Daniel Moowattin is noted for his work as a guide and assistant to the botanical collector George Caley, and as the third Aboriginal person known to have visited England.
16 Facts About Daniel Moowattin
1.
2.
Daniel Moowattin was adopted as an infant by Richard Partridge, the government flogger and executioner.
3.
Caley records that while searching for a koala in 1807, Daniel Moowattin "heard a noise like the surf" and found a large waterfall flowing into the river.
4.
Daniel Moowattin was the third Aboriginal Australian person to visit England.
5.
In 1811 Daniel Moowattin attended a London party where an English woman sang "No, my love, no".
6.
Daniel Moowattin's articulation seemed indistinct, the sounds having great similarity to each other, as, rah-rah tah, wha-rah rah, bahhah tab-rah hah.
7.
Daniel Moowattin returned to the Colony of New South Wales on Mary of London in May 1812.
8.
Daniel Moowattin spent his time in the bush with his tribe and working as a farm labourer around Parramatta.
9.
Russell testified that, on 6 August 1816, Daniel Moowattin had accosted her on a public road near Parramatta, then "seized her rudely by the neck, and dragged her into the wood, where he beat her head against a tree, and beat and bruised her all over".
10.
Daniel Moowattin was then frightened off by John Shee, one of John Macarthur's stockmen.
11.
Daniel Moowattin had an attorney appointed on his behalf and "rested his defence on a palpable denial of any knowledge of the transaction".
12.
Daniel Moowattin was executed by hanging on 1 November 1816.
13.
Daniel Moowattin was the first Aboriginal person in the colony of New South Wales to be convicted and executed of a crime in the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction.
14.
Daniel Moowattin was the first to be tried by a superior court in New South Wales.
15.
Daniel Moowattin had been convicted and sentenced largely on the opinion of Gregory Blaxland and the Reverend Samuel Marsden, who testified that he knew the difference between good and evil.
16.
Daniel Moowattin was the first Aboriginal person to be officially hanged in Australia.