Towterer

He was part of the last group of Ninine to continue living a traditional lifestyle on the Tasmanian mainland before their forced transportation to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island in 1833.

[2] Towterer's people lived a mostly coastal existence, where the men would hunt local birds and mammals, while the women would dive for abalone and crayfish.

Their huts were distinctively warm and neat semi-circular constructions called gardown made with a framework of bent branches covered in a thatch of grass and the internal walls insulated with paperbark and feathers.

Towterer by this time had become a leading identity of the Ninine clan and met with Robinson and his Aboriginal guides including Truganini in March 1830 near Gonovar (Giblin River).

They established a friendly interaction and Towterer guided Robinson north to the Lewis River where he left him to continue his journey.

In the intervening three years Robinson had led a campaign of locating, taking captive and exiling to Flinders Island the Aboriginal Tasmanians from the eastern regions.

After briefly being held at the station's hospital, these 12 people were shipped off into exile at the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island.

Robinson later sent a group of men to fetch her but she died near Birchs Inlet after being made to swim across a flooded river in an emaciated state.

[2] Towterer was placed in exile together with over a hundred other Indigenous Tasmanians from all regions, at the Wybalenna Aboriginal Establishment on Flinders Island.

They were placed under the regime of George Augustus Robinson where their cultural practices were restricted and they were forced to adopt European habits and learn Christian priniciples.