page_title: Colebee and Nurragingy Land Grant
section_title: Heritage listing
hierarchical_section_title: Colebee and Nurragingy Land Grant / Heritage listing
caption_attribution_description: English: Colebee and Nurragingy Land Grant: SHR Plan 2475
context_page_description: Colebee and Nurragingy Land Grant is a heritage-listed former farm at Richmond Road, Colebee, City of Blacktown, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Colebee and Nurragingy's Land Grant, Colebee Release Area, 773, 777 and 783 Richmond Road. The property is owned by Roads and Maritime Services. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 February 2012.
context_section_description: The Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant is a site of state heritage significance because of its combination of historical, social and cultural values. The site was the first land grant ever given to Aboriginal people in Australia. The land grant is associated with two significant Aboriginal figures from the early colonial period-Nurragingy and Colebee-to whom the land was jointly granted in 1816. The location of the land grant is significant because it was an Aboriginal choice, being on land belonging to Nurragingy's clan. The land grant is valued by the contemporary Aboriginal community and the wider Australian community as a landmark in the history of cross-cultural engagement in Australia. For Aboriginal people, in particular, it represents a key historical site symbolising Aboriginal resilience and enduring links to the land
  Colebee and Nurragingy Land Grant was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 February 2012 having satisfied the following criteria.
  The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales.
  For Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people the Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant is an important landmark in the history of black and white relations in Australia. The site represents the earliest attempts of Aboriginal people to engage with and to establish their autonomy within European society.
  The land grant was the first to be issued to Aboriginal people, and thus reflects a colonial policy asserting the belief that Aboriginal people did not own their traditional lands but that they should be granted land by the government of the time. In this way, the government policy behind the issuing of the land grant can be viewed as a genesis of the later Aboriginal land rights struggle in Australia.
  The Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant is also associated with the nearby Blacktown Native Institution, being the place where many Aboriginal families camped to be near to their children within the institution. Therefore, the land grant also represents parents' refusals to accept separation from their children by remaining on land nearby. The land grant is significant as a symbol of the persistence of Aboriginal traditions, especially kinship ties and attachment to place.
  The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history.
  The Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant is strongly associated with Colebee and Nurragingy, two key historical Aboriginal figures, as well as Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who issued the land grant in 1816. As a part of the Black Town it is also associated with the Aboriginal people who formed a community around this area, which has persisted to the present day.
  Both Colebee and Nurragingy feature within the early colonial history of western Sydney, participating in Macquarie's punitive expeditions and being the first Aboriginal people to be granted land. Nurragingy selected the location of the land grant, choosing land within his traditional clan territory. This settlement became a centre for Aboriginal life in the early colonial period and thus influenced the siting of the nearby Blacktown Native Institution.
  The Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant is associated with Governor Lachlan Macquarie, reflecting the outcomes of Macquarie's policy towards Indigenous people. The land grant reflects Governor and Mrs Macquarie's concern for the Indigenous inhabitants of the colony and their philanthropic objectives, featuring the beliefs that Aboriginal people should be segregated from the corrupting influence of European society.
  The land grant is also strongly associated with the Locke family. Maria Locke was the first pupil of the Parramatta Native Institution to be judged a "success" by Europeans. Maria married ex-convict Robert Locke in 1824. Their marriage was the first officially sanctioned union between a convict and an Aboriginal woman. After Nurragingy's death Maria petitioned Governor Darling for the Colebee/Nurragingy Land Grant. Her claim was succ
caption: Heritage boundaries
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