IDNO

P.92.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Man with boomerang, shield and snake." [typed text, circa 1935]

Charlie Murray, a Birpai man, standing on a ridge top holding a shield and a snake (probably killed as bush tucker [food]). The man wears a fur loincloth, with five boomerangs carried through the waist strap. In the background is a farm house and wooden fences, all of which have been retouched to minimise their impact. The fence line may indicate a road, possibly the present day Lake Road. [Knowledge shared by Liz Gilroy, Port Macquarie Hastings Council, 2/7/2010, JD 3/7/2010]

Full-length portrait of Birpai man with beard and moustache posing with a snake and a shield. He has boomerangs fixed in the belt of his loincloth. The man is standing on a high point in the landscape. There are grasses and trees in the background. [WV 11/3/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; New South Wales; Port Macquarie; Lake Road

Cultural Affliation

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

Named Person

Charlie Murray

Photographer

Dick, Thomas

Collector / Expedition

Date

1910 - 1920

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon Collection

Source

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

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Named Person: This man is identified as Charlie Murray by Liz Gilroy, Port Macquarie Hastings Council, 2/7/2010. [JD 3/7/2010]

Biographical Information: “Charles Murray was one of the two older men featured in the collection and he appears in most of the surviving images. Born around 1860 in Walgett it is said that he was brought to the Hastings as a baby. He married into the Birpai through his marriage to Nellie Dungay at a communal church wedding at Rollands Plains in 1890. He was also named as an occupant of the Rollands Plains reserve in August 1890. Charlie was amember of the very successful Rollands Plains cricket team of the 1890’s. His active communinty life included being undertaker for Goori burials. In 1916 Charlie was the subject of a Lionel Lindsay watercolour portrait. He was 50 - 60 years old during the photographic period.” (Black & White: Selections from the Thomas Dick Collection, Port Macquarie Hastings Council, 2009) p. 10. [JD 14/4/2011]

Place: “Note house in background at right. Thought to be showing present day Lake Rd, Port Macquaire.” [Knowledge shared by Liz Gilroy, Port Macquarie Hastings Council, 2/7/2011. [JD 3/7/2010]

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 in circa 1941 by the Australian Museum, Sydney with the following caption:
“A hunter armed with boomerangs and a bark shield, and wearing a marsupial fur apron, returning from the chase with a snake.
Port Macquarie, New South Wales.” [Photocopy of postcard provided by Liz Gilroy, JD 3/7/2010]

Bibliographical Reference: Isobel McBryde ‘Thomas Dick’s Photographic Vision’ in Ian Donaldson & Tamsin Donaldson, Eds, 1985. Seeing the First Australians (Unwin Hyman). [JD 8/12/2006]

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]

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]

MAA Facebook: This image was published on the MAA's Facebook page 'Year of the Snake' album, 11/2/2013, with the following caption:
"Charlie Murray, a Birpai man, with a snake, probably killed as bush tucker (food from the land).
He wears a fur loincloth, has five boomerangs carried through the waist strap, and holds a shield. He is standing on a ridge top and in the background is a farmhouse and wooden fences, all of which have been retouched to minimise their impact.
Lake Road, Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia
Photograph by Thomas Dick, circa 1910 – 1920
P.92.ACH1." [JD 11/5/2013]

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