Originally from the Central West of New South Wales, Tom had taken his family to the Gippsland area to do clearing and fencing work on a property owned by a Dubbo doctor.

They returned to the Central West when Ray was still a baby and Tom had work clearing land for roads in the Pilliga area.

Ray and his family lived on the Talbragar Mission on the outskirts of Dubbo where Ray attended the one room school there for four years.

Later the family moved into Dubbo with his mother becoming a cook at the Dubbo Base Hospital and attended high school.

Ray left high school aged fifteen and did farm work and also worked at the local convent until 1947 when one of the sisters encouraged him to apply for the Police Force.

Ray Peckham was accepted and started at Kempsey as a cadet tracker although he describes his first chores as sweeping and mopping out the old police station there.

Eventually he worked with Constable Neville Bell and the stolen stock section.

Shortly after arriving in Kempsey, young Ray was accepted into his family by a Pop Dunnaman who had four boys and took him on fishing excursions.Ray was a talented footballer and played with the West Kempsey Reserve Grade Football Club which in 1948 took out the Reserve Grade Premiership.

In the same year they were holders of the Tooth's Oatmeal Stout Cup, the Eric Kemp Cup and the Urunga Challenge Cup.

In 1949, Ray was awarded the Crossingham Cup for the most improved reserve grade player.

During the 1949 flood in Kempsey, the police were heavily engaged handling all plans arrangements and general work.

Ray worked long hours assisting with food relief arrangements, at times walking ahead of a truck on flooded roads to check for hidden obstacles such as missing bridge planks.

After the flood, the police were widely praised for their tireless activities in rescue work and humanitarian aid and a photograph was planned outside the Commercial Bank in Smith Street.

Initially the newspaper reporter did not want to include Ray in the group of assembled police officers and it was only after urging from the police that he was included.

It was one of the few incidents of discrimination Ray experienced personally whilst in Kempsey although he witnessed many other instances towards other Aboriginals here.

Ray left Kempsey for Dubbo in 1950 for family reasons and later met up with Pearl Gibbs whom he had known from the Talbragar Mission days.

He then moved to Sydney where he and Pearl Gibbs reformed the Aborigines Progress Association which had been started by Mr William Ferguson in Dubbo in 1937.

In 2013, Uncle Ray Peckham was appointed as the inaugural Elder-in-Residence at the Charles Sturt University Centre for Indigenous Studies at Dubbo in recognition of his many years of work to ensure equal opportunities for Indigenous people.