Big Bill Neidjie

Neijdie was born around 1913[1] at Alawanydajawany, on the East Alligator River in the Kakadu region of the Northern Territory, into the Bunitj clan of the Gaagudju people.

[2] He had little formal education, spending only a couple of years at school at Oenpelli (present-day Gunbalanya),[2] but learnt about his traditional culture, people and lands from his father and grandfather.

[1] From about the age of 20 he worked first with buffalo hunters, then at a timber mill,[1] and then on board a lugger transporting people and goods along the North Coast of the Northern Territory and to remote island communities.

Neidje was instrumental in the decision to lease his traditional lands to the Commonwealth of Australia so that it could be managed as a wild area and as a resource to be shared by all Australians.

As he grew older, Neidjie realised that he might be in the position, as one of the last Gaagudju initiates, of taking these secrets to the grave with him, and so made the courageous decision to break this taboo, so that his culture might live on.

The Federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage, David Kemp, said, "He was instrumental in the establishment of Kakadu National Park and was deeply committed to sharing his love for his country, his respect for the heritage of his country and his Indigenous culture with countless thousands of park visitors and all who shared his love for the natural world".