SETTLEMENT OF THE COMMUNITY AT BARYULGIL SQUARE

2.1 The Aboriginal people who form the 'Baryulgil community' are members of the Bundjalung tribe from the New South Wales North Coast region.' At the beginning of this century, they resided on an area set aside for them on Yugilbar Station about 10 kilometres from Baryulgil Square.' Some time around 1920, the people moved to Baryulgil Square. The submissions of the Aboriginal Legal Service and of Miss Vivienne Abraham, solicitor for the Baryulgil Square Co-operative, both refer to the move, but differ on details. The Aboriginal Legal Service states' that the move occurred in 1918.

They say that: when in 1918, it was suggested to the community that its people be relocated to Baryulgil they were receptive to the idea. Mrs Daley recalls that a meeting was held at which several white people encouraged the community to abandon the old reserve and move to a new one near the store ... the outcome was that the Aboriginal community agreed to move to Baryulgil and to set up their homes on the land that is now Baryulgil Square.'

Miss Abraham states that the move occurred in the 1920s: Mrs Lucy Daley ... remembers Aboriginal families on the Clarence River flats (below the Castle, as the Yugilbar homestead is known as) and others living in the areas adjoining Baryulgil Square, moving to the Square in the 1920s.

2.2 Both the Aboriginal Legal Service and Miss Abraham state that at that time the Square was also part of Yugilbar Station. Miss Abraham refers to a belief in the community that a 99 year lease of the Square was granted to Harry Mundine, Norman Daley and Kenneth Gordon as trustees for the community sometime in the mid-1940s.'

However, she states later that in January 1975 inquiries were made to discover if there was such a lease, and that it was found that the 'N.S.W. Government Gazette of 121711974 notified the issue of a Crown Grant of the freehold of the Square to the Aboriginal Lands Trust of N.S.W. under Section 17A of Aborigines Act 1969." This is reinforced by the Aboriginal Legal Service submission which states that:

'in 1960 (the Square) was formally gazetted as an Aboriginal reserve and transferred to the Aboriginal Lands Trust in 1975. Following the abolition of the Trust in 1983 the reserve is now vested in the N. S. W. Government,'

and by Miss Abraham herself who noted that:

'Baryulgil Square was gazetted as A.R. 82681 on 5.6.1960, i.e. Reserved from Sale for the use of Aborigines.'

Reference 5.