[3] He and his wife, who assumed the role of matron, were "patronising and authoritarian", angering residents by failing to address poor sanitary conditions and by bringing a respected female elder before a local court where she was charged and convicted of a petty offence.
William Cooper of the Australian Aborigines' League (AAL) visited the station in early 1938 and was "appalled by the conditions he saw", making complaints to the New South Wales state government and Premier Bertram Stevens.
[5] However, the board refused to receive the petition and returned the document to McQuiggan, who publicly displayed it and invited signatories to remove their names.
At the meeting he "outlined the new legislation the state govermnent was intending to introduce, described conditions on other supervised reserces, claimed children were going to be removed, and alleged the station would become a closed compound under the Board's new policy".
[2][9][10][11] Patten's arrested spurred a further walk-off of residents, who collected their belongings and began leaving in groups, many of which crossed the Murray River into Victorian jurisdiction and set up camp on the riverbanks near Barmah.
[8] Activist Bill Onus put off his potential career as a budding actor to return from Melbourne to his place of birth for the walk-off.
Shadrach James stated that his people "had for years lived in a hand to mouth fashion, often in a semi-starved condition", while another resident reported that the infant death rate at the reserve had been substantial.
Deborah Cheetham – whose uncle Jimmy Little was born at Cummeragunja Mission – wrote, composed and performed in this production by the Short Black Opera Company.