Aunty Brenda Longbottom
My name is Brenda Longbottom and I’m a Dharawal elder from La Perouse.
I am 75 years old and have lived here with my family and cousins helping each other with sharing and caring on country.
My fathers’ name was Thomas Williams and mothers’ name was Iris Williams (nee Callaghan). My maternal grandparents were Emma Jane Cook and Athol Callaghan and my paternal grandparents were Thomas and Dolly Williams.
I have seen many changes over the years living on the Reserve or ‘Mission’ as we call it including the re-building of houses from tin huts to the current homes that we live in today. I also recall a time when the mission had a manager and residents had to get permission to leave or for family to visit.
Aunty Brenda Longbottom
Tom Williams holding twin daughters Beverly (left) & Brenda (right)
Ellen Anderson, 2nd from left with a family group and Hugh Anderson, far right, probably at Hill 60 near Wollongong, c. 1928.
Two Women Dreaming, Springwood
Bert and Aunty Brenda, age 25
Dharawal women working on family trees at Aboriginal Affairs, 17 May 2013
Thomas Williams collecting the deeds to Yarra Bay House
Thomas Williams collecting the deeds to Yarra Bay House
Thomas Williams playing the gum leaf
Thomas Williams' Order of the British Empire (OBE) from Queen Elizabeth
Iris Williams and Thomas Williams standing next to Betina Gordon (Prime Minister Gordon's Wife) and W.C. Wentworth
Hugh and Ellen Anderson (on left) and some of the growing Salt Pan Creek community in the 1920s
Tom Williams senior with his son Tom, at Salt Pan Creek, c. 1923
Ellen and Tom Williams junior, front row, with children on the banks of Salt Pan Creek in the mid-1920s
Tom Williams (right) with Ray Simon, playing gum leaves in the Boral Jazz Band, 1950s
