Bungaree

Bungaree, or Boongaree ( – 24 November 1830), was an Indigenous Australian Awabakal man from the Broken Bay and Central Coast region north of Sydney, who was known as an explorer, entertainer, and Aboriginal community leader. He is also significant in that he was the first person to be recorded as an Australian, and the first Australian-born person to circumnavigate the Australian mainland.

Early life Bungaree was probably born around 1775 north of the Broken Bay region of New South Wales. His father was a man possibly of the Garigal clan, while his mother is likely to have been an Awabakal woman from the lower Hunter River area.

Voyage to Norfolk Island When Bungaree moved to the growing settlement of Sydney in the 1790s, he established himself as a well-known identity able to move between his own people and the newcomers. He joined the crew of with another keen Indigenous mariner named Nanbaree on a trip to Norfolk Island in 1798, during which he impressed Matthew Flinders.

Voyage to Hervey Bay

In 1799 he accompanied Flinders (and his brother, Samuel Ward Flinders, a midshipman from the Reliance) on a coastal survey voyage in the sloop to Hervey Bay. Bungaree acted as an interpreter, guide and negotiator with local Indigenous groups.

During the voyage, Flinders and Bungaree went ashore at Bribie Island, where Bungaree attempted to interact with the local Djindubari people. A dispute over a hat resulted in the ship's sailors firing at the Djindubari, which Bungaree later reported as resulting in the wounding of two men. The place became known as Point Skirmish and a later settlement nearby was named Bongaree after Bungaree. and presented him with of land on Georges Head, Bungaree was also known by the titles "King of Port Jackson" and "King of the Blacks", Captain Faddei Bellingshausen referred to Bungaree's welcoming visit to the Russian exploration ship Vostok in 1820.

By the end of his life, he had become a familiar sight in colonial Sydney, dressed in a succession of military and naval uniforms that had been given to him. His distinctive outfits and notoriety within colonial society, as well as his gift for humour and mimicry, especially his impressions of past and present governors, He died at Garden Island on 24 November 1830 and was buried in Rose Bay next to the grave of his first wife, Matora. and The Australian.

In 1857, it appears that the skull of Bungaree (or possibly that of his son Bo-un "Bowen" Bungaree) was removed from his grave to be used as a museum-piece. Rose Bay was a significant Indigenous burial site with multiple disinterments occurring over the years with the various redevelopments of the Royal Sydney Golf Club located there.

Legacy Boongaree Island, located off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, was named after him by Captain King in 1820. The suburb of Bongaree, Queensland, is named after him. Norah Head was originally named Bungaree's Norah by the British in honour of Bungaree. The main road of the town, Bungary Road, is also named after him. Bungaree Road in Toongabbie, New South Wales is named after him. HMAS Bungaree, originally built in Dundee as a cargo vessel in 1937 for the Adelaide Steamship Company, but commissioned by the Royal Australian Navy after conversion into a minelayer in June 1941 at Garden Island, Sydney, was named after him. In 2017, a Sydney Ferries Emerald-class ferry was named Bungaree. A primary school was named Bungaree in late 1960's in the suburb of Rockingham, Western Australia. However, Bungaree's important role in the exploration of Australia appears to have been almost forgotten. There are statues to Flinders and the cat Trim, but as at January 2019, not a single statue to Bungaree recognizing his achievements.