Views from Western Australia

Published March 2007 ‘Anglican Messenger’ Western Australia

Subtitle: For the record – a costly reconciliation

IN the November 2006 Messenger there were articles on: the history of the establishment of the Diocese and Bishop Hale, the institution and site known as Swanleigh and the honouring of Noongar people.

This year we rightly celebrate the establishment of the Diocese and the achievements of Bishop Hale. Nonetheless, some of the earlier Anglican work with Aboriginal people in the colony warrants attention, particularly in relation to Aboriginal children, the Swanleigh site, and how they relate to the work of Bishop Hale.

In 1829 Frederick Irwin came to the Swan River Colony as military commander; five years later he and George Moore went to Ireland and England and established the Western Australian Missionary Society (the Bush Church Aid traces its roots back to this Society being founded and the Intercontinental Church Society also sees it as important part of its history of establishment).

The Western Australian Missionary Society subsequently purchased an 866-acre site that stretched from the Swan River right up into the hills; the 69-acre “Swanleigh” property is what remains of that land.

The Society sent an Italian, Dr Luis Giustiniani, as its first missionary; he arrived at the Swan Parish in 1836. He built two houses - his home and an Aboriginal mission - and after advocating for Aboriginal people Giustiniani left the colony amid some controversy in 1838.

Revd William Mitchell followed, he arrived with his family and a governess named Anne Breeze in 1838. Within a month Mitchell established a mission school on the Swan site for settlers’ children and Aboriginal children with Breeze assisting.

A second Anglican school was established at Fremantle by George King in 1841, it continued till 1850.

In 1841 Abraham Jones re-opened Giustiniani’s mission school in Guildford it also continued until 1850.

In May 1842, after arriving the year before, Revd John Wollaston proposed a plan to remove Aboriginal children to schools where they would be educated at the cost of settler families, who would then have the option of employing them as domestic servants.

In 1843 Mitchell established a second Mission School at Middle Swan and at Upper Swan Revd Postlethwaite established a Mission school for settlers and Aboriginal children which ran until 1848.

In the 1850s Swan Cottage was built at the Middle Swan site to accommodate young ‘native girls’ for the Mission School and Wollaston was granted 60 acres in Albany for an Institution. The children from the King’s School in Fremantle were then moved to the Albany institution. Henry Camfield and his wife Anne managed the Albany Institution; Mrs Camfield being Anne Breeze who had worked in Mitchell’s Middle Swan School over a decade earlier.

When Hale was appointed Bishop in 1856 he is said to have had three main areas of interest: care of the Aborigines, the spiritual welfare of the convicts, and a desire to provide higher education for the ‘sons of the better class settlers’.

In 1871 the Albany Native Institution was the longest operating educational establishment for Aboriginal children in the colony and the Camfields wanted to retire; but nobody could be found to operate the Institution. Hale was troubled by this and offered his resignation with the intention of going to manage the Albany institution himself - a delegation talked him out of resigning.

With no solution to the problem in Albany, Hale purchased a block adjacent to Bishop’s House (cnr of St George’s Terrace and Spring St), built a house on it to accommodate and educate Aboriginal children and brought the children from Albany to it. This was all done at his own expense.

When Hale left Perth, his successor, Bishop Parry, took over the management of the Institution until 1888 when he moved the children to the newly established the Swan Native and Half Caste Mission on the Middle Swan site.

The purpose built two-storey building in the City was known as Hale House. After operating as the Bishop’s “Native and Half Caste Institution” for 16 years the land was eventually absorbed into the Bishop’s See.

The Swan Native and Half Caste Mission operated on the site at the same time as the Swan Boys’ Orphanage and later the girls’ orphanage that had operated in Adelaide Terrace also moved there and was known as the Swan Girls’ Orphanage. The Mission and Orphanages were separated by some acreage and the Jane Brook. The Orphanages were predominantly for non-Aboriginal children, although some children from the Mission, particularly older boys, stayed at the Boys Orphanage. The department that was responsible for Aboriginal affairs appears to have been unhappy with this practise and after one visit instructed those responsible to move all the Aboriginal boys out of the Orphanage back to the Mission.

During this period some substantial grants of land were made to the Diocesan Trustees by the Crown in relation to these various institutions.

Later, the “Aborigines Act 1905” made the Chief Protector the legal guardian of ‘every Aboriginal and half-caste child’ under 16 years.  AO Neville was appointed Chief Protector in 1915 and subsequently opened two major reserves, at Moore River near Mogumber and Carrolup River near Katanning.

In 1920 Neville discontinued the Government subsidy to Church run Institutions. This apparently forced the closure of the Swan Native and Half Caste Mission with the remaining children sent to Moore River Native Settlement, Mogumber.

Neville’s decision and the sending of the Mission children to Mogumber effectively ended more than 80 years of Anglican work with Aboriginal children who were predominantly Noongar - that is to say children of Aboriginal children from the Perth metropolitan area and the greater South West. During that period of time the Anglican Church had responsibility for children who were moved from Fremantle to Albany (1850s), from Albany to Perth (1872), from Perth to Swan (1888) and from Swan to Mogumber (1920).

Later after requests from the Bishop of Perth (Riley) the Swan site was gifted to the Perth Diocese by the London-based Colonial and Continental Church Society who had responsibility for the Western Australian Missionary Society. The Perth Diocesan Trustees sold off the bulk of the property over the following years.  From 1960 onward the site started operations as a hostel where boarders from the country could stay while attending public schools in Perth. This soon became the main work of the facility that now operates as Swanleigh.

There was some controversy about this change of direction within the Diocese at the time. But the work flourished for the next few decades. Later an act was passed by the West Australian parliament called the Anglican Church of Australia (Swanleigh land and endowments) Act 1979; the Act makes provision in relation to certain property at Swanleigh belonging to or held in trust for and on behalf of The Perth Diocesan Trustees, as to the use or disposal of such property and related endowments, and for other related purposes.

Within the first five years of this century the Swanleigh Council had raised the concern that the operation of Swanleigh was not operationally or financially viable in the medium to long term. Exploration of alternative options for the use of the Swanleigh land had been taken and after wide consultation no Anglican agency expressed the desire to purchase the land. Following extensive consultation the Swanleigh Council’s preferred future strategic path was the funding of the construction of new facilities on the site of the Anglican Schools Commission’s new Swanleigh Anglican Community School with the required funds being derived from the sale of Swanleigh.

In July 2005 an article published in a local Midland newspaper about Swanleigh reported the that “it was likely the property would be sold in the near future” as “the facilities were no longer suited to what modern parents expected… and redeveloping the site was not a viable option”.

Having seen this article there were a series of careful consultations with Noongar Elders and meetings with the Archbishop regarding the significance of the history of the property for Noongar people and its future. A number of options were explored in some very constructive discussions.

 In March 2006 a meeting of Noongar Elders and others was held at the Swan site; about 50 people attended, with some travelling a long way to be there. The meeting started during the morning and facilitated a sharing of the Elders ideas and dreams of the possibility of using the land in Middle Swan for the future benefit of Noongar people.  After a shared lunch, the Archbishop, the chairman of the Perth Diocesan Trustees, Mr Allan Good, a member of Diocesan Council, Mrs Jane Pitcher, Mr Fred Chaney and the Executive Director (of Swanleigh) Mr Ian Ludlow were invited to meet with the Elders and hear their vision of a possible future use for the Swanleigh Land.

They saw the Swanleigh and as an opportunity for the Noongar people to have a place with obvious links to their past, and to enable them to have a place to teach and share their culture and be proud of who they are. Some of the people present had immediate family who had been in the Swan Native and Half Caste Mission. Two men both spoke of their fathers’ memories and stories related back to the Swan site. Later in the day one man was able to visit the place where a very sad incident in his father’s childhood had occurred; it was an emotional time as this man had heard this story many years ago, but had never thought he would go to the place where it had happened.

The Elders also shared a strong vision of a multi-faceted Noongar cultural village complex that they could look forward to saying:
“Our Home, our Land” also noting that “access to the river important to Noongar culture.” They saw it as a real “opportunity and possibility” with a “need to combine together so the Church and wider community could also learn about Noongar people”.
The Elders strongly expressed their wish to be given the first option to purchase the Swanleigh land by saying: “We want to talk to the Church about buying this place. Recognising the land is not able to be given by the church, only asking to be given preference to buy the place – this is not a big ask!”

The Archbishop responded by making four points:
• Committed to Reconciliation. This commitment has a cost.
• A place to stand tall.
• Take back to Perth Diocesan Trustees and Diocesan Council the strong feelings and commitment.
• The privilege of being here and listening to stories.

Subsequently the Perth Diocesan Trustees met and for various reasons decided to not proceed with the sale.
The Archbishop wrote to those who had attended that meeting and advised them of the outcome.

Needless, to say there is a high level of disappointment from those Elders and others as they saw that this as a very important historical site for both the Church and Aboriginal people and that this was a window of opportunity to take a signifi cant step forward with regard to Noongar people and reconciliation.