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Senator Neville Bonner seated circa 18 December, 1979. Photo by Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia)-

Top 10 Outstanding Facts about Neville Bonner

Neville Thomas Bonner was an Australian politician and the first Aboriginal Australian to become a member of the parliament of Australia. It was a historic appointment, nine years after Indigenous Australian gained the right to vote.

He believed that the interest of Indigenous Australians would be best advanced by working within the existing political institutions and by negotiation and not confrontation.

After politics, he held a series of prominent positions, including as a director on the board of the ABC and patron of World Vision and Amnesty International.

Learn more about Neville Bonner in these top 10 outstanding facts.

1. Bonner Was born in 1922

He was born on March 28, 1922, on Ukerebagh Island, Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Queensland. He was born to Julia Bell, an Indigenous Australian, and Henry Kenneth Bonner, an English Immigrant.

His father neglected his mother when she was pregnant with him. Bonner’s mother died in July 1932 when he was ten and his grandmother became the primary caregiver, moving the family to Beaudesert, Queensland.

2. Bonner Received Little Formal Education

Bonner started his formal education at Beaudesert State Rural School, where he completed his first formal education in 1935. His grandmother died in 1935 and he moved back to New South Wales after finishing the school year.

During his years attending school, he received little formal education. During his youth he started working, he worked as a ring baker, cane cutter, stockman and rural laborer on properties in Queensland and northern New South Wales.

Bonner relocated to Palm Island, Queensland, in 1945. At Palm Island, he was one of the members who established the Palm Island Social and Welfare Association. In 1946 he rose to the position of assistant Settlement Overseer.

In the early 1960s, Bonner developed an interest in politics and became involved with the People of Australia League (OPAL).

3. Bonner Served as a Member of the Parliament of Australia

Senator Neville Bonner seated circa 18 December, 1979. Photo by Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia)-

In 1971 Senator Annabelle resigned from the office of senator. Bonner was appointed to fill the casual vacancy. Bonner became the first Indigenous Australian to sit in the Australian Parliament. He was later elected in his own right and by popular vote in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1980.

As a senator, he raised issues in the senate such as national symbolism, technological opportunities, land rights, East Timor and social security entitlement.

As a senator, he served on several committees but was never a serious candidate for promotion to the ministry. On some issues, he rebelled against the Liberal Party. Bonner was discharged from the Liberal Senate ticket at the 1983 election. 

He campaigned as an independent and was close to being successful. The Hawke government then nominated him to the board of directors of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

4. He worked at the One People of Australia League (OPAL)

Bonner was living in Ipswich in 1960, where he joined the board of directors of the One People of Australia League. OPAL was a moderate Indigenous rights organization.

In 1967 Bonner joined the Liberal Party and held local office in the party. In 1970 he became Queensland president of OPAL.

5. He Acted as an Elder of the Jagera People

Bonner was a Jagera man. Jagera people are the Australian Aboriginal people who spoke the Yaggera language.

As a Jagera, he represented his Jagera as an elder and expressed their interest well in the government institution.

6. Bonner’s Political Career was Unique

Bonner was unique in being an indigenous activist and a political career conservative. He indebted his political career to this combination.

In the face of personal judgment from left-wing indigenous activists, he often opposed being a token in the Liberal Party. In 1981, Bonner was the only government opinion opposing a bill put forth that would allow drilling in the Great Barrier Reef.

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

7. Bonner Knew How to Make Boomerangs

Boomerang is a tool created as a flat airfoil that is created to spin about an axis perpendicular to the direction of its flight. He was taught how to make them by his grandfather.

He started a boomerang manufacturing business named Boomerang in 1966 with the help of his family. His boomerangs were made from roots of black wattle trees as Bonner refused to use synthetic materials.

Bonner’s company used to produce up to 450 boomerangs per week, but they were folded after a year due to a shortage of wood. He was elected to parliament and gave a boomerang demonstration in the garden of Parliament House.

During his maiden speech, he requested intellectual property of the boomerang be reserved for indigenous people. One of his boomerangs is secured by the Museum of Australian democracy.

8. During His Lifetime, he Received Several Honors

Senator Neville Bonner seated circa 18 December, 1979. Photo by Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia)-

Bonner was unitedly named Australian of the Year with nationalist Harry Butler in 1993. He was appointed an officer of the Order of Australia in 1984.

From 1992 to 1996, he was a member of Griffin University and was awarded an honorary doctorate.

In 1998 he was elected to the Constitutional Convention as a candidate for Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.

9. Bonner has Been Honored in Many Different Ways After His Death

In 2000, the federal government established the Neville Bonner Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship is considered Australia’s most prestigious scholarship for Indigenous Australia to pursue Honors in Political Science and other related subjects.

The Queensland federal electorate was established in 2004 and named in his honor. Also, the Queensland Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services head office in Brisbane was named the Neville Bonner Building.

Bonner was a boomerang expert. One of his boomerangs was displayed at the Old Parliament House in Canberra, among many other honors.

10. Bonner Got Married Two Times

In 1943, Bonner married Mona Banfield in a catholic ceremony at Palm Island’s Mission. They had five sons and three fostered daughters. Mona died in 1969 and Bonner married Heather Ryan in 1972.

Bonner’s grand-niece Joanna Lindgren was the first female Aboriginal senator for Queensland when she embodied the Liberal National Party from May 2015 to July 2016.

Bonner died in Ipswich in 1999 and was given a state funeral at St. Stephen’s Presbyterian Church, Ipswich.