Video: NBN News Broadcast 29 October 2008 featuring Mr Gionni Di Gravio (Chair of the University of Newcastle’s Coal River Working Party) and Dene Hawken (Awabakal Descendent) interviewed by Paul Lobb.
Professor John Fryer submitted an application for dual naming for Nobbys/Whibayganba to the Geographical Names Board (GNB) in October 2008. The application was accompanied with a letter of support from the Aboriginal representatives on the Coal River Working Party, the Awabakal Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation. Professor Fryer is Emeritus Professor of Surveying and Photogrammetry at the University of Newcastle. This application was inspired by a recent rediscovery of an original 1828 survey book by surveyor Sir Thomas Mitchell that contains the first recorded mention of Nobbys’ Aboriginal name.
The original manuscript has been digitised and is freely available to the Newcastle community on the Coal River Working Party’s blog: http://hunterlivinghistories.com/2008/10/23/mitchells-1828-field-book/
At the November meeting of the University’s Coal River Working Party, Professor Fryer informed the Party that he has received acknowledgment thanking him for his application.
The GNB will be in consultation with Newcastle City Council and the local Aboriginal Community, a process which we understand will take a number of years.
We sincerely hope that the Newcastle community will support this application.
Click here for media articles courtesy of the Newcastle Herald [nobbyswhibayganba]
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