Taplin chose a traditional camping place on the shores of Lake Alexandrina as a mission site. This was known as Raukkan to the Aboriginal people but Point McLeay to the Europeans. In 1864 Taplin published some of the first Australian translations of Bible passages into an Aboriginal language (Ngarrindjeri). He recorded many of the customs and stories of the Ngarrindjeri and was greatly respected by them.

His fight for better conditions for indigenous people often brought him into conflict with those who wished to exploit them. George Taplin died in 1879, aged 47. His dedication to his work and subsequent overwork, contributed to his relatively early death.

Taplin, George, 1831-1879

Narrinyeri (Australian people)

Point McLeay Aboriginal Mission

Bartlett, Clarence Edmund. A brief history of the Point McLeay Reserve and district, [Adelaide?]: Aborigines' Friends' Association, 1959

Beaumont, Edith Gertrude. Personal papers, PRG 186

Bury, Warren R. The foundation of the Point McLeay Aboriginal Mission [thesis], 1964

Jenkin, Graham. Conquest of the Ngarrindjeri, Point McLeay, S. Aust.: Raukkan Publishers, 1995

Jenkin, Graham. 'Taplin, George (1831-1879)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1976, pp.242-243

Mattingley, Christobel and Hampton, Ken, ed.s Survival in our own land: 'Aboriginal' experiences in 'South Australia' since 1836, Adelaide, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1988

Taplin, George. The Narrinyeri: an account of the tribes of South Australian Aborigines inhabiting the country around the Lakes Alexandrina, Albert, and Coorong, and the lower part of the River Murray: their manners and customs, also an Account of the mission at Point McLeay, Adelaide: J.T. Shawyer, 1874

Ngarrindjeri People, State Library of South Australia, factsheets online