Timeline
1860
December
Yelgaborrnya (later known as William or Billy Cooper) is born at the Moira Lakes in Yorta Yorta country
1867
Cooper is taken to Melbourne by leading Victorian politician, businessman and lay Catholic, John O’Shanassy, and becomes part of his household for about three years
1870
Cooper returns to his own country and is employed by the O’Shanassys on their pastoral run, Moira, where he learns the skills of a pastoral worker
1874
August
Cooper meets Daniel and Janet Matthews as they try to establish a mission on the Murray River near Echuca, which comes to be called Maloga
November
Cooper leaves Maloga
1875–81
Cooper works in Victoria and New South Wales as well as further afield, spends time at Warangesda Mission and visits Maloga a couple of times
1880
February
New South Wales Aborigines Protection Association is founded in Sydney and begins to take responsibility for Maloga
1881
January
Thomas Shadrach James goes to Maloga and becomes the teacher there
April
Men at Maloga petition the governor of New South Wales for land
1882
Cooper begins to live more or less permanently at Maloga
1883
February
New South Wales government establishes a Board for the Protection of Aborigines, emulating what the Victorian Government had done in 1860
April
New South Wales government reserves about 1800 acres of land adjacent to Maloga for the use of Aboriginal people
1884
January
Cooper converts to Christianity
June
Cooper marries Annie Murrie
1887
July
Men at Maloga and nearby petition the governor of New South Wales for blocks of land
November
Both Cooper and his brother Johnny Atkinson write to the local Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly J. M. Chanter seeking to acquire blocks of land for themselves and their families
1888
March
New South Wales Secretary of Land agrees that part of the land it had reserved in 1883 could be subdivided into blocks for farming
March-April
Maloga starts to be broken up and most of the people move to the reserve that comes to be called Cumeroogunga
June
Cooper and Annie’s second child, Bartlett, is born
1889
January
Annie Cooper and her and William’s son Bartlett die after contracting typhoid in Melbourne
February
Nineteen Aboriginal people on Cumeroogunga, probably led by Hughy Anderson, send the Chairman of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board a petition protesting about the treatment they had been receiving on the mission
1892
New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board takes over responsibility for Cumeroogunga from the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Association
1893
By this time some of the men at Cumeroogunga had been granted blocks of land on the reserve
March
Cooper marries Agnes Hamilton at Nathalia
December
Cooper and Agnes’ first child, Jessie, is born
1895
March
Cooper and Agnes’ second child, Ultimore, is born but only survives two month
1896
April
Cooper and Agnes’ third child, Daniel, is born
1898
July
Cooper and Agnes’ fourth child, Gillison, is born
1900
November
Cooper and Agnes’ fifth child, Amy, is born
1905
February
Cooper and Agnes’ sixth child, Lynch, is born
c. 1906
New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board rescinds the farm blocks, provoking considerable protest
1907
March
Cooper and Agnes’ seventh child, Maria Sarah (Sally), is born
1908
May
People at Cumeroogunga lodge petition against the loss of the farm blocks and the Protection Board begins to expel those they regard as troublemakers
c. 1908–09
Sometime during this period Cooper leaves Cumeroogunga, never to return
1909
April
Agnes Cooper dies suddenly at Barmah, only 33-years-old
1912
New South Wales Aborigines Protection Board starts to try to separate Aboriginal children from their kin at Cumeroogunga
1913
August
Cooper’s eldest daughter, Emily, dies at Cumeroogunga, leaving behind a husband, Thomas Dunolly, and two young children, Thomas and Edna
1917
September
Cooper’s eldest surviving son, Daniel, is killed in action at Ypres in Belgium
1922
December
William and Agnes’ first-born child, Jessie, dies in Condobolin in New South Wales shortly after giving birth, leaving behind a husband, Charles Mann, and three young children, Cyril, Esmay and Bruce
1928
August
Cooper marries Sarah Nelson (nee McRae) at Nathalia
1929–30
Shadrach Livingstone James speaks out about the plight of his people
1933
c. January
Cooper moves to Melbourne
March
Cooper begins his political campaign by writing a letter to The Age
c. July
Cooper forms a political organisation that he variously calls, in the course of the next year or more, the Australian Aborigines’ League, the Australian Aboriginal League, the Real Australian Aboriginal Association and the Real Australian Native Association
September
Cooper launches petition to the King and begins approaching governments for permission to circulate it
1933
January-August
Cooper continues to gather signatures on his petition and seeks to organise a deputation of Aboriginal people to wait upon the federal government
September
Anna Morgan speaks out about conditions on Aboriginal reserves
1935
January
Deputation of the League to the Minister for the Interior, Thomas Paterson, in Melbourne, organised with the assistance of Helen Baillie
c. October
League is re-formed with the help of A. P. A. Burdeu, acquiring a programme, a slogan and office bearers. Cooper becomes its secretary and Doug Nicholls its treasurer; Lynch Cooper is appointed its assistant secretary, Margaret Tucker, Mary Clarke and Nicholls become its vice-presidents, and the executive committee comprises these people as well as Annie Lovett, Hyllus Briggs, Marie Lovett, Julia Niven, Alice Clarke and Caleb Morgan. Burdeu is soon elected as its president
1936
February
Cooper begins to call upon both the New South Wales and Victorian governments for reforms in regard to Aboriginal reserves
April
League convenes a meeting in Melbourne to try and form a council to co-ordinate the work of ameliorative societies
May
League protests to the federal government against racial discrimination and calls for citizenship rights for Aboriginal people
July
League calls on the federal government to take charge of Aboriginal affairs
October
League sets out its policy in an approach to the federal government
1937
January
League submits to the federal government an agenda of proposals for consideration for the first-ever national conference of chief protectors and other administrative officers, for which Cooper has high hopes
February
Cooper protests about a gathering that celebrates White Australia
Cooper explains to a federal minister the importance of having an Aboriginal perspective or thinking black
May
League and Cumeroogunga choir participate in a concert marking Melbourne’s ‘birthday’
June
Cooper expresses bitter disappointment about the lack of change in Aboriginal affairs
July
League begins to lobby federal government in regard to Aboriginal people playing a role in the development of Northern Australia
August
Cooper decides to send his petition to the King to the federal government
October
Cooper’s petition gains public attention
November
At a meeting in Melbourne attended by Bill Ferguson as secretary of the Aborigines Progressive Association, Cooper proposes a day of mourning to mark the sesquicentenary of white settlement
1939
January
Tensions between League and Aborigines Progressive Association
February
Walk-off from Cumeroogunga begins, and League starts to lend its support
March
Margaret Tucker adds voice to protest over Cumeroogunga
Second walk-off from Cumeroogunga
June
Formation of the Aborigines Assistance Committee with the help of left-wing organisations
October
Walk-off from Cumeroogunga ends
Cooper begins to express opposition to Aboriginal men joining the armed forces to fight overseas unless they are granted citizenship beforehand
1939
April
Rev. Ernest Gribble makes approach to leading cleric in Britain in regard to Cooper’s petition
August
Cooper sends his last letter to government
November
Cooper retires as the League’s secretary and returns to his own country
1941
March
Cooper dies and is buried at Cumeroogunga