Cumbo Gunnerah lived in the area that is now the town of Gunnedah, north-west New South Wales in the 18th Century. He became recognised as one of the great Aboriginal leaders of the 1800s. Cumbo Cunnerah was a warrior and a leader of the Gunnedarr people, and was also known as the Red Chief or Red Kangaroo. After his death in the mid 1800s, 'stories of his bravery, achievements and adventures were handed down through the generations and his burial place was treated with great respect'..until in 1887 his body was exhumed by Hayne (the town doctor) and sent to the Australian Museum.
As Aboriginal custom demands his silence, Bungaree, the last full-blooded Aborigine of the Gunnedarr tribe only confided in J.P. Ewing (the local Police Sergeant) of Cumbo Gunnerah life. It was Stan Ewing, the police sergeant's son who 'recorded this information and passed it to other historians.' In the 1960s, the Gunnedah Historical Society erected a sign to mark the burial site of "The Red Chief" (a name that was coined by Idriess in his 1953 publication). And, 'in 1984 a sculpture designed by Dennis Adams in consultation with local Aborigines and the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service was erected to mark the burial site.' (Source: Wikipedia.org)
