Agent TypePersonPlace of BirthWahgunyah, VictoriaActivities & OccupationsArtistsAboriginal Australian LeadersStockmenGenderMaleHistoryTommy McRae is thought to have been a Kwatkwat man or Wiradjuri man who lived with his Warra-euea clan. He was also known as Tommy Barnes and by his Aboriginal names Yakaduna, Yackaduna and Warraeuea. He lived between Albury and the Yackandandah until the 1860s. In 1866 he was living at Wahgunyah with his first wife Tilly (Matilda). In 1885 he is recorded by the Victorian Board for the Protection of the Aborigines, as living at Lake Moodemere with his second wife Lily, four children and his brother and sister-in-law.
McRae worked as a stockman (for the Foord family and others), raised poultry and fished the Murray River, and was an accomplished and successful artist who depicted contemporary scenes, historical events, ceremonial and traditional scenes Aboriginal life.
Biographies of McRae can be found at: https://www.daao.org.au/bio/tommy-mccrae/biography/
and https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/blog/behind-the-scenes/2017/07/07/looking-at-life-through-their-eyes
