Frederic Bonney

Edward went to Australia first and Frederic joined him in 1865 at Momba Station in New South Wales, near Wilcannia.

[4] Charles Dickens' son, Plorn, was sent by his father to Momba Station and he arrived a few days before his sixteenth birthday in 1868.

He continued to record local events using photography (many of these pictures are held in a collection at Colton House).

Some of his original images have been lost, but his work has been published in two books and they include photographs of the Paakantyi people.

Unusually for his time, he wrote the people's names on the back of his photographs, and these can be cross-referenced to his notebooks.

[5][10][11] Bonney's important manuscript notebooks, and a copy of his published article, 'On some customs of the Aborigines of the River Darling, New South Wales', were donated to the Mitchell Library in 1924.

[12] A book, People of the Paroo, by Jeannette Hope and Robert Lindsay, has been published, containing all Bonney's surviving Australian pictures.

Aborigines at Momba Station by Bonney in the 1870s. Front row (left to right): Jenny (Kalthi Tommy's woman), child, Mary Momba, Old Peter, Polly (Jerry's woman), Wonko Mary and Jenny (who later became George's woman). Back row: Jeannie, Billy, Penchey Martin, Ogle-eyed Johnny, Hughey, Panga (boy), Hughey’s woman, Old Mary and Nora.
Frederic Bonney in Australia. Bonney is in the pith helmet , Old Peter is on the right, Wonko Mary is on the far left wearing an unusual mourning cap. Another man is holding a boomerang and a short throwing stick (known as a kutjurru). [ 8 ]