IDNO

P.87.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Gathering the oyster for food." [typed text, circa 1935]

Billy Bugg and Charlie Murray, two Birpai men, gathering natural oysters from mangrove shoots in the Hastings River. One of the men has a full beard and moustache. There are some trees in the background. [WV 11/3/2009, updated with knowledge shared by John Heath, Birpai traditional owner, Thomas Dick Photographic Collection Family Stakeholder Group, Port Macquaire, New South Wales. JD 9/20/2017]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; New South Wales; in or near Port Macquarie; ?Settlement Point

Cultural Affliation

Birpai [also known as Birrpai; Biripi; Birrbay; Biripee]

Named Person

Billy Bugg; Charlie Murray

Photographer

Dick, Thomas

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1912

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon Collection

Source

Coghlan, T. A. (Agent-General of N.S.W.)

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Image published in 'Birrpai- Beyond the lens of Thomas Dick' by John Heath, 2017, and captioned: "Image 19: Thomas Dick Collection- Billy Bugg and Charlie Murray harvesting natural oysters from mangrove shoots in the Hastings River c. 1912." [JD 20/09/2017]

Exhibition: Digital copies of all of Thomas Dick’s photographs were returned to the Port Macquarie Hastings Council for their following collaborative project and exhibition:
Black & White: Selections from the Thomas Dick Collection
Port Macquarie Hastings Council.
The Thomas Dick collection of images was a collaborative effort between the photographer (Dick) & a group of Birapi Aboriginal people during 1910 - 1920. These staged photographs show the same Aboriginal families staging traditional activities within the local landscape of the Port Macquarie-Hastings area. The exhibition & catalogue of the collection was produced in partnership with stakeholders from the Aboriginal families, the Birpai Land Council and the descendants of photographer Thomas Dick and Port Macquarie-Hastings Council. Support was received from the Australian Museum & the Powerhouse Museum Regional Services & the project was funded by Council and Arts NSW. [Source: www.hastings.nsw.gov.au, JD 3/7/2010]

Related Collection: The Australian Museum acquired a collection of 140 negatives by Thomas Dick in 1941. See ‘The Australian Museum Magazine’. March 10, 1941. [Photocopy supplied by Liz Gilroy, JD 3/7/2010]

Publication: Image published as a postcard by the Australian Museum, Sydney with the following caption:
“Man collecting oysters on a mangrove flat. This is usually the work of the women-folk.
Port Macquarie, New South Wales.” [Photocopy of postcard provided by Liz Gilroy, JD 3/7/2010]

Publication: Image published in Isobel McBryde ‘Thomas Dick’s Photographic Vision’ in Ian Donaldson & Tamsin Donaldson, Eds, 1985. Seeing the First Australians (Unwin Hyman), p.150, with the following caption:
“Plate 9.10. Subsistence activitees - gathering oysters (Crassostrea commercialis) from the mangrove (Avicennia marina) areas of the tidal creeks in the Hastings estuary.” [Photocopy supplied by Liz Gilroy, JD 3/7/2010]

Bibliographical Reference: Bloomfield, Geoffrey, 1981. Baal Bora: The End of Dancing. [JD 8/12/2006]

Biographical Information: Thomas Dick took photos between 1905 and 1923, although in Bloomfield’s books they are labeled as having been taken in the 19th century.
Thomas Dick took these photos over several years. He would head off into the bush with his 5 Birpai ‘informants’. He clearly developed a relationship with them as it is the same people and sometimes their children in all of the images.
Dick’s images tend to be taken as sets or series. Each series documents a ‘traditional’ activity of the Birpai people. Some examples we have are of making heliman shields, fishing, digging and cooking pippies, climbing trees, and making canoes. He also photographed a series of Aboriginal portraits. I have only seen copies of these portraits in Bloomfield’s book and he lists them as being held in Cambridge. The images were taken around Port Macquarie and the Hastings river in New South Wales.
Part of the problem with locating his images and glass plate negatives is that there is no record of exactly how many he took. He drowned in 1927 and after his death his wife, who didn’t approve of his activities, purportedly threw much of his collection, his glass plate negatives and photos down a well.
Isobel McBryde notes in her article ‘Thomas Dick’s Photographic Vision’ (Ian Donaldson & Tamsin Donaldson Eds. Seeing the First Australians), that Dick sent copies of his images to Cambridge in the 1920s.” [Source: Anna Bradbury, researcher for Port Macquarie-Hastings Council and the Birpai and Bunyah Land Councils, 7/12/2006] [JD 8/12/2006]

Place: A similar photograph of Charlie Murray collecting oysters from mangrove shoots is captioned as: "Charlie Murray gathers oysters from mangrove shoots near Settlement Point in Port Macquarie. His fishing spears are placed behind him." [Source: https://www.nma.gov.au/av/portmacquarie/the-hastings-river/photographing-the-birpai/gathering-food/, JD 08/07/2024]

Date: The Date field was previously recorded as being “1905 - 1927” based on the research by Anna Bradbury, but this date range was narrowed to 1910 - 1920 during the Port Macquaire Hastings Council project (See Exhibition and Bibliographical reference). The Date field has been amended accordingly. [JD 14/4/2011]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Aboriginal Visual Histories Project, Monash University. [Wonu Veys 11/3/2009]