BOOK EXTRACT ...BOUNDARY RIDERS, HAWKERS AND CORANDERRK Our Great Great Grandmother was a Dja Dja Wurrung Woman named Emma Curr. She was born on Bendigo Creek near Barnedown Station and was taken to Coranderrk Aboriginal Station as a young woman who had borne two children, John Patterson who was born at Mt Hope, and Jenny who later took the name Campbell after her stepfather Koombra aka Alexander Campbell. Emma’s first child was born in 1869 and took the name John Patterson, presumably after his white father. Later his older sister who was born in 1866 took the name Jenny Campbell. John Patterson was born at Mt Hope in Baraparapa Country. He married Lizzie Edmunds at Lilydale in 1888. Lizzie Edmunds was from Wangaratta in Way Wurru country. In 1895, John and Lizzie Patterson named their daughter Emma after Emma Campbell nee Curr. Emma Curr married Koombra Alexander Campbell on 15 April 1873 at Coranderrk in Wurundjeri country. Koombra Campbell recorded his age as being twenty two years. Emma Curr was twenty years old. Alexander Campbell was born on Gannawarra Station in Baraparapa Country between Kerang and Cohuna in Victoria. He was the son of Duncan Campbell. Archibald Macarthur Campbell held the licence for the Gannawarra pastoral run from 1847-1858. Koombra Campbell’s mother was a tribal woman from the Baraparapa on the Murray River. The Gannawarra pastoral run is between the Gunbower and Loddon or Pine Plains run on the Murray River in Victoria. The run gazetted on 4 October 1848 was some 103,680 acres on the Murray River adjoining Koondrook. Campbell raised on the run was a five foot six inch boundary rider. Classed as a half-caste by authorities he lived at Correnderrk Station with Emma his wife and children for several years before returning to Gannawarra where life was extremely difficult during the winter months. The children of Alexander and Emma Campbell were Donald, Alice Emma, Alexander, William, Leonard, and Thomas. Of course, Emma was also the mother of two previous children John and Jenny. Emma Campbell nee Curr died in 1886 aged only thirty three leaving her eight children and husband of thirteen years. She is buried in an unmarked grave on Barham Station a short distance north of the present township. The following year Koombra Alexander Campbell married Lizzie Charles on the 26 February 1887 at The Manse Lilydale. The witnesses to the wedding were Frederick Stewart and Lankey Manton. He recorded his father as being Duncan Campbell a station manager on the Gannawarra run. He was a widower with eight children, she a widow with five children to the deceased John Charles a Dja Dja Wurrung man. Lizzie Charles was born in Avoca the daughter of John and Louisa Briggs nee Strugnell. John Briggs was a Tasmanian half-caste, Louisa also a half-caste was the daughter of a Boonerwurrung woman, Maria and a sealer who worked the Tasmanian coastal areas. Her marriage to John Charles produced five children William, John, James, Sarah, and Henry. The children of Alexander and Lizzie Campbell were Jemima, Maggie, Louisa and Ellen. Koombra and his two wives, Emma Curr and Lizzie Briggs, invariably took care of some seventeen children over their time at Coranderrk, Gannawarra Station and Maloga Station. GREAT GRANDPARENTS ALICE EMMA CAMPBELL (1875-1951) AND MEHRA NABY BAKSCH (1874-1938) Indian hawkers travelled the outlying areas of country Australia selling their wares from wagons pulled by their horses. The Hawkers would sell fabrics for clothes and house hold products. Mehra Naby Baksch or Meera Bux was from the northern parts of India, a district called Ludhiana in the Punjab the land of the five rivers. His name has invariably been spelt Baksch, Bux and Bakschi. He was a Seikh and a hawker in the Barmah District. He was a hard taskmaster and worked hard to buy land around Barmah and across the river in New South Wales. He owned the Barmah general store and several parcels of land south of the store. He went back to India on a steamer writing a detailed letter to his Family in 1938. He was married to our great grandmother Alice Emma Campbell the daughter of Koombra Alexander (1851-1923) a Baraparapa man from Gannawarra Station and Emma Campbell nee Curr of Bendigo Creek in Dja Dja Wurrung country. Alice Campbell was born at Correnderrk on 30 December 1875. She married Mehra Baksch on 27 April 1901 at Barmah in Victoria. Alice brought into this world eight children. Not all survived past their first year. The first son to Alice Campbell was Rueben in 1901. He went under the name of Moyle. Their first daughter Myrtle Annette Naby Bux was born on 8 May 1903 at Shaw Street Moama in New South Wales. At the time Alice Campbell recorded her age as 24 years and her husband 29 years of age. Alice was really 28 years of age. The birth was witnessed by Mrs J. Nabi Bakhsh and a Dr C. Smith. Myrtle Bux died aged five months on 4 October 1904 of bronchitis convulsions at Cummeroogunga in New South Wales. Scott Harris conducted the funeral and was assisted by Hugh Anderson and Ishmael Sher Khan. The undertaker was Alexander Campbell. Abraham Theodore Naby Bux (left) and Eva Cooper. Abraham was the brother of Rueben, Myrtle, Gladys, Abraham, Budder Deen, Jeevie, and Zarm Deen Their second son Abraham Theodore Bux was born on the 2 November 1904 at Moama. Mrs Sher Khan witnessed the birth. Gladys Muriel Nicholls nee Bux (far right) with Pastor Douglas Nicholls, daughter Pamela Lampton nee Nicholls and their granddaughter Kim Lampton. Mehra and Alice Bux then had their second daughter Gladys Muriel Bux who was born at Cummeragunja Aboriginal Station on 21 October 1906. Kate Friday nee Brangy a Dhudhuroa Woman witnessed the birth. Gladys Muriel Nicholls nee Bux (far left) with Mrs Geraldine Briggs and Mrs Merle Jackomos at an Indigenous Womens’ Conference. Gladys Bux married Howard Nicholls on 7 October 1927 at St Martins Chapel in Carlton. Howard Nicholls was tragically killed from injuries sustained in a car accident between Murchison and Nagambie on 5 April 1942 on a trip to Melbourne. He died in the Mooroopna Hospital on the 8 April 1942. After a period of mourning, Gladys Nicholls married Douglas Ralph Nicholls on 26 December 1942 at Moama in New South Wales. Budder Deen Bux the third son of Meera and Alice Bux was born in 1909 the birth being registered at Nurmurkah in Victoria. Meera and Alice Bux’s fourth daughter Jeevie Navy Bux was born in July 1910 and died six months later of pneumonia on 12 December 1910 at Waaia in northern Victoria near Nurmurkah. She was buried in the Cummeragunja cemetery. The undertaker for the burial was John Charles and the minister Thomas S. James. Their fourth son Zarm Deen Bux was born on 17 May 1914 at Barmah in Victoria. Mrs Barber witnessed the birth. Alice Bux nee Campbell would have been 39 years of age. Meera Bux was a close associate of Sher Khan and Thomas Shadrach James all of whom bought up land in the Barmah District of Yorta Yorta country. Alice Campbell died on the 5 July 1953 aged seventy eight years and is buried at the old Preston Cemetery in an unmarked grave. Mehra Bux died aged sixty seven years on the 22 April 1938 and was buried at sea. There are many descendants of the Bux/Campbell union in Australia and India. James Mabi Bukakbsh married Grace Atkinson the daughter of Edgar and Rose Atkinson nee Butcher on 21 February 1898. The latter could be Meera Bux’s older brother. James Bukakbsh’s parents were recorded as James Mabi Bukakbsh and Mary Bukakbsh. Molla Bux was another Indian in the area and married Annie Carroll in 1898. Molla Bux died at Seymour in 1910. Sadly, no photographs have surfaced of Emma Campbell, Lizzie Campbell, and Alice Campbell, and their many children. Photo of Koombra aka Alexander Campbell, Meera Bux and the three granddaughters of Koombra and Emma Campbell Norah Murray nee Nicholls, Lilian Tamiru nee Nicholls and Pam Pedersen nee Nicholls.
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 11:07:20 +0000
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