Early History

Frederick Leak

The Rev. Frederick Leak, a city minister with farming connections in the South-East, took over from Thomas Sutton in about April 1898 and soon put a number of people off-side: he immediately became embroiled in a long-running dispute about the immoral behaviour of a married woman and a young man, and eventually expelled them. Within the month, he also was heavily involved in laying charges of rape against a young man, charges which were dismissed even though he confessed, and the young girl involved named him in court. Leak took this matter further, writing to the Chief Secretary, but to no avail. Leak still expelled the young man from the mission for twelve months, and urged the AFA to set up a prison cell at Point McLeay for such occasions, regardless of court decisions. Not surprisingly, Leak did not last at Point McLeay for too long.

3rd May 1898 Protector of Aborigines Aboriginal Joseph Koolmaterie wishes to know if he provides all material for an ordinary dingy, whether you will pay the wages of our native carpenter and boatbuilder, to build it for him. I may say he is one of our industrious and deserving men, scarcely ever asking for rations. Leak

Leak asked John Sumner to take charge of The Needles property. John Sumner was inclined to take up the offer and applied for a neighbouring lease:

2nd Aug 1898

The Protector of Aborigines

Aboriginal John Sumner wishes me to apply for a grant of land on the Coorong for himself and sons. He asks for 320 acres from Section 363 near Landing Point extending westward towards Fiddle Head.

I have pleasure in stating that John Sumner is one of our most industrious men on the station and would be most likely of any to make his way on the land.

However, Sumner decided to apply for a lease on the Coorong much closer to Point McLeay. Leak did not have much luck in involving local people: he approached George Rankine who had been conducting church services, to help him in regular services. But George Rankine was an outstanding bootmaker as well as a preacher, and preferred to develop his earthly rather than his godly skills by moving to Glenelg to open up his own bootmaker’s shop. Within five months, Leak was nearing the end of his tether:
30th Aug 1898

Mr Dalton

Your sympathy in regard to continued trouble, I assure you, is much appreciated, for I can assure you that my difficulties are sometimes bewildering. For no sooner have you settled one thing than another confronts you. Only this morning I had to whip two of the Dormatory girls for rudeness in their room. And as though I had not enough of my own, Mr. Hamilton sent Grace Johnston with her two children out of jail for me to take care of. I went to meet her at the landing but she would not come; so I have reported it to the Milang police who brought her out of town.
You kindly ask whether you can do anything to strengthen my hands. I only ask that the committee will give me credit for doing my level best in the interest of our Mission; and with their loyal support, our difficulties will, I hope, become less. But it will be a work of time. [494]

…

School Children This is a matter which I think the committee should deal with at once, viz., that every parent should sign an agreement compelling them to leave their children in the School and in the Dormatory if we think it necessary untill they are 13 years of age; then, of course, they come under rules 8, 9, 13, &c.

I have a case in point only today: a woman says she will not work as per rule 12, and she has left the station, taking two children out of school, and I cannot prevent it; and others have done the same. I have represented it to Mr. Hamilton and he says that he cannot order them back. I hope something will soon be done in the matter.

Yours Truly,

F. Leak
The AFA obligingly issued a new set of by-laws and regulations, harsher and more restrictive than those issued to Taplin, and with clauses which were to be taken up again and again over the next fifty years:

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.