Towwaa of Jarvis Bay 1810

John Lewin, Towwaa [Jarvis Bay], 1810 (detail). Collection: British Museum.

Contents

Smiling man
Tom Ugly / Eugally?
Richard Browne's Towa
Chronology
Names
References

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1. The smiling young man

Early colonial portraits of Australian Aboriginal people are rare and often present individuals or groups as mere figures in a landscape, scientific curiosities, or denigrating, cartoonish caricatures. An incredible exception is the portrait of the Jervis Bay Aboriginal man Towwaa, drawn in 1810 by English artist of natural history and portraits John William Lewin (1770-1819) and in the collection of the British Museum. It was initially catalogued in 1893 / 1902 as Towwaa, Native of Jarvis Bay, New South Wales, as this was a common misspelling of the bay which had been named in 1791 after Admiral John Jervis. The watercolour is distinctive as it presents a young Aboriginal man bearing a wicked, enchanting smile, partially hidden behind a long wooden spear thrower - called a waddy or nulla nulla - he is holding in front of his face at an angle (illustrated above). It is inscribed at lower left in black ink: J.W. Lewin, New South Wales, 1810. The source is not given in the British Museum catalogue entry for the name Towwaa or the link to Jervis Bay.

This and other portraits are significant as they represent an important ethnological and cultural source of information regarding the impact of the British invasion of January 1788 on the local population. With the British largely indifferent to the local people, seeing them as primitive and less than and more of an impediment to development than a valuable resource, let alone possessors and guardians of Country. Rights and privileges were denied them in this new British-based society, and eventual extinction was seen as their inevitable, if not enforced, fate. To see a smiling young man proudly bearing a spear thrower, against the backdrop of physical and cultural genocide in the immediate areas around Sydney, is therefore poignant.

In the course of researching images of Shoalhaven Natives prior to the 1850s, the present writer recently came across the image of the Jervis Bay Aboriginal man Towwaa in the British Museum collection. It was first seen as a small reproduction in the article Barbarity of our own Countrymen (Botsman 2020). The original British Museum record was then viewed, and it is from this that the images of Towwaa herein are sourced. The citation states that he was of the Jervis Bay area, located on the east coast of New South Wales, approximately 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Sydney. The complete painting is a fully body image of Towwaa in his naked, natural state, with a head of curly hair, standing on what appears to be a rocky shelf, ungainly thin in legs, arms and body.

John Lewin, Towwaa [Jervis Bay], 1810. Collection: British Museum.

In regards to the link with Jervis Bay, the following information was provided by Richard Neville in his 2012 biography of the artist:

The year 1810 was when Lewin’s only two surviving Aboriginal portraits were painted: Blueit, native of Botany Bay and Towwaa, Native of Jarvis Bay. These competent, well-observed portraits of individuals are also records of what he thought were ‘typical’ Aboriginal attitudes and behaviours. How Lewin met these men is not known, but he did propose to John Grant a three-week expedition to Jervis Bay in May 1809, which, if it took place, might have given him occasion to meet Towwaa. It has also been suggested that Towwaa could be Tom Ugly, after whom the Point and bridge in southern Sydney were named. Blueit could well have been a young warrior, whose battles were witnessed by Lewin’s friend Alexander Huey in March 1810.

That Lewin made so few images of Aboriginal people is perhaps in itself a reflection of the trajectory of fluctuating local interest in the subject." After the flurry of documentation of Aboriginal people by artists such as Thomas Watling and the Port Jackson Painters in the 1790s (commissioned by officers such as John White and David Collins), few images seem to have been made by any colonial artists in the first two decades of the 1800s.(Neville 2012b)

In a footnote to this paragraph, Neville refers to personal correspondence with Indigenous historian Keith Vincent Smith, dated 4 July 2011, and also Smith's book on the sea travels of Aboriginal sailors and explorers, Mari Nawi: Aboriginal Odysseys 1790-1850 (Smith 2010). Towwaa is referred to therein as one on many Aboriginal men and women who left the shores of Australia - however briefly - during the early colonial period.

In the Lewin portrait of Towwaa we see scarring on his chest, and a piece of wood passing through his nose. The awkwardness of his stance perhaps reflects the failings of Lewin in portraiture, as he was more at ease in painting birds and local animals such as the koala. Little is known of the work apart from it being donated to the British Museum in 1893 by Executors of the estate of Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892), a famous English botanist and paleontologist. However, in the Eora: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770-1950 exhibition catalogue, a reference to Towwaa provides an intriguing piece of information which leads us to consider his later life:

1810 - John William Lewin, a professional natural history painter, portrays Towwaa (‘Tom Ugly’) and Blueit (Smith and Bourke 2006).

The reference to the Blueit portrait by Lewin (illustrated below) and also in the British Museum collection, reveals an almost identical, and obviously contemporary work to that of the Towwaa portrait. As a result, there was later some confusion between the two watercolours and their subjects.

John Lewin, Blueit, 1810. Collection: British Museum.

In the Blueit portrait we see the young man about to throw a spear attached to a spear thrower, and with a second implement in his left hand. Lewin's two portraits are genuine and life-like, showing these young men with spear and nulla nulla just a few years prior to the banning of these hunting implements by Governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1816 as part of a crackdown on the Aboriginal people around Sydney. The Blueit watercolour is similarly inscribed at lower left in black ink: J.W. Lewin, New South Wales, 1810. The source is not given for the name Blueit or the link to being a native of Botany Bay, just as the source of such information for the Towwaa portrait is not known.

But what of the Tom Ugly reference also included in the aforementioned quote?

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2. Tom Ugly / Eugally?

The reference to Towwaa as Tom Ugly is, at first notice, strange. Towwaa is a Jervis Bay man, yet Tom Ugly is a name associated with a bridge over the Georges River (Tuggerah), located just to the south of Sydney, and an Aboriginal man who lived there. The individual Tom Ugly apparently resided on the northern shore of the river around the area at present known as Tom Uglys Point. This is the site of the northern pier of the Tom Uglys Bridge, which is part of the main north-south thoroughfare connecting Miranda and San Souci at Sylvania. But was Towwaa of Jervis Bay Tom Ugly?

We know that from the 1830s and 1840s onwards many Illawarra and South Coast (i.e. Jervis Bay) Aboriginal people sought refuge from attacks and loss of their livelihood arising out of the ever-expanding British settlement. Many ended up heading north into areas on the fringe of the city of Sydney, such as at Salt Pan Creek on the northern shore of the Georges River and west of Tom Ugly's Point, and La Perouse on Botany Bay, close by and to the east of Tom Uglys Point (Organ 1989 & 1993). Was Towwaa one of these refugees? Is this how a Jervis Bay man ended up living by the Georges River in an area which, prior to urban expansion in the latter part of the nineteenth century, could provide a sustainable existence for surviving Aboriginal people, due to the resources available from the river, nearby wetlands and pre-urbanisation coastal forest areas?

The rationale for the Tom Ugly connection as first noted by the present writer, is briefly explained in the following item from the Sutherland Shire Historical Society Bulletin of February 2023, taken in part from an earlier 2009 item in the Kogarah Historical Society Newsletter. Both items mistakenly include a copy of the Lewin portrait of Blueit rather than Towwaa:

The Real Tom Ugly

There have been several theories about the origin of the name ‘Tom Ugly’, after whom Tom Uglys Bridge is named. But one that has now been accepted by respected historians is this: Tom Ugly was an Aboriginal man (whose name was pronounced ‘Eugally’, misspelt by early white settlers as ‘Ugly’), said to be a warrior of splendid physique, tall and athletic, and he was in contact with white people as early as 1810. His portrait, painted by colonial artist John William Lewin, hangs in the British Museum. He was also known by the Aboriginal names ‘Towaa’ and ‘Tow Weiry’. He lived his last years at the point on Georges River which now bears his name, died there about 1846 and was buried under a ‘gibber gunyah’. (Courtesy: Kogarah Historical Society)

[NB: Throughout the initial draft of this article the reference was to Tom Weiry. However, in referring back to a 1995 transcription of the original manuscript diary of Karl Scherzer from which the name was taken therein it is written as Tow-weiry. Therefor the present author has amended the references throughout.]

Is this correct? Was Towwaa also Eugally / Tow Weiry / Tom Ugly? It seems at the outset unlikely to the present writer, though further research may prove otherwise. The good looking young man in the Lewin painting was anything but ugly - perhaps this Tom Ugly naming was a humourous dig by a non-Indigenous friend, or else a cruel label. The Kogarah Historical Society Newsletter of December 2010 contains the following biographical portrait of Tom Ugly, accompanied by a reproduction in black and white of the above watercolour of Blueit, mislabeled Towwaa:

Tom Ugly: Who was he?

We were happy to find out that during its writing, the authors consulted the Kogarah Historical Society's publication, The Land between Two Rivers, for information about our local Aboriginal families whose children were amongst the first pupils to attend Sans Souci Public School. The Aboriginal camp was on the St. Kilda Estate at the western end of Endeavour Street, Sans Souci. A question which is frequently asked by visitors to the Kogarah area is "Who was Tom Ugly? Why is there a bridge named after him?"

Tom Ugly was a real person and his story is related in the Society's book on Carss Park. His name in his Aboriginal language was pronounced 'Eugally' which caused the early settlers to spell it 'Ugly', but he was also known as 'Towwaa' or 'Tow Weiry'. Early records confirm that a man of this name was issued with a government blanket in 1837 and again in 1843. He was said to be a man of splendid physique, tall and athletic.

In 1858 an Austrian anthropologist, Karl von Scherzer arrived in Sydney on a quest to acquire the skeletal remains of an Australian Aborigine for scientific study. His German language diary is in the Mitchell Library together with a paraphrase translation in English.

The guide in their quest was John Malone, son of an Aboriginal woman and a white man, who lived on the Georges River and whose descendants still live in the district today. They were particularly seeking the remains of Tow Weiry (or Tom Ugly as the English had named him), whom they had been told was a man of fine stature. Tom Ugly had died about 1846 and was buried under a 'gibber gunyah 'on the point which now bears his name. Fortunately, they did not find Tom Ugly's remains but his name lives on and his memory is honoured by the naming of the suburb of Tom Ugly's Point and Tom Ugly's Bridge.

A third, more varied discussion regarding the origin of the name Tom Ugly comes from a 2024 Facebook posting:

Regarding the name "Tom Uglys Point", there are a few theory's around as to how this name originated. The first one is that it was named after a local resident Tom Huxley and the name was a mispronunciation by local Aboriginal people. Another theory is that it was derived from the name of a local Aboriginal man, Tow-weiry, who lived in the area and died about 1846. Other theory's are that it was named after a local fisherman resident in the area by the name of Tom Illigley and another is that there was a one-legged man, possibly an army deserter or a boat operator, called either "Tom Woggleg" or "Wogul Leg Tom", either because of a mispronunciation of wooden leg, or from the local Aboriginal dialect word for "one".

Whilst there is a difference between the Aboriginal names Towwaa and Eugally, it is possible that they were the same person. Further research, including study of the blanket lists for the Georges River area between the 1820s and early 1840s which may reveal more precise and relevant information. To date, no reference to Towwaa has been found in the Shoalhaven blanket lists for that period, suggesting that he may have left the district at an early stage and took up residence in the region of the Georges River. As part of this ongoing research, the following chronology will set all all the present and new information available on Towwaa and Eugally.

A deeper dive revealed a 2015 article by Laurie Burgess of the Sutherland Shire Historical Society (Burgess 2015):

Laurie has dug in the archives again and found more information regarding the name of the our old bridge: Keith Vincent Smith, the curator of a new landmark exhibition at the State Library, puts to rest the spurious origins of the place name Tom Ugly’s Point. A few tales have been told to explain the name on the northern headland of the Georges River at Sylvania. Of these, the two main versions are of a ‘Tom Woguly’ and ‘Tom Huxley’, both considered to be white men. But after more than 15 years of intensive research, Keith Vincent Smith, an Indigenous historian and co-curator of EORA: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney 1770-1850, has pieced together the identity of the man behind the place name.

The real Tom Ugly was an Aboriginal man from the South Coast. He later lived, died and was buried under a ‘gibber gunyah’ (rock shelter) on the point of the Georges River that now bears his name. In 1858, Austrian anthropologist Karl von Scherzer visited Sydney to acquire the skeletal remains of an Australian Aborigine. In his German-language journal, now held at the Mitchell Library, Dr Scherzer recorded his unsuccessful search for Ugly’s remains under the heading “Excursion to Coggera Cove”. According to Scherzer, the Aborigine named “Towwaa”, or “Tow-weiry” (nicknamed Tom Ugly), “was a very athletic man, whose skeleton was a real prize for the purposes of comparative anatomy”. At Coggera Cove (Kogarah Bay) Scherzer met ‘Johnny’, an Aboriginal man who was to guide him to Tom Ugly’s remains. After much digging at a burial ground in a shell midden, they failed to recover the skeleton. It was later unearthed at what is now known as Tom Ugly’s Point, but there were not enough bones to collect. The story was confirmed when records were found at the State Library stating that an Aboriginal man named Tom Ugly received government-issue blankets at Broulee near Batemans Bay between 1837 and 1843.

Kogarah Council adds to the story: Much has been written on the origin of the name ‘Tom Ugly's’. Among the suggestions have been: An Aborigine by that name... It was named after an old fisherman by the name of Tom Illigley; Named after Tom Huxley, a caretaker on a large estate. The Aborigines who visited him could not pronounce his name so it became Tom Hoogli which in turn became Tom Ugly's; Named after an Aborigine called Tommy who had only one leg, and who in the Aboriginal nomenclature was called "Waggerly" Tom (waggerly being the Aboriginal word for lame animal). Later on he was called Tom Waggerly which was finally changed to Tom Ugly.

Today, we are no nearer to resolving the mystery. Research from descendants of Thomas Huxley do know that he lived in the area and may have owned land in the area although this has not been verified. What we do know is that the name Tom Ugly's Point has been used on maps of the area dating from before 1846...

Source: St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, 22.6.2006 and Hurstville Council website.

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3. Richard Browne's Towa

A second portrait of Towwaa - labelled Towa but elsewhere listed as Tow-wa - is known. It is by the convict artist Richard Browne (c.1776-1824) whose works included originals and prints mostly compiled between 1817-1821, following completion of his penal servitude (Bunbury 2023). Original works exist in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia and the State Library of New South Wales, along with contemporary copies elsewhere, such as in the National Library of Australia and private collections. The Browne portrait of Towa is briefly described by Bunbury as: ... in left profile, with shield and raised club, wearing hair in conical wrapping.

Richard Browne, Towa, watercolour, pen & ink on paper, 24 x 29.7 cm, circa 1820. Collection: Art Gallery of South Australia.

The work was commissioned by Wesleyan Methodist missionary Samuel Leigh around 1821 as one of a group of four watercolour portraits of Aboriginal people, wherein ‘Mr Leigh Knew Them & had them taken from life by a convict’. The them being Natives of New South Wales, and the convict Richard Browne.

There has been much discussion amongst art historians and critics in recent years around Browne's Aboriginal portraits, with labels ranging from accurate to grotesque charicatures being applied. As a result of the latter, their study has largely been neglect prior to the appearance of the aforementioned 2023 article by Alisa Bunbury cont, Bunbury states:aining a comprehensive listing of known works. In regards to Browne's watercolour of Towa, and others:

Browne’s profiles, notably Towa’s awkward stance and Cobbawn Wogi’s large lips and protruding tongue, seem particularly derogatory. But is Towa’s form any less attenuated than that of Browne’s lyrebird? And could Cobbawn Wogi be Browne’s attempt to convey ceremonial facial expressions? Leigh recorded, under Browne’s letterhead probably depicting Cobbawn Wogi, that: ‘the men … [put] out their tongues as far as they can staring with their eyes and disfiguring their faces with all the horror imaginable’, like the more-familiar Māori pukana and whetero. (Bunbury 2023)

It should be noted that in regard to Towwaa / Towa, both Lewin and Browne portraits portray him as tall and thin. The latter is richer in body marking detail than the former, with significant elements appearing on his left side and back.

There are a number of works by Browne in which an unnamed couple feature, and Towa may be one of the males figured. A later copied work from the 1820s in the National Library of Australia collection depicts Towa - therein misnamed as Nigral - in a fighting pose with fellow Aborigine Ningi Ningi. One bears a Nulla Nulla and the other a Waddie. It is illustrated below:

after Richard Browne, Ninge Ninge and Nigral, watercolour, pen & ink on paper, circa 1820s. Collection: National Library of Australia.

Browne had carried out some work as a artist in the Newcastle region, north of Sydney, between 1811-1817 whilst serving as a convict. In an 1828 census of Aboriginal people in the Lake Macquarie area, there was an entry for a man whose English name was given as Tower and Native name Mu-ta (Gunson 1974). In this case, as in a number of others as cited in the Chronology section below, this is unlikely to be Towwaa of Jervis Bay. A number of works by Browne also featured in French art during the 1820s, with originals having been collected in Sydney by visiting exploring expeditions. Some of the figures in this art are by Browne, though unattributed.

Pierre-Antoine Marchais, [Aboriginal formal combat in landscape], 1820s, watercolour, Silentworld Foundation Collection, Sydney.

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4. Chronology

The following chronology brings together all known references to Towwaa and his various alias's or supposed / suggested identities.

c.1790

- Assuming Towwaa was approximately aged 20 at the time of his Lewin portrait (1810), we can surmise he was born at Jervis Bay around 1790.

1804

- John Grant, Panegyric / On an eminent artist, / Parramatta, / New South Wales, / 1804 / 1. / Nature! Where dwells in these Australian lands / Thy faithful Copyist? Whose art expands / They novel beauties o'er our ancient Globe? / Who to far distant Climes they Charms derobe? / / 2. / Modest, laborious, steady in his Plan, / I view, admire, venerate the Man; / And lest neglect a tender Genius blight, / Cheer, Muse! his patience, under Him to light. / / 3. / Lewin! rare, beauteous plant in Genius' Vale, / Painter! Engraver! Nature's Wooer! hail; / Courage, they Labours consecrate thy Fame; Ages to come shall venerate they Name. / 4. / When thy productions European eyes / Gaze on and Nature; struck with glad surprise / We think She blossoms but at Lewin's will; Thine imitations mark such wond'rous skill! / 5. / Whether thine hand delineating draw / Insect, or Bird, or crimson Warrataw; / In each, in All, thine Art we can forgive, / When thing inanimate appear to live. / 6. / Touch'd with delight, involuntary thought / Rebounds to England, where (thy Labours sought) / Her Sons unanimous shall tribute pay / Thee! Wand'rer! searching Nature's thorny way.

1809

- May: Artist John Lewin proposes to John Grant a 3 week excursion to Jarvis Bay on the coast south of Sydney.

1810

- Artist John Lewin paints a portrait of Towwaa of Jarvis Bay. No information is provided as to the source of the name and the location.

c.1821

- Richard Browne produces a watercolour and ink portrait of Towa. with shield, waddy and headdress.

1828

- Lake Macquarie Return of Black Natives lists: Tower / Mu-ta (Threlkeld 1974). This is likely not Towwaa.

1834

- 12 July: Blanket issued to Tom Ugly / Kullaraga at Bookenbour, Bateman's Bay. No further personal details are known. Not the different native name. This is likely not Towwaa.

1837

- 5 September: Blanket issued to Tom Ugly at Browley (Broulee). Age: 28, number of wives: 3, male children: 3, female children: 2. Under the heading Native name is given Ugly.

1842

- 27 May: Blanket issued to Charcoal / Tourewya of the Five Islands tribe, at Wollongong. Age 50, with 1 wife and 1 male child. Listed as Touruega in 1840, therefore it is unlikely to be Towwaa.

1843

- Blanket issued to Tow Weiry. No specific details known.

c.1846

- Tow Weiry / Tom Ugly dies and is buried on the point of land by the Georges River where he lived and which is at present called Tom Uglys Point.

1855

- early reference to Tom Ugly's Point as a location for the sale of land.

1858

- November: Karl Scherzer, an Austrian scientist aboard the Novara expedition, accompanied by John Malone, sets out to exhume the body of Tom Ugly / Tow-Weiry for study, but is unsuccessful in locating it. The following is the original manuscript account in Scherzer's diary at present in the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. The German-language diary Sydney section was translated by Mrs Dymphna Clarke for the present writer during January - February 1995:

Wednesday 1st December [1858]

Left the Club with E.S. Hill at about 9 o'clock in the morning and went through Newtown and across the Cooks River causeway (about l000' long and 200' wide) to 'Coggerah Bay' where we arrived in a light carriage about 11 o'clock. Here we found near the shore a small Encampment of blacks and female mixed-bloods (two women with two children half-caste and Jonny, the last of the Sydney tribe, approximately 30-40 years old, hunchbacked due to a fall as a boy). In the year 1836 there were still 53 blacks of the Sydney tribe alive, now there is not a single one except for Jonny.

We set out in a small, but safe, well-built boat belonging to Jonny, rowed by Jonny and 2 white men, to cross over to Cook River Bay. It was our intention to find the skeleton of a blackfellow called Tom Ugly (native name Tow-weiry), a chief of the Sydney tribe, who lived near the outlet of the Cook River and was buried where he lived and died, under an overhanging sandstone rock. Jonny told us that Tom Ugly, an outstanding specimen of an Aborigine, died about 10 - 12 years ago, but that only 9 - 10 months ago he had seen his bones sticking out of the sand in the spot to which he led us, which apparently prevented him from continuing his search for shellfish. Actually, the whole of the foot-track along which Jonny had led us to this particular spot was covered with masses of empty oyster shells [72] which obviously indicated that fairly large Encampments must at one time have existed there. Today the predominant vegetation was once again: Eucalypti, Casuarineae, Acacia, Banksiae & Xanthoreae which gave the neighbourhood a quite distinct character. In some places we came upon the Araucaria Cunninghami & Excelsa introduced from Norfolk Island.

Everything pointed to the fact that the spot had at one time been inhabited by blacks. In many spots traces of fires were still to be seen. We dug and dug but without success. A few small human bones and a lower jaw in a state of decay such that they partly crumbled between the fingers like earth, was all that we could find after repeatedly searching for hours. We returned to the boat and to Coggerah Bay where Mr Hill went to the famous Bushman's Black Pot (which plays something the same role here as the sooty, dirty 'Haferl' of the Viennese 'coffee sister') to fetch chocolate and milk, which tasted delicious with the bread and other snacks we had brought with us. With his natural generosity Hill shared everything he had brought with him with the Aborigines, who for their part were extremely forthcoming with him.

We had not yet given up our search for graves. Jonny promised to bring us to a place near the road where our route passed, where about 9-10 years ago an Aborigine had died for want of the barest necessities and was buried by an Irish settler. We drove to this spot. Jonny came along too with his shovel and digging stick. It had started to rain hard and even the umbrella we put up failed to protect us from a drenching. At last we came to the mysterious spot: Munnin-milli. Jonny searched for a moment, then he said: It must be here, where Micky or Sarannu lies buried. He immediately took the shovel and began to dig. But it was only at the second site we dug up that we were able to be quite sure that this was really the grave we were looking for. At a certain depth sand appeared and then once more silica, just the opposite of what was at the other site. After a bit more gravel-silica, traces of human bones appeared. Jonny now stopped digging and maintained it [73] was now up to us to finish the job.

Aborigines are as a rule simply buried in the woollen blanket which they wore when alive, with their head in the direction of the sea. It did not take us long to find the skull, which was already considerably decomposed. However we stuck it in a sack and took it with us. But there was no point in digging any further for the skeleton, which must have been in an even worse condition for our purposes. Jonny swung the shovel on to his shoulder, thanked us again for our gift of money he had received and returned to his Camp in Coggerah Bay. We climbed into the carriage and let our excellent horse trot home as fast as he could. In spite of our disappointment with regard to the Aboriginal skeleton we had so urgently hoped for, we were well satisfied with our excursion which had revealed to us so many interesting scenes and phenomena.

At 6 o'clock we were back in town. At about 8 o'clock I called on Dr Alfred Roberts, Castlereagh Street North, and spent several most agreeable hours in his company and that of his wife. I have to thank him for several interesting ethnographic items from the Fiji Islands.

The following account is from the 1863 published Narrative of the expedition, written in large part by Scherzer:

......A few days before our departure some of the scientific staff had further opportunity of communicating with the "blacks." It was important to extend our collection of craniological specimens for that branch of study, by comparing the various races of men with each other, so as to enlarge our knowledge of the physiological peculiarities of either sex and every race; and as we had been told that numbers of skulls could be procured among the Gunyahs, or sandstone cavities of Cook-river Bay, which had been a favourite burial-place of the aborigines, we made an excursion thither, still accompanied by our staunch friend, Mr. Hill.

Our light vehicle rattled merrily through the suburbs of New Town, a sort of suburb of Sydney, thence over the Cook-river Dam, 1000 feet wide by 200 feet in length, to Coggera Cove, where several of the aborigines had pitched a temporary camp. These were two Mestiza women with their children, and Johnny, the last of the Sydney blacks, who might be about 40, and was a cripple in consequence of an injury sustained in childhood. In 1836 there were 58 still alive; now Johnny is the last remaining survivor!

We set off from Coggera Cove in a small, but safe, and well-built boat, rowed by Johnny and some white colonists, bound for Cool-river Bay, but our search in the sandstone caverns was unfortunately fruitless. Johnny then conducted us to a spot where Tom Weiry, one of the last of the chiefs, who lived at the mouth of Cool River, and died about twelve years previous, had been buried. Tow Weiry, or Tom Ugly, as the English named him, was a very athletic man, whose skeleton was a real prize for the purposes of comparative anatomy. Close to the spot where, according to Johnny, the last remains of the Australian chief reposed, were large quantities of empty oyster-shells, indicating that the place in question had once been a favourite resort of the "blacks," attracted thither by the prolific yield of this place in those shell-fish, one of their most highly appreciated articles of food. At various spots traces of fires were visible.

The Aborigines of the coast usually bury their dead clothed in the woollen blanket they wore in life, with the heads seaward, and near the coast, with but a few feet of earth over them. Unfortunately we had our pains for our reward, although Johnny repeatedly assured us he had himself, in picking up shell-fish, on that very spot seen projecting from the sand human bones, that frightened the superstitious fellow from prosecuting his search in that direction. Indeed, Johnny was positive some other exploring naturalist had been there and walked off with our contemplated anthropological prize.

We returned, our object unachieved, to our boat, and so back to Coggera Cove, where we found tea and chocolate prepared in the renowned "black pot," that figures so much in bush life, off which we made an excellent repast. With true kindliness Mr. Hill shared what we had brought with us with the aborigines, who, on their part, showed themselves very obliging and attentive.

From this account we can determine that Tow Weiry died around 1846.

1864

- A punt is introduced at Tom Uglys Point to ferry people and horse-drawn vehicles to the south side of the Georges River.

1893

- August: J.W. Lewin portraits of Towwaa and Blueit donated to the British Museum by the Estate of Sir Richard Owen.

1902

Binyon catalogue of certain items in the British Museum lists the two watercolours as follows:

LEWIN, John William (worked about 1805-1822). Draughtsman and naturalist; brother of the better known naturalist William Lewin; settled in Paramatta, New South Wales; published 'The Birds of New Holland, London, 1808-1822.

1. TOWWAA, NATIVE OF JARVIS BAY, NEW SOUTH WALES. Whole-length, naked, bearded figure, holding a club in both hands before his face. Signed and dated J. W. Lewin, New South Wales, 1810. Watercolours; roy.,10 x 8 in.

2. BLUEIT, NATIVE OF BOTANY BAY, NEW SOUTH WALES. Whole-length figure, nude, except for a loin cloth, seen in profile turned 1., with club in 1. hand and spear in r. hand. Signed and dated. W. Lewin, New South Wales, 1810. Watercolours; roy., 10 x 8 in.

Both presented by the executors of Sir Richard Owen, K.C.B., August, 1893.

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5. Names

The above research reveals a variety of names and associations. The following is a chronological listing of the various names which may assist in pinning down the variations in Native and English names, and any overlaps. The Native name is given first.

1810 - Towwaa - John Lewin portrait. Source of name not known, nor is link to Jarvis Bay.

c.1821 - Towa - Robert Browne portrait. Name provided by artist on the image.

1828 - Mu-ta / Tower - Lake Macquarie blanket list. Not Towwaa.

1834 - Kullaraga / Tom Ugly - Bateman's Bay blanket list. Not Towwaa.

1837 - Ugly / Tom - Browley blanket list, age 28. May be the Tom Ugly (c.1809 - c.1846) of Tom Uglys Point. Too young to be Towwaa.

1842 -Toureyga / Charcoal - Wollongong blanket list, age 50. May be Towwaa (born c.1790) as it is the correct age range.

1858 - Tow-weiry / Tom Ugly (dies c.1846) - source is Austrian Karl Scherzer's manuscript diary notes (1 December) and late published narrative of the visit to Sydney (1863). Unclear as to whether this is Towwaa.

In summary, there is no clear line from Lewin's Towwaa through to Scherzer's Tow-weiry / Tom Ugly of 1858. The various Native names and English names listed above come from a variety of locations - north to Lake Macquarie and south to Broulee, with Jervis Bay, Wollongong (Five Islands) and the Georges River / Botany Bay in between. The variety of Native names present are the ultimate root of the confusion, viz., Towwaa, Towa, Toureyga, Tow-weiry, Eugally / Ugly, Mu-ta and Kallaraga. As a result, at this point it is not possible to state with any degree of certainty that Lewin's Towwaa was the Aboriginal man call Tom Ugly buried at Tom Uglys Point around 1846.

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6. References

Binyon, Lawrence, Catalogue of drawings by British artists, and artists of foreign origin working in Great Britain, 4 volumes, British Museum, London, 1898-1907.

Botsman, Peter, Barbarity of our own Countrymen, Academia.edu, Peter Botsman's Working Papers, 27 November 2020.

Browne, Richard, Towa, watercolour, pen & ink on paper, 24 x 29.7 cm, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

-----, Ninge Ninge and Nigral, watercolour, pen & ink on paper, 29.5 x 41.2 cm, National Library of Australia, Canberra.

Bunbury, Alisa, Richard Browne's Portraits of Aboriginal Australians: Analysing the Evidence, Australian Historical Studies, 54(4), 2023, 740-771.

Burgess, Laurie, Another Ugly argument, Sutherland Shire Historical Society Bulletin, 194, February 2015, page 27.

Davis, Joseph, 'Woronora' or 'Waniora' at Bulli (it;s a'' pretty 'Tom Ugly' to me), Region Illawarra, 2 November 2025.

Earnshaw, Beverley, Carss Park, Kogarah Historical Society, 2009, page 3.

Goodall, Heather and Alison Cadzow, Rivers and Resilience: Aboriginal people in Sydney’s Georges River, UNSW Press, 2009, page 9.

Grant, John. Journal and letters, 1803-11 (manuscript), National Library of Australia, Canberra.

-----, Panegyric on an eminent artist, Parramatta, NSW, 1804, W. Dawson, London, 1822.

Gunson, Neil (editor), Australian Reminiscences and Papers of L.E. Threlkeld, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, page 361.

Hill-Reid, W.S., John Grant's Journey: a convict's story, 1803-1811, Heinemann, London, 1957, 222p.

Lewin, John William, Blueit, native of Botany Bay, New South Wales, 1810, watercolour on paper, 21 x 27 cm, British Museum, London, item P1893-0803-49. Inscribed in ink, lower right: 'J.W. Lewin, New South Wales, 1810.' Donated in 1893 by the Executors of Sir Richard Owen.

-----, Towwaa, native of Jervis Bay, New South Wales, 1810, watercolour on paper, 21 x 27 cm, British Museum, London, item P1893-0803-50. Inscribed in ink, lower right: 'J.W. Lewin, New South Wales, 1810.' Donated in 1893 by the Executors of Sir Richard Owen.

Lynravn, N.S., John Grant, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University, Canberra, volume 1, 1966.

Mander-Jones. Phyllis, John William Lewin (1770-1819), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University, Canberra, volume 2, 1967.

McMahon, Mary F., Picturing Indigenous Australia in the British Museum, Ph., University of London, 2021, 304p.

Neville, Richard (a), Lewin: Wild Art, Exhibition catalogue, State Library of New South Wales, 2013, 9p. Item #93. Exhibition: March - May 2012.

----- (b), Mr. J.W. Lewin, Painter and Naturalist, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, 2012, 272p.

Records and 19th century blanket lists and returns of Aboriginal People, Museums of History New South Wales, n.d., accessed 23 October 2025.

Scherzer, Karl, Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III, Vienna, 1863.

Smart, Alex, Tom Uglys Bridge - The Handsome Veteran, Neighbourhood Media, 19 September 2023.

Smith, Keith Vincent, Mari Nawi: Aboriginal Odysseys 1790-1850 Rosenberg Publishing, 2010, 192p.

----- and Anthony Bourke, Eora: Mapping Aboriginal Sydney, 1770-1850, Exhibition catalogue, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, June 2006, 28p.

The Real Tom Ugly, Sutherland Shire Historical Society Bulletin, 226, February 2023, page 23. Reproduced from the Kogarah Historical Society.

Tom Ugly - Who was he?, Kogarah Historical Society Newsletter, 2(5), November / December 2010, page 9.

Tom Uglys Point Punt 1886, Pictures from the Past, Facebook, 24 September 2024.

Wikipedia. John William Lewin (1770-1819), Wikipedia, accessed 23 October 2025.

-----, Sir Richard Owen (1804-1892), Wikipedia, accessed 23 October 2025.

-----, Salt Pan Creek, Wikipedia, accessed 23 October 2025.

-----, Tom Uglys Bridge, Wikipedia, accessed 23 October 2025.

-----, Waddy, Wikipedia, accessed 23 October 2025.

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Last updated: 1 November 2025

Michael Organ, Australia

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