July 25.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Keeping silent about atrocities.
On keeping one’s mouth shut and quietly ignoring or burying the remains...
The proprietor of [Manumbar station in the south Burnett] was...guided, by an Aboriginal stockman, to the bodies of eight Aboriginals. He furthermore saw at least two severely injured and was encouraged to proceed further by his guide as there were indeed 'many more' bodies, but studying the remains of eight was quite enough for this squatter and his men, he later stated. Yet still he did not believe that there were as many as thirty or forty as was stated by an article in the contemporary press. The reader may take some note here, that no investigation was ordered or performed by any government authority. More than likely it would also have been quite futile as the response was considerably delayed and Aboriginal people, as everyone was very well aware, were obliged to collect and usually cremated their dead in customary fashion within hours of their passing. Furthermore...their evidence was not legally allowed. However, all signs are that a minimum of twelve and likely up to twenty Aborigines were killed in this episode. [1]
We need to take particular note of the fact, well documented in this and similar episodes from that year, that the settlers were not at all inclined to report such matters to the authorities. The government and chief of police similarly did their utmost to protect the officers with numerous cover ups, in one case they rejected and utterly refused to act on the forensic investigations and indeed body-counts performed on the ground, against the will of the government it should be underlined, by one brave Magistrate and district coroner on similar events in Logan and Fassifern. [2] Certainly the government did not wish to investigate and they were by no means inclined to take any actions which might have prevented repetition. Indeed the proprietor of Manumbar was publicly abused by the minister and several key members of the parliamentary majority, who went on to produce a general report on the Native Police Force, the so called Select Committee Report of 1861, which was afterwards classified in the press as a manipulated sham, indeed, 'a lamer production was never brought to light' an editorial in the Brisbane Courier concluded. [3] The proprietor [of Manumbar] was similarly shunned and angrily attacked by a number of his neighbours, one of whom stated publicly that he should have kept his mouth shut and just quietly ignored or buried the remains; a powerful indication what many, probably a majority, did in such cases.
The detail of this incident will be described in [the author's] The Foundation of a Frontier Policy, but here in any case are some of the key references: SC-61, BC (Brisbane Courier) Jul 24 1861, p.2 (QPD 1861); MBC 16 March 1861 p3d; MBC 16 Apr 1861, p2c-d; MBC 18 April 1861 p2c; BC 6 Sep 1861; BC 4 jun, 1861, p2. See also Prentis, M.D. (article): John Mortimer and the 1861 Native Police Inquiry in Queensland, Vol XIV No 10 Feb. 1992, RHSQ p472-74.
SC-61 8 & 9 May 61, p14, Q50; p15, Q56; p16, Q81. Regarding the vindictive actions against [Dr Henry] Challinor* see also his re-election speech BC 3 Jun 1861 p2e-g.
BC 25 July 1861, p2 (Editorial).
Acknowledgment: Robert Ørsted-Jensen, Frontier History Revisited, pp. 62-63 n.110, n.111, n.112.
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A coroner and magistrate who spoke out.
* A note on Dr Henry Challinor.
Dr Henry Challinor (1814-1882) [was] one of the witnesses [to the Committee on the Native Police chaired by Queensland Treasurer Robert Ramsay Mackenzie]. Challinor, a medical practitioner and a liberal-minded settler...was a leading voice of dissent in a brief period in the early 1860s. Although not a missionary he was certainly dismissed in classical style as a follower of 'Exeter Hall' and the 'Church party'. His offence was that he had used his position as a coroner and magistrate to check out a few obvious, but in no sense outstanding, atrocities committed by the Native Police not far from his home in Ipswich. He attempted to bring one such case to trial but saw his position undermined by Governor Bowen and his government.
Acknowledgment: Robert Ørsted-Jensen, Frontier History Revisited, pp. 127.