Who was David Unaipon?
David Unaipon was an Ngarrindjeri inventor, writer and preacher, who became the first Aboriginal author to be published in Australia. He appears on the Australian $50 note.
Unaipon was born in 1872 at Point McLeay Mission, now Raukkan, in South Australia. He was a talented student who was fascinated by science, philosophy and religion.
He worked for the Aborigines' Friends' Association, traveling around Australia to preach and speak about the rights of Aboriginal people.
Inventor and writer
Unaipon was a gifted inventor. In 1909, he patented an improved hand tool for shearing sheep, which converted curved motion into straight-line movement. He also worked on ideas for perpetual motion and a helicopter design based on the boomerang.
In 1929, his book Native Legends was published, making him the first Aboriginal author published in Australia. His stories were later published in other collections.
Unaipon died in 1967. The David Unaipon Award for emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers is named after him. He is often called Australia's Leonardo da Vinci.
Raukkan, his birthplace on the shore of Lake Alexandrina, remains an important Ngarrindjeri community.