James Noble | |
|---|---|
 Angelina family and James c. 1925 | |
| Born | 1876 |
| Died | November 25, 1941 |
| Nationality | Australia |
| Occupation | clergyman |
| Spouse | Angelina Noble |
| Children | 6 |
James Noble (1876?-1941) was a missionary and the first Aboriginal clergyman in the Anglican Church of Australia. He was also a significant source of evidence in investigations into what became called the Forrest River Massacre.
Noble worked as a stockman during the early 1890s. Reputedly born in North Queensland, he later came to work at a station near Scone, New South Wales. [1] He was baptized at Scone in July 1895.
In 1896 Noble came to work at Yarrabah Mission near Cairns, Queensland, where he 'became indispensable' to the missionary efforts of superintendent Ernest Gribble. [1] At Yarrabah he married Maggie Frew and they had a son, however both she and the child died shortly afterwards. [1] Noble later married Angelina (c.1879-1964), with whom he had six surviving children. [1]
In 1914 James and Angelina Noble arrived at the newly reopened Forrest River Mission in Western Australia, where they worked for the next eighteen years. [2] In September 1925 Noble became the first Aboriginal Anglican clergyman in Australia, when he was made deacon in a ceremony at St George's Cathedral, Perth. [1]
In 1926 Noble, who was skilled in tracking, went to investigate rumours that the police had massacred Aboriginal people close to the Forrest River. He discovered apparent evidence that people had been tied to trees and shot, before their remains were dismembered and burnt. [3] In 1927 Noble gave evidence before a Royal Commission of Inquiry which concluded that police had probably murdered eleven people, but could not ascertain which individuals had been responsible. [3]
After their return to Yarrabah in 1932, the Nobles went to work with Gribble at the Palm Island mission. Two years later, Noble's poor health forced him to retire from Palm Island, and he returned with his family to Yarrabah. [2] He died in 1941 after suffering injuries in a fall.
Yarrabah is a coastal town and locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Yarrabah, Queensland, Australia. It is an Aboriginal community. In the 2021 census, the locality of Yarrabah had a population of 2,505 people.
Oombulgurri, also written as Umbulgara, was an Aboriginal community in the eastern Kimberley, 45 kilometres (28 mi) by air and about 210 kilometres (130 mi) by road northwest of Wyndham. It was first established as the Forrest River Mission in 1913. It had a population of 107 as of the 2006 census. It was inhabited by the Yeidji people who now self-identify as Balanggarra. In 2011, the government of Western Australia encouraged residents of Oombulgurri to move elsewhere, after it deemed the community unsustainable. The last residents from Oombulgurri were relocated to Wyndham just before Christmas 2011. There is still a locality with this name that includes the surrounding area, which had a population of 27 at the 2021 census.
The Caledon Bay crisis refers to a series of killings at Caledon Bay in the Northern Territory of Australia during 1932–34, referred to in the press of the day as Caledon Bay murder(s). Five Japanese trepang fishers were killed by Aboriginal Australians of the Yolngu people. A police officer investigating the deaths, Albert McColl, was subsequently killed. Shortly afterwards, two white men went missing on Woodah Island (with one body found later). With some of the white community alarmed by these events, a punitive expedition was proposed by Northern Territory Police to "teach the blacks a lesson".
Green Island is a marine island and locality in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Green Island had a population of 20 people.
Pormpuraaw is a coastal town and a locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Pormpuraaw, Queensland, Australia. Pormpuraaw is an Aboriginal community situated on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula approximately halfway between Karumba and Weipa on the Edward River. It is 650 kilometres (400 mi) by road from Cairns. Pormpuraaw currently has a 4-man police station.
Mossman Gorge is a rural locality in the Shire of Douglas, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, Mossman Gorge had a population of 246 people.
The Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre of June 1926, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a group of law enforcement personnel and civilians in the wake of the killing of a pastoralist in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
This is a timeline of Aboriginal history of Western Australia.
The Aboriginal Shire of Yarrabah is a special local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, east and southeast of Cairns on Cape Grafton. It is managed under a Deed of Grant in Trust under the Local Government Act 2004.
The Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a law enforcement party in the wake of the killing of pastoralist Fred Hay, which took place in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1926. The massacre was investigated by the Woods Royal Commission in 1927 which subsequently determined that 11 people had been killed. Charges were brought against two officers but dismissed for lack of evidence. The Commissions findings have been disputed by journalist Rod Moran, whose analysis has received some academic support while most academic historians accept that a massacre did take place but disagree over the number of victims.
The Yidiny, are an Aboriginal Australian people in Far North Queensland. Their language is the Yidiny language.
Ernest Richard Bulmer Gribble was an Australian missionary. Though considered to be temperamentally unsuited to his vocation, he became a strong advocate for better treatment of Australian Aboriginal people, saving whose 'remnants' he considered part of his mission.
Vincent Mark Hilton Mundraby was a Far North Queensland Aboriginal Australian Yidinji rights activist.
Woolgar is a rural locality in the Shire of Richmond, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census Woolgar had a population of 8 people.
The Warangesda Aboriginal Mission is a heritage-listed former Australian Aboriginal mission site at Warangesda, Darlington Point, Murrumbidgee Council, New South Wales, Australia. The mission was designed and built between 1880 and 1926. It is also known as Warangesda Aboriginal Mission and Station, Warangesda Mission, Warangesda Aboriginal Station, and Warrangesda. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 9 July 2010. The Naden family as well as Florence (Cot) Johnson also lived at Warangesda.
Robert Arthur Johnstone was an officer in the Native Police paramilitary force which operated in the British colony of Queensland. He was stationed at various locations in central and northern Queensland between 1867 and 1880 conducting regular punitive expeditions against clans of Indigenous Australians who resisted colonisation. He also participated in several surveying expeditions in Far North Queensland, including those under the leadership of George Elphinstone Dalrymple.
John Brown Gribble was an Australian minister of religion, noted for his missionary work among Aboriginal people in New South Wales, Western Australia and Queensland. His appointment in Western Australia was cancelled within a year due to hostility from squatters and others who had Aboriginal employees.
Muriel Conomie Stanley, also known as Sister Stanley, was an Indigenous Australian Anglican home missionary, obstetric nurse and social worker. Before earning her nursing degree, she served as the matron of a Church Army children's home in Tasmania. She became an obstetric nurse in 1945, making her one of the first Aboriginal Australians to become a registered midwife. She then served as matron of the Yarrabah mission hospital. She held this role from 1945 to until 1959. Leaving the mission, she moved to London for a training course in moral welfare. She returned to Australia and became a social worker for the Anglican Church in Australia, working in Aboriginal Australian communities in Queensland.
Angelina Noble was an Australian linguist and missionary. She and her husband founded churches and missions in Australia.
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