September 30.
Treaty by Glenn Loughrey
Valuing lives
The relative value of cattle and Aboriginal lives.
Governor Brisbane declared martial law west of the mountains. For four months seventy-five soldiers rode about in small parties, each under the charge of a magistrate, and kept the Aborigines moving. Brisbane reported that none were killed, they were simply kept in a continual state of alarm until the elders came in and asked for peace.
There was no peace. As soon as the soldiers were withdrawn the Aborigines stole cattle, and stockmen rode after them with guns. Theophilus Chamberlain and two of [William] Cox's stockmen tracked Aborigines with forty head of cattle for 150 kilometres north-west of Munna. When they caught up with them they must have been only twenty kilometres from the Castlereagh. In attack and counter-attack they shot nineteen Aborigines and burnt piles of weapons.
One hundred and twenty-two of Cox's cattle were still missing as well as some of William Lawson's. So four magistrates, six mounted settlers and about forty soldiers rode out from Bathurst. 'Shoot them all and manure the ground with them' advised George Cox. The magistrates had to go because it was not legal to shoot an Aboriginal unless a magistrate was present to certify that it was necessary. The Sydney Gazette, 30 September 1824, hoped 'This will put an end to this sanguinary and desultory warfare'.
Acknowledgment: Eric Rolls, A Million Wild Acres – 200 Years of Man and an Australian Forest, Penguin Books, Camberwell, 1984, p. 57.
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Use of British Military Forces against Aboriginals
In early September [1828] the Colonial Secretary again communicated to Simpson in reply to information about an attack on a hut, pointing out that the Lieutenant Governor 'recommends that you should concert with the Officers commanding the Military Parties some decided measures for restraining the Aborigines from entering the settled Districts'. [1]
Later in September the relationship between the civil and military authorities in the midlands was further clarified. The Brigade Major wrote to Captain Walpole of the 39th Regiment, commander of the military station at Ross, just south of Campbell Town. [2] Walpole was informed that 'the object of stationing the party under your command at Ross is to protect that neighbourhood from the attacks and aggressions of the Aboriginal Natives', and told to 'pay the most ready attention to the application of James Simpson, Esq., police magistrate at Campbell Town'. The Brigade Major also conveyed the wishes of 'the Colonel Commanding' that it was important to attach policemen to the military operations 'who will represent the civil power'. This ensured the legality of the military operations when it would 'be found necessary to remove the Aborigines from the settled districts by force'. Weekly reports 'for his Excellency's information' also ensured [Governor] Arthur was kept up to date with all military manoeuvres. [1]
CSO41/1/1, p. 156.
Brigade Major to Captain Walpole, 30 September 1828, Common return, pp. 25-26.
Acknowledgment: Nick Brodie, The Vandemonian War, pp. 24-25, 386 n.5, n.6.