Calls to rename National Park honouring controversial colonialist Benjamin Boyd. So, what does this mean for Neutral Bay?
Calls for the NSW State Government to erase the name of Ben Boyd from a national park have raised a question mark over the Neutral Bay road named after the Scottish entrepreneur and adventurer.
Widely considered Australia’s first “blackbirder”, the name given to those who shipped Pacific Islanders to the colonies for slave labour, Boyd brought Melanesian workers to the South Coast in the 1840’s, to work on his pastoral and whaling operations.
In NSW, his memory is commemorated in several places, including Ben Boyd National Park in Eden, a village named “Boydtown”, and Ben Boyd Rd in Neutral Bay.
One of Neutral Bay Public School’s four sports houses also bears the Boyd name.
Benjamin Boyd.
Commemoration plaques honouring the Scottish colonialist on Ben Boyd Rd in Neutral Bay.
Calls for the NSW State Government to erase the name of Ben Boyd from a national park have raised a question mark over the Neutral Bay road named after the Scottish entrepreneur and adventurer.
Widely considered Australia’s first “blackbirder”, the name given to those who shipped Pacific Islanders to the colonies for slave labour, Boyd brought Melanesian workers to the South Coast in the 1840’s, to work on his pastoral and whaling operations.
In NSW, his memory is commemorated in several places, including Ben Boyd National Park in Eden, a village named “Boydtown”, and Ben Boyd Rd in Neutral Bay.
One of Neutral Bay Public School’s four sports houses also bears the Boyd name.
Ben Boyd Rd, Neutral Bay.
Ben Boyd Rd, Neutral Bay.
“The history that goes with Ben Boyd as a character is unsavoury,” she said.
“This frustration that you can see on a global scale is evidence of those who have been oppressed through slavery and exploitation.”
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