Yemmerrawanne was a member of the Wangal people, part of the Dharug nation in the Port Jackson area at the time of the first British settlement in Australia, in 1788. Along with another Aboriginal man, Bennelong, he accompanied Governor Arthur Phillip when the latter returned to England in 1792–93. Yemmerrawanne did not return to Australia; he fell ill, died and was buried in England.

Woollarawarre Bennelong, also spelt Baneelon, was a senior man of the Eora, an Aboriginal Australian people of the Port Jackson area, at the time of the first British settlement in Australia in 1788. Bennelong served as an interlocutor between the Eora and the British, both in the colony of New South Wales and in the United Kingdom.