An Adopted Winninninni Ancestry by 'Aunty" Kerrie Doyle? - Part 3 Final

Update 3 Jan 2023: We have had this post cleared by our lawyers and now repost it.

According to an independent, on-line family tree website, Kerrie Esme Doyle was adopted in 1975 by her step-father Frederick Robert Doyle (aka Robert Doyle) when her mother Pauline Aline Leatham married him after her divorce from her first husband Trevor John Lumsden (See Part 2 of this series for details).

From the 1977 Electoral roll we know that Kerrie was living with her step-father Robert Doyle and her mother Patricia Aline at the same address at 35 Coonanga Avenue, Budgewoi, NSW (see Figure 1)

Figure 1 - Electoral roll for 1977 showing the three Doyle’s at same address

In a 1983 book, Australian Artists Today, displayed on Robert Doyle’s Facebook page, we learn he spent his early years in boarding school. He then started his working life as a drover in the Northern Territory after spending at age 18, ‘a period living with the aboriginals in Arnhem Land, an experience which has given him a deep appreciation of the Australian bush.’ This would have been around 1947 (he was born in 1929 as detailed below).

From Robert Doyle’s Facebook page. Source

Figures 2 - Excerpts from the 1984 book, Australian Artists Today with details on Robert Doyle

However, by 2017 some fourteen years after Robert died in 2003, his biography has been expanded with more detail as follows:

‘Robert Doyle hails from the clan of Australia's most talented and inspirational artists. His father Roy B. Doyle was also a highly talented and recognised artist … Growing up, Robert Doyle won a scholarship at the age of 13 to the prestigious Slade School for Boys in Warwick … After boarding school, Robert worked on cattle stations in South East Queensland, eventually going droving throughout Queensland and Australia's Top End. Robert's time droving deepened his appreciation and love of the Australian bush, its characters and the native wildlife … Robert's droving led him into Arnhem Land. Here, at the age of 18, Robert lived with the Aborigines and was initiated into the 'Yarrunga Jarra Tribe'. This experience had a profound effect on Robert and gave him a richer perspective on both life and the land surrounding him. Roberts artworks include numerous portraits of Indigenous Australians.’

- Robert Doyle biography from the Tuggerah Lakes Art Society

Readers who have been following our story, in Parts 1 & 2, on the apparent lack of any Aboriginality in the ancestry of proud Winninninni woman ‘Aunty’ Kerrie Doyle might be wondering if Robert Doyle has any real Aboriginal ancestry either.

Alas, our research says not. The closest Robert seemed to have come to being ‘Aboriginal’ was this postumous claim at the Tuggerah Lakes Art Society that he, ‘lived with the Aborigines and was initiated into the ‘Yarrunga Jarra tribe.’

Readers might not be surprised when we say we could find no evidence of the Yarrunga Jarra tribe as ever having existed, but we would welcome contact from any reader who might have any relevant information on this matter.

The places Robert Doyle worked - South East Queensland, other parts of Queensland and the Northern Territory - certainly line up with the parts of Australia where ‘Aunty’ Kerrie Doyle says she was brought up on an Aboriginal mission. Was the young Kerrie just ‘imagining’ her Aboriginal ancestry based on the Aboriginal stories and recollections of her step-father?

The family tree of Robert Doyle (Frederick Robert Doyle) is shown in Figure 3. This is Kerrie Doyle’s adopted family tree.

Needless to say, we were not able to find any evidence of Aboriginality in this family tree. All of Robert Doyle’s ancestors go back to being born overseas in England, Ireland, New Zealand or India.

Figure 3 - ‘Aunty’ Kerrie Doyle’s Alleged Adopted Family Tree. File here

This Part 3 of our series brings to an end our investigations into the Aboriginality of ‘Aunty’ Kerrie Doyle, who we find appears to have been born in Tari in the Central Highlands of New Guinea from a Leatham and Lumsden family tree that has no apparent Aboriginal ancestry at all. Similarly, her family tree by adoption, the Doyle’s, appears to have no Aboriginal ancestry either.

Further Reading

The following photographs of some of the ancestors of Robert Doyle (Kerrie Doyle’s step-father) were supplied by various members from the Doyle family tree. Needless to say, none of them appear to be Aboriginal.