Captain James Cook landed in Kamay/Botany Bay 

First reported as being contracted by Goori people, killing half their population between Botany Bay and the Hawkesbury.

Pemulwuy commenced a 12-year campaign of guerrilla warfare against the settlers and then the Redcoats, around Parramatta and the Hawkesbury. His most common tactic was to burn crops and kill livestock.

Following an uprising by 300 Irish convicts in Sydney (known as The Castle Hill Rebellion), a permanent settlement was swiftly established at Muloobinbah (Newcastle) to house convicts who re-offended in the Colony. The settlement was re-named Newcastle, after England's famous coal port. The penal colony closed in 1822.

This British company was formed for large-scale operations of a colonial settler's pursuits. Aboriginal land rights were swept away when A.A.CO. issued new grants and land titles to private settlers. The first grant, containing 1 million acres, was chosen by Mr Dawson, the original agent, in the neighbourhood of Port Stephens. 

Throughout 1836 and 1837 the frontier Aboriginal resistence to invasion reached a level that the settlers found unacceptable. More than 40 Gooris had peacefully set up camp on Henry Dangar’s Myall Creek property. On 9 June 1838 a posse of armed white settlers appared and the Gooris sought protection in one of the station hand’s huts. From here they were roped together - men, women and children. 28 Goories had been cut to pieces with swords, decapitating most of the babies and children. Heads had been hurled far from the bodies. One man had been burnt to death, while an attractive woman had been kept alive and repeatedly raped. 

In May 1839 Governor Gipps republished the order forbidding forcible detention of Goori women in the squatting districts and attempted to enact legislation that allowed Gooris to give evidence in court. Other legislative move included a clause in the Publicans’ Act 1838 forbidding the transfer of alcohol to Gooris and a Bill forbidding the use of firearms by Gooris without permission of a magistrate. The latter was not enacted. Disapproval of mixed marriages was made by the church on the grounds that the Aborigines were unbelievers. Seeds were sown at this time of protectionist measures including the forced removal of Gooris onto mission stations/reserves, the removal of Goori children from their families, the exclusion of Goori children from the public school system, exclusion of Gooris from the public welfare system, the exclusion of Gooris from award wage entitlements, and the denial of Goori rights to land and cultural pursuits.

Mary Ann Bugg, daughter of a Worimi/Birpai woman and an ex-convict shepherd, had been to be ‘civilised’ at the Sydney Orphan School and was to become well known as the wife of one of Australia’s longest surviving bushrangers: Fred Ward aka ‘Captain Thunderbolt’. Prior to their marriage he had served a prison sentence as a receiver of stolen horses. Just before the birth of their first child at Dungog, Fred Ward was regaoled at Cockatoo Island. In 1863 Ward escaped. Oral history traditions hold that Mary Ann swam out to Cockatoo Island through shark infested waters to accomplish this. In March 1866, in an effort to capture Thunderbolt the troopers arrested Mary Ann, along with her two elder children and baby. The two older children were taken away from her and, with the baby, she was brought before the bench, charged with being an ‘an idle and disorderly person and a companion of reputed thieves, having no visible means of support or fixed place of residence’, thereby sentenced to six months imprisonment at East Maitland gaol. There was immediate controversy in the Legislative Assembly over this ‘perversion of justice’. The governor intervened and Mary Ann was released after serving only a short part of her sentence. (Jansen, 1996: 6). This incident led to legal reforms to ensure that such perversions of justice did not occur again.

One of the earliest recorded claims by the Worimi people for the return of part of their lands was an individual claim by Tom ‘Willie’ Price. Willie asked for land in 1873 at Nelson’s Bay near Karuah, and he too was told that as an existing coastal reserve was in force, his land would be secure enough if it was held only as ‘permissive occupancy’. Although Price was unable to gain further security over the land, the Lands Department was still prepared to confirm his right of occupation in 1892 when it was queried. (Goodall, 1996: 80)

As in the case of Willie Price, another Worimi man gained limited ownership over part of his peoples land when: “A later permissive occupancy over beachfront land was granted to William Ridgeway at Tea Gardens, on the northern side of the Karuah inlet, in 1905, adding to the possibility that there may have been other such Aboriginal requests to secure land between 1870 and 1905 which led to the same outcome.” (Goodall, 1996: 80)

The first Aboriginal protest group to be formed was the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association which held meetings in Sydney between 1924 and 1927 under the leadership of Fred Maynard. (Broome, 1982: 166). Fred Maynard was born at Hinton in 1879 of Worimi background and was the nephew of a Goori farmer, Tom Phillips, who farmed the St. Clair mission which was taken over by the Aboriginal Protection Board/APB (from the Australian Inland Mission) in 1916. In 1913 the local committee of the APB recommended that the Kooris’ land at St. Clair be revoked and their bullocks sold. They further suggested that the Kooris should be induced to work the local farms rather than the farms on the mission. They looked at Kooris as a cheap form of labour. (Heath, 1997: 61)

Nemarluk (c.1911-1940), Aboriginal resistance leader, was born about 1911 in the central Daly River region of the Northern Territory.  In July 1931 three Japanese shark-fishermen, Nagata Yoshikiya, Yusama Owashi and Ryukichi Yoshida, anchored their rented lugger, Ouida, near Port Keats. Nemarluk and his party used Aboriginal women to win the confidence of the fishermen. Days later, they killed the Japanese. . It is part of the oral tradition of Nemarluk's people that he had vowed to kill those who intruded on his country. Nemarluk evaded arrest until 4 May 1933 when he was apprehended at Legune Station. While awaiting trial, he escaped from Darwin Gaol and Labour Prison in September and remained at large for six months. After his recapture he was transported back to Darwin and tried in April 1934. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

70 of the 350 Aboriginal residents on Cumeroogunga station on the NSW side of the Murray River protested against malnutrition, ill treatment and harsh Aboriginal Protection Board/APB controls. They crossed the river and established a camp on the Victorian bank. On the same day, Jack Patten is arrested at Cumeroogunga and charged by NSW police for inducing unrest. (Australian Museum; Gary Foley’s Koori History website).

On the morning of 12 August 1952 a disbelieving Australia heard that Dave Sands (born of the Dunghutti peoples), national and Empire middleweight boxing champion and contender for the world title, had died the previous evening at the age of 26. Dave suffered head and internal injuries when the truck he was driving crashed and overturned on a metre high embankment as the road divided near Dungog. (Phil Wilkins, The Sun 19.8.1985). Dave was perhaps the best known of the famous Ritchie family. The six brothers fought under the name of Sands during the 1940s and 50s, forging forged a unique record in world boxing. The Ritchie family maintained a close association with the Newcastle area with Clem, the eldest brother, and their sister Lillian, being actively involved with the setting up and then the ongoing activities of the Awabakal Co-op.

The university’s involvement with the Goori community is worthy of note. In acquiring the land in 1963 it participated in the forced removal of Gooris from the site:
“In April, the Newcastle City Council ordered the removal of nineteen squatters, mainly Aborigines...It took eighteen months of effort by the City Council, the University, the Department of Education, the Crown Solicitor and the Aborigines Welfare Board (who had to rehouse the settlers) to reach a solution (Wright, 1992: 84).

In 1961 a Senate Committee on Aboriginal voting rights recommended that all Aborigines should be given the right to vote in federal elections and used its powers to provide voting rights to Aborigines in the Northern Territory. This led to the states providing the right to vote by the mid-sixties. The 1967 Australian referendum asked for approval for two amendments to the Australian Constitution: (1) counting Aboriginal people in the Australian census and (2) allowing the government to legislate separately for Aboriginal people. The amendments to the Constitution were overwhelmingly endorsed, winning 90.77% of votes cast and carrying in all six states. Many viewed this as a positive acceptance of Gooris. The Referendum led to many positive changes, especially the movement of official government policy away from assimilation towards self-determination.

In the first week of July 1971 Evonne Goolagong of the Wiradjuri nation beat Margaret Court in the first all-Australian final in the 87-year history of Women’s Singles at the Wimbledon Open in London.

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was founded on Australia Day in 1972 to protest the decision by the McMahon Liberal government to reject a proposal for Aboriginal Land rights. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy is a permanent protest occupation where residing activists claim to represent the political rights of Aboriginal Australians. It is made up of signs and tents on the lawn opposite Old Parliament House in Canberra.

In the NSW coal mining town of Catherine Hill Bay, Ted and Dot were the first Aboriginal people in NSW to hold a hotel license. Eight years prior they would have been refused service in the pub.

Williams was the first recognised Indigenous Australian to play for the senior Australian national football team, the 'Socceroos'. He was part of Australia's 1974 FIFA World Cup squad.

By 1973 along with other Gooris and some non-Aboriginal supporters, Bill Smith was instrumental in establishing the Newcastle Aboriginal Advancement Society which obtained a federal grant a year later to carry out a cultural awareness program in Newcastle. Due to funding difficulties this organisation was superseded by the Awabakal Newcastle Aboriginal Cooperative Limited which commenced activities in 1975 and, in February 1977, was formally registered as a Community Advancement Cooperative Society. In 1982, it obtained a second registration as an organisation under the Charitable Collections Act. The cooperative’s goals were clearly listed: a. Hold a cultural camp for 9 to 15 year olds at Rathmines the week before Christmas; b. Establish an Aboriginal Health Centre; c. Reclaim the Sacred sights (sic) at the Wattagans and establish a permanent reserve and cultural centre; d. Establish an Aboriginal Pre-school; e. Obtain an Aboriginal legal service field officer to work from the Co-op; f. Set up a loaning and Homework Centre which would include such teaching programs as; the teaching of the Awabakal dialect; g. Establish our own club; h. Set up our own housing Co-op. (Minutes, Awabakal A.G.M. 1977 - Heath,1998:66). By 2000 many of the programs outlined above had been achieved by the Newcastle Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander community. Some, directly by the Awabakal Co-op, and others independent of it. But most often through the initial negotiations and support of the Co-op.

Extract from Forward: “Today the citizens of New South Wales live on aboriginal land in affluence while the Aborigines live in poverty. Aboriginal children die because of this. Elderly Aborigines are a rarity. Their housing is often sub-standard and overcrowded. Their unemployment rate is high, their health and educational standards low.” The Select Committee’s Reports were instrumental in the development of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 and a number of other state government programs set up to help address Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander disadvantage. These included the setting up of the NSW Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs.

The first Aboriginal Education Policy released in 1982 focused on the advancement of Aboriginal communities and an appreciation of Aboriginal cultures and societies by other Australians. 

An archaeological survey was conducted at Kerrabee Dam, near Muswellbrook by Awabakal Co-op for the Hunter Development Board.

The NSW Aboriginal Lands Trust is set up prior to the handing over of reserves to communities through the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act in 1983. Well-known land rights activist George Griffiths was a member of the Lands Trust.

The second NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) Conference held in Newcastle. The NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) began in 1977 as a committee of Aboriginal people invited by the Department of Education to advise it on Aboriginal Education.

Bill Jonas, grandson of William Jonas the renowned Goori horseman who rode at King George V coronation in London, was appointed to the Maralinga Royal Commission (investigating the effects of British nuclear tests in Australia). At this time Bill was chairperson of the Awabakal Co-op and the first Goori to obtain an academic appointment at Newcastle University. Later he became Principal of the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) before taking the position of Director of the National Museum in Canberra. In 1999 Bill moved to Sydney to take up the appointment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.

Hunter ACS established under a 12-month Commonwealth Employment Program grant to promote the care and fostering of Aboriginal children in Aboriginal homes.

Aboriginal Education Unit established at Tighes Hill, TAFE.

The handover of Uluru was a historic milestone for Aboriginal land rights in Australia. On 26 October a crowd of hundreds – both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people - attended the ceremony when Governor General Sir Ninian Stephen handed over the title deeds to Anangu traditional owners.

The College of Advanced Education accepts a Bi-Centenary Grant to build Wollotuka Centre in In September. The Wollotuka Institute is now a unit within the University of Newcastle. It is a strategic and operational body which is responsible for all Indigenous activities of the University.

Hawke Government announces Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody on 10 August in response to a growing public concern that such deaths were too common and poorly explained. The Royal Commission was also to make recommendations as to how to prevent such deaths in the future. Hearings began in 1988 and ended in 1991. The Commission investigated 99 cases of Aboriginal deaths in between 1 January 1980 and 31 May 1989. The final report of the Commission was published in April 1991. The Commission concluded that the 99 deaths investigated were not due to police violence.

Newcastle Gooris join in Sydney Bicentenary protests on 26 January. More than 40,000 Aboriginal people and non-Indigenous supporters, staged what was at the time the largest march ever held in Sydney. The Bicentenary celebrated the arrival of the 11 ships of the First Fleet in Botany Bay, on Bidegal and Gadigal Country. This event signified the founding of the colony of New South Wales, the first colony in what would become the nation of Australia. To Aboriginal people this was celebrating the injustice, suffering and dispossession of Aboriginal people caused by colonisation.

Norm Newlin publishes ‘Where There’s Life There’s Spirit’ - the first Worimi published work of prose. Norm was a soldier for the Royal Australian Regiment during the Korean War. He also sat on numerous boards including membership of the NSW/ACT Aboriginal Legal Service and the Campbelltown City Council Aboriginal Advisory Committee. In 2006 he was recognised and received the Campbelltown City Council Heritage Award. Norm had also been committed to regularly visiting and working with inmates at Long Bay Jail. (Source: My Father My Brother: Stories of Campbelltown's Aboriginal Men [2008]) He is now an Elder on Campus at the University of Western Sydney, where he assisted in developing the Aboriginal Studies Program, working with Aboriginal students and teaching the teachers.

Marilyn Kong, of the Worimi people is Dux of Nelson Bay High School. Along with her twin sister and brother, she is later to graduate in Medicine.

Corroborees are held at Wollombi and Newcastle University by Gooris who have embraced traditional law to take up responsibilities as traditional custodians in the region.

Uncle Lennie de Silva of the Gumbaynggir people is awarded an honorary doctorate from Newcastle University in recognition of his scholarship in Traditional Law.

John Lester who was brought up in Sydney but of the Wonnarua people (Country also known as Singleton) was appointed as Professor at the Umulliko Research Centre, University of Newcastle. The Umulliko Indigenous Higher Education Centre seeks a deeper level of framework, in which the past, present and future are combined to form a holistic Indigenous understanding. In the language of the Awabakal people, Umulliko means 'to create, to make, to do'.

‘Bringing Them Home’ is the 1997 Australian Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to be known as the Stolen Generations. The report is a tribute to the strength and struggles of many thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affected by forcible removal. It acknowledged the hardships they endured and the sacrifices they made.

The report made recommendations for addressing the needs of Stolen Generations members and their families, as well as other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people regarding language; culture and history; mental health; the contemporary removal of children; and self-determination.

Three significant events occurred in 1999: (1) The death of former Senator Neville Bonner at Ipswich in February; (2) Bill Jonas’ appointment as Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner; and (3) Senator Aden Ridgeway’s Maiden Speech (note: Aden is grandson of former Maitland resident, Pheobe Mumbler).

On 10 June the Memorial at the Myall Creek Massacre Site was unveiled, acknowledging the terrible events that took place at Myall Creek Station on 10 June 1838. Two basalt blocks mark the beginning of the memorial walkway which is a 600-metre winding path through woodland and grasses. At various stages along the walkway there are seven oval shaped granite boulders containing plaques with etchings and words in English and Gamilaroi, telling the story of the massacre. At the end of the walkway the memorial is set on a rise overlooking the site of the massacre between five spreading gumtrees. The memorial rock is a large granite boulder with a simple plaque surrounded by a circle of crushed white granite, edged in by stones. The massacre site was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 7 June 2008 and the NSW Heritage on 12 November 2010.