Towwaa of Jervis Bay 1810

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

Contents

Smiling man
Tom Ugly / Eugally?
Richard Browne's Towa
Chronology
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. 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 the portrait we also 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. 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.

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-urbanisatoin 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 ‘Tom 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)

Is this correct? Was Towwaa also Eugally / Tom 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 'Tom 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 Tom 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 “Towweiry” (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. The Browne portrait 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 as one of a group of four watercolour portraits, wherein ‘Mr Leigh Knew Them & had them taken from life by a convict’. The them being Natives, 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 containing 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, with significant elements appearing on his left side and back.

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.

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 featured in French art during the 1820s, with originals having been collected in Sydney by visiting exploring expeditions.

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

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3. 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, we can surmise he was born at Jervis Bay around 1790.

1810

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

c.1821

- Richard Browne portrait of Towa. with shield, waddy and headdress.

1828

- Lake Macquarie Return of Black Natives lists: Tower / Mu-ta (Threlkeld 1974).

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.

1837

- Blanket issued to Tom Weiry / Towwaa. Details unknown.

- 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 Tom Weiry / Towwaa. No specific details known.

c.1846

- Tom 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 for study, but is unsuccessful in locating it. The following account is from the 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. Tom 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 Tom 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.

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3. 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.

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.

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

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, Jervis Bay, 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.

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

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 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: 26 October 2025

Michael Organ, Australia

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