Sydney's new Powerhouse Parramatta museum opens on Saturday with five bronze plaques honouring Daniel Moowattin, a Parramatta-born guide who helped a colonial botanist collect eucalyptus more than 200 years ago. What the museum's promotion and the ABC's coverage leave out is how his life ended. In 1816 a Sydney court found Moowattin guilty of raping a 15-year-old girl, Hannah Russell, and he was hanged on 1 November that year.
Bel McRae · Friday 6 November 2026
Sources
- ABC News: Powerhouse Parramatta pays homage to Indigenous man's forgotten botanical contribution (Nandini Dhir, 4 Nov 2026)
- Powerhouse: Got By Dan | Workshops, Opening Festival
- City of Parramatta History and Heritage: Men of Parramatta - The bush guide and translator Daniel Moowattin (Caroline Finlay, 2020)
- Sydney Gazette, 28 Sep 1816, Court of Criminal Jurisdiction (Trove)
- The Noticer: New Sydney museum and the ABC celebrate aboriginal child rapist (4 Nov 2026)
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