The Governor Brothers The Governor family lived in the Gresford,
Paterson and Vacy areas but were moved onto the reserve system
along with other Aboriginal families in the early 1890s. Tommy
Governor and his sons, Joe and Jimmy worked on several stations
along the Paterson River and Allynbrook, including that
belonging to the Boydell family. The Governors worked as
cattlemen and as horse-breakers. In 1896, Jimmy enlisted as a
tracker with the New South Wales mounted police. He was
stationed at Cassilis Police station for a year before he left,
apparently frustrated by the lack of advancement and
dissatisfaction with his colleagues. In December 1898, he
married 16 year old Ethel Page at a time when marriage between
an Aboriginal man and a white woman was seen as very
controversial. The couple moved to Breelong in the Gilgandra
region and Jimmy worked as a fencing contractor for John Mawbey.
Ethel worked as a house maid for the Mawbey family, however she
was never paid for this work. Instead, they relied on rat