The late Sergeant J. R Ewing was born on 28 December 1829 at Anderston, Glasgow. He was second officer on the ship Curlew when he landed in Victoria in May 1853. He joined New South Wales Police Force in 1856 and formed the first police station at Forbes. In 1865 he was transferred from Merlo Goldfields to Coonabarabran, and was Sergeant of Police at Gunnedah in 1885. He died at Gunnedah in 1911. For forty years he led an active life in the New South Wales Police Force. A fine bushman, keenly interested in the country and particularly the mazes of the Warrumbungles, he was esteemed by the whites and particularly by the aboriginals, whom he befriended on every possible occasion.

Stanley Craig Ewing, son of the old sergeant, was born in Coonabarabran in 1878. With his brother Ernest, he inherited their father’s love of roaming the country and his keen interest in the aboriginals of that period, the remnants of the local tribe whom he knew well from boyhood. It was said of him that no one in New South Wales knew more of the existing remnants of the Kamilaroi tribes than he. Quiet and unassuming, he has left a memory respected by all. He died as a result of wounds received in the 1914-18 War. His simple cross at Gunnedah bears the inscription: “Private S. C. Ewing, 764, 33rd Battalion. 18/10/38.”

The Lands of the Kamilaroi

The explorations of Mitchell and Cunningham drew attention to the magnificent lands of the Liverpool Plains. Settlers anxious to migrate from the Hunter River districts were warned by the Government of the dangers existing in that No Man’s Land across the Great Dividing Range, and that no protection could be afforded against the very warlike and hostile tribes in the lands of the Kamilaroi. Murrurundi was then known as Page’s River, and any settlers venturing past that outpost did so at their own peril—which they chanced, of course.

It was in 1818 that Oxley named the Liverpool Plains after Lord Liverpool. The Kamilaroi called the plains Corborn Comleroy. These fertile lands are supposed to have once been the bed of a great land lake.

Vale—tribe of the Gunn-e-darr, tribes of the Kamilaroi.

Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales

1. Anaiwan

2. Arakwal

3. Awabakal

4. Badjelang

5. Badjiri

6. Barkendji

7. Banbai

8. Baranbinja

9. Barindji

10. Baraparapa

11. Bidawal

12. Bigambul

13. Birpai

14. Dainggati

15. Danggali

16. Darkinung

17. Daruk

18. Gandangara

19. Geawegal

20. Jiegera

21. Jita-jita

22. Joti-jota

23. Jukambal

24. Kalibal

25. Kambuwal

26. Eora (Pt Jackson)

27. Kamilaroi

28. Karenggapa

29. Kitabal

30. Koamu

31. Koinberi

32. Kula

33. Kumbainggiri

34. Kureinji

35. Kwiambal

36. Maljangapa

37. Maraura

38. Minjangbal

39. Morowari

40. Muthimuthi

41. Naualko

42. Narinari

43. Ngaku

44. Ngamba

45. Ngarigo

46. Ngemba

47. Ngunawal

48. Pangerang

49. Parundji

50. Thaua

51. Turawal

52. Ualarai

53. Wadikali

54. Walbanga

55. Wandandian

56. Wanjiwalku

57. Wati-wati

58. Weilwan

59. Wembawemba

60. Weraerai

61. Widjabal