Broger

Broger (c.1800 – 30 August 1830), sometimes spelled Brogher, was an Indigenous Australian outlaw of the Dharawal group of people from the Shoalhaven region of New South Wales. In 1829, he killed an English sawyer and after many months of avoiding capture and escaping custody, he was eventually hanged in 1830 for the crime of wilful murder.

Early life Broger was born around the year 1800 somewhere near what is now the town of Berry, New South Wales. As a child and adolescent, he witnessed the arrival and subsequent invasion of his people's land by British colonists. In 1822, Alexander Berry took possession of a large area of the Shoalhaven region which included Broger's birthplace. Berry named his newly acquired property as the Coolangatta Estate and brought with him hundreds of convict labourers. Many of these convicts were put to work as sawyers, cutting down the expansive groves of cedar for Berry who sold the timber for immense profit.

Some of the Dharawal people who resided at Berry's estate chose to adapt to the new order of things. Broger's brother, a man named Toodwik (or Broughton as he was called by the colonists), readily adjusted to the British ways and had become a valuable worker for not only Alexander Berry, but also other important colonists of the area such as Charles Throsby. Berry placed so much worth in Broughton that he made him an honorary constable for the Shoalhaven and considered him a friend.

Broger, however, avoided working for Berry and preferred a more traditional life with his wife and children in the forest away from the colonists.

Broger, on the other hand, survived his lengthy pre-trial imprisonment and faced court at Campbelltown on 20 August 1830 before Chief Justice Francis Forbes. As Broger was Aboriginal, he was not allowed by law to speak in his own defence and his testimony was not admissible as evidence. He was found guilty of the wilful murder of John Rivett and sentenced to death. It is unknown where his body is buried.

The locality of Brogers Creek in his home country of the Shoalhaven region is named after him.