John Nicholas HEY

HEY, JOHN NICHOLAS (JOHAN NIKOLAUS) (b. Dorrenbach, south Germany, 7 March 1862; d. Sydney, NSW, Oct 1951). Moravian missionary in North Qld.

The third of eight children born to an evangelical Lutheran couple, Jakob and Philippina Hey, he was encouraged to accept Christ, to seek God's will and to consider the missionary call. His father had been denied a desire to become a missionary because of the lack of interest in the Lutheran church at the time. The family came under the influence of visiting Moravian (q.v. Hagenauer) preachers. He left school at the age of 12 on the death of his father to help his mother on the family farm. He left home for a short while at the age of 19 to seek greater freedom but soon returned and applied himself to improvements on the farm experience which was to assist in his later work.

At the age of 24 he entered the Moravian mission school at Niesky in northern Germany. When the Presbyterian church in Australia requested the Moravians to supply practical men with a love for Jesus and a zeal for the salvation of others for a new mission in north Qld, Hey was selected. He joined James Ward (q.v.) in Ireland for three months to learn English and was ordained on 13 May 1891. Hey and the Wards sailed from London on 5 June, arriving in Melbourne on the 15 July 1891. They arrived at Thursday Island in November and on the 2S Nov arrived at Port Musgrave to establish Mapoon Mission. They established contact with Aboriginal people whose lives had been severely disrupted by contact with settlers, pearlers and fishing fleets. Hey and Ward provided alternative employment on buildings, and in fishing, gardening and the development of pastoral and agricultural industries. Mrs Ward's sister, Mary Anne Barnes, whom he had met in Ireland, arrived and they were married at Thursday Island on 5 Dec 1892.

Hey began learning the local dialect and sought ways to communicate the Christian message. He and Ward faced opposition from local pearlers and settlers as they had obstructed the abuse of Aboriginal women and labour. There were calls to close the mission. Despite illness, the death of Ward in 1895 and this opposition, Hey utilised his early training in evangelism to work for the opening of a church and the first baptisms in 1896, and his practical training in building, farming, engineering and agriculture to oversee the development of the cattle and garden industries and the construction of the village. Families were encouraged to develop their own self-supporting outstations. Hey acknowledged the practical support given by his wife. They had four children while at Mapoon. He became superintendent of the north Qld missions in 1909 and by the time he left Mapoon in 1919 after 28 years there, the mission was highly regarded for its economic, educational and spiritual achievements.

Hey spent the remainder of his life in Sydney, an inheritance his wife received from Ireland enabling him to engage in voluntary work in the Chinese Sunday school, hospital visitation, preaching and conducting funerals. Mary Anne Hey died in January 1970 at the age of 100.

J Harris, One Blood (Sutherland, 1990); J N Hey, A Brief History of the Presbyterian Church's Mission Enterprise among the Australian Aborigines (Sydney, 1931)

BILL EDWARDS