Les Bursill
Leslie William Bursill (OAM)[1] (4 February 1945 – 16 February 2019)[2] was a Dharawal (Aboriginal Australian) historian, archaeologist, anthropologist, and publisher, born in Hurstville, New South Wales, in February 1945. His father, Wallace Richard Bursill, was serving in the 7th Division of the Australian Imperial Force (2nd) (AIF) in New Guinea at the time of Bursill’s birth. Although Bursill is strongly identified with the Dharawal of southern Sydney (in 2009, he became chair of the Sutherland Shire Aboriginal Advisory Committee), his maternal Dharawal forebears hailed from the area between Kangaroo Valley and the coast near Nowra. Bursill was made a Justice of the Peace at Sutherland Court House in 1976. In 1995 he was appointed Lecturer in Mental Health and Counselling at the University of Sydney. He was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001. In 2007 he was awarded the NSW Police Commanders Award for excellence in teaching. In 2008 he was appointed Adjunct Lecturer at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. In 2009 he was awarded a Premiers Heritage Volunteer Award and also received a Certificate of Excellence for Teaching from the Australian College of Educators. He received the Order of Australia Medal in that same year.
At 18 years of age Bursill joined the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) (1 Div Pro Coy.) and served in its ranks for some three years. He was then called up for National Service in the Artillery (12th Field Regiment 131 Divisional Locating Co.) in 1966, but did not see action during the Vietnam War. Nevertheless, he remained in the military beyond his National Service obligations and subsequently received the National Service Medal and Australian Defence Medal. After his discharge from the army, Bursill resumed work as a compositor with the Sydney Morning Herald and settled in Engadine, New South Wales where he and his first wife, Barbara Ann Bursill (née Child, died of ovarian cancer in 2003), had already purchased a home. There they raised a daughter and two sons. Les Bursill worked a total of twenty-one years with the [Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review. He was night manager, photo-composing, when he resigned in 1984 to pursue part-time tertiary studies.[3] Bursill later moved away from Engadine to spend the rest of his life in his traditional country near Nowra, New South Wales.
Bursill completed a Trades Certificate in Hand and Machine Composing whilst working for William Neville and Co. Printers in Sussex Street, Sydney in 1965. He worked as a compositor for a number of years before moving on to the Fairfax owned Sydney Morning Herald where he was soon promoted to Leading Hand (Facsimile Transmission Section) and then to supervisor. At that time he and his wife Barbara Ann Bursill both commenced studies at Armidale university in 1982/83. They both started and completed a Bachelor of Arts in History and Archaeology (Les) and English and Archaeology (Barbara) at the University of New England and then both embarked on a Master of Letters, at the same university. Les on the anthropology of the Aboriginal people of Sydney, and Barbara in English. They both received an M.Litt in 1993. Over a ten-year period he also completed qualifications in Workplace Occupational Health and Safety, Pharmacology (effects of drug and alcohol) and counselling. In 1990 Bursill entered the New South Wales (NSW) Government. In 1993 he was promoted and moved to the head office of the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services, Sydney, where he made many important contributions in the development of counselling techniques for Aboriginal prisoners with drug and alcohol problems in New South Wales prisons and published a set of booklets on overcoming violence and alcohol abuse.[4] With Zoe de Crespigny he also presented a paper on ‘Best Practice Interventions in Corrections for Indigenous People’ in 2001.[5] Bursill attended many conferences in the role of Aboriginal AOD Co-ordinator in Corrective Services.
In 1995 Bursill took two years leave to lecture in Counselling and Mental Health at the University of Sydney. In 1997 he became a Court Advisor in Bankstown, assisting magistrates in sentencing decisions, before returning to the Corrective Services Head Office in 1999. In 2005 Bursill became a lecturer in continuing education with the New South Wales Police Service and received a Police Commander’s Award for professionalism in teaching in 2007. He had earlier been awarded the Centenary Medal, in 2010 The medal of Order of Australia and the Public Service Medal (15 years).[3]
