December 15.
“A Portrait of Australia With Important Bits Missing” by Glenn Loughrey
Killing cattle...and Aborigines
Governor Arthur's intention was to use extreme measures and force the Aborigines in the Settled Districts to surrender.
[Governor] Arthur was confident the measures would work because he was in the process of expanding the number of police districts in the Settled Districts from five to nine and increasing the number of field police so that they could support the magistrates in containing convict unrest and Aboriginal insurgency. He also established military posts at Bothwell on the Clyde river, at Ross Bridge in the central Midlands, at present-day Longford in the north-west, at St Paul’s Plains in the north east, and at Waterloo Point on the east coast near present-day Swansea. With these new measures, Arthur was confident that the settlers' demands for assistance to expel Aboriginal insurgents or force their surrender could now be met. [1]
The editor of the Colonial Times was in no doubt that the government notice was tantamount to a declaration of war on the Aborigines in the Settled Districts. 'With the murder of a colonist still fresh to their memory, the people will kill, destroy, and if possible, exterminate every black in the island, at least as many as they fall in with'. [2]
The editor's prediction was much closer to the truth than Arthur perhaps intended. Or was it? In placing fifty-five more troops in the field, Arthur, as an experienced army officer, must have known that such an outcome was highly likely. The meaning and intention of the government notice of 29 November 1826* has been interpreted by historians in very different ways. But a close examination of its effects over the following eighteen months suggests that Arthur's intention was to use extreme measures and force the Aborigines in the Settled Districts to surrender. Then, as he later pointed out, he intended to negotiate with their chiefs to relocate them to a designated reserve in the north-east. [3] What he did not expect was that the Big River, Oyster Bay, North Midlands and North nations would employ successful guerilla tactics to keep the settlers and the army at bay. But it would come at a huge cost.
HRA, series I, vol. xii, 21; HRA, series III, vol. vii, 608-12, 693; BPP, 'Van Diemen's Land', 201.
Colonial Times,15 December 1826
BPP, 'Van Diemen's Land', 6.
Acknowledgment: Lyndall Ryan, Tasmanian Aborigines, pp. 82-83, 368 n. 17, n.18, n.19.
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* For the government notice, see entry for 29 November.
The killing of cattle...and Aborigines
In August 1852 it was reported that the Aborigines were killing cattle on Ogilvie's Wachoo station and Hall's Yamboucal station on the Balonne River. Sergeant Dempster and his troopers set off on patrol of the Fitzroy Downs, and the Coogan Balonne rivers. In their first encounter with Aborigines, west of Wallumbilla creek, two Aborigines were reported to have been killed. A few days later four more Aborigines were reported to have been killed in a major confrontation on Ogilvie's Wachoo station. [1] In December 1852 Seargeant Skelton reported that he and his troopers had killed six more Aborigines on Ockerbilla station near Surat. [2]
Richard Dempster to George Fulford, 10 September 1852, QSA NMP/4. For detailed discussion see Leslie Skinner, Police of the Pastoral Frontier, pp. 93-96; and Patrick Collins, Goodbye Bussamarai, ch. 16.
Sergeant Skelton to George Fulford, 15 December 1852, QSA, NMP/4. See also Patrick Collins, Goodbye Bussamarai, pp. 200-205.
Acknowledgment: Copland, Richards and Walker, One Hour More Daylight, p. 65 n.187, n.188.