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J Stretton (ed), Biographical Index of South Australia 1836–85, 1986; G W Symes, ‘The Exploration and Development of the Northern Part of
South Australia between 1850 and 1869 and the Early Life of John Ross’, in Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia—
South Australian Branch, vol 56, 1956–57; G W Symes, ‘John Ross—a Refutation and a Chronology’, in Papers of the Royal Geographical
Society, South Australian Branch, vol 59, 1957–58; G W Symes, ‘Exploring the MacDonnell Ranges 1870–1872.’ in Papers of the Royal
Geographical Society, South Australian Branch, vol 61, 1960; G W Symes & B J Ward, ‘Charles Todd and the Overland Telegraph.’ in Papers
of the Royal Geographical Society, South Australian Branch, vol 81, 1980–81.
IAN BROLLY, Vol 1.
RRAIWALA, RAY (GEORGE) also RAIWALA, RIWALA, RRAYWALA, RAIOLA, RIOLA, RAIWALLA,
RYOLA (c1907–1965), Aboriginal leader and soldier, of the Bulayn subsection, was born in about 1907 into the
Mildjingi (Maljingi) clan in the Glyde River area on the north coast of Arnhem Land. He grew to manhood in
the 1920s when Methodist missions were being established nearby, first at Elcho Island (1922–1923) and then at
Milingimbi (1923), but Rraiwala was only an occasional visitor to Milingimbi Mission in his youth. The American
anthropologist, Lloyd Warner, who was at Milingimbi between 1926 and 1929, in his book, A Black Civilization
(1937), outlined the complex history of a clan feud and gave a vivid account of how ‘Raiola’ had successfully
defended a friend from attack ‘in the interior country’, probably in the mid 1920s.
Rraiwala was at Milingimbi in February 1927 when James Robertson, assistant to T T Webb, the missionary
in charge, was speared in a murderous attack on the two missionaries during the Sunday morning service. ‘Ryola’
appeared as a Crown witness at the trial of the three attackers who were each sentenced to three years in jail.
Two years later Rraiwala was himself the ‘leading spirit’ in the killing at the mission of a ‘self proclaimed medicine
man’ reputed to have killed several people by sorcery. With three others he was tried in Darwin in 1930, found
guilty by the jury (the first guilty verdict in a Territory murder trial for 12 years), and sentenced to death. The death
sentences were at once commuted to life sentences and the four served less than four years in Fannie Bay Gaol
before being released in February 1934. This trial aroused official concern about the ways in which the Australian
justice system dealt with Aboriginal people who might be under a moral obligation to wound or kill others;
Dr Cook proposed that such cases might be more effectively dealt with by the Chief Protector removing offenders
to another district; and it was later proposed that a ‘Court of Native Affairs’ should be established.
Rraiwala returned to Milingimbi and apparently helped build the new timber church, opened in 1935. He met
the anthropologist Donald Thomson, who made his headquarters at the mission in August and September 1935,
while investigating the situation of the Aboriginal people in eastern Arnhem Land for the Commonwealth
government. Thomson described Rraiwala as having a reputation as the ‘greatest single combat fighter in Arnhem
Land’ and engaged his help for his ‘longest and most important patrol’ in October from the Crocodile Islands
southeast to Blue Mud Bay and the Walker River. Thomson later paid tribute to the ‘faithfulness and devotion’
of Rraiwala, who for much of the journey was in unfamiliar country: ‘When the carriers began deserting at night,
leaving us without sufficient men to carry our loads, at considerable personal risk and with very real tact, he always
succeeded in persuading sufficient to go just a little further to enable us to replace them, and so to carry on. As they
tired and lagged behind, Raiwalla dropped behind with them and often himself carried the bulk of their loads.
Throughout the whole of the journey he was always cheerful, keeping the others who were ill at ease away from
their own territory, in happy mood, by his cheerful manner and jokes.’
Rejoining Thomson’s boat, St Nicholas, in Blue Mud Bay, Rraiwala stayed with Thomson on his visits to
Groote Eylandt and Roper River and on an overland patrol north to the upper Wilton River, Mainoru Station and
Mount Catt in December. When Thomson abandoned his plans to travel to the Liverpool River and turned back to
the Roper, Rraiwala parted from him to walk home to the Glyde River country.
When Thomson returned at the end of June 1936 after a long break in the south, Rraiwala was waiting in
Darwin aboard St Nicholas and accompanied him on a lengthy voyage, visiting Oenpelli, crossing the Cobourg
Peninsula on foot, spending a week at Goulburn Island, and calling at Milingimbi and Yirrkala. Rraiwala and his
wife were in the party that set out overland to Arnhem Land in mid August in an unsuccessful effort to investigate
killings that had occurred during Thomson’s absence in the south. They returned to Yirrkala and then sailed to
Arnhem Bay and completed the investigation before returning to Milingimbi.
Thomson, probably accompanied by Rraiwala, made two further visits to Arnhem Bay area before the end
of the year but most of the period between October 1936 and July 1937 he spent in Rraiwala’s territory on the
mainland south of Milingimbi. His main base was at Katji (Derby Creek) and Rraiwala spent April 1937 instructing
Thomson in the life and techniques of the goose hunters of the seasonally flooded Arafura Swamp.
Thomson left Arnhem Land in September but Rraiwala’s association with him was renewed within five years
when Thomson returned as Royal Australian Air Force officer seconded to establish an Aboriginal guerrilla unit
in the north. Early in February 1942 Rraiwala was formally enlisted as an Army Private (D178), having earlier
been picked up from his camp near Derby Creek as Thomson’s vessel, the Defence ketch Aroetta, sailed from
Townsville to Darwin. A week before the first bombing raid, they sailed east for a reconnaissance of the Arnhem
Land coast. Rraiwala was landed near Katji to gather together some of his group and rejoined Thomson at the Glyde
mouth as Aroetta continued its voyage. Thomson wrote that ‘valuable service was rendered by Raiwalla, whose
loyalty never flagged and who carried on anti-Japanese propaganda in his language’. Thomson appointed Rraiwala
leader of ‘No. 1 Section’, made up mainly of men from the Glyde River to Cape Stewart area; Bindjarpuma,
‘long engaged in raids upon his neighbours’, led the second section recruited from around Arnhem Bay; and
Natjialma, a son of Wonggu who had been imprisoned for the killing of Japanese at Caledon Bay in 1932, led the
third section of the detachment. Thomson gave the men some training at Roper River in March for their tasks of
‘guerrilla fighting’ and ‘reconnaissance and scouting’. He took his unit to Katherine at the end of March and left