Gum leaf playing is deeply linked with the culture of First Australians who have always played this unique instrument. It is believed gum leaves were used in hunting, signalling, rituals, as spiritual instruments and even toys…
Rex Morris was born at Purfleet in 1953 to Shirley and Rex. He was just four years old when welfare authorities came to Taree with the intention of forcibly removing children…
Biripi woman Shirley Mitchell was born in 1933 and grew up on Purfleet Aboriginal Reserve. When welfare authorities came to Purfleet to take Aboriginal children with fairer skin…
Kevin Gilbert was born in Wiradjuri country near Condoblin in 1933. While in prison for murder he asked for books on…
By 1900 the NSW Aborigines Protection Board had decided that it was better for Aboriginal people to live separately from Europeans. It was to ‘protect them from the worst excesses and corrupting influences of European society’…
The Manning River’s only recorded shark fatality occurred in 1863 of seventeen year old James Brown. It was a hot January evening…
“Ahh Saxbys, taste it to believe it”. Recognise this famous catch phrase? Who doesn’t love the best-selling Saxbys classic stone ginger beer trickling down your throat on a hot summer’s day? Saxbys was first established in 1864…
Most days I drive past the site where a magnificent butter factory once stood tall. The Purfleet Butter Factory was opened on 14 December 1897 by the Australian Dairying Company…
Charles Edwards was a talented man. He lived at the Purfleet Aboriginal mission station four kilometres south of Taree. Charlie was an outstanding sportsman playing both cricket and rugby league…
Glenthorne Provisional School opened in a room on Thomas Trotter’s farm “Orange Grove” in July 1877 with an enrolment of 36 students. Within three years, under the tutelage of Miss Eliza Plummer, the school became a Public school. In 1891 a more permanent brick building was erected, while in 1906 a cottage was moved from…