Burraga of the Thirroul [Dharawal] tribe petitions the King 1933

Indigenous Archive

Burraga petitions the King, 20 September 1933, Cinesound, duration: 0.41 minutes. Colored.

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Seeking parliamentary representation

On Wednesday, 20 September 1933, the Australian Aboriginal man Burraga, chief of the Thirroul [Dharawal] tribe, gave a filmed interview for Cinesound from Salt Pan Creek, Peakhurst, on the banks of a tributary of the Georges River, wherein he petitioned King George V for Indigenous (Blacks') representation in the Federal Parliament and better, more humane conditions for them in general (Anderson 1933).

Burraga's speech before the newsreel camera was a landmark in Indigenous action to redress the disastrous impact of the unlawful British invasion of Australia and dispossession of its people which took place on 26 January 1788, following on the actions of Lt. James Cook in 1770. Nothing less than cultural genocide was instigated by the British monarchy in pursuit of colonial expansion and empire building. Burraga, like Pemulwuy and others before him, was standing up against the Crown in stark opposition to that unjust and inhumane activity on the part of colonial authorities and free settlers.

King Burraga was actually Joe Anderson (c.1879 -1938). He was the son of Ellen Anderson and William Rowley. They were part of the Salt Pan Creek Aboriginal settlement, and claimed membership of the Dharawal tribe whose country was south of Sydney towards the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, and west over the Illawarra escarpment towards the South Highlands. Anderson was born in Wollongong.

A number of records of this momentous event in the annals of Australian history are presented below. The first is a newspaper story from The Telegraph, Sydney, published on the following day, Thursday, 21 September:

BLACK KING ASKS

JUSTICE FOR HIS PEOPLE

Following a similar move in Victoria, Mr. Joe Anderson (whose royal family name is Chief Burraga of the Thirroul aboriginal tribe, intends sending a petition to the King requesting the appointment of one of his race to the Federal Parliament. In an interview yesterday at the Thirroul tribe's Peakhurst settlement, Mr. Anderson told of his ideals for the uplifting of his race.

"The white man has made us his enemies, instead of his friends, because of his treatment of us," said Mr. Anderson. "We do not want the white man's charity food. We want the right to provide for ourselves. If we were given nets and boats we could start a fishing industry here on the banks of the river; with axes and carts we could chop wood and sell it; and with tools we could start a trade in curios. In our petition to the King we will ask that farm hands be placed at our disposal, and also materials for building a home we could call our own. The white King cannot deny us these!"

The petition which would be put before the King would contain the signatures of thousands of aborigines from N.S.W. "It may be possible to arrange a sort of corroboree later on to talk over our proposals," he said. "My race must live on, and as a descendant of the first royal family I will lead them in this fight".

A follow up story in The Telegraph on Friday, 29 September, outlined some of Burraga's policy platform:

WHEN CHIEF BURRAGA IS M.H.R.

POINTS FROM HIS POLICY SPEECH

FARMS, FORESTS, SCHOOLS, AND HOSPITALS FOR ABORIGINALS

Chief Burraga, of the Thirroul aboriginal tribe, who proposes petitioning the King requesting the appointment of an aborigine to the Federal Parliament, outlines below the points of his policy should he himself be elected.

* See that all full-blood aboriginals were kept in settlements of their own, apart from half-castes, with means to provide for themselves.

* Demand that farm lands be provided with plants and seeds for the growing of oats, hay, maize, barley, and lucerne. 

* Ask for cattle so that they could start cattle stations.

* Agitate for grants of forests, which would yield timber for fishing-boats and homes.

* Aboriginal schools the children staffed by aboriginal teachers, and hospitals staffed by aboriginal doctors and nurses. 

Chief Burraga has sent for signature copies of his petition to all aboriginal settlements in the State. The Governor (Sir Philip Game) will be asked to forward the completed petition to the King.

King Burraga speaks to the Cinesound camera, 20 September 1933.

The following was the text of his petition interview, as partially seen in the Cinesound recording at the head of this article:

Before the white man set foot in Australia, my ancestors were as Kings in their own right. And I, Aboriginal chief Burraga, am a direct descendant of the royal line.

The black man sticks to his brethren, and always keeps the rule which were laid down before the white man put foot upon there shores. One of the greatest laws amongst the Aboriginals was to love one another. And they always kept it in law. Where will you find a white man or a white woman that will say, I love my neighbour." It quite amuses me to hear people saying, "I don't like the black man." But he's damn glad to live in a black man's country all the same!"

I am calling a corroboree of all the natives of New South Wales to send a petition to the King, in an endeavour to improve our condition. All the black man wants is representation in Federal Parliament. There is also plenty fish in the river for us all, and land to grow all we want. One hundred and fifty years ago the Aboriginals owned Australia, and today he demands more than the white man's charity. He wants the right to live!

The clip was made famous when it appeared in the 1983 Australian documentary film Lousy Little Sixpence. Needless to say, nothing came of Burraga's petition. The King ignored it, and the politicians and public ridiculed it, as can be seen from the following report on parliamentary activity in The Sun, Melbourne, of 1 December 1933:

MINISTER ATTACKS CHURCH PETITION ABOUT ABORIGINES
"KNOW NOTHING OF NATIVES"
Ridicules Plea For Black M.H.R.’s
HITS AT CRITICS

CANBERRA, Thursday. — Severe criticism of private people and members of organisations who made suggestions to the Commonwealth Government about the treatment of aborigines, “without knowing the first thing about the subject," was made by the leader of the Government (Sir George Pearce) during the debate on the Estimates in the Senate today. He characterised a suggestion by Senator MacDonald (Lab., Qld.) that the aborigines should be represented in Parliament as “foolish and ridiculous.”

“To begin with,” he said, “the position of returning officer in Arnhem Land would not be enviable. I am very much inclined to think that the returning officer would be boiled for dinner.”

“Native is a Nomad”

He made his criticism in reply to an attack by Senator MacDonald on the Commonwealth Government’s treatment of aborigines in the Northern Territory, and, incidentally, referred to a petition from church bodies in South Australia, presented to the Senate earlier in the day. “Many of the things asked for in the petition,” said Sir George, “had been granted years ago. One of the difficulties very few critics seemed to realise was that the aboriginal was a nomad, and could not be tied down to a particular spot.”

The view persisted, alongside extreme racist rhetoric, as noted in the comments of a Kimberley (Northern Territory) bishop published in The Evening News, Rockhampton, on 27 January 1938:

"BLACK CANNOT REPRESENT BLACK"

Bishop Opposed to Aboriginal M's.P.

An educated aboriginal to represent the Australian natives in the Federal Parliament would be of little value, according to the Vicar-Apostolic of Kimberley (Bishop Raible, P.S.M.), who is visiting Melbourne. The aborigines could best be represented by white men educated in their psychology, customs and needs, he said in an interview. Representatives would have to be nominated and probably appointed directly by the Government or by Parliament. It would be quite impossible to hold an election. The natives would not even know what it was about. Bishop Raible has no faith in the theory that encouragement should be given half-castes and whites to marry, so that within three or four generations of new white blood the black would have been bred out. The black blood could be bred out if a white man married a half-caste woman, but only the lower types of white men would marry half-caste women. Then there was the danger that the children would not be desirable types.

Bishop Raible administers an area of 120,000 square miles, in which the most important work is at two mission stations, one at Beagle |Bay, about 80 miles north of Broome, and the other at Nombadina, about 50 miles further north. He is a German, and with him has seven German priests, seven lay brothers, and 21 sisters, a number of whom staff the Government leper station at Derby. The total population of his huge district, where he has worked for 10 years, is 15,000, of which, he said, about 10 per cent were whites. At Beagle Bay, where Professor Nekes, the anthropologist, was stationed with two priests, there were about 800 blacks, and at Nombadina, about 150. At both these stations, the blacks were educated, and the men were trained in trades, at which many became good crafts men. Bishop Raible said that trained natives were settling down well in employment, especially as stockmen.

Despite these negative reactions, when Prince Henry arrived in Australia in October 1934, just over a year after the Cinesound proclamation, Burraga declared that he would meet him:

ABO. 'KING' WHO WANTS TO MEET PRINCE

Black "royalty" shall meet white. On this point "King" Burraga, of the old Thirroul aboriginal tribe, is determined.

"I shall see the White Prince, even if I have to stop the procession," he declared yesterday. "Too long have my people suffered injustices at the hands of the white man. This," he added, indicating his little hut overlooking the river at Peakhurst, "is what we have been reduced to. WE, who rightly own Australia. I'm sure the Prince won't deny me an interview. I want him to see we get what Queen Victoria gave us. She said we were to get 40 acres each and free train passes. I am going to ask him to give us farm lands and materials to build homes for ourselves."

'King" Burraga is doing three days a week relief work.

Burraga and his community at Salt Pan Creek faced eviction by the local Council in August 1936, to facilitate private residential and other development. No consideration was given to the issues raised at that location during 1933.

Daily Telegraph, 28 August 1936.

Newcastle Sun, 28 August 1936.

Burraga passed away during 1938, which also happened to be the year in which there was much activity in regards to Indigenous representation and many of the issues he had raised five years earlier. These included a Day of Mourning on 26 January 1938.

The fight goes on ...... 

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References

Anderson, Joe, Australian Royalty Pleads for His People, Cinesound, 20 September 1933, duration: 0.41 minutes. 

Black King asks justice for his people, The Daily Telegraph, Sydney, Thursday, 21 September 1933; The Rockhampton Times, 25 September 1933.

Guraban - where the saltwater meets the freshwater, Hurstville Museum & Gallery, 29 October 2022 - 29 January 2023, 58p.

King Burraga, Burraga Foundation [website], accessed 6 July 2025.

Lousy Little Sixpence: Send a petition to the King, Cinesound, National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, duration: 2.37 minutes.

Organ, Michael, C.W. Peck's Australian Legends - a collection of Aboriginal Dreaming stories. 22 June 2023. Information relating to a series of fifty-two Aboriginal Dreaming stories published between 1925-33. Many were provided by Ellen Anderson of Salt Pan Creek.

-----, C.W. Peck's Australian Legends: Aboriginal Dreaming stories of eastern Australia, Australian Folklore, 29, 2014, 53-69.

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Last updated: 6 July 2025

Complied by Michael Organ.