For a start, he created an online version of Daisy Bates' genealogies of south coast Noongar families. He also added some Noongar language resources, including the indigenous names of plants. Then there is a list of Noongar whalers and Nebinyan's whaling songs ... and Bob's blog Kyangardarup.
I remember when he'd finally built his website, he came around for dinner one night and showed me around the place. I was impressed but it has taken a few years to understand just how important his work is.
This year, just after the fourth anniversary of his death, the website disappeared. Maybe Bob stopped paying the rent or something. It was a bit of a scary moment - until I remembered that in 2009, Spencer Collins (aka Colin) had foreseen this event and rebuilt it, putting it somewhere else safe. I don't really know how this stuff works. You'll have to ask Colin - just click on his name above and it will take you back to 2009 when he was rebuilding the site.
Anyway, the point is that Colin saved Bob's website from disappearing forever. Ciaran wrote to me the other day, saying that this act of protecting the site was really smart thinking and should be recognised in some way. And so it should, but neither of us are sure how.
Noongar bidi(pathways) from 'Mokare's Domain' R.A. Ferguson, in 'Australians to 1788'(1988)
The WineDark link to Bob's home page is at the bottom of 'From the Wild West'. If you are interested in Noongar history and language, climate change issues, environmentalism, poetry, music, memes, the ANZACs and all things magpie, have a look around. And thanks Colin. Nice work.
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