Quote this number to access your records: SLWA Call Number: BA3039
These records are held by State Library of Western Australia (c. 1889 - current).
This collection of eight photo albums was assembled by the Wheatbelt Aboriginal Corporation’s Mogumber Heritage Committee with the intention of creating a pictorial archive of the Moore River/Mogumber settlement. The albums include lots of photographs of the children, adult residents, and staff of the Moore River/Mogumber settlement, many of whom are identified by name. The photographs show the settlement and its surrounds and some of the activities that took place there, including attending school and church, sports and games, picnics, corroborees, weddings, swimming in the river, girl guides and boy scouts, farm work, gardening, and Christmas celebrations. The photos also show children on outings to places like the Perth zoo, the beach, New Norcia monastery, and at a holiday camp at Point Walter, Perth. The photos and their captions tend to show Moore River/Mogumber in a positive light, however some provide glimpses of other aspects of life at the settlement, including photos of ‘The Boob’ (the gaol/lock-up), and a photograph of a young girl on her last day at the settlement before she was taken to Sister Kate’s Children’s Home.
Most of the photographs in these albums date from either the 1930s and early 1940s, or the late 1960s and early 1970s. The photos were sourced from a variety of people and organisations, including Mrs M Bandy, Miss N P Hawke, Mrs M Hicks, Mrs M Isbister, Sister Eileen Heath, Jeff Harcus, Reg McCarthy, Doris Turner, Alex Leach, Reverend David Abbott, the West Australian Newspaper, the Battye Library, and the Museum of South Australia. There are eight albums in total, though only 6 are digitially available through the State Library of Western Australia’s online catalogue.
