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Several of my ancestors were recognized in their time as “kings”—titles marked by colonial authorities with brass breastplates. While Aboriginal communities did not traditionally use these titles, settlers conferred them upon individuals who demonstrated distinct authority and respect. The men and women who carried these plates were true Elders and community leaders whose leadership and connection to Country continue to inspire us.

Governor Stewart (c. 1850–1896) led Aboriginal workers at Tilba Tilba station. Together with his wife, Bessie Kaine (Caine), he raised his family at Wallaga Lake, laying the foundation for what would become one of the Far South Coast's largest Aboriginal family lines.

His son, Christopher “Munkins” Stewart, married Emily Jane Gagoo Walker (1874–1951). Emily was a Yuin woman, the daughter of James Walker (Tununguranbrun III) and Jane Hoskins (a Ngarigo woman from Bombala). Their marriage at Wallaga Lake is held in family memory as the last traditional Aboriginal wedding in the area—a vital act of cultural continuation as the mission era began.

Edward Walker (c. 1815–1900), known as the King of Moruya, was a senior man of the Walker family on Walbunja Yuin Country. Known traditionally as Tununguranbrun II, his family connections wove together the Wolgal, Ngarigo, Djiringanj, and Walbunja peoples across the region. His legacy was continued by his son, James Walker (Tununguranbrun III).

John Pittman (1849–1915), remembered as the King of Bodalla, was a respected Yuin leader whose descendants still proudly connect with the Bodalla mob today. In 1882, he married Margaret Anne McCauley (b. c. 1859) of Nelligen. Through Margaret—daughter of Mary Anne and granddaughter of Annie Morris and John Jackie Jirrawich Johnson—the family carries deep Aboriginal lineage rooted along the Clyde River. the Pittman side as well, grounded in the Nelligen and Clyde River Country of the Yuin.

(1835 to 1910) was born at Jervis Bay, the son of Thomas Davis and the Aboriginal woman Maria Billyboy. He raised a large family on the south coast and died at Moruya in 1910.

known as Coomee Nulunga (about 1820s to 1914), is one of the most documented Yuin women of the nineteenth century. A Murramarang woman, she lived for many years around Burrill Lake and Ulladulla, where she and her partner, known as Billy Boy, fished and traded. She carried

ceremonial scars and passed down her grandmother’s memory of the great white birds, the sails of Cook’s ship seen from the shore in 1770. In 1909 a settler, Edmund Milne, presented her with a brass gorget, believing she was the last of the Murramarang people; she is remembered as returning it, saying it was too heavy to wear. She was not the last. A photograph of her is held by the National Museum of Australia, in the Milne album, recorded as “Coomee Nulunga, last of the Murramarang.” Her descendants, including this family,

continue on Yuin Country today.

also known as Nimebur (1823 to 1896), was a local Aboriginal woman born at Broulee. She married Richard Piety, and their son Richard (Dick) Piety was born at Mullenderree, near Moruya, in 1844. Through the Piety family her line carried down the generations in the Moruya

district, and Nimebur of Broulee is still named as an ancestor by south coast families today.

(about 1814 to 1867) was born in Kent, England, a son of Richard Piety (1784 to 1846) of Oare and Ann Crouch, who married at Orlestone in Kent in 1803. Richard came to New South Wales and married Jane Namble (Nimebur), a Yuin woman of Broulee. Their son, Richard (Dick)

Piety, was born at Mullenderree, near Moruya, in 1844, and Richard the elder died at Buckenboura, near Moruya, in 1867. Through this marriage the Piety name came into the family and carried down the generations of the Moruya district, to Jane Duren and the families who descend from her.

(1867 to 1947), born Jane Piety, was a Yuin woman of Moruya and a pioneering advocate for Aboriginal rights. A daughter of Richard Piety and Catherine Sutton, and a descendant of Jane Namble, she married John Duren in 1885 and raised a large family in the Moruya district. Well educated herself, she campaigned for the right of Aboriginal children to attend school and for

the protection of Aboriginal land, and is remembered for writing to King George V about the lack of schooling for her grandchildren at Batemans Bay. Her life is recorded in histories of the south coast and of the wider Aboriginal civil rights movement.

(died 1905) was one of the Yuin men who crewed the whaling boats at Eden, on Twofold Bay, where the Aboriginal crews were valued for their skill with the harpoon. For the Yuin, the killer whales of the bay were the spirits of ancestors, and the Aboriginal whalers kept the old understanding with them, refusing to let the killers be harmed. He was of the Parsons family

of the south coast and died at Moruya in 1905.

was a Wandandian woman of the northern Yuin, whose Country lay between Ulladulla and the Shoalhaven River. Her husband was Dan Daniel Parsons, a Yuin man of the Parsons family. She is remembered as being laid to rest at Roseby Park, Orient Point, on Jerrinja Wandandian

Country.

was of the Haddigaddi family, well known in the Wallaga Lake and Eden communities. Members of the family were noted in the whaling crews of Twofold Bay and in sport, among them Bill Haddigaddi, a whaler and cricketer who toured England.