In predominately British settler societies, certain Indigenous men and women were designated as the so-called ‘last of their tribe’. In Australia, this phenomenon of ‘lasting’ reached its height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This paper will be exploring one specific person who had this moniker applied to him; an Indigenous man who was given the anglicized name of ‘Billy Fawkner’ by settlers (spelt four different ways) in the Brisbane Water District of New South Wales. Some settlers referred to him as 'King Billy' - a title that was common across Australia with at least 6 other men also named 'King Billy' who were designated as the 'last of their tribe' in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This paper will explore settler memories of the so called ‘last of their tribe’ and argue that British settler societies felt the need to have ownership of the destiny of the Indigenous peoples they came into contact with during the colonization process and that by designating an individual as the ‘last of their tribe’, settler societies (and their governments) aimed to eliminate the physical and figurative presence of Indigenous peoples in the territories they had settled in.