David Unaipon, Inventor

Abstract

Unaipon descendant, Kym Kropinyeri, had promised to Unaipon and other Ngarrindjeri elders that he would pass on their history, including accounts of what happened to them at Point McLeay mission. This article addresses the Unaipon inventions. We provide a comprehensive account of Unaipon’s patent applications and the Protection-era restrictions that impacted Aboriginal inventors. The fate of Unaipon’s much celebrated 1909 shearing patent is fully explored. Exploitation of this invention is contextualised with reference to the patent activities of one of the most successful twentieth-century agricultural conglomerates that sold shearing handpieces, Cooper Engineering Ltd (Aust). Unaipon’s claim he was ripped off is considered in light of the demands made on him by the Chief Protector, politicians, religious groups, museum staff, and harassment by mission superintendents and police. All these factors impacted the capacity of Unaipon to pursue his scientific interests and delivered him into poverty.

Notes

1 Philip Jones, ‘Unaipon, David (1872–1967)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/unaipon-david-8898/text15631 (accessed 2 August 2022); ‘David Ngunaitponi (Unaipon)’, AIATSIS website, https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/david-ngunaitponi-unaipon (accessed 2 August 2022); David Unaipon’s shearing invention appeared on the $50 note from 1995 to 2018. While he remains on the reissued note, the invention was replaced by images of ethnographic artefacts, https://banknotes.rba.gov.au/australias-banknotes/people-on-the-banknotes/david-unaipon/ (accessed 2 August 2022).

2 Cooper McDougall & Robertson Ltd. Wellcome: WF/C; Cooper Engineering/Sunbeam Corporation/Victa Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia, 1915–90. Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (hereafter MAAS): 2002/90/1.

3 Kym Kropinyeri, Adelaide, South Australia, 31 May 2022 (video recording). Kym is a Ngarrindjeri man born at Point McLeay mission and Elder in Residence, University of South Australia.

4 David Unaipon, ‘My Life Story’, AFA Annual Report, 1951 (Adelaide: Aborigines’ Friends’ Association), 10–14, 11–12, https://catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au/record=b1211809~S1 (accessed 2 August 2022).

5 Professor Chapman was appointed Professor of Engineering in 1907, Professor of Mathematics and Mechanics in 1910. Professor Robert William Chapman (1866–1942), University of Adelaide, https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/131555 (accessed 2 August 2022).

6 ‘An Extraordinary Report. An Aboriginal Inventor’, Bendigo Independent, 11 May 1910, 6.

7 ‘New Legislators. Biographical Particulars. Hon. J. H. Cooke’, The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide), 31 March 1915, 1.

8 Petitions for South Australian Colonial patents with specifications 1878–1904. National Archives of Australia (hereafter NAA): AP476/1.

9 See Alan J. Cameron, ‘Early Sheep Shearing Machines in Australia’, Agricultural Engineering Australia 14, no. 2 (1985): 4–8, 5.

10 J. Herbert Cooke, The Inventor’s Pocket Book of Useful Notes and Memoranda (Adelaide: Vardon & Pritchard, 1895).

11 Patents Granted in the United Kingdom (1912): Australia 161; NZ: 71; Canada 188; UK 9,058. Total British Empire Patents 9,614. Report of the British Empire Patent Conference 1922 (London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1923), 25.

12 Ibid., 5.

13 Patent Act 1905 (Cth), ss 41, 56(e), 88(4).

14 Cooke, 10–13; Charles N. Collison, Patents in Australasia (Adelaide: self-published, 1902), 12, https://catalog.slsa.sa.gov.au/record=b1451641 (accessed 2 August 2022).

15 51st Annual Report of the Aborigines’ Friends’ Association, 1909, 11.

16 Patents Granted in the United Kingdom (1912): British Empire Filings, 20,964. Patents Granted 9,614. Total all sources: Filings 30,089. Granted 16,962. British Empire Patent Conference, 25.

17 Diane Hutchison, ‘Manufacturing’, in The Cambridge Economic History of Australia, eds Simon Ville and Glenn Withers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 291.

18 Ibid., 294.

19 Application No. 15,624/09 dated 3 September 1909, Column 4, lines 50–3.

20 Hutchison, 295.

21 ‘An Extraordinary Report’, 6.

22 Public Library of NSW, Model School Library Shelf List, 1939, https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/74VvwpVbWgxb (accessed 2 August 2022).

23 The full title was ‘An Act to make provision for the better protection and control of the Aboriginal and Half-Caste Inhabitants of the State of South Australia’ (Act No. 1048/1911). It was repealed by the Aborigines Act 1934 (SA).

24 Aboriginal Witnesses Act 1848 (SA); Aboriginal Witnesses Act 1849 (SA).

25 ‘Country Intelligence’, Southern Argus, 8 July 1909, 3. For the patent history of Moffat-Virtue see Ken Arnold, Early Australian Shearing Machines & C. (Bendigo: Crown Castleton Publishers, 2017), 142–53.

26 J.K. Stewart Sheep Shearing Machine, US Patent Application filed 13 August 1906. No. 852,809.

27 ‘Looking Back. The Story of the Cooper Business for 100 Years’, 1843–1943. Wellcome Collection (hereafter Wellcome): WF/C/M/H/08.

28 ‘Chicago Flexible Shaft Co., est. 1893’, Made in Chicago Museum, https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/chicago-flexible-shaft-co/ (accessed 2 August 2022).

29 Simon Ville, ‘The Relocation of the International Market for Australian Wool’, Australian Economic History Review 45, no. 1 (2005): 83–4.

30 The articles of association included a standard clause concerning acquisition of relevant patent rights, but there is little evidence that this was a real concern of the company. Memorandum and Articles of Association (1904), Cooper Sheep Shearing Machine Pty Ltd, State Records Office NSW (hereafter SRO (NSW)): NRS-125951-1-[3/5760]-2385; ‘Cooper Sheep Shearing Machines and Engines’, Sydney Wool and Stock Journal, 17 May 1907, 7.

31 ‘Imperialism and William Cooper in the early 20th century’, Wellcome: WF/C/M/H/13.

32 ‘The Cooper Organisation’, Wellcome: WF/C/M/H/09.

33 DSA McDougall, ‘“Our Business”. A lecture’ (1937), 15. Wellcome: WF/C/M/H/03.

34 Noel Svensson, ‘History of Mechanised Sheep Shearing’ (October 2007). MAAS: B812/1 Pt 2.

35 See Applications for patents filed by the Chicago Flexible Shaft Company/Edwin Bartlett (inventor). NAA: A627.

36 See Scrapbook, Trace Flyers and distributors, Cooper Engineering. MAAS: 2002/90/1-16/3.

37 ‘Royal Show. Harris, Scarfe and Sandovers’, West Australian, 6 October 1936.

38 Cooke, 22.

39 ‘David Ngunaitponi (Unaipon)’, AIATSIS website, https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/david-ngunaitponi-unaipon (accessed 2 August 2022).

40 ‘White Man to Blame’, Advertiser and Register (Adelaide), 15 June 1931, 6.

41 AFA Meeting of General Committee, 10 October 1913. State Library of South Australia (hereafter SLSA): SRG139.2

42 Minutes of the Board of Governors, Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery, 20 November 1925. Minutes of the Board of Governors 1923–27, Volume 19. State Records Office of SA (hereafter SRO (SA)): GRG19/355.

43 AFA to the ER Waite Esq., Director SA Museum, from John H. Sexton, Hon. Secretary, Aboriginal Friends Association, 8 September 1925. SLSA: SRG 139/1/51.

44 AFA Meeting of General Committee, 17 September 1925. SLSA: SRG139.2

45 ‘Jones, Frederic Wood (1879–1954)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jones-frederic-wood-6872/text11907 (accessed 2 August 2022); Ross L. Jones and Warwick Anderson, ‘Wandering Anatomists and Itinerant Anthropologists: The Antipodean Sciences of Race in Britain between the Wars’, British Society for the History of Science 48, no. 1 (2015): 1–16; Ross Jones, Anatomists of Empire: Race, Evolution and the Discovery of Human Biology in the British World (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2020).

46 Jones and Anderson, 12.

47 Bulletin, 15 October 1925, 20.

48 Minutes of the Board of Governors – Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery, 1923–27, Volume 19. SRO (SA): GRG19/355.

49 See further, Mark Hearn, ‘David Unaipon, “the Super-Aborigine”’, in Mark Hearn, The Fin de Siècle Imagination in Australia, 1890–1914 (London: Bloomsbury, 2022), 135–54.

50 See e.g. ‘Interesting Natives. David Unaipon on His People’, News (Adelaide), 6 January 1926, 6.

51 ‘Aboriginal Remains. Mr Unaipon’s Local Quest’, Sunraysia Daily (Mildura), 11 June 1930, 2.

52 D. Unaipon. Application for assistance to the extent of £3. Minute of Chief Protector of Aborigines, 9 November 1926. SRO (SA): GRG52/1/1926/63.

53 Messrs Smith, Hutley and Harvey, ‘Visit to Pt McLeay Report, 16–17 May 1924’. Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/1924.

54 ‘The Aborigines Act’, The Advertiser, 7 May 1925, 7.

55 The challenge Angus and Robertson had in providing him with access to funds for travel to collect stories for publication is noted briefly in Stephen Muecke and Adam Shoemaker, ‘Introduction’, in David Unaipon, Legendary Tales of the Australian Aborigines, ed. Stephen Muecke and Adam Shoemaker (Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2001), xxvii.

56 Evidence of Mr Ramsay, Inquiry into Native Grievances, Point McLeay’, Hon. W.H. Harvey and Rev. Sexton, ‘Report of the Inquiry into Native Grievances. Pt McLeay’. Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

57 Ibid.

58 C. Ramsay, Superintendent Point McLeay to Chief Protector, Adelaide, 5 October 1926. Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

59 Regulation under the Aborigines Act, 1911. Government Gazette (SA), 10 May 1917.

60 Hon. W.H. Harvey and Rev. Sexton, ‘Report of the Inquiry into Native Grievances. Pt McLeay’. Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

61 C. Ramsay, Superintendent Point McLeay to Chief Protector, Adelaide, 5 October 1926. Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

62 Albert Namatjira faced similar restrictions on his exercise of autonomy. See Kathy Bowrey, ‘Place and Race in Australian Copyright Law: May Gibbs’ and Albert Namatjira’s copyright’, in The Cambridge Legal History of Australia, eds Peter Cane, Lisa Ford and Mark McMillan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 693–718.

63 An accompanying letter was signed by Philip Rigney, Edward Kropinyeri, Jonathon Sumner, Michael Gollan, David Unaipon and Albert Karloan. A follow-up note by David Unaipon explained that these were people who would be known to the Church, and he thought provided sufficient representation. David Unaipon to Mr Smith, President AAC, 16 October 1926. Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

64 John Sexton to the Chief Protector of Aborigines, 10 November 1926. SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

65 David Unaipon to Rev. Sexton, 12 October 1926. SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

66 This manifested in leaking the report to the press prior to the official release of the report, an act Sexton strenuously sought to distance himself from. John H. Sexton to John McInnes, 7 December 1926. SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

67 Michael Roe, ‘A Model Aboriginal State’, Aboriginal History 10, no. 1 (1986): 40–6, 41. The grouping together of different sovereign peoples was identified as one obstacle. Committee Minute book extract, 31 March 1925, Aborigines’ Friends’ Association, ‘Australian Black State’. SLSA: SRG139/1/65.

68 W.H. Harvey was a Liberal Union parliamentary and party colleague of MLA Hon. J.H. Cooke. Both represented the same Central Adelaide district and were involved in the Independent Order of Oddfellows.

69 W.H. Harvey, Report (undated). Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

70 Recommendations (undated). Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

71 Commissioner of Public Works to Secretary AAC, 25 November 1926. Correspondence of the Advisory Council of Aborigines, SRO (SA): GRG52/10/1/24/1926.

72 Report of the Chief Protector of Aborigines, Year ending 30 June 1927, Report 441, 4.

73 See Robert Foster, ‘Contested Destinies’, Aboriginal History 42 (2018): 73–96, 76–8.

74 D. Unaipon, Application for Grant of £50 to complete invention. Minute of Chief Protector of Aborigines, 7 June 1927. SRO (SA): GRG52/1/1927/41.

75 For example, Unaipon was paid £20 a week plus expenses to travel to Melbourne to deliver a Church Council address. AFA Meeting of General Committee, 20 April 2015. SLSA: SRG139/2.

76 David Unaipon to Rev. Sexton, 21 November 1927. SLSA: SRG139/1/117.

77 David Unaipon, Aboriginal Legends [Hungarrda] (Adelaide: Hunkin, Ellis & King, 1927); David Unaipon, Australian Aborigines (Adelaide: Aborigines’ Friends’ Association, 1928?); David Unaipon, Native Legends (Adelaide: Hunkin, Ellis & King, 1929?).

78 ‘Mr Unaipon Goes Walkabout’, Herald (Melbourne), 1 January 1938, 3.

79 Walter Hutley, ‘Out Among the People: Dear Rufus’, Observer (Adelaide), 20 July 1929, 2.

80 T.E. Ruth, ‘Black, White and Neither. Aborigines Mourn While Australia Rejoices – Why?’, Age (Melbourne), 5 February 1938, 4.

81 Kym Kropinyeri, Adelaide, South Australia, private correspondence, 30 November 2022.