Matt Wrigley was born in Perth in 1964 and grew up in the hills region east of Perth.

He studied anthropology and linguistics at the University of Western Australia between 1982 and 1986. In 1988 Matt moved to Halls Creek in the Kimberley to work as a linguist in the Kimberley Language Resource Centre. There Matt worked on an oral history project recording stories of East Kimberley history told by Aboriginal people in their preferred language. These stories later became part of the multi-lingual book, Moola Bulla: In the Shadow of the Mountain (Magabala Books, 1996). While living in Halls Creek, Matt learned to speak the language Jaru.

Matt lived in the Kimberley until 2000, continuing to work for the Kimberley Language Resource Centre, the Kimberley Land Council and the University of Notre Dame in Broome.

In 2000, Argyle Diamonds asked Matt to advise on cross-cultural communications during their negotiation of a new comprehensive Aboriginal agreement. At the completion of the Argyle agreement Matt worked at Rio Tinto’s bauxite mine in Weipa, Queensland, helping to revive the mine’s Indigenous employment strategy and managing cultural awareness training and community approvals.

In 2009, Matt returned to Western Australia and established the Keogh Bay Group of companies with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal colleagues ( www.keoghbay.com.au ). Keogh Bay specialises in high quality consulting and training services aimed at improving relationships between Aboriginal people, companies and government.

Matt has three children (who are almost all grown up) and lives near the town of Walpole on the south coast of Western Australia.

Research Topic

There is little historical research in the Goldfields on the early years of contact between Aboriginal people and colonists. There are no books published on Aboriginal history before 1920 when Mt Margaret Mission was established, yet explorers had been traversing the region since 1846 and gold was discovered at Southern Cross in 1888.

At the same time there is often division and conflict in towns like Kalgoorlie along racial and cultural lines. It is difficult for communities to find a pathway to reconciliation without a good understanding of their common history.

This thesis proposes to review and analyse primary and secondary sources to tell the story of contact between the Aboriginal people of the Eastern Goldfields in Western Australia and the European explorers, pastoralists, prospectors and miners who entered the region between 1846 and 1897.

The central thesis question is:

Aboriginal people of the Goldfields region and colonialists of the late 1800s in Western Australia had radically different cultures, economies and values. These differences set the scene for a complex and layered contact relationship as Europeans began to enter the region after 1846.

What was the evolving nature of the relationship between Aboriginal people and Europeans in the Eastern Goldfields as the presence of Europeans intensified and what were the primary factors that conditioned Aboriginal and European responses to one another?

Research Progress

To date (November 2023) I have:

• Reviewed all contacts between explorers and Aboriginal people between 1846 and 1888.
• Researched the relationships with Aboriginal people and new stations being established on the edges of the Goldfields at Wilgoyne, Mangowine, Fraser Range and Ninghan.
• Looked closely at relationships after the discovery of gold at Ennuin, Golden Valley (late 1887) and Southern Cross (early 1888).
• Reviewed the nature of contact after the discovery of gold in Coolgardie in 1892 through to 1895. I am still following up specific events and incidents during this period.
• Begun to read on the wider historiography of contact in Australia and other historical writing relevant to my research.
   

Contact Matt

If you are interested in the early days of contact on the Eastern Goldfields in Western Australia between Aboriginal people, explorers, pastoralists and prospectors and would like to know more about this project you can contact Matt by email or phone.

If you know of books or documents that Matt should review; or perhaps you have stories in your family that you would like to share, please contact Matt using the details below:

Phone 0419 763 101