[1] The Lake Tyers Mission Station was established by the Church of England missionary Reverend John Bulmer in 1863 following decades of conflict between the Kurnai people and white settlers in Gippsland.

The Ebenezer Mission was closed in 1904 due to low numbers and in the following twenty years many Wergaia people from north-western Victoria were forcibly moved to Lake Tyers.

[1] Protests in the 1950s and 1960s for an independent, Aboriginal-run farming cooperative at Lake Tyers received support and assistance from the Aborigines Advancement League in Melbourne.

However, the remaining shareholders objected and in 2011 they staged a two-week blockade of the site, camping at the settlement's gate and refusing access to all government officials.

He is a descendant of Charlie Hammond, survivor of the Brodribb River massacre, and was the first Aboriginal man awarded the Public Service Medal in 2005.