March 15.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Massacre and counter-massacre
Massacre of ‘Maria’ survivors...and retaliatory massacre of Aboriginal people.
The Dyirbal-speakers and Girramay were to experience many violent encounters, particularly after the wreck of the ‘Maria’ on the Barrier Reef in February, 1872. After the wreck there were 75 men on board the brig, [1] of which thirteen were on a large raft, twelve on a smaller raft and an unknown number on two of the ship's boats, [2] one of which carried the captain. Fourteen survivors of the wreck were killed by local Aboriginal people which resulted in more that 43 Aboriginals being killed. The camp or village site of the people of Tam O'Shanter Point was located in a very rich food resource area and more than likely had 50 residents. [3] Assuming this to be the case then we can roughly gauge the overall numbers of Djiru who were killed. Combined with the numbers admitted officially, plus 45 from Tom O'Shanter Point, then one can suggest that somewhere in the vicinity of 88 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed.
A Laurie, 'The Black War in Queensland', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland (JRHSQ), Vol. 1 No 1, September 1959.
W T Forster, The Wreck of the Maria, J Reading and Company, Sydney, 1872, pp.13-14. Forster was on the large raft.
Personal communication with E Grant. See Gowland's Diary, 1872 & Wildsoet interview.
Acknowledgment: Timothy Bottoms, Conspiracy of Silence, pp 134-5, 234 n.6, n.7, n.8.
See also entry on 21 March from Bottoms, p. 135.
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...dispersed them with some slaughter...
Mary McMaugh and John Henderson both write in their books of massacres connected with cedar cutters. It is possible that they are both describing the same event. She writes:
'The times had now really turned savage. Every man slept with a gun or revolver loaded beside him.
There was a massacre of cedar cutters whose hut was surrounded by hundreds of blacks. The murdered men were left in a heap outside the hut while the blacks divided the spoils.
But a man named Sparks was only stunned and escaped, pursued by the blacks.
Later the police pursued the tribe into the hills where a great number were shot. So many of the wild savage tribe were killed that day that the place was ever after called Waterloo'. [1]
The Macleay was largely occupied by retired army officers most of whom had served at the battle of Waterloo.
The account by John Henderson is as follows:
'On one occasion, during the illness of our former worthy commissioner, Mr. Oakes, Mr. Sullivan, who was Commissioner for Crown lands, within the boundaries, went on an expedition against the Yarraharpny blacks, a tribe notorious for their savage dispositions, and inhabiting the country between the mouths of the Macleay and the Nambucca. They had, at the time, made an attack on the sawyers occupied on the latter river, which had ended in the murder of one of the adventurous men, and this was not the first time that their aggressions had so ended.
The commissioner, taking the police with him, came upon their camp, and dispersed them with some slaughter. [2]
Mary McMaugh, Days of Yore, Kempsey Hist. Archives, N.D. p. 7.
Lieut. John Henderson, Adventures and Excursions in N.S.W., Vol. 2, Shortbel, London, 1851, p. 115.
Acknowledgment: Geoffrey Blomfield, Baal Belbora – the End of the Dancing, pp. 36, 53 n.41, n.42.