July 6.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Disproportionate number of killings
“..about 60 of them killed and wounded.”
About three o'clock on a cold wet Saturday, 23 June...six men were in the hut when Smith heard a coo-ee. Baker went out and saw John Hurling, an assigned convict servant to T.C. Simpson, running towards them. He was wearing only his shirt and carried his trousers. He told them that he had run 3 miles [5 kilometres] across the flooded plain from Simpson's stock hut, where the overseer, William Knight, had been brutally murdered by about thirty Pallittorre men who had then plundered the stock hut of every moveable item and had burst upon several bags of wheat and salt, scattering the contents in all directions and yelling: Rugga, rugga', 'go away', go away'. Having viewed Knight's body, Smith and Hurling then set off for Launceston to alert the authorities. The following day, Shiners, Lingen, Williams and Baker sought help from nearby settler Thomas Ritchie's men and, having been joined by James Cubit and William White, they set off in pursuit. At about two in the afternoon, Shiners said that he noticed smoke from a fire which he judged to be near Laycock Falls, now known as Liffey Falls, at the base of Quamby Bluff, and by the end of the day the party had located the Pallittorre sitting around six campfires. That night the party quietly surrounded the camp, planning to attack at dawn, so, Shiners said, they could capture the culprits. But, just as they were about to commence the operation, the Pallittorre were alerted by their dogs and 'they ran away'. Shiners said his party set off in pursuit. He later admitted that 'three of their guns went off' and that one of the Pallittorre may have been wounded by a shot fired by one of the stock-keepers. Constable Williams also later said that 'Baker attempted to fire, but that his pistol flashed in the pan', that is, the gunpowder burnt without making an explosion in the chamber to fire the bullet. [1] Nevertheless, it seems to have hit the target because the Colonial Times gave a different account of the incident:
The people over the second Western Tier have killed an immense quantity of blacks this last week, in consequence of their having murdered Mr. Simpson's stock-keeper, they were surrounded whilst sitting around their fires when the soldiers and others fired at them about 30 yards distant. They report there must have been about 60 of them killed and wounded. [2]
TAHO, CSO 1/316, 15-37.
Colonial Times, 6 July 1827.
Acknowledgment: Lyndall Ryan, Tasmanian Aborigines, pp. 94-95, 369 n.23, n.24.
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The “Roman method”
Although [Commandant Frederick] Walker was personally responsible for the cohesiveness that existed within the Native Police Force, the “Roman method”, of deploying citizens of occupied countries against their fellow citizens, had been used by the English in India and Africa. [1] In Australia, the Native police were Indigenous Australians who were controlled by white officers...[Walker’s] troopers were paid a few pennies [2] but they were allowed to ride horses, wear uniforms, indulge in sex [3] and to wield life or death over Indigenous Australians. From the whites' perspective, when the Aboriginal troopers killed other Aboriginals there was less chance of settlers being killed in revenge attacks. [4]
Captain Maconochie/Sir Richard Bourke, 10.6.1837...Maconochie referred to the “Roman method' as used by the French and also mentioned Sepoys being used in India.
Leslie E. Skinner, Police of the Pastoral frontier: Native Police 1849-59, UQP, Brisbane, 1975, p.130. The troopers were initially paid 3 pence per day and an allowance of 1 shilling and 4 pence per day for provisions.
Commandant F. Walker, 4.8.1851, address to troopers leaving Callandoonto be based at Wondai Gumbal…“Keep away from the gins when you at a gunya, do what you like in the bush. I will not be angry with you then.” NMPJ2/M2076/QSA.
1861 Qld Report from Select Committee into the Native Police, evidence of L. Lester Q’s 74-5, Qld LC V&P, MFL 328.943 JO, Fr 516.
Acknowledgment: Patrick Collins, Goodbye Bussamarai – The Mandanjani Land War, Southern Queensland 1842-1852, pp. 47-48, 238 n.21, n.22, n.23, n.25.