Cummeragunja Reserve

It was established between 1882 and 1888 when dissatisfied residents of Maloga Mission moved 5 miles (8.0 km) upriver to escape the authoritarian discipline there under its founder, Daniel Matthews.

The new station became a thriving community by the turn of the century, but over time its status changed as the New South Wales Government assumed varying degrees of control.

Records list it as a group of four Aboriginal reserves spanning the years 1883 to 1964, but its status changed over this period, with differing levels of control by the government.

[2] The original residents moved there from Maloga Mission, 4 miles (6.4 km) away, where they had grown tired of the strict religious lifestyle and the authoritarian style of its founder, Daniel Matthews.

[6] In July 1887, the Governor of New South Wales, Lord Carrington, visited Moama, where he was presented with a petition by Maloga residents requesting Queen Victoria grant the community land.

[8] An article in the Riverine Herald tells of the petition, presented to a Mr Burns, "when here some months ago with Lord Carrington".

It prints a response from the Minister of Lands acceding to the request that "part of the reserve [would] be subdivided into suitable areas for settlement of individual aborigines", dated 20 March 1888.

In the early years, the residents of Cummeragunja shaped most of the land into a productive farm, producing wheat, wool and dairy products,[17] The NSW Aborigines Protection Association administered the station from its beginnings until 1892 (subsidised by the government), when their funds ran dry and management was handed over to the government's Board for the Protection of Aborigines.

Poor sanitation, inadequate housing and lack of clean water led to illness such as[3] from tuberculosis and whooping cough, which especially affected the elderly and young,[21] leading to deaths.

The scientists' visit did have one positive outcome: they created an archive of photographs and accounts which are valued by descendants of Cummeragunja residents.

[27] Following World War II, the Government handed parcels of land at Cummeragunja and other Aboriginal reserves over to white Australian returned servicemen under the Soldier Settlement Scheme.

[20] In 1956, ahead of the visit of Queen Elizabeth II for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the remaining families were moved to 10 especially built houses at an area known as Rumbalara.