So much has been written about the life of Jimmy Governor and his family, but there are so many discrepencies and ommissions.
It was not until I read the most recent book about him, Blood on the Tracks by Maurie Garland, that I learnt Jimmy was not the first born child of Annie and Tommy.
There were three before him, Tommy Jnr, Abe (Abraham) and Alice.
Before I discovered this, it had seemed odd to me that her first child appeared to have been born when she was 31 at a time when women started having children in their teens.
This calculation of her age is based on her statement to the police in 1900 that she was 56, meaning she was born in 1844.
But when she remarried in 1907, she said she was 50, making her birth in 1857.
This means she would have been 18 when she had Jimmy.
This makes more sense.
Her husband, Tommy, was born in 1834 making him either 10 or 23 years older than her.
What strike me reading about the Governor family is what a disruptive, unstable life they had.
It appears that despite Tommy being a good man, and a smart one, he was not there for his sons.
Joe was brought up by a white man, one who mistreated him.
Why did Tommy allow that to happen?
And Jimmy was a juvenile delinquent who ended up in reform school at the age of 15.
These days that type of behaviour is attributed to there being no male role model in the house.
Tommy was a bullock driver at one stage so would have been away from home regularly.
When Annie had Jimmy, Tommy was 41 which was quite old for a father in those days.
In a nomadic society, children were often left to fend for themselves.
Despite dressing like white people who lived in houses, the Governor family still lived a nomadic life.
They initially lived on pastoral properties and then on reserves for Aboriginal people.
The only home, a proper house, they appear to have had was at Reedy Creek on the outskirts of Mudgee.
It was not until I read the most recent book about him, Blood on the Tracks by Maurie Garland, that I learnt Jimmy was not the first born child of Annie and Tommy.
There were three before him, Tommy Jnr, Abe (Abraham) and Alice.
Before I discovered this, it had seemed odd to me that her first child appeared to have been born when she was 31 at a time when women started having children in their teens.
This calculation of her age is based on her statement to the police in 1900 that she was 56, meaning she was born in 1844.
But when she remarried in 1907, she said she was 50, making her birth in 1857.
This means she would have been 18 when she had Jimmy.
This makes more sense.
Her husband, Tommy, was born in 1834 making him either 10 or 23 years older than her.
What strike me reading about the Governor family is what a disruptive, unstable life they had.
It appears that despite Tommy being a good man, and a smart one, he was not there for his sons.
Joe was brought up by a white man, one who mistreated him.
Why did Tommy allow that to happen?
And Jimmy was a juvenile delinquent who ended up in reform school at the age of 15.
These days that type of behaviour is attributed to there being no male role model in the house.
Tommy was a bullock driver at one stage so would have been away from home regularly.
When Annie had Jimmy, Tommy was 41 which was quite old for a father in those days.
In a nomadic society, children were often left to fend for themselves.
Despite dressing like white people who lived in houses, the Governor family still lived a nomadic life.
They initially lived on pastoral properties and then on reserves for Aboriginal people.
The only home, a proper house, they appear to have had was at Reedy Creek on the outskirts of Mudgee.
