March 16.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Colonists’ views on killings
“...a great many of the Natives slaughtered...”
[Another account more substantial than that provided by Lieutenant Moore] remains to us although it was not given until many years afterwards. [1] Edward White, giving evidence before the Aborigines Committee on 16 March 1830, said:
Was one of the first men who landed 27 years ago; built Lieutenant Bowen's house at Risdon; was then servant to a man named Clark; on the 3rd of May, 1804, was hoeing new ground near a creek; saw 300 Natives come down in a circular form, and a flock of kangaroos hemmed in between them; there were men, women and children; "they looked at me with all their eyes", I went down to the creek, and reported them to some soldiers, and then went back to my work; the natives did not threaten me; I was not afraid of them; Clark's house was near where I was at work; and Burk's [sic] house near Clark's house; the natives were never within half a quarter of a mile of Burke's house; the Natives did not attack the soldiers; they would not have molested them; the firing commenced about 11 o'clock; there were a great many of the Natives slaughtered and wounded; I don't know how many; some of their bones were sent in two casks to Port Jackson by Dr Mountgarrett; they went in the Ocean; a boy was taken from them; this was three or four months after we landed; they never came so close again afterwards; they had no spears with them; only waddies; they were hunting and came down into a bottom; there were hundreds and hundreds of kangaroos about Risdon then; and all over where Hobart Town now stands; the Natives were driven from their houses afterwards, and their wives and children were taken from them by stock-keepers...they did not know there was a white man in the country when they came down to Risdon...The Natives leave their women and children behind them when they were going to war...
Acknowledgment: Clive Turnbull, Black War, pp. 33-34.
The date of the killings at Risdon Cove in Tasmania was 3 May 1804. For differing views note Keith Windschuttle, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History I p. 15 and Phillip Tardif, "Risdon Cove" in Robert Manne ed., Whitewash, pp. 218-224.
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Differing views on the perpetrators of killings.
An assertion in The Times of London (10 March 1904) by a Mr Hogan, stated 'that the squatters were mainly responsible for the extermination of the blacks in Australia'. In response, Harold Finch-Hatton, a former frontier squatter, wrote to The Times (16 March 1904) from his club in London: 'I unhesitatingly declare that the blacks of Queensland have been almost entirely exterminated by a system carefully planned and deliberately carried out by the Government of the country'. [1] However, Finch-Hatton, as one of the prominent squatters, would hardly implicate himself, his brother or their 'colleagues'. [2] Certainly Finch-Hatton's assertion that it was government officials rather than squatters who orchestrated the killings is contradicted by oral history recollections, both black and white, as well as many diary entries, reminisces and newspaper reports. Historian Noelene Cole has observed, 'If police attempted conciliation [with Aboriginals] they were likely to be met with vigorous local opposition'. [3]. The Cooktown Courier (25 January 1879) criticised Sub-Inspector Stanhope O'Connor for attempting to negotiate with Aboriginals, a stance endorsed by the frontier community.
See Chapter 5 ["Poisonings and Sexual Exploitation" in Timothy Bottoms, Conspiracy of Silence]] and the mass poisoning of Long Lagoon at Mt Spencer west of Mackay.
N Cole, 'Battle Camp to Boralga', Aboriginal History, Vol.28, 2004, p.173.
Acknowledgment: Timothy Bottoms, Conspiracy of Silence – Queensland's frontier killing times, pp.188, 246 n.42, n.43, n.44.