Beetaloo Jangari Bill
Beetaloo Jangari Bill (c.1910-1983) was a noted Aboriginal elder. He was born probably between 1910 and 1915 at Beetaloo station (from which his English name derives), near Newcastle Waters, Northern Territory. His father, Roderick (Mirijilkari) Jampin, was Warumungu; his mother, Clara Parrangali Nawurla, was Gurindji.
During World War II Beetaloo Bill worked at camps along the Stuart Highway, including the Elliott staging camp, for the Department of the Army, the source of his nickname `D. A.’. After the war he was employed by the Department of Works, eventually on full award wages, maintaining government bores on stock routes radiating for hundreds of miles from Newcastle Waters. A member of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, he was to retire on superannuation—rare for Aborigines—in 1975.
Bill's exceptional knowledge of Aboriginal traditions was to assist numerous groups in land claims in 1980 and 1983.
Beetaloo Bill Jangari had a broad and deep knowledge of Aboriginal law, matched by an easy familiarity with Europeans, but largely unconstrained by convention, black or white. He died on 29 September 1983 at Elliott and was buried in the local cemetery. His wife, two sons and seven daughters survived him; a son and two daughters predeceased him. His family uses `Bill’ as a surname.
David Nash, 'Bill, Beetaloo Jangari (1910–1983)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bill-beetaloo-jangari-12209/text21891, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 20 March 2023.
