Mary Jane Cain

Mary Jane Cain (1844–1929) was a community leader, a Gomeroi woman who lived in the Coonabarabran region of New South Wales.

She was born in 1844 and was instrumental in the establishment of the Burra Bee Dee Aboriginal Reserve in 1912 and came to be known as the Queen of Burrabeedee or "Queenie Cain".

[6][7] Much of what is known about the life of Mary Jane Cain was recorded in oral history interviews conducted by Margaret Somerville with four of her descendants—Marie Dundas, May Mead, Janet Robinson and Maureen Sulter.

[2][3][10] In notices published after her death, Mary's recollections were recorded of the use of Chinese labour on farms in the area before the gold rush and how after the workers departed to prospect for gold, the squatters employed local Aboriginal workers as shepherds,[4] effectively easing hostilities in the frontier wars.

47521) was gazetted on 21 February 1912, it included a small parcel of land at Forky Mountain that had already been granted to Mary and her family by Queen Victoria.

A sign marking the Mary Jane Cain Bridge in Coonabarabran, New South Wales