Early History

AFA: By-laws and regulations of Point McLeay, 1898: [4] III Every aboriginal native of Australian, and every half-caste and child of a half-caste of that race, shall be deemed to be an Aboriginal or Native within the meaning of the Regulations. [6] VIII The Schoolmaster 1. ‘shall teach the children under the rules of the Education Department, with such modification, however, as to the hours of school, as circumstances may require. A Scripture-lesson shall be included in the curriculum of each day. … shall have control of the school children, whether in school or out of school … [10] XV Aborigines Resident on the Station: 8. Boys and girls on leaving school shall be under the control of the Superintendent as probationers for a further four (4) years that they may be taught to work for their own living… 17. … all lights must be extinguished by 10 p.m.

Relations with local farmers and pastoralists were mixed: usually, people from Point McLeay attempted to get on well with outsiders, since much of their livelihood depended on cordial relations. Mission superintendents fostered a friendly approach for this reason and to assist Aboriginal men who sought leases in the district. For example, McFarlane at Wellington Lodge asked if he could run telephone lines across leases for which the Mission was responsible near Wellington, and in return he was asked to provide George Karpany with wire for the fence between their two properties. George Hacket, the overseer at Poltalloch, was often approached to assist with the employment of Aboriginal men and the servicing of Point McLeay’s flock, and in return often asked for assistance from Point McLeay. From the outset, white farmers and farmhands had been accustomed to worshipping at Point McLeay, even before the Ngarrindjeri built the church there in 1868. As well, the mission superintendent was often the only person in the district with any medical skills and was called out sometimes hundreds of times in a year.

However, this was not the case with Frederick Leak: by the end of January, 1899, he had resigned. At a very busy time on the mission, so did the farm overseer, Lock: he was replaced eventually by Redman. In the meantime, Holman shortened his school hours so that he could supervise the wool-washing. These disruptions came at a most unfortunate time, since the Mission was being expanded with the acquisition of extra leases: there were now more than six hundred and fifty acres leased at Point McLeay itself, seventeen hundred at Loveday Bay and fifteen hundred on the Coorong, a total of some four thousand acres, or sixteen hundred hectares.
A total of more than two hundred and twenty Aboriginal people were living either at Point McLeay or on the other leases. Births were consistently outnumbering deaths in the Register. Sixty five children were on the roll in 1899, actually a drop from the seventy seven the previous year, but nevertheless the largest school population south of the Lakes. The boot factory was still operating, but was not competing successfully with the highly mechanised forms of production in the city and was running at a loss. As well, it was becoming difficult to secure contracts from retailers.
However, Holman was still striving to ensure that the children received as valuable an education as possible: as a report of an AFA visit stated: ‘Children gave evidence of the careful training they receive from Mr Holman, proving conclusively that they are ordinarily intelligent, and if placed at a State School, would compete freely with the average white child.’ This was a very consistent report, year after year, but was easily brushed aside when the time came to dumb down the curriculum at the time of the First World War, and to keep it that way for forty years.
Holman, like his predecessors, came up against the same old problem: ‘The difficulty which presses itself most forcibly upon us, is “what to do with our boys?” as they leave school ... whereby our growing youth may be taught trades which would eventually be their means of support.’ (AFA AR: School Report, 30.6.99: 14-15). The unanswered questions – perhaps the most obvious answer was too brutal to contemplate – were of course: what trades could Aboriginal people be trained in which would ensure their security in the face of growing racism from those who would be their fellow-workers; what trades would they be allowed to succeed in; at a time of increasing exclusion, what hope did Aboriginal people have of gaining higher skills than whites were accustomed to expecting from them ? Their place was not only down, but out.

Francis Garnett

Francis Garnett was appointed as Superintendent in early 1899. He had been working for many years at Point Pearce, and would return there in 1906, before going on to become a long-term Chief Protector. So, one way or another, he had an impact on Point McLeay for some thirty years. In 1899, he entered into a small but active world; Point McLeay’s income and expenditure for the year amounted to £ 3,534, or over a million dollars in present-day terms.

By the end of the decade, even though the school roll included some seventy children, there was remarkably little movement to and from the school and elsewhere. Entries on the School Register suggest that the flow was inwards, with more children coming from than going to other schools. Movement even between river and lake towns was still almost nil: