Accountant – Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation

The Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation manages Coranderrk.

First, some history about Coranderrk. In 1863, Wurundjeri ngurungaeta (chief) Simon Wonga, William Barak, and missionary John Green led approximately 40 people down the Black Spur from Acheron. After enduring almost 3 decades of brutal displacement from their lands, they were seeking a new place to settle. They found this at Coranderrk Aboriginal Station near the junction of Badger Creek and the Yarra River. At its largest, the Station covered 4,850 acres, and Healesville Sanctuary is now located at its approximate centre.

For the first 10 years, Coranderrk operated as a successful, self sustaining community. However in 1874, John Green was dismissed as manager and the station deteriorated. Effective lobbying from the Coranderrk community resulted in a Parliamentary Inquiry in 1881 and although conditions improved, there was no longer a possibility of self sufficiency. Coranderrk was closed in 1924, with a few families permitted to live at the Station for the remainder of their lives. The last of these was Lizzie Davis, who died in 1956, aged 104.

In 1998, 200 acres of the original property, including the manager’s house was purchased and the Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation established to manage Coranderrk.

Membership of the Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation (WEAC) is by way of lineage to specific members of the Wurundjeri tribe. WEAC is now managed by a Board of Directors and works with partner organisations and volunteers to rebuild Coranderrk.

WEAC has now commenced the task of rejuvenating Coranderrk, not as a museum but in a 21st century way, because many of the challenges remain the same. Our priorities are to:

Restore the land
The land needs some tender loving care. To be able to farm the property well and make the land productive again, we are building new fences, bringing water to each paddock, eradicating the weeds and to planting 20,000 trees. The farm is leased for cattle grazing. We are now looking to grow native grasses and bush tucker on a commercial scale

Tell the Coranderrk story to raise awareness of indigenous history and culture
We want to honour the strength and courage of our ancestors – to tell and use their stories as inspiration for all of us, indigenous and non indigenous people to learn more about our history, to understand and to respect indigenous culture and to start living and working together.

Reconnect indigenous people with Coranderrk
Coranderrk was an important place for all indigenous people. Many Victorian aborigines have ancestors who lived at Coranderrk. We want to help these people reconnect with Coranderrk, to learn about their ancestors and to share their stories.

We are looking for a person willing to make a practical contribition to what today is called reconciliation, or as we prefer to say indigenous and non-indigenous people working together. We are seeking a person willing to make a long term commitment to Coranderrk and WEAC.