The Peninsula is mourning a much loved and respected community member, following the death of Noel James Olive.
Mr Olive, formerly of Umina Beach, passed away on April 6 at the age of 90.
He worked tirelessly for his local Central Coast community by inspiring local artists to show their work at his Olive Branch Gallery at Umina Beach over an eight-year period.
He also made a huge contribution to the University of the Third Age on the Central Coast as its President.
To show respect and seek social justice for the First Australians was the hallmark of Mr Olive’s long, interesting and productive life.
He worked in the bush as a drover in the late 1940s, later working on the docks and then in the metal industry.
He became involved in the union movement in the 1970s with the Builders Labourers Federation (BLF).
He was involved with Jack Mundey in Saving the Rocks by imposing the Green Bans.
With Gough Whitlam’s education reforms, Noel graduated as a lawyer in his early 50s from Macquarie University, and in the 1980s he joined in a campaign to establish a Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.
When the Commission’s work was over, he worked for the Karijini Aboriginal Corporation in the beautiful Pilbara region in Western Australia as their advocate.
Mr Olive’s work took place in the context of the historic period in our nation of the Mabo decision of the High Court in 1992 which made it possible for the first time in Australia’s white history for Aboriginals to claim ownership of traditional lands.
He assisted First Nations people in their struggle for cultural survival.
White fellas settled in the Pilbara in the 1860s and its transformation from pastoralism to mining enterprises nearly destroyed their society.
Mr Olive saw this dilemma from the Aborigines’ point of view and sought to create a greater understanding of their position.
He wrote three books.
The first, Karijini Mirlimirli, sets out the lives of the peoples of the Pilbara in their own words.
The second, Enough is Enough, is a history of the colonisation of the Pilbara.
The third book, Out with the Pilbara Mob, records his experiences living with the First Nations Peoples in Western Australia.
Mr Olive was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019 for services to the Indigenous community, to history, and to the arts.
He will be greatly missed by his family, many friends and comrades in the Central Coast community, most especially his dear friend Barbara Kelly.
Source:
Email, Apr 21
Chris Moe, Bensville