Spontaneous special tribute by Darwin activist Robert Wesley-Smith , phographed below, on the left, with a friend of many years , anthropologist Doctor Bill Day, who has died in Western Australia . Slightly abridged with some additional material .
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Bill Bartlett Day arrived in Darwin in the early l970s, a qualified teacher , possibly intending to travel further north, but noted the unsupported condition of the local Aboriginal (Larrakia ) population , and set about remedying the situation
It took a lot of courage due to the racism or lack and care attitudes of most of the population at that time, except in football teams.
Also, Bill was single minded, or individualistic in his endeavours. He found some leaders or older people living at the seaside area towards Nightcliff, and helped formulate a plan to have this area declared a home for these people. The HQ of the group centred around a little mound/hill supporting some trees, and meetings were held there.
Bill became trusted by this group, including Bobby Secretary as leader, and the land area was called Kulaluk.I tried to be involved as a helper, as I had been visiting the Gurindji, and was a visitor to this HQ site. (Later I brought Vincent Lingiari and others to meet with Bobby and the Larrakia elders). Bill devised some innovative actions to focus attention on their wants and needs, and did not inform supporters in advance.
One such early event was quite amazing for that time or any time. The group sat down across Bagot Road stopping the traffic. Sympathetic coverage was provided by the Northern Territory News editor, the fearless Jim Bowditch.
Another action was to gently try to meet with Princes Margaret and Lord Snowden and hand over a petition. This attracted attention. I could see this from my window in block one of the set of NT Administration buildings along Mitchell St, I may have popped down - very briefly!
Another event was to reclaim Darwin as Larrakia land, outside the then Supreme Court. And similar claims when the group climbed onto the Fort Hill hill, by then the iron ore heap being exported . I was a peripheral on site observer.
Bill included the group that was camping at Knuckey’s Lagoon, but perhaps those Larrakia people who had jobs in the town, probably hard to contact, weren’t!
Bill set up and was editor and chief writer of a newsletter called Bunji which had about 80 issues . It occasionally aroused the ire of many locals as it stridently advocated for Larrakia rights.
Bill was married to Polly, a Kiwi lady, and they had two kids, a boy and girl. They were living in a little Chinese temple in Manton St that conventions said should not be pulled down, and they survived Cyclone Tracy.
After that , Bill opened a very inexpensive travellers rest mainly for young travellers returning from overseas. After a while Polly returned to NZ.
The government or its water/sewage supply people wanted to build a pipeline through Kulaluk, and did so without proper or any consultation with the people. The land had wetlands which had to be traversed to get to the HQ mound. These were mostly an asset providing food and supplies. The water/sewage people used a bulldozer through this area making a 20 or 24 ft wide gash in order to lay a 24 inch pipeline - this was vandalism of highest order in my opinion, and destroyed the natural water swamp.
When on the plane going down to the Whitlam visit and the ‘handful of sand’ event at Daguragu (Wattie Ck) with the Gurindjis, late 1975, we flew over this destruction, and I was able to point it out to the assistant administrator, Frank Dwyer. He expressed concern, but for all I know he authorised the action.
When Marshall Perron was a minister or Chief Minister he handed over the rights to Kulaluk land to the residents. The controllers were the leaders, like Bobby Secretary, I think five people, I was advocating that some sort of ‘trust' was needed.
But Bobby was already old and soon died. Control was handed on then to his daughters and their non-Larrakia partners ,who made life difficult for Bill.
Bill set up a camp near the sea on sand dunes at Kulaluk, building it gradually from debris washed in from the sea, until it became a wonder to behold. There was a wet season waterhole nearby. (During the Dry ,water was short, and I used to drive there with jerry cans of the stuff. Bill just tipped this into his tank, whereas I thought a drinking supply from a jerry can would have been more economic.)
Many young people found their way there to visit and swing on a rope. Bill got a grant to hire a small truck to cart these kids to other sites for entertainment. Tragically one kid who was reluctant to accept control, fell off the back and was killed, putting an end to this endeavour.
Bill was of course depressed by this loss. Also the new management team of Kulaluk became hostile to him living on ’their’ land.
An aboriginal bloke ,Fred Fogarty,from Queensland who had been a boxer, joined the community and became Bill’s protector.
One day Fogarty spotted a person intruding on the Kulakuk land displaying a sign which clearly stated to keep out . Fogarty aggressively asked the person , on a bike , what he was doing, and if he could not understand English. Tempting fate, the fellow , a visiting Pommie, said he was looking for butterflies !!!, with a net , and had the right to enter the land.
The story goes that the fellow retreated with the butterfly net jammed down over his head by Fred , his buckled bike thrown after him.
Another Fogarty story that has emerged this very day says he once turned up at an official major event on the Darwin Larrakia Point military base with a suitcase and threw down beads and other trinkets -shades of the Dutch deal for Manhattan - and shouted : "You can have your beads back- we want our land!"
Another dramatic episode took place when a group of builders took no notice of the Kulaluk ownership rights, and a promise by the Federal Minister, and built two subdivisions on the land. The second group was told to stop - this is Larrakia land- and a big sign was nailed to a tree at the entrance, but they continued with their truck.
A delegation approached the workers, and Fred Fogarty" deposited" a bottle of petrol into the truck which burned. Fred went to gaol, and a campaign was launched ‘Free Fred Fogarty’. I had a sticker bravely stuck on the back and underside of my desk at work! And visited him at Fannie Bay prison .
When he was released, Fred built a camp close to Ludmilla Creek, where he lived with his partner. The day after he died the so-called owners came and burnt down his house - a criminal act , I reckon.
The managers signed an agreement to allow a prawn farm to be built on flats close to Ludmilla Creek, which Bill was sure would fail, and it did. The detail has not been made public. They also allowed building waste to be dumped on their land. It is now a hill of some magnitude, and I think there have been court orders to have it removed, again one doesn’t know who got what.
Bill could see the writing on the wall, as it were, (if these vandals could write) and knew he had to leave. He prepared to do so, invited media ,at least ABC to observe and film, and he burned his house, then left. He went to NZ and was pretty depressed for quite a while.
He sorted himself out and went back to home base in Perth, and completed a PhD. to be a qualified anthropologist, and did quite a lot of work in northern WA. He put together the collection of Bunji's and made them available for purchase. He also wrote the book Bunji, he was unable to be in Darwin when it came out so I organised a book launch, along with Jack PHillips. And had Larrakia speakers to launch it. One of the audience was H.C. (Nugget) Coombs, lovely man, and Bill was disappointed we didn’t get him to do the honours.
After a few years the publisher of Bunji the Aboriginal Institute in Canberra advised that they had maybe a couple of thousand copies just taking up space and they would be trashed. I offered to store them in my container, and it was agreed if I paid the $500 or whatever the transport cost was to be. Being a bit hard up I asked various politicians et al to proffer $100 towards this cost in return for a carton of books.
Eventually they arrived, and I set about distributing them. Bill insisted on quite substantial numbers going to various outlets, so my stock reduced to one carton. Bill wanted more copies, so I had to say just go to those groups and politicians and request some back. Most of the books got sold or distributed I think, showing what would have been a loss to our history knowledge to have them destroyed.
Bill when visiting Darwin would wander through the forests at Kulaluk and do video filming, and advocate for proper management, utilising the resources of this land. His employment diminished, he was getting older, we needed him to advance certain issues here and had to supplement his costs. He settled into life in Perth, still researching or tidying up. He got seriously ill, suffering from brain cancer, was given 18 months to live. When I saw him in October 21 he had been given another 18 months, and was enjoying life with family visiting ,etc. He insisted I take back some documents to Darwin.
We heard he was not well, was confined to bed, so a third 18 months was not going to happen, and yesterday, Monday 26/6/23, he passed away. Vale an incredible, courageous contributor to life in Darwin and Australia.
