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In 1886 Roberts worked with Harms, on a silver discovery at Coronet Hill and, two years later, was operating a tin
claim at Bynoe Harbour with Granowski.
In 1892, Roberts once again leased the Extended Union Gold Mine and with C C Manner, R Webb, J Thomas
and E Tamblyn, formed the Brock’s Creek Gold Mining Company to work, among others, Gold Mining Lease
Number 313, which later became the Zapopan Gold mine.
In 1901 Roberts was employed by the Northern Territory Goldfields Company as a manager and was sent
from the Howley to examine the property of the Eureka Gold Mines Ltd. A year later, he was manager of the
Mount Ellison copper mine.
Roberts died in about 1905 and was buried at the Extended Union (date unknown). His headstone was placed
in a tree.
Personal information.
SUSAN BALFOUR, Vol 1.
ROBERTS, MERCIA: see BUTLER, MERCIA
ROBERTS, PHILLIP WAIPULDANYA (1922–1988), mechanic, medical assistant and liaison officer, was
born in the country of the Alawa people, south of the Roper River, in 1922, the eldest son of Barnabas Gabarla,
who was then working as a drover and was later a stockman, saddler and evangelist at the Roper River Mission
(Ngukurr). Roberts was educated to fifth grade standard at the mission school and had sound instruction in bush
skills in school holidays and after leaving school. He was trained in motor maintenance and repair by the mission
mechanic, Les Perriman, and after Perriman left in October 1941, Roberts assumed responsibility for most of the
mechanical work.
In 1953 he went to Urapunga station to repair a submerged marine engine, and on his way back to the mission
he called at the Roper Bar Police Station, where he chanced to meet Dr W A (‘Spike’) Langsford of the Department
of Health who was doing health survey work. Soon after this meeting, Langsford invited Roberts to join him as a
driver-mechanic on a three-month medical survey of the Victoria River district, along with Mrs Langsford, who
was a nursing sister, and in company with Creed Lovegrove, patrol officer, who was making the annual inspection
of stations for the Native Affairs Branch. Langsford gave Roberts some instruction in medical matters and by
the end of the trip he was working as an assistant as well as a driver. When he returned to Roper River he began
to work with the nursing sister there and in 1954 when Dr Tarleton Rayment visited the mission, he employed
Roberts as his assistant on visits to Rose River, Angurugu and Umbakumba, and later to Yirrkala, Elcho Island,
Goulburn Island and Croker Island. Rayment then asked Roberts to undertake a foot patrol of the Murgenella and
Coopers Creek country to locate any leprosy sufferers among the groups living in the bush. Between survey trips
with Rayment Roberts worked as a laboratory assistant at Darwin Hospital, broadening his medical knowledge and
skills. In 1957 Dr A H Humphry engaged him to help with a malaria research project and he attended a conference
in Noumea on hygiene in indigenous communities in the South Pacific.
Roberts went to Maningrida soon after it was established to work on the identification and treatment of leprosy
sufferers, under the supervision of Dr John Hargrave and in collaboration with Ingrid Drysdale. This work
entailed journeys on foot into the country south and east of Maningrida to the camps of people who rarely visited
the settlement. He was based at Maningrida for nine months and was joined there by his wife, Hannah Dulban,
whom he had married at Roper in 1942, and their four elder daughters.
Roberts and his family then returned to Darwin and occupied a Housing Commission house at Nightcliff.
He continued to work as a medical assistant and health inspector, mainly in campaigns to combat hookworm and
leprosy. (Roberts’ mother and a younger brother, Jacob, had both suffered from leprosy and his mother had died
at Channel Island soon after the Second World War.)
Along with almost all other Aboriginal people in the Territory Roberts had been declared a ward in May 1957
under the Welfare Ordinance of 1953, but his record of employment with the Health Department suggested that
this status was inappropriate and eventually, on 15 June 1960, he and his wife and daughters were duly declared no
longer to be wards in need of special assistance. In 1962 Douglas Lockwood published his book, I, the Aboriginal,
written in the form of an autobiography of Roberts and based on many hours spent interviewing him; two years
later Cecil Holmes made a film for Australian Broadcasting Commission television with the same title.
In the 1960s Roberts was increasingly active in campaigns for Aboriginal rights, joining the Northern Territory
Council for Aboriginal Rights in 1962 and becoming its president in 1965. He took part in a visit to Kenya
organised by the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in 1964 and the
next year he unsuccessfully stood for election for the seat of Arnhem in the Legislative Council.
In February 1969 Roberts was selected from a large field of applicants as one of three liaison officers for the
Council for Aboriginal Affairs that had been established after the 1967 Referendum to advise the Commonwealth
Government on Aboriginal policies and programs. Based at Katherine, his area of operation extended across northern
Australia. He travelled widely sometimes with Dr H C Coombs and other Council members and staff of the Office,
later the Department, of Aboriginal Affairs; and at other times he travelled alone, submitting informative and
lively reports on the communities he visited. While in Katherine he served for a time as chairman of the Yulungu
Association. In 1970, his work was recognised by the award of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
He had earlier been awarded Membership of the same Order (MBE). He left the Department in 1977, returned to
Roper River, and unsuccessfully stood for election to the National Aboriginal Conference in November.