Robert Bropho

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Robert Bropho
caption =
birth_date =Birth date and age|1930|2|9|mf=y
birth_place =Toodyay Western Australia
death_date =
death_place =
education =
occupation = Indigenous Rights Activist
title =
spouse = Edna Nettles
parents = Isobel Layland and Tommy Nyinda Bropho
children = Bella, Bobbo, Philomena, Harvey, Herbert, Karri, Peula and Richard
nationality = Australian
website =

Robert Charles Bropho (born 1930) is an indigenous Australian and activist and convicted serial child sex offender from Perth, Western Australia. [cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23294232-5013172,00.html|title=Jail for paedophile camp boss|author=Paige Taylor | date= February 29, 2008|work=The Australian] A judge described his crimes as the "lowest form of abuse imaginable". Bropho told the court that "I am the shadow of Martin Luther King and Gandhi."

Bropho was leader of the Swan Valley Nyungah Community settlement for over 40 years until its closure in 2003. He organised the protest against redevelopment of the Swan Brewery, and was involved in the repatriation of Yagan's head in 1997. In 1980, he published "Fringedweller".

In 2003, after a 15-year-old girl named Susan Taylor committed suicide, the Swan Valley Nyungah Community settlement was closed amidst claims of widespread sexual abuse, rape and substance abuse. Taylor's mother, Lena Spratt, accused Bropho of sexual misconduct against herself and her daughter. In September 2004, Bropho was found not guilty of two charges of raping a teenage girl nearly thirty years before, after Justice Mazza ruled to downgrade DNA evidence that alleged the child was 3,134 times more likely to have been fathered by Bropho than a random person. In December 2005, Bropho was found guilty of indecently dealing with a girl under the age of thirteen, and sentenced to twelve months' jail. On January 30 2006, he was to be tried on a similar set of charges relating to another young girl who lived at the settlement. In June 2006 his appeal against the conviction was rejected by the Court of Criminal Appeal.

Bropho was convicted of charges relating to five child sex incidents in the early 1990s, and sentenced to a further three years' prison. The judge, Peter Nisbet, found Bropho's longtime supporter Margaret Jeffrey, who testified in his defence, to have been untruthful, loquacious and evasive.

Childhood

Bropho was born in a bush camp at the back of the Coorinjie wine saloon at Toodyay, Western Australia on 9 February 1930. His mother was Isobel Layland (1900-1993), who was the daughter of Clara Layland, a Nyungah woman who lived a traditional camp life in the swamps and on the fringes of Perth. His father was Tommy Nyinda Bropho (1899-1972), who was born at Argyle Downs Station on the Durack pastoral lease and was stolen from his mother under the 1905 Aborigines Act and sent to an orphanage on the Swan River at the age of 7. It is believed he was named after a policeman called Brophy, who escorted him from Argyle Downs to Wyndham. Tommy’s sister Jessie Argyle was the subject of the award winning book "Shadow lines" by Steve Kinnane. [Kinnane, S., (2003) "Shadowlines" Fremantle, WA, Fremantle Arts Centre Press. ISBN 9780642276544]

During the 1930s Bropho, his parents and eleven siblings camped in a swamp at Swanbourne in the western suburbs of Perth. [Bropho, R., (1980) "Fringedweller" Sydney, Alternative Publishing Co-operative. ISBN 0909188378. p 6.] After being forced to vacate their camp, Bropho’s family relocated to Eden Hill in the late 1930s. His family spent the next decade living in humpies on the edge of John Forrest National Park and around the rubbish dumps and swamps and waterways of South Guildford, Caversham and Success Hill. They survived by working in the brick kilns, carting rubbish and sewerage and picking grapes. [Ibid, pp 21-28.] Success Hill, on the edge of Bennett Brook, was a traditional campsite and was where the Irish journalist and amateur anthropologist Daisy Bates had gathered information for her books and articles on Nyungah culture. [Bates, D., (2004) "My Natives and I" Carlisle, WA, Hesperian Press. ISBN 085905313X.]

Early activism

On 11 September 1977 Robert Bropho, his family and members of the Anderson, Mead and Kickett families (35 people in 5 cars), drove 3,000 kilometres across the continent of Australia to petition the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Viner for better housing conditions. On their return the Brophos set up a public protest camp in the grounds of St Matthews Anglican Church in Guildford, a registered Aboriginal site. [Ibid, pp 60-88.]

On 11 December 1978 Robert Bropho and members of the Lockridge Camp set up a protest on Heirisson Island as the City of Perth prepared for its 150th anniversary. The protest was supported by the Kimberley Land Council, the Aboriginal Medical Service and Black Action.

In 1980 Robert Bropho published ‘Fringedweller’, an account of the third world living conditions of homeless Aboriginal people. [Ibid.]

During the 1980s Robert Bropho was involved in protests against mining and urban development, including Noonkanbah and Bennett Brook. In 1986 he won a Supreme Court injuction against plans by the State Energy Commission to excavate a sacred site at Bennett Brook. [Bropho & Fringedwellers of the Swan Valley v Wilson & State Energy Commission (1986) Supreme Court of Western Australia, SC Lib No 6338 (Rowland J).] This was the first time in Western Australia that Aboriginal people had successfully challenged the government through the courts.

The Old Swan Brewery Protest

In January 1989 Robert Bropho led a protest against the State Labor Government’s deal with Multiplex to develop on a sacred site ["Report on an Investigation into Aboriginal Significance of Wetlands and Rivers in the Perth-Bunbury Region" Rory O’Connor, Gary Quartermaine and Corrie BodneyLeederville, Western Australian Water Resources Council, 1989.3.3.8.] at The Old Swan Brewery on Mounts Bay Road. This protest received widespread media attention and gained support from the Construction, Mining and Energy Union (CMEU). In October 1989, despite winning a Supreme Court injunction, the protesters were arrested and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Carmen Lawrence approved the proposal.

In 1990 Robert Bropho won the NAIDOC Aboriginal of Year Award.

References

Further reading

* Clark, Tim (2006) Bropho jailed for indecently assaulting 13-year-old, "National Indigenous Times", Issue 95, January 21 2006.
* Granath, Natasha (2005) Bropho guilty of sex abuse at Swan camp, "The West Australian", 23 December 2005.

ee also

* Select Committee on Reserves (Reserve 43131) Bill 2003