TAKE a voyage through the life of charismatic Aboriginal adventurer Bungaree at The Glasshouse tomorrow.
Dr Keith Vincent Smith, author of King Bungaree (1992) will present the many portraits that have made Bungaree (c1775-1830) an icon in Australian colonial history.
Bungaree sailed north along the east coast of Australia with Matthew Flinders aboard HMS Investigator, passing the site of Port Macquarie well out to sea on 24 July 1802.
“The land was scarcely visible,” Flinders wrote in his journal. When the sloop moored again in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) on 9 June 1803 an Indiginous sailor named Boongaree of Bungaree had become the first Australian to circumnavigate the continent.
He sailed on English ships to Norfolk Island (1798), Newcastle (1801 and 1804), Kupang in Timor (1803) and to the island of Mauritius with Phillip Parker King in 1818 aboard the cutter Mermaid.
Bungaree assisted the botanist Alan Cunningham, who called him “our worthy native chief” and praised “the character of this enterprising Australian”, a very early use of that name.
Many artists were drawn to Bungaree’s distinctive image and he appears in 18 portraits and other illustrations.
This is quite extraordinary given that there are only three existing portraits of Governor Macquarie. Those to capture the image of Bungaree included the Russian Pavel Mikhailov, German Charles Rodius, French Jules Lejeune and English artists like Augustus Earle William Henry Fernyhough.
Bungaree was flamboyant, intelligent and shrewd. He was a skilled fisherman, mariner, go-between, talented communicator and a clever mimic when language failed.
He died at Garden Island in November 1830 after a short illness and was buried in a wooden coffin at Rose Bay.
Artefacts with Dr Keith Vincent Smith, The Many Faces of Bungaree, will feature at The Glasshouse tomorrow at 10am. Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for members.
