Coranderrk

William Barak's grave and headstone at Coranderrk cemetery

Vorlage:Refimprove Coranderrk was an Indigenous Australian mission station set up in 1863 to provide land under the policy of concentration, for such people who had been dispossessed by the arrival of Europeans to Victoria 30 years prior.

In March 1863 after three years of upheaval, the surviving leaders, among them Simon Wonga and William Barak of the Kulin, the Goulburn and Wurundjeri tribes led their people over the Black Spur and squatted on a traditional camping site on Badger Creek near Healesville. They were anxious to have the land officially approved so that they could move down and establish themselves. An area of 9.6 km² was gazetted on 30 June 1863, and called 'Coranderrk', at the Aboriginal people’s suggestion. This was the name they used for the Christmas Bush (Prostanthera lasianthos), a white flowering summer plant which is indigenous to the area.

A Royal Commission in 1877 and a Parliamentary Inquiry in 1881 on the Aboriginal 'problem' produced the Aborigines Protection Act 1886, which required 'half-castes under the age of 35' to leave, meaning around 60 residents were ejected from Coranderrk on the eve of the 1890s Depression. This made Coranderrk a non-viable enterprise, as it left only around 15 able-bodied men to work the previously successful hop gardens. Almost half the land was resumed in 1893; and by 1924 orders came for its closure as an Aboriginal Station. Many people were relocated to Lake Tyers in Gippsland though a few people did refuse to move.

In 1920, Sir Colin MacKenzie, a leading medical researcher, leased 78 acres from the Aboriginal Protection Board to begin his work in comparative anatomy with Australian fauna. This was the catalyst for the creation of the Healesville Sanctuary.

Corranderrk eventually became unoccupied, and in 1950 the land was handed over to the Soldier Settlement Scheme. Many Aboriginal families remain around the Upper Yarra and Healesville area. In March 1998 part of the Corranderrk Aboriginal Station was returned to the Kulin people when the Indigenous Land Corporation purchased 0.81 km².