Aborigines Inland Mission (1905 - 1998)

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Retta Dixon had been associated with the Christian Endeavourer Fellowship and New South Wales Aborigines Mission at La Perouse, Sydney. In around 1893 she moved to St Clair Mission and later, with the support of her Singleton Committee, took over the Mission and set up the Singleton Home in 'Glasgow Place', George Street.

Early in 1906 Retta Dixon married Leonard Long and together they ran the organisation of the AIM. They were superintendent and matron of the Singleton Home until 1910, when they returned to Sydney, leaving the Home in the management of the Smiths.

According to the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia (1994), AIM missionaries commenced their activities at St Clair and Redbournebury (near Singleton) and Karuah (Port Stephens). The first annual AIM convention and first publication of the journal Our AIM occurred in 1907. By this time the organisation had missionaries at Yass, Brungle, Warangesda, Moonahcullah, Cummeragunja and Walcha. Aboriginal administration agencies in Queensland and Western Australia approved the placement of AIM missionaries. This led to the beginning of work at Bassendean in WA in 1908, and at Heberton in 1911.

Aboriginal assistants to AIM missionaries were employed where possible. Over the next three decades the AIM extended work to almost every Aboriginal settlement in NSW as well as to Gayndah, Cherbourg, Woorabinda, Palm Island, Normanton, Stradbroke Island, Ravenshoe and Cooktown in Queensland, Port Augusta and Tarcoola in South Australia, and Parap (near Darwin) in the Northern Territory.