September 7.
Treaty by Glenn Loughrey
Night Raid
John Batman’s raid on an indigenous community.
Armed with fresh convicts and foreign auxiliaries, on 1 September 1829 [John] Batman went 'in pursuit of the Aborigines who have been committing so many outrages in this district', reporting his progress in letters to Anstey. [1] He soon 'fell in with their tracks'. Guided by 'the assistance of the Sydney Native Blacks', Batman's party found a group of 10 huts, which appeared to have been constructed a few days previously, and surmised he was on the trail of a tribe that was 'upwards of 100' people strong. After this, on the eastern side of Ben Lomond, the party found another five huts, even more recently occupied. Going further, they spotted smoke.
Batman 'immediately ordered the men to lay down', reducing their profile. They hid and listened and 'could hear the Natives conversing distinctly'. The party 'then crept into a thick scrub and remained there until after sun set'. In the darkness Batman's quiet and patient men unburdened themselves of their heavier gear, laying their knapsacks and blankets in the bush. As midnight approached, they advanced on the Aboriginal camp. Fanning out as they neared the embers, Batman's party prepared to rush the sleeping figures. Then dogs started barking.
Two of Batman's men had bumped muskets in the dark, which was enough to alarm some dogs. The awakened people commenced a hurried escape, 'running into a thick scrub'. Batman 'ordered the men to fire', after which the party rushed the camp.
One of the expedition team managed to get hold of a woman and child. 'The woman bit his hand in several places severely, but he still held her until another man came to his assistance'. [2] The party did not catch any others that night. Batman recorded that they 'only captured that Night One Woman and a Male child about Two years old', despite searching the area as best as possible in the dark.
With daylight the impact of the raid became clearer. The party found two more men and took them captive. One was 'very badly wounded in the ancle [sic], and knee', and the other had also been hit. Batman reported that '10 Buck shot had entered his Body, he was alive but very bad'. Moreover, Batman and his party could see that others had also been wounded in their escape, probably mortally.
There were a great number of traces of blood in various directions and [we] learnt from those we took that 10 Men were wounded in the Body which they gave us to understand were dead or would die, and Two Women in the same state had crawled away, besides a number that were shot in the legs. [3]
The party also 'shot 21 large Dogs' and took a quantity of blankets and weapons from the abandoned camp. For a few more days Batman pursued the trails of fleeing Aboriginal people, but the guides lost the last clear tracks among rocky ground. The expedition turned back towards their base at Batman's farm with only four captives.
The going was difficult for the two wounded Aboriginal men, who 'found it quite impossible' to walk. One of them was 'a well known character', distinctly lacking two front teeth, who Batman asserted 'has been present at almost every Murder or robbery that has been committed in this district'. Batman tried to push them on, but he could not keep them moving. 'I was obliged therefore', Batman concluded bluntly, 'to shoot them'...When the party returned to Kingston farm, Batman wrote a brief account of the mission for Anstey, which he dated 7 September [1829].
CSO1/1/320, pp. 142-44.
Hobart Town Courier, 12 September 1829, p. 2.
CSO1/1/320, p. 143.
Acknowledgment: Nick Brodie, The Vandemonian War, pp. 98-99, 390 n.27, n.28, n.29