Cummeragunja Reserve or Cummeragunja Station, alternatively spelt Coomeroogunja, Coomeragunja, Cumeroogunga and Cummerguja, was a settlement on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, on the Victorian border near Barmah. It was also referred to as Cumeroogunga Mission, although it was not run by missionaries. The people were mostly Yorta Yorta.
It was established between 1882 and 1888 when dissatisfied residents of Maloga Mission moved upriver to escape the authoritarian discipline there under its founder, Daniel Matthews. The mission buildings were re-built on the new site, and the teacher, Thomas Shadrach James, moved too, but Matthews, stayed on at Maloga. The new station became a thriving community by the turn of the century, but over time its status changed as the New South Wales Government assumed varying degrees of control. Records list it as a group of four Aboriginal reserves spanning the years 1883 to 1964, but its status changed over this period, with differing levels of control by the government. It is known for being the site of a protest known as the Cummeragunja walk-off in 1939, with residents leaving the reserve to cross the river in protest at poor conditions and treatment.
In March 1984 the newly-created Yorta Yorta Land Council took possession of the land. Many Aboriginal families still live on Cummeragunja.
Name
The name of the settlement referred to today as Cummeragunja has been recorded as Cumeroogunya and other variations such as Coomeragunja, Cumeroogunga and Cummerguja.
History
Records show the Cumeroogunya Aboriginal reserve in the Parish of Bama, County of Cadell on a total of , consisting of four reserves: the main one existed from 9 April 1883 to 24 December 1964, while three smaller ones have starting dates in 1893, 1899 and 1900.
Establishment
Most of the people who lived on the Cummeragunja Reserve were Yorta Yorta people. The original residents moved there from Maloga Mission, away, where they had grown tired of the strict religious lifestyle and the authoritarian style of its founder, Daniel Matthews.
In April 1881, 42 of the Yorta Yorta men living at the Maloga Mission wrote a petition to the Governor of New South Wales, Augustus Loftus, requesting land. Daniel Matthews took the petition to Sydney on their behalf and it was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 2 July 1881 and the Daily Telegraph on 5 July 1881, the same day that it was presented to the governor.
In July 1887, the Governor of New South Wales, Lord Carrington, visited Moama, where he was presented with a petition by Maloga residents requesting Queen Victoria grant the community land. The petition was signed by Robert Cooper, Samson Barber, Aaron Atkinson, Hughy Anderson, John Cooper, Edgar Atkinson, Whyman McLean, John Atkinson (his mark), William Cooper, George Middleton, Edward Joachim (his mark). An article in the Riverine Herald tells of the petition, presented to a Mr Burns, "when here some months ago with Lord Carrington". It prints a response from the Minister of Lands acceding to the request that "part of the reserve [would] be subdivided into suitable areas for settlement of individual aborigines", dated 20 March 1888.
A property of was acquired from the government of the Colony of New South Wales, and the entire village was moved from Maloga in 1888, with the name Coomerugunja given to it by a superintendent appointed by the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Association.
Matthews' connection with the Aborigines Protection Association ceased in April 1888, when the residents moved. According to his wife Janet, he continued to be "engaged in work on behalf of the blacks"; the couple stayed on at Maloga Mission, doing their "particular work", and were looking to establish a new mission at Bribie Island after the residents had left (which never came to pass).
Thomas Shadrach James continued as teacher at the new location, and was praised as a dedicated teacher by Matthews' son, John Kerr Matthews, and was said to have taught his Aboriginal students well, many of whom went on to be activists.
The "Cumeroogunga Mission Church, removed from Mologa" was reported to have reopened for worship on Easter Monday in 1889. At Cummeragunja Station, they established a farm with the aim of communal self-sufficiency. In the early years, the residents of Cummeragunja shaped most of the land into a productive farm, producing wheat, wool and dairy products,
The NSW Aborigines Protection Association administered the station from its beginnings until 1892 (subsidised by the government), when their funds ran dry and management was handed over to the government's Board for the Protection of Aborigines.