The Government Retail Store at Barambah Aboriginal Settlement 1909

1909 – A building with four rooms and veranda is built as a retail store and dispensary.
“The retail store has proved a marked success, by not only enabling the native to procure, with the money earned at work, food and clothing for himself and family in addition to the allowance of rations, but has assisted materially in reducing gambling and drinking among them, by providing them with a means of spending their money to advantage, and by keeping them from town, where the temptations to drink assail them. The natives show their appreciation of the store by spending their money freely, and, as only serviceable goods of reasonable price are kept, the officers are able to satisfy themselves that the native gets some real benefit from the money he earns.” – Annual Report to Chief Protector of Aboriginals 1909

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The Cherbourg Memory is an initiative of the Rationshed Museum and brings together the photos, videos, oral history recordings, documents and other artifacts of our lives on this settlement. It a website, an archive, an educational resource, a recording project, a research data-base, a store of the people’s stories and an interactive space for comments and engagement. We encourage the people of Cherbourg, the Indigenous communities in Australia and others who have experience of our settlement to help us create a living archive of Barambah-Cherbourg. So find out a little more about the Cherbourg Memory, discover how you can Participate, or find out how you can Contribute to the development of the Cherbourg Memory.