Shepparton Mooroopna

Distinguished and Famous people from Shepparton Mooroopna

🤝 Geraldine Briggs

Geraldine Briggs and her family took part in the 1939 Cummeragunja Walk-off, then lived on the Goulburn River Flats at Mooroopna before moving into town and later to Shepparton. She and her husband Selwyn supported Aboriginal rights organisations, at one stage operating a regional Aborigines Advancement League branch from Shepparton. She campaigned for the 1967 referendum and became Victorian secretary of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in 1970. Women's organising was another major commitment: she became the first president of the National Aboriginal and Islander Women's Council. Her work linked local needs for housing, health and support with national advocacy.

🌿 William Cooper

Yorta Yorta campaigner William Cooper spent much of his life around the Murray and Goulburn rivers and died at Mooroopna in 1941. A shearer and station worker, he represented Aboriginal workers and communities confronting discrimination and hardship. After moving to Melbourne in 1933, he helped establish the Australian Aborigines' League and pursued a petition to King George V seeking representation for Aboriginal people in Parliament. The Australian government refused to forward it. His campaigns also helped develop public observances of Aboriginal rights and mourning. Mooroopna belongs to the closing chapter of a life whose political influence reached well beyond the district; it should not be substituted for his birthplace.