University of Sydney Report: La Perouse Aboriginal Community Study

This report, prepared by Keshav Sharma for the University of Sydney, provides a comprehensive overview of the La Perouse Aboriginal community in New South Wales. It begins with an introduction to the area, its traditional custodians, and significant historical sites, including the La Perouse Mission Church and the Aboriginal Land Council. The report delves into the demographics of the community, analyzing language use, age distribution, gender ratios, and socio-economic factors such as income, education, and employment. It further explores indigenous and mainstream services available to the community, including education and employment programs. The analysis highlights the socio-economic disparities faced by the indigenous population while acknowledging improvements over time. The research methodology includes a visit to the Aboriginal local council and a review of online sources and books. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for continued support and development within the La Perouse Aboriginal community, offering a well-structured document with clear data and references.

AREA OF FOCUS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS
Area of
focus ................................................................................................................................
.........................2
La Perouse NSW
2036 .................................................................................................................................
........ 2
Traditional Custodians of the
land ...................................................................................................................... 2
Languages ....................................................................................................................................
....................... 3
Sites of
Significance .....................................................................................................................
....................... 4
La Perouse Mission
Church .............................................................................................................................
4
Aboriginal Land
council .............................................................................................................................
...... 4
Foreshore Camp (former Meadow
Reserve) .................................................................................................. 4
Yarra
Park ..................................................................................................................................
..................... 4
Events of Historical
significance ......................................................................................................................
... 5
Indigenous
Demographics ..................................................................................................................
................ 5
Language .....................................................................................................................................
.................... 5
Age ..............................................................................................................................................
.................... 5
Gender .........................................................................................................................................
................... 6
Socio economic
Status ...............................................................................................................................
..... 6
Indigenous
services.............................................................................................................................
................ 8
Education .....................................................................................................................................
................... 8
employment .................................................................................................................................
.................. 8

Support for aboriginal
enterprises/organisation ............................................................................................ 8
Mainstream services offering indigenous
services ............................................................................................. 8
Analysis .......................................................................................................................................
........................ 9
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................
.......................... 10

AREA OF FOCUS
LA PEROUSE NSW 2036
Located at south eastern part of Sydney is the beautiful place La Perouse. This place falls lies
under the Randwick municipality. This place is consists of larger community of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. La Perouse has a population of 438, among
which only 4 people belong to Torres Strait Islanders. Due to the historical event this
place is held significant and this community is my area of interest.
TRADITIONAL CUSTODIANS OF THE LAND
Aboriginal community inhabits La Perouse for at least thousands of years. After the British
settlement in 1788 at Botany Bay, the Aboriginal people approximately 1500 has been
estimated to live around in this region ( Aboriginal Land Council, La Perouse).

The original owners of this land were Kameygal. La Perouse has been named after the French
explorer and navigator Jean-Francois de Galaup Laperouse, who was said to have
stayed there for sex months. The main reasons for the inhabitants were mainly
because of availability of fish, proper shelter and abundant fresh water. Depending on
the seasons, Kameygal used to travel and likewise, made good connections with the
Aboriginal people for around 7500 (Julia, K. 2008).
LANGUAGES
There are about 250 Indigenous languages of which 120 languages are spoken in different
areas of Australia. However, in Sydney Darug and Dharawal are two languages that
aare spoken by majority of the region. The people of La Perouse however, use Darug
as the main language. It is believed that Kameygal and Darug are the same languages
(Alan, G. and Pamela, F.2011).

SITES OF SIGNIFICANCE
La Perouse has many sities around its periphery that are of historic significance. Some of
them are:
LA PEROUSE MISSION CHURCH
This site is considered to be a historic significance as it portrays history of Aboriginal
Christian movement in NSW. This is a site that provides value to indigenous people
living around.
ABORIGINAL LAND COUNCIL
The land council which was established in 1983, provides various services that is cultural,
social, economic and spirit to uplift the Aboriginal Australians.
FORESHORE CAMP ( FORMER MEADOW RESEARVE)

Although the information is not sourced, the land council informs that around fifteen
aboriginal people enjoyed camp at this place, hence the local council lists this as a
heritage site ( Alan, G. and Pamela, F.2011).
YARRA PARA
In this park, consists various indigenous artwork and rock cravings that drives the visitors
spiritually. Moreover, there are other sities which are historically significant. These
are explained in the diagram.
EVENTS OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANT
The European colonization that took place after the explorer Jean-Francois de Galaup
Laperouse arrival ( Julia, K, 2008).
The Rum Trade that took place after the second fleet arrived. ( history council, 2016)
La Perouse who became the first Customs Outpost in Australia( history council, 2016)
LANGUAGE
According to the current data of Australia in the year 2016, there are around 4 individuals
speaks Dharawal and 3 people speaks Aboriginal English.
AGE

According to the census data 2016, the children occupy 17.1% of the age 5-14 years of the
population. While the the age of 65 years and above are 9% of the population of
Aboriginal population at La Perouse.
GENDER
The female populations are 51.9% of the population and according to the report they are 3%
higher than the male population.
SOCIAL ECONOMIC STATUS
The factors such as income, degree of education and employment defines the social economic
status of the people.
INCOME
The income of the individuals is $509 in a week and the household earnings is $1228 in a
week, comparatively low to the Australian people’s income and $1616for Personal
and household income in a week respectively.
EDUCATION
The primary education is around 38% whereas about 2% have achieved education till
university level. This shows that population is in the development phase in their
social economic status.

EMPLOYMENT
According to the census, the employment rate of the population seems to be higher than the
umemployment rate by 3.3% in respect to the year 2016. The improvement can be
seen in the graph given below.
INDIGENOUS SERVICES
EDUCATION
The local council plans and manage the education system of the people in Aboriginal and
Torres Straits Islanders people. The service is provided by the indigenous people are
primary schools and Aboriginal health college.
PRIMARY SCHOOL LA PEROUSE PUBLIC SCHOOL
The primary school concentrates on the kids and their development.
ABORIGINAL HEALTH COLLEGE
Provides health related issues and other related disciplines.
Focuses on increasing the health experts.

Develop the health expert’s skill in the department of health.
EMPLOYMENT
The local council has taken various steps to enhance the employment percentage ratio of the
indigenous community. There are several strategies planned by the local council.
Some includes EDAEP (Elsa Dixon Aboriginal Employment Programme) that assists
in financial issues for education and training conducted by NSW department.
TRAINING
The Randwick City Council runs various training programmes. The NSW Aboriginal
Employment Action Plan 2009-2012 to benefit the Aboriginal people for recruitment and
employment purposes. The local council assists several organizations and enterprises
which promotes different culture like art, crafts, health facilities and book shops etc.
MAINSTREAM SERVICES OFFERING INDIGENOUS SERVICES
Local Aboriginal Randwick City Council
Aboriginal Land Council La Perrouse
Aboriginal legal service
ANALYSIS AND EXPERIENCE
During the research, i made a visit to the Aboriginal local council and informed about various
data and figures required about the local Aboriginal community. However, the
officials failed to provide certain data and figures. This surprised me much.
Nevertheless, i have managed to analyze the history of the La Perouse from various online
sources and books along with the current state of Aboriginal community. Although,
there has been some information gaps in historica6780wer7 cx er3zrt dfghj,. l
data of the communities in detail.
The research has highlighted that the indigenous people in terms of various socio-economic
factors, income, employment lags behind the average Australians. However, it was
observed that there there has been considerable improvements and developments over
time. There are various organizations who support the community.
I have chosen the word document format for the research. The research includes information
in simple words and inclusive of pictures and other statistical data which conveys
information to the readers easily without any difficulties. It is inclusive of table of
contents with specific page numbers so that readers are easily directly.
REFERENCE LIST

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016, 2016 Census QuickStats, viewed 11 October 2018,<
shttp://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2016/quickstat/ILOC
10702301?opendocument>
 Ginns, A., Fletcher, P. 2011’Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Study and Plan for The City of Botany Bay’,
viewed 8 October 2018,< file:///C:/Users/dell/Downloads/Aboriginal-Cultural-Heritage-Study-and-
Plan-16-June-2011%20(1).pdf>
 Kency, J., 2008’La Perouse’, viewed 5 October 2018, <
https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/la_perouse>
 City of Botany Bay 2018, Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Communities, viewed 13 October 2018,<
http://www.botanybay.nsw.gov.au/Community-Services/Aboriginal-Torres-Strait-Islander-
Communities>
 Caitlin, F. 2018, The Sydney Morning Heral, viewed 9 October,2018<
https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/how-wealthy-are-you-compared-withother-
australians-20180410-p4z8s4.html>
 Attenbrow, V. 2002, ‘Sydney’s Aboriginal Past’ UNSW press, Sydney.
 La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council 2018, ‘Our Services’ La Perouse, viewed 11 October 2018, <
https://www.laperouse.org.au/our-services>