Who was David Unaipon?

Take a closer look at a $50 note.  The man on the note is David Unaipon. 

David Unaipon was an inventor and storyteller.  He was the first Aboriginal to have his writings published. 

David Unaipon was born 28th September 1872, and as a young man taught himself to read and write and went on to lodge 10 patents including modifications to mechanical shears for shearing sheep.  He predicted the invention of helicopter flight after researching aerodynamics through experiments with the flight of the boomerang.

In 1913 he represented Aboriginal views at a royal commission into Aboriginal affairs, and in the following decades he was able to influence government policy in several areas.

David Unaipon became well known as he travelled widely working for the Aborigines’ Friends’ Association.  He lectured, preached sermons and gave talks on Aboriginal legends and customs.  David Unaipon campaigned for “‘sympathetic co-operations’ between whites and blacks, and for equal rights for both black and white Australians.”

He spent much of his later life researching perpetual motion, he wrote in his 1951 Life Story:

"Even if I never arrive, I shall always recall with pleasure the hours I have spent and the experiments I have tried in endeavouring to solve a scientific problem."

In 1953 David Unaipon was awarded a Coronation Medal, he died 7th February 1967.  Unaipon was posthumously awarded the FAW Patricia Weickhardt Award for Aboriginal writers. The David Unaipon Award for unpublished Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers was established in 1998. UniSA also established the annual David Unaipon Lecture.

 

The information on this page has been taken from
www.rba.gov.au/CurrencyNotes/NotesInCirculation/bio_david_unaipon.html
www.unisa.edu.au/unaipon/about/unaipon.asp
www.abc.net.au/newinventors/txt/s1501003.htm
www.awm.gov.au/forging/australians/unaipon.htm