‘'All I Know Is History': Memory and Land Ownership in the Dudley District, Kangaroo Island

One day in July 1954, Joan Maves was at home in Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, reading a copy of the popular magazine Walkabout. There she found an article by Ernestine Hill titled 'Last of the Tasmanians'. Under the heading she saw a photograph of her Grandfather Joe and her Aunt Mary. Joan was shocked. But she was also confused, for the caption claimed the photo was of Tom Simpson, the ‘well known … last Tasmanian half-caste of Kangaroo Island’ and his daughter. Joan did not know that Tom Simpson was her late great-uncle, but she remembered Grandpa Joe and Auntie Mary well. She remembered going with her parents to visit Grandpa Joe in Penneshaw, on the western Dudley Peninsula. And Auntie Mary was still alive. It made no sense that their photograph had been used in the article; it must have been a mistake. But still the article scared Joan. She put it aside and did nothing about it.