Fred Davis was independent man.
In 1926 he had been given an "Exemption Certificate”, which was “granted only to those Aborigines who demonstrated to the Chief Protector's satisfaction the capacity to survive in the outside world" [ Reference ( ANU)].
Figure 1 - Extract of Exemption Certificate details for Fred Davis. Source: Queensland Exemptions Held in 1947
In NSW it was said that, "Certificates of Exemption could be granted to an applicant who, in the opinion of the Aborigines Welfare Board, ought to no longer be subject to the provisions of the Aborigines Protection Act and Regulations 1909-43, Section 18c (Regulation 56). Upon being issued with a Certificate of Exemption, a recipient was no longer eligible to receive any benefit, assistance or relief from the Board, and had to undertake to provide a home deemed by the board to be 'proper' for themselves and their family." Find and Connect]
In the ABC’s Australian Story on Prof. Davis, a snippet of her grandfather’s official file can be seen which suggests that Fred Davis was ‘not associating with aboriginals’ given that he was provided with an Exemption Certificate. Source: ABC Australia Story at 02:00
By all accounts Fred Davis was a man of initiative, drive, hard-work and family orientated. He left the Cherbourg mission after living there a number of years. He had come to Cherbourg from his place of birth, Warra, which around that time was described as ‘practically an aboriginal encampment’ (Source: The Dalby Herald, 17 May 1921, p. 3).
A record of his enterprise appeared in Peter Corris’s book on the history of the Solomon Islands labour trade. Corris records the details of old Fred Davis’s house in 1977, when the 85 year old was still living (This matches the genealogical records for `our’ Fred Davis - Megan Davis’s grandfather - as he was born ca1893.).
Although he was born to an Aboriginal mother, Fred David clearly had moved away from Aboriginal culture and tended to assimilate more with his father’s and wife’s (Elizabeth Ober) South sea Islander culture and society.
