Les Bursill

Leslie William (Les) Bursill (OAM) is a Dharawal (Aboriginal Australian) historian, archaeologist, anthropologist, and publisher, born in Hurstville, New South Wales, on 4 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, , when he resigned in 1984 to pursue part-time tertiary studies. Bursill has since moved away from Engadine and now resides in his traditional country near Nowra, New South Wales.

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