The contribution of Aboriginal labour to the pastoral industry in northern and western New South Wales following the discovery of payable gold at Sofala in 1852 is well known. Goodall’s analyses of the annual reports of the Commissioners for Crown land and various property records demonstrate that numerous Aboriginal men and women took up the labouring slack after the departure of many white workers to the gold fields. Whereas before they were driven from their lands to make way for sheep and cattle, some Aboriginal people now had the chance to continue the occupation of their lands and receive reasonable wages in return for their labour. Goodall refers to this phenomenon as ‘dual occupation’.¹

The situation in the more settled regions of New South Wales in the vicinity of Sydney is less well understood. An exception is the important contribution made recently by Mark Hannah who examined the pattern of Aboriginal employment on the Australian Agricultural Company’s land between Port Stephens and Manning River. Hannah demonstrated that Aboriginal workers were among the most productive of all employees and resisted the imposition of the factory system of regimented and supervised work. Furthermore, he found there was an increased reliance on Aboriginal labour in the 1850s after gold prospecting intensified, but this was not caused by a desire on the part of European employers to offset higher wage claims by the remaining white workers. Rather, Aboriginal employees were in demand because of their reputation as ‘skilled and trustworthy’ workers.²

Little has been written about Aboriginal labour in the Shoalhaven region to the south of Sydney, despite a wealth of historical and anthropological research.³ The reason for this dearth of analysis is not a shortage of primary historical material. The vast agricultural records of Alexander Berry’s Coolangatta Estate, found near the mouth of the Shoalhaven River, offer a detailed portrait of Aboriginal employment, particularly in the 1850s when Berry’s white workforce was drastically reduced by departures to the gold fields.⁴ They show Aboriginal people worked on the property from the time it was established in 1822 until 1901 when the Aboriginal residents were removed to the Roseby Park Aboriginal reserve. This article arises from research undertaken for my doctoral dissertation and presents a narrative of the changing nature of Aboriginal labour on the Coolangatta Estate from 1822 until 1901 in terms of the type of work undertaken and, to a lesser extent, the gender division of labour.⁵ It concludes by briefly contrasting the nature of dual occupation at Coolangatta and other areas of New South Wales.

Early settlement

The first land grant of 10,000 acres on the Shoalhaven River was given to Alexander Berry and Edward Wollstonecraft soon after their arrival in the colony in 1821. Berry was a Scotsman born in Fifeshire on 30 November 1781. After attending Cupar Grammar School and St Andrews University, Berry gained a medical degree from the University of Edinburgh and went to work as a ship’s surgeon for the East India Company.⁶ He grew up during the Scottish Enlightenment and followed Adam Smith’s dictum that ‘we must be men of the world’. Berry realised that there was a lack of understanding about indigenous peoples and when travelling with the East India Company to India and New Zealand, he took the opportunity to record his observations and make up for the dearth of knowledge.

Soon after abandoning his medical career, Berry formed a partnership with Edward Wollstonecraft, an English merchant, and together they moved to Sydney intent on becoming landowners and adhering to the Tory maxim that advocated the social, political and economic dominance of the landowning class.⁷ Wollstonecraft died in 1832 and had a minor role in managing Coolangatta.

Berry’s desire to become a landowner indicates another side to his character. As Elizabeth Brenchley demonstrates, he was also strongly influenced by the economic principles of laissez-faire capitalism, which eroded his humanitarian principles and tempered his benevolence towards Aboriginal people.⁸ Not only did he want to have indigenous people on his property to observe, he was hopeful that they would become a labour force, and eventually, settled yeomen farmers. It was Berry’s belief that Aboriginal people were inferior to other groups and only capable of occupying jobs at the lower end
of the economy.⁹

Official settlement on the lower Shoalhaven River began in June 1822 when Alexander Berry set out from Sydney aboard the Blanch, a 15 ton cutter, with a crew including Hamilton Hume and two Aboriginal guides. Soon after arriving, the arduous task of clearing ground commenced, and the endeavours of Berry’s crew were assisted by local Aboriginal men, who also gave fish to the white workers. Berry recognised the efforts and generosity of the locals, and supplied them with tomahawks. Two men of political importance came forward to meet with Berry, identifying themselves as ‘chiefs’ of Jervis Bay and Numba (the land on the southern side of the lower Shoalhaven River). They travelled back with Berry to Sydney when he returned to gather further supplies. They were given brass gorgets to signify their position. Berry was being drawn into a reciprocal relationship with local groups where he was expected to share, from an Aboriginal perspective, his abundant material wealth.¹⁰ This he did not always do and after some corn was stolen in March 1824, a reprisal raid led to the death of least one Aborigine. Episodes of plunder continued throughout the 1820s, but there is no further evidence for the application of lethal force in response. Amicable relations were re-established by 1830 and persisted for the remainder of the century.¹¹

One of the guides who assisted Berry to established Coolangatta was Broughton. While preparing in Sydney to claim his grant, Berry received a letter from Charles Throsby introducing Broughton, who had guided him on his southern expeditions. Throsby wrote that Broughton is ‘… well acquainted with every inch of that part of the country, speaks good English, and I think may be useful to you. I have therefore told him if he will accompany you and explain to the natives there, that they are not to touch any thing you have and… that you will give him some tobacco, a pair of trousers, and he adds, he must have an old shirt’.¹² This was the beginning of a working relationship that lasted over two decades and Broughton proved invaluable to Berry on the farm and in dealing with local Aborigines. Broughton was not transferred from Throsby to Berry as a slave. As the letter shows, Broughton would only go if he was given something in return. Farm records show that Broughton was paid in food and goods. The move was probably attractive to Broughton as it meant moving back to land with which he was familiar.

Broughton worked in a variety of jobs on the Coolangatta Estate. Between October 1824 and August 1827, he tended tobacco crops, recaptured escaped convicts, couried letters to Sydney, cut reeds in a swamp and procured parrots for collectors.¹³ His work is not representative of other Aboriginal labourers as they did not undertake agricultural tasks. Broughton also worked more frequently than others. A labouring life on the farm did not suit most Aboriginal people who preferred their traditional subsistence pattern of hunting and gathering. Berry wrote that he once said to Billy, an Aboriginal man occasionally employed on the estate, ‘Well Billy, I expected you were to have become like a white man but am sorry to find that you have again become a wild bush native’. Billy replied: ‘Oh no sir, I am no more wild than formerly, but I have become a free man again’.¹⁴ Berry had great difficulty in convincing Aboriginal people to become yeoman farmers.

New skills

Developing new skills, the indigenous inhabitants of Coolangatta worked on the corn harvest in May 1829 and the wheat harvest the following summer. The reapers were brought in at a time when convicts were protesting against inadequate rations and poor treatment by going slow and absconding.¹⁵ They may have been replacements for the missing convicts. Berry informed Wollstonecraft on 7 January 1830 that ‘[w]e have been employing as many natives as possible to assist in the reaping – and four of them have stuck steadily to the work for eight or ten days and although not first rate reapers still they are better then some of the worst reapers among the white people’.¹⁶

Aboriginal people formed a workforce to be drawn upon in times of shortage.

Wollstonecraft was less praiseworthy about the reaping abilities of Aboriginal people:

I know not what Mr Toosey’s (overseer) system for his May harvest may be – but nothing could be worse or more injurious than that which was pursued last year… He handed it over to the black people to be gathered as they thought proper – and merely had it carted into the field when picked. The results were – as might be expected – that the blacks picked some – but left a much larger quantity upon the stalks…. At least one third (was) lost to us… This system – or anything similar to it – will I trust be avoided on the present occasion.¹⁷

Wollstonecraft’s assessment of their harvesting abilities is hasty and unfair. There are no previous records of Aboriginal people having participated in the harvest. Wollstonecraft’s account indicates that the Aboriginal people were given little training in harvesting technique and had to learn on the job. It is not surprising that some of the corn was left on the stalks at their first try. As is to be expected, their skills improved and Aboriginal people continued to assist with corn and wheat harvesting over many decades. Further, the Aboriginal reapers were working when money was tight on the farm. Wollstonecraft advocated that no more money be spent on farm development and that any excess workers be dismissed.¹⁸ It seems that he did not fully appreciate the presence of a workforce who largely supported itself and worked for very little.

Aboriginal labour in the 1830s

Indigenous participation in agricultural work continued into the late 1830s. Provision store books, covering the periods of 23 January 1837 to 19 January 1838 and 21 July 1838 to 22 December 1838, contain weekly lists of rations and supplies given to the free workers, convicts and Aboriginal workers at the three main centres of the estate: Coolangatta, Numba and Broughton Creek.¹⁹ The overseer of the provision store at Coolangatta recorded the information. Aboriginal people are listed as undertaking a variety of tasks including collecting bark, fishing, boating, tracking horses, capturing convicts, delivering messages, sewing and reaping crops, threshing seed, washing sheep, making yeast, washing bags and cleaning the storehouse. Overall, most indigenous workers were employed for their agricultural skills, but bush skills were put to good use, particularly where a comparative advantage existed, such as in collecting bark.

Aboriginal people rarely worked alone in 1837 and 1838. The usual listing is for ‘natives’ rather than the singular. The largest group consisted of 11 Aboriginal people assisting the butcher to slaughter an ox in September 1837. Another group procured 56 sheets of bark in the week beginning 9 September 1837.²⁰ There are several other groups of between five and seven individuals undertaking tasks such as wheat harvesting and cleaning the tobacco store. Aboriginal people were used to working in groups, so doing the unfamiliar work with familiar faces probably made the job easier and improved labour efficiency. It would also have made the task a social occasion.

Broughton is the name most frequently mentioned in the provision store books. For 1837, he is recorded as receiving a weekly ration on 38 occasions. His wife, who is named as Mrs Broughton, is listed on a further three separate weeks. Both Broughton and his wife received 10 pounds of flour, seven pounds of beef, some sugar, tobacco and occasionally tea in their ration pack. It approximately matched the rations given to assigned servants but was well below that usually given to hired hands. The tasks that Broughton undertook are not listed. Berry wrote in his 1838 reminiscences that slops and rations were always available for Broughton if he wished to claim them, implying that he need not work in return.²¹ On one instance, his wife is listed as helping with tobacco processing. She may have worked there to get supplies of tobacco. Alexander Berry was known to freely distribute tobacco among the convict labourers as an enticement to work.²²

Mrs Broughton is the only identifiable Aboriginal woman in the provision store books. This is not to say that all the other Aboriginal workers were men. Only five Aboriginal men are named: Broughton, Charcoal, Tammal, Lewis and Black Joe; but overall, there is a general absence of information about the work accomplished by Aboriginal women making it difficult to draw conclusions about the sexual division of labour at this time. The provisions that the Aboriginal workers received varied, but always at the small end of the scale. Other than for Broughton, there does not seem to have been a structure underlying their payments. The workers usually received flour, tea and tobacco. Sometimes beef was distributed. There are no records of money being paid, although if it was, it is unlikely to have been recorded in the provision store book that dealt solely with rations. The small amounts given as payment reflects the knowledge of Alexander Berry that Aboriginal people were still largely self-sufficient and could find their own subsistence after working for very little. As was the case on the Australian Agricultural Companies estates, the majority of Aboriginal people at Coolangatta were not employed, but Berry was happy to maintain an indigenous presence if it meant he could have access to a skilful workforce that knew its way around the landscape and could be called upon to work
quickly and skilfully.

Into the 1840s

Economic conditions increased the opportunity for Aboriginal employment in the 1840s. Convicts, the main source of labour for the estate until this time, were withdrawn by the government in 1841, forcing Alexander Berry to look for an alternative supply of cheap labour, such as the employment of immigrants.²³ The scarcity of labour and a drought in 1840 pushed up wages. Alexander Berry responded by refusing to employ British immigrants who were demanding excessive remuneration. Also, many immigrant labourers were unwilling to travel away from the cities.²⁴

Records of Aboriginal work from this period come from ledger and day books kept on the estate.²⁵ They contain information about all the free and convict workers. The information includes details about wage rates and goods provided to the workers such as clothes and cooking utensils. Workers were rarely paid in cash. Most of the remuneration came in the form of rations and goods. There are no records of Aboriginal workers in 1840 and 1841. Information about Aboriginal labour begins in 1842, but is scarce until 1844. The most detailed picture of Aboriginal labour from this period comes from 1845. It appears that most of the ledger books from this year survived. There is little information from 1846 and none from 1847. Overall, the records indicate that Aboriginal employment did not increase markedly in the 1840s, despite improved opportunities.

Unfortunately, the ledger books contain limited information about the type of work undertaken by Aboriginal people. In the latter half of 1842, an Aboriginal man named Monkie burned off stubble from the land. On 23 August 1843, four unnamed labourers cut maize cobs from their stalks and two days later, seven others each received a shirt and a pair of duck trousers, most probably for the same task. Sheep washing, stock keeping and bark cutting were other jobs that Aboriginal people worked at over the next two years. A point to note about the work done by the Aboriginal people is that with the exception of cutting bark, all the other tasks were directly connected with agriculture and animal husbandry. It continues the trend from the late 1830s when the development of the estate meant that traditional Aboriginal skills such as bark cutting, hunting game and guiding people were not required to the same extent as they were previously. The exception is the burning off done by Monkie in 1842, which was a traditional practice directed to an agricultural purpose.

The overall work pattern for Aboriginal men in 1845 is shown on Figure 1. It records the number of times each month that Aboriginal workers were provided with goods and wages. The graph shows that the busiest month was July when goods were given to Aboriginal workers on 26 occasions. Various tasks were undertaken in that month including sheep washing, stock keeping, bark cutting and plough driving. The maize harvest in 1845 was done in June, the third busiest month for Aboriginal workers. The pattern for the year shows an increasing amount of work being done in the first six months, peaking in July and then falling away as the year moved to a close. There were no records for December. The graph demonstrates that Aboriginal men worked in all the months that records were kept. The pattern is seasonal insofar as the peak came in July when much work on the Coolangatta Estate was required to be done.

A notable absence from the work records is the name of Broughton. By the early 1840s he had retired from the Coolangatta Estate and his replacements were a new generation of Aboriginal workers. Broughton, however, was still living on the farm. In April 1842, he carried a letter from Alexander Berry to Governor Gipps requesting blankets for the Aboriginal population. It read that Broughton was the ‘oldest surviving Black prince and the virtual Head of the Shoalhaven Aboriginal Aristocracy’. Berry went on to say ‘Mr Broughton has always conducted himself a Good and Loyal subject and has been the means of capturing many Bushrangers’.²⁶

The gold rush and Aboriginal labour

The external factor with the largest potential impact on Aboriginal labour in the 1850s was the gold rush. Free workers left the Coolangatta Estate in droves in search of a private fortune on the goldfields of Bathurst and elsewhere. There were 236 private workers on the property in 1851. The number dropped to less than half that over the following 12 months.²⁷ The introduction of tenants partially relieved the shortfall, but there remained a growing opportunity for Aboriginal people to increase the amount of work they did on the farm.

In the 1850s, Aboriginal labour conformed to the pattern established over the previous 20 years: workers continued to develop their skills in agriculture and animals husbandry. They harvested corn and wheat, reaped potatoes, tended to sheep, sheared and trained horses, amongst other duties. For the first time in over a decade, records show that Aboriginal women worked on the property, although only very rarely and there is no discernable division of labour. They mainly pulled corn and picked potatoes, usually with the men but once in an all female group. Men also occasionally stripped bark, but as was the case from the 1830s and 1840s, bush skills were now rarely in demand.²⁸

From November 1848 to June 1858, there was only one month when indigenous workers were not recorded in the day books and ledgers.²⁹ There was, however, no consistent pattern to their working year. In about half the years, Aboriginal labour peaked in summer during the wheat harvesting season. For the remaining years, work was at a maximum during the winter when corn was harvested. The contingent reasons for these fluctuations are not apparent from the historical record.

The overall picture of Aboriginal work on the estate is of continual employment at fluctuating low levels. The picture for some individuals is different. The records indicate that no Aboriginal person was continuously employed from the late 1840s to the late 1850s. Some Aboriginal people only appear once or twice in the day books. Others worked more frequently, but with gaps of at least several years between jobs. Fewer Aboriginal men developed long working histories on the estate. The man with the most extensive record of labour was Unie, who first received goods and wages in 1845. He began working on the property when he was young, probably about 12 years old.

He grew up on the estate watching and learning from the Aboriginal workers. From 1848 to 1853, there were only five months in which he did not receive at least one payment of goods or wages He had the longest period of work, exceeding the next best by two years. The type of work undertaken by Unie between 1848 and 1857 was not recorded in the ledgers. In July 1845, Unie was given a pair of braces for stock keeping. It is likely that he continued in this role for at least part of his working life. An experienced horse rider, in January 1864 he was picked up by the constabulary and charged with stealing a horse from Sydney and riding it to Kiama.³⁰ An Aboriginal man named Buthring recalled to Archibald Campbell in May 1902 that a ‘black named ‘Oney’’ was a renowned stockman on the Coolangatta who was ‘proud of his expertise with the stockwhip’. According to Buthring, ‘Oney’ could split the head of a snake with the crack of his whip.³¹ Clearly, Unie was a talented stockman and horse-rider whose skills were valued on the Coolangatta Estate for many years.

It is difficult to gauge the response of Aboriginal labour to the demand created by the gold rush. There is no noticeable increase in the number of payments made to Aboriginal workers after the rush began in 1851. Berry made 222 payments to Aboriginal workers in 1850 worth approximately £52, 224 in 1851 worth about £47 and 255 in 1852 worth about £61. The biggest jump occurred in 1853 when the number of payments reached 266 with a value of almost £97. Increases in the value of goods given for work does not necessarily mean that more days were spent working – the average wage may have risen instead. The number of days worked by Aboriginal people on the Coolangatta Estate is tricky to determine. The impression created by the records is that there was no noticeable increase either in employment or remuneration immediately after the gold rush and that the biggest change occurred two years later, suggesting a different cause for the increment.

Hannah noted an increased reliance by the Australian Agricultural Company on Aboriginal labour in the mid-1850s, but he found no evidence that ‘Aboriginal workers were substitutes for Europeans seeking better pay and conditions elsewhere’.³²

Rather, they were in demand because of their skills in shepherding and stockwork. It seems that a similar situation existed on the Coolangatta Estate. By the early 1850s, Aboriginal workers such as Unie had almost 15 years of experience working on the property. Furthermore, they had grown up on the estate watching the previous generation do much of the same work. They were valuable for their skills and not as replacements for departed gold rush workers. Hence employment, or at least the value of remuneration, did not increase when the gold rush began.

Aboriginal labour in the late nineteenth century

There are few detailed farm records from the last four decades of the nineteenth century from which to draw a picture of Aboriginal labour on the Coolangatta Estate. Day-to-day control of the property largely rested with Alexander’s brother, David Berry, who was well known for his relaxed approach to record keeping.³³ Property records show an Aboriginal presence in the 1860s and 1870s, but contain little detail on the type of work undertaken.

There is more information about indigenous employment on the Coolangatta estate in the 1880s and 1890s when the property had passed into the hands of Alexander and Sir John Hay, cousins of David Berry. It is provided by the oral history recorded by Janet Mathews in the mid-1960s.³⁴ In April 1965, she spoke with Mrs Emma Longbottom (nee Lloyd), then 73 years-of-age. Mrs Longbottom, who was married to John Longbottom, recalled that her parents, William Thomas Lloyd and Mary-Anne Dixon, had lived all their lives on the estate, as had her grandparents. Mrs Longbottom said that when she was a child, her father collected corkwood (Duboisia myoporoides) and took it to the milk factory on a bullock dray. His two brothers did not work on the estate. She lived with her family near a black swamp lined with tea-trees about six miles from the homestead. Mrs Longbottom recalled that George Nipple also worked for the Hay brothers at the homestead, where he was the ‘main man … (who) used to help with the rations’. In summing up her experiences on the estate, she said that Sir John Hay was a ‘wonderful man’ who looked after the Aboriginal people by providing them with boxes of new clothes and rations, including meat. Life under Alexander Hay was less enjoyable as they were not treated as well. She did not go into details, but it may have been because of the part he played in the removal of the Aboriginal people to Roseby Park.

Mathews also spoke to Agnes Johnson of Wreck Bay, who described herself as the ‘oldest pioneer from the Coolangatta estate’. Mrs Johnson recollected that her husband worked at cutting down trees on the property. She also recalled that Geoff Amatto was the chief stockman on the property when David Berry was in charge.

The annual reports of the Aborigines Protection Board confirm indigenous employment on Coolangatta. In 1888 David Berry employed about 25 Aboriginal people at the rate of £0.10.0 to £0.13.0 per week plus rations and quarters. The report for 1890 declared that 20 to 30 individuals were employed on the property at a weekly rate of £0.12.0 to £0.16.0. It also announced that other Shoalhaven Aboriginal people were earning a living as farm labourers on different properties, while others obtained subsistence from fishing. A similar story was recounted in the annual report for 1891, the only difference being the reduced weekly wage rate of £0.10.0 down from £0.12.0, which was probably the consequence of the emerging depression which gripped Australia in the 1890s.

By the 1880s, Aboriginal people of the estate did not necessarily have to work or hunt and gather in order to obtain subsistence. Following the creation of the Aborigines Protection Board in 1883, rations were available to children and the elderly, reducing the pressure on younger adults to provide for family members incapable of supporting themselves. The rations, which consisted of flour, sugar, tea and sometimes meat, were not always sufficient to feed a family and at times they did not meet basic standards of nutrition³⁵, but they would have made life easier, particularly during the depression of the 1890s.

Removal to Roseby Park

Aboriginal employment on the Coolangatta Estate was curtailed in the early 1900s when the community was moved to the Roseby Park reserve. The Hay brothers were intent on breaking up the estate and selling it in smaller lots to maximise their financial returns. The Aboriginal population, who were mainly living in huts at the northern foot of Coolangatta Mountain, were moved on to ease the process, although supposed health problems in the camp was given as an official reason.³⁶

The removal of the Aboriginal people happened incrementally. The Roseby Park Reserve, which had been gazetted in 1900, remained unoccupied in February 1901, although over 10 huts, including some transported from the Coolangatta Estate, were ready for tenants. (Sir John Hay had donated £50 towards construction and reassembly.) At least some of the residents of Coolangatta moved to the reserve soon after as the 1901 census shows that 23 members of the Carpenter and Bundle families were living there when the return was taken in early April.³⁷ It records that 10 huts were unoccupied. The census also shows that at least 60 Aboriginal people were still living on the estate, including the families of William Lloyd and George Nipple. The precise time at which they were moved to the reserve is unknown.³⁸ It was likely to have been soon after that as Sir John Hay was keen to sell more land. No Aboriginal people would have lived on the estate by 1916 when the last of the land was sold. The relocation disrupted many thousands of years of direct association between the Aboriginal people and the land around Coolangatta Mountain and the Shoalhaven River. Some people continued to live on the estate workers may have continued to work on the property, but there is no obvious mention of it in the estate’s work records.

Discussion and conclusion

Goodall, in her doctoral research of pastoral properties in north-western, western, and north coast NSW, demonstrates that pastoral owners employed Aboriginal workers when properties were large and stock densities were low. This permitted economies of scale, particularly during the busy mustering season. Evidence from the Coolangatta Estate suggests a different pattern of Aboriginal employment and thereby a different form of dual occupation. There is no distinct seasonal pattern to Aboriginal employment on the Coolangatta Estate as there was on the larger pastoral stations. They tended to work throughout the year, with concentrations in December for wheat harvesting and July for corn picking, but this pattern did not always manifest itself. Dual occupation of the Coolangatta Estate began soon after Berry took possession of the land in 1822. Initially Aboriginal people contributed to the running of the estate by using their bush skills to catch fish and track cattle, for example. By 1830 when the period of frontier violence had ended, Aboriginal people were living and working on the property in relative safety and this situation continued for the remainder of the nineteenth century. As the 1800s progressed they continued to learn new skills in agricultural and animal husbandry.

It is clear that dual occupation began earlier and had a much longer duration at Coolangatta than it did not many other parts of New South Wales. Other differences include that unlike other parts of the colony, it is difficult to identify a dramatic increase in the amount of work done by Aboriginal people in the aftermath of the gold rush. Remuneration increased two years later, suggesting that indigenous workers were valuable for their skills rather than as a reserve workforce to be called upon in a time of shortage. Another notable difference is the absence of information about the work done by Aboriginal women.

It seems that they took little part in agricultural activities aside from occasionally picking potatoes and harvesting corn. They probably worked at domestic chores but the documentary evidence for that
too is slim.

Greater similarities exist between Aboriginal labour on the Coolangatta Estate and the Australian Agricultural Company’s land at Port Stephens. In both areas Aboriginal people worked and remained on their land over many decades beginning at a similar time in the 1820s. Over the years many Aboriginal people were employed but the majority remained independent of the European landowners. The gold rush saw marginal increases in indigenous employment at best, but there was not wholesale recruitment. Further research may show similar patterns in Aboriginal employment on properties in the wider area about Sydney.