August 31.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
The use of poison
Regular reports of poisonings of Aboriginal people
Fletcher Creek, about 50 kilometres north-east of Charters Towers, is also remembered as the scene of a toxic encounter with the white settlers. [1] In central Queensland and far north Queensland, including Cape York Peninsula, into the early part of the twentieth century, there were still regular reports of poisonings. Historian Noel Loos notes that, 'In fact it is possible that poison was used as frequently against Aborigines in this twilight situation [of the winding down of the frontier] as it was in the previous period of open conflict'. [2] East of Thornborough on the Hodgkinson Goldfields (c.100 kilometres inland from Cairns), under the frivolous heading, 'Dark Doings with the Sable Savages', a pastoralist was recorded as having come across a big mob of Aborigines around a freshly speared bullock. Unable to take revenge with his rifle before they scattered, he thought:
...it a pity to lose so good an opportunity of poisoning some of the hawks and dingoes with which the country is infested, our pastoral friend literally peppered the carcass of his quondam [former] grass-eater with that violent corrosive venom – arsenic; and (in order that none of the pilfering curs whom the feast was intended should partake of it) labelled the body 'POISON'. His surprise may be imagined when, visiting the spot to see the result of his scheme, he discovered that, disregarding his caution, a large number of the original monarchs of the soil had injudiciously partaken of the insalubrious 'bullocky' and, as a natural consequence most of them had become slightly indisposed. [3]
The familiarity with this approach can also be seen with the construction of the Cairns-Kuranda railway (1886-93), when men were getting hickory logs for the railway, between the second section (of the railway) and Jamieson's (at Buchan Point), they found the Yirrganydji (coastal Djabugay) an 'intolerable nuisance'. They had to leave one man on guard in camp, 'otherwise every scrap of food is taken by the thieving rascals'. The Cairns Post suggested that 'a little “Rough on Rats” [arsenic] judiciously disposed amongst some damper would effectually stop these annoyances'. [4] The matter of fact way the editor identifies poisoning by whites as a means of removing so-called human 'pests' and his conclusion that 'if the Government won't help the people in the North, they will have to help themselves', suggests this was a relatively common approach. [5]
The Shelfo Homestead poison flour incident occurred around 1900-01...when Kunjen people were given flour laced with poison. Fortunately they realised they were being poisoned and scraped rust from fencing wire, mixed it with mussels and ate the concoction raw to make themselves vomit. They also bled their arms and providentially all survived. [6]...It would appear that poisonings were more prevalent in Queensland than down south...
Sally Babidge, Written True, Not Gammon! A history of Aboriginal Charters Towers, Black Ink Press, Thuringowa, 2007, p. 5. Babidge interviewed an array of Aboriginal informants who 'referred to massacre sites they knew of in the Charters Towers Region'. Personal communication email 18 January 2010. See also S. Babidge, 'Family affairs: an historical anthropology of state practice and aboriginal age in a rural town, North Queensland,' PhD, James Cook University, Townsville, 2004.
N. Loos, Invasion and Resistance, Australian National University Press (ANUP), Canberra, 1982, p. 57.
Hodgkinson Mining News, 31 August 1878.
Cairns Post, 8 June 1887.
Port Denison Times, 21 February 1874; J. Black, North Queensland Pioneers, CWA Townsville, 1931, p.57. Mrs Halpapp's recollections; 'One of the methods used to stop thieving was to put strychnine in the flour', F.M. Bell, 'Camboon Reminiscences', Historical Society of Queensland Journal, Vol IV, No. 1, December 1948, p. 58.
T. Bottoms, 'History of Kowanyama', Kowanyama Land & Natural Resource Management Office, Kowanyama Aboriginal Council, Kowanyama Elders, Kowanyama, 1990, p.4.
Acknowledgment: Timothy Bottoms, Conspiracy of Silence, pp. 89-90, 225 n.45, n.46, n.47, n.48, n.49, n.50.