BLACKTOWN CITY HISTORY Nurragingy and Colebee
by John Horne
There is a wonderful public reserve on Knox Road , Doonside that covers 63 hectares of bushland and attracts more than 1 million visitors each year . Its main attractions are the Chang Lai Yuan Chinese Gardens , the Aboriginal Heritage Garden and a miniature railway . Playgrounds and a water park make it a popular destination for families with children .
People go there for picnics , barbecues , weddings , to walk , play , ride bikes , watch the bird life and to listen to the frogs . Lunar New Year celebrations and the Blacktown City Festival ’ s Medieval Fair are held there . The reserve is called Nurragingy which is an aboriginal name , but why the name Nurragingy ? Nurragingy and Colebee We know that there was a Dharug man named Nurragingy . Around five years old when the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in 1788 , he survived the smallpox epidemic that swept through the Dharug lands soon after the convicts and their guards arrived . When he grew up , he became a noted elder of the Gomerigal or South Creek tribe . To Governor Macquarie ( 1762-1824 ) and the military , he was known as the chief of the South Creek Tribe .
Because of his “ fidelity ” to the government and his good conduct when acting as a guide to the military in 1816 , Nurragingy and another Dharug man , Colebee , were promised 30 acres or 12 hectares of land to share . This grant was registered in 1819 but was only in Colebee ’ s name even though Colebee did not stay in the area and Nurragingy did .
Colebee and Nurragingy chose land that already belonged to Nurragingy ’ s
Chinese Gardens . clan . Later , Colebee ’ s younger sister , Maria Locke ( c . 1805-1878 ), who had married an Irish convict , Robert Locke in 1824 , successfully petitioned the Government for the grant and her family and descendants occupied the place until 1917 when the Aborigines Protection Board took it .
In 1841 Nurragingy was listed in the Return for Aborigines taken at Windsor . His probable age was noted as 58 years , but we do not know when and where he passed away or where he was buried ( Blacktown and District Historical Society Journal , ‘ Turret ,’ Article by Jack Brook 2001 ).
The Nurragingy Reserve commemorates this important land grant , the first ever made to an Aboriginal person in Australian history in 1819 . It does not cover this land grant but only commemorates it .
The original grant is in another part of Blacktown near the new suburb of Colebee . It was roughly in the vicinity of Alderton Drive , opposite the Bait-Ul- Huda Mosque and near the Woolworth ’ s Greenway Village .
The Colebee Centre , inside the Nurragingy Reserve , is named for Colebee and one of Blacktown City ’ s newest suburbs near Stonecutters Ridge and surrounded by other Blacktown City suburbs ,
The Colebee Centre .
Marsden Park , Dean Park , Nirimba Fields and Hassall Grove also bears his name . A painting that depicts the historic 1819 land grant to Colebee and Nurragingy , by local Aboriginal artist Danny Eastwood , hangs inside the Colebee Centre . The Nurragingy Reserve In the 1970s the New South Wales Government purchased 90 hectares of land along Eastern Creek at Doonside as part of the Eastern Creek Special Uses and Open Space Corridor . It was meant to be part of a green belt for new suburbs and industries in western Sydney . In 1981 the NSW Department of Environment and Planning leased part of the area at a nominal charge to Blacktown City Council
Nurragingy .
for development as a passive recreation area .
The Council made the site its major Bicentennial Project and created the magnificent recreation place that it is today , with financial help from both the Australian and New South Wales Governments . Nurragingy Reserve was opened by the then Prime Minister , Bob Hawke on 26 November 1988 . The opening On the unveiling day of Nurragingy Reserve to the residents of Blacktown , picnicking crowds enjoyed live entertainers performing at different venues within the park . The Blacktown City Pipe Band and the Blacktown City Band were prominent with their music . Special displays included HMAS NIRIMBA and their naval gun , the Gamilaroi Aboriginal Dance Troupe , the Featherdale Nature Park Animal Display and the Carlton Clydesdale Team . The day ’ s events culminated with a spectacular fireworks display .
The Nurragingy Blacksmith
One of the Nurragingy Reserve ’ s tourist attractions was The Nurragingy Blacksmith , Gordon Blackwell . He began his work with Blacktown Council at Nurragingy in 1993 , demonstrating blacksmithing skills to
Map of Nurragingy when it opened in 1988 .
The Nurragingy Blacksmith .
the public on weekends . He also appeared at the Blacktown City Festival .
Gordon was a qualified blacksmith from 1947 . Before coming to Nurragingy he worked at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College teaching the art of blacksmithing and training young people the skills of the trade . He passed away in January 2020 . The Nurragingy statue In 2001 there was a Friends of the Nurragingy Monument Association in Blacktown . The group supported the local sculptor Dr Alex Sandor Kolozsy ’ s desire to sculpt , donate and erect a three-metretall bronze sculpture of Nurragingy whom they called ‘ Nurragingy , the Father of Blacktown .’
The group proposed various sites for the statue to be placed , the Nurragingy Reserve , Alpha Park and even in front of the Blacktown Hospital . But over the years nothing came of it and Dr Kolozsy was left with a three-metre-tall clay mould in two pieces under a tarpaulin in his back yard .
At the time it was planned to get the statue cast in Victoria , transport it back to Blacktown and then erect it on a two metre sandstone base somewhere in Blacktown City . Lack of money to pay for the casting and the other costs involved with getting the statue erected meant that it never went ahead .
Blacktown
and District Historical Society Incorporated
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Founded in 1976 to ensure that the history of the Blacktown area would be collected and conserved for all time by tapping into documents and people ’ s memories .
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Grantham Heritage Park BDHS Research Centre 71 Seven Hills Road South , Seven Hills NSW 2147 PO Box 500 Blacktown NSW 2148 Phone 02 9676 1198 www . blacktownhistory . org . au
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10 ISSUE 34 // JANUARY 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT