enforce the provisions of the Act, notwithstanding the wailings of the lovers of black labor. The deportations will be carried out with the greatest humanity….
12Jan06: The Mixed Marriage Curse. +Colored Labor – Kanaka Deframed
16Feb06: Newtown Tragedy. Encounter with a Kanaka. Flight of former Ballina people. Willie Tanna.
20Mar06: Deportation of kanakas.
17Apr06: The Kanaka conundrum.
3Jul06: Harry Capps, the dusky monarch…
27Jul06: John Salvador Pinto, Portugese, poultry farmer of Nth Lismore.
3Aug06: Joseph King, 37, a Cape Verde Islander… Assault Gundurimba.
10Aug06: King case. Employer Johnson assaulted him with a whip.
Harry Levu, a coloured man of Levu Island, close to New Caledonia.
17Aug06: King case.
28Aug06: Deportation of Kanakas.
14Dec06: Jack Williams, a coloured individual… assaults John Salvadore Pinto and William Boukallil

5Apr07: Tommy Tanna, Kanaka, drunk
14May07: Hooray for a White Australia! Shriek for a White Australia! Vote for a White Australia! And when you have done that, do you think you have fulfilled all the requirements of a White Australia ideal? If you think so, you are wrong. You must do more. You must live up to your principles, and give the coloured races a wide berth. In this town there are many deserving women only too glad to get jobs of washing and ironing, to keep themselves and families in food and clothes, and to them it would be expected that laundry work would be given. But it is not. It goes to Japs. Think of it! Our own race allowed to battle for a crust, and no work given. A Jap laundry rushed with orders! And worst feature of all is that the greatest supporters of these Jap laundries are working men – the very persons whose occupations are the first affected by colored labor. Mean whites are not confined to the degraded class who consort with colored people, but comprise those who deal with them and patronise them.
4Jun07: Repatriation of Kanakas
28Jun07: Sugar Industry. Coloured Labour Unnecessary
16Aug07: A Tweed Outrage. Kanaka Jack Solomons.
23Aug07: Chindera Outrage. Solomons escape.
4Oct07: Jimmy Tonga Solomon of Chindera

Other References

History of the South Sea Islanders on the Tweed by Johnny Itong, published 1994.
The Canecutters by Geoff Burrows and Clive Morton. Melbourne University Press 1986. Chapter 15 Big Rivers, covers kanakas of northern NSW. Many names and photos.
Federal Govt Files
Ida MUSSING – Naturalization. NAA Doc, Series No A1, Barcode 1024675, Control Symbol 1934/5272
Ida Lessing Faith Bandler (Mussing) – Volume 1. NAA Doc, Series No A6119, Barcode 3473722, Control Symbol 2535