Bill Dunn

William Dunn (born 1911) was an Indigenous Australian pastoralist and elder from the Pilbara region of Western Australia (WA).

Dunn was the first Aboriginal person to be granted a cattle station lease in WA. His experience has been drawn upon by historians as an account of Aboriginal Australian experience in the 20th century, especially around the Pilbara. In his later years, he was an elder of the Jigalong community.

Dunn was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 1991 Queen's Birthday Honours "for services to the community, particularly the Aboriginal community." His biography was written by Graham Wilson and published in 1989.

1920s to 1970s

Efforts to obtain pastoral lease At around thirty years old and contemporaneous to the outbreak of World War II, Dunn made an application to the Western Australia Lands Department for a pastoral lease around Mount Divide, Nullagine. To succeed, he needed to obtain an exemption from the Native Administration Act, a bill that legally segregated Aboriginal Australians by race. He also needed no objections to be raised against his application.

Dunn successfully obtained an exemption in 1939 on the grounds that he was "an Aboriginal native of good character". Nevertheless, his application was blocked by objections raised by neighbouring pastoralists; objections raised for political reasons involving racism.

Citizenship Dunn obtained an Australian citizenship certificate under the Western Australian Natives (Citizenship Rights) Act 1944. This Act allowed Aboriginal Australians to acquire full citizenship rights, on the condition that they could prove that they were "an Aboriginal native of good character". In his later years, he was a member of the Jigalong community. During this period, he became friends with Graham Wilson, an Australian who later authored his biographical account, Pilbara Bushman: The Life Experience of W. Dunn.

Personal life Dunn married Maureen Dunn, a fellow Aboriginal Australian at Nullagine's Riverdale Hostel in 1963 through a church ceremony. Their marriage was somewhat controversial within the Indigenous community, as their coupling was not allowed under the relevant kinship laws.