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On September 28th, 1872, David Unaipon was born in Point Mcleay Mission, South Australia to his parents James Unaipon and Nymbulda Ngunaitponi. David Unaipon was the 4th of 9 children. -
David Unaipon receives education at Point McLeay Mission school from 1879-1885. -
At the age of 13 David Unaipon left school and moved to Adelaide to began to work for Politician, C.B Young. C.B Young was a member of the "Aboriginies Friend Association" which was an organization that was concerned with Aboriginal health and welfare. C.B Young encouraged Unaipon to study Philosophy, Literature and Science. -
1890 was the year Unaipon moved back to Point McLeay Mission after studying and working for C.B Young. He then was an apprentice to a bootmaker and was appointed mission organist.
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David Unaipon and Katherine Carter (nee Sumner) a Tangani woman from The Coorong, get married.
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In 1909 Unaipon made the first ever straight-line motion shearing machine, with the help of Herbert Basedow, who was a former South Australia Protector of First Nations. -
In 1914 David Unaipon proposed that 2 boomerang working in tandem could lift an aircraft up in the air.
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In the 1920's Unaipon was accepted a commission by the University of Adelaide to collect Aboriginal stories around SA.
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David Unaipon became the first ever Indigenous Australian author in 1929 when he published his first book "Native Legends". -
As Queen Elizabeth the second was coronated Unaipon was awarded a Coronation medal. This was Unaipons first and last award he ever received. -
David Unaipon (the last full blooded member of the Waruwaldi tribe) died on February 7th 1967 at Tailem Bend Hospital. He is buried now in Raukkan (formerly point McLeay) Mission. -
David Unaipon is awarded the FAW Patricia Weickhardt award for Aboriginal writers.
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The David Unaipon award is now presented annually in Adelaide to an Indigenous Australian, man or women, who is an emerging writer.
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1995 was the year David Unaipon was nationally recognized and featured on the fifty-dollar note. On Australia's current fifty-dollar note you can see his totem (the black swan) and on the previous fifty-dollar note you would be able to see the mechanical motion sheep shears. -
UNSW students were featured in the 'The First Inventors' TV series, building a boomerang powered flying vehicle based of an idea proposed over 100 years ago by David Unaipon.