28 Facts About Neville Bonner

Neville Thomas Bonner AO was an Australian politician, and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the Parliament of Australia.

Neville Bonner was appointed by the Queensland Parliament to fill a casual vacancy in the representation of Queensland in the Senate, and later became the first Indigenous Australian to be elected to the parliament by popular vote.

Neville Bonner was the son of Julia Bell, an Indigenous Australian, and Henry Kenneth Bonner, an English immigrant.

Neville Bonner's maternal grandmother Ida Sandy was a member of the Ugarapul people of the Logan and Albert Rivers, while his maternal grandfather Roger Bell was a fully initiated member of the Yagara people of the Brisbane River.

Neville Bonner's parents met and married in Murwillumbah, New South Wales.

Neville Bonner's father abandoned his mother when she was pregnant with him, leaving her destitute.

Neville Bonner subsequently moved to the Aboriginal reserve on Ukerebagh Island, where she had another son.

Neville Bonner's mother died in July 1932, when he was ten years old, and his grandmother subsequently became his main caregiver.

Neville Bonner moved the family to Beaudesert, Queensland, where in 1935 he completed his only year of formal education at Beaudesert State Rural School.

Neville Bonner's grandmother died in June 1935 and he moved back to New South Wales after finishing the school year.

Neville Bonner worked as a ring barker, cane cutter and stockman before settling on Palm Island, near Townsville, Queensland in 1946, where he rose to the position of Assistant Settlement Overseer.

Neville Bonner joined the Liberal Party in 1967 and held local office in the party.

Neville Bonner was elected in his own right in 1972,1974,1975, and 1980.

Neville Bonner rebelled against the Liberal Party line on some issues.

Neville Bonner stood as an independent and was nearly successful.

In 1981 Neville Bonner was the only government voice opposing a bill put forth that would allow drilling in the Great Barrier Reef.

Neville Bonner regularly crossed the floor on bills, a characteristic that has endeared him to politicians today but is often considered the reason for his political career coming to an end.

Neville Bonner briefly acted as ABC chairman in April 1984, and in June 1986 was reappointed to a further five-year term on the board, concluding in 1991.

In 1998 Neville Bonner announced he had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer.

Neville Bonner died at a hospice in Ipswich on 5 February 1999, aged 76.

Neville Bonner was granted a state funeral, held at St Stephen's Church, and interred at Warrill Park Lawn Cemetery.

In 1979 Neville Bonner was jointly named Australian of the Year, along with naturalist Harry Butler.

Neville Bonner was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1984.

The Queensland federal electorate of Neville Bonner was created in 2004 and was named in his honour.

Neville Bonner married Mona Banfield in 1943, in a Catholic ceremony at Palm Island's mission.

Neville Bonner remarried in 1972 to Heather Ryan, who had three adult children.

The boomerangs were handmade from the roots of black wattle trees, as Neville Bonner refused to use synthetic materials.

Neville Bonner's company produced up to 450 boomerangs per week, but folded after a year due to a shortage of wood.