Autobiography and Identity: (Will the Real Reverend Gribble Please Stand UP?)

Abstract

The Reverend Ernest Richard Bulmer Gribble is a significant figure in the history of Australian missions and race relations. During his sixty-five years as an Anglican missionary to the Australian Aborigines, Gribble had a dramatic impact on the lives and destinies of thousands of indigenous people on both sides of the continent - providing many with their first experience of Christianity and Western culture. He pioneered Yarrabah Mission near Cairns, Queensland (1893-1909); was Warden of Fraser Island Mission, near Maryborough, Queensland (1900-1904); established the Mitchell River Mission on the Gulf of Carpentaria (1903-05); pioneered Forrest River Mission, near Wyndham in Western Australia (1914-1928), and was the first Anglican Chaplain of the government Aboriginal settlement of Palm Island, off the Queensland coast near Townsville.