Mickey Johnson (1834-1906) was an Indigenous leader in the Illawarra district of New South Wales during the second half of the nineteenth century. Reputedly from the Clarence or Richmond River districts in northern New South Wales, Johnson moved to the Illawarra in the 1860s with his employer, a landowner named EH Weston. After working for Weston for several years, he left to live on an Aboriginal reserve in Kangaroo Valley with his wife, Rosie, a Dharawal woman. By 1883, he was living at a reserve named Berawurra, established by the NSW Aborigines' Protection Board at Lake Illawarra, and is mentioned in Board correspondence in that year as the head of the Aboriginal people there. The Board's annual report for 1894-95 noted that a number of 'improvements' had been made to the reserve at Johnson's instigation. As was so in the case of many Aboriginal men, Johnson was perceived by non-Aboriginal authorities to be the 'chief' of his community. Although this was unlikely to have been an accurate assessment of Johnson's place in Aboriginal society, he was designated 'King' of the Illawarra in a ceremony at Wollongong Showground in January 1896 and presented with a breastplate donated by local politician, Archibald Campbell MLA. Johnson is said to have used his title of 'King' and his profile to gain influence with the non-Aboriginal community, to seek certain privileges, and to speak out on matters relating to the treatment of Aboriginal people. His dissatisfaction with the government and the missions, however, has been cited as the possible reason for Johnson's move away from the Lake Illawarra reserve in 1900. He died of pneumonia at a camp on the Minnamurra River in 1906, aged 72, and was remembered in one obituary as a 'well-liked' man who 'knew and was known by almost everybody throughout the length and breadth of the South Coast.'
