June 16.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Ancient land... ancient occupancy
...Helidon Barracks was the first police establishment in Queensland. It was said to have influenced the 1848 decision to form the Native Police. It seems to have been the only military barracks in Australia erected in response to Aboriginal aggression, rather than as a preventive measure. It was probably the largest inland fort ever constructed against Aboriginal people; and the only one operated by the military. Its very existence is testimony to the severity of the conflict in this region. Following decommissioning in June 1846, it therefore saw use as a police barracks fulfilling a similar role... [1]
...The positioning of the ‘fort’ at Helidon gave the travellers some protection, as it was close to the sites along Lockyer Creek, where both bullocks and horses were often spelled, [2] and the sheep being taken to and from the Downs rested along Monkey Water Holes Creek...More disturbing reports were written about the effects the establishment [of the fort] did have on local Aboriginals, Moppy’s tribe to be exact. Historian and author, J J Knight writes while collecting research in the 1860s, just 15 years after the fort had been disbanded:
… This period of military supervision was one of terrible slaughter, scores upon scores of the Aborigines falling victim to the white man’s gun. One of the men who assisted in putting many of the unfortunate blacks out of existence told the writer several incidents which if repeated here would scarcely be regarded as pleasant reading, nor yet rebounded to the credit of persons even now living.
That the blacks were exasperating at times by reason of their depredations goes without saying, but that the chief and more serious trouble was often times caused by the bad conduct of the whites is a statement which more that one old colonist has substantiated.
According to the old resident referred to the theft of a few stores, or the killing of a few sheep by the blacks was avenged by wholesale shooting down by the whites – in fact, as many blacks as could be found, whether offenders or not were swept away.
This got so bad at last that for shame’s sake a number of whites were arrested. The writer’s informant was one of the eighteen who were arrested in the vicinity of Tent Hill, but on being brought before a magistrate – their denial was regarded as sufficient to disprove the charges preferred against them… [3]
Historian Rod Pratt found considerable support for this dark vision:
… have found requests from Moreton Bay for more ammunition. There are, 26 September, 1843 - 99th Regt. Detachment at Moreton Bay; 22 March, 1844 - 58th Regt. Detachment at Moreton Bay… when viewed alongside de Winton’s quote that the 99th detachment ‘imparted severe lessons’ to the Aborigines, and the 99th Regt’s Pts William Lane’s claim that he ‘quelled the blacks in early Qld’ … it paints a picture of unrestrained frontier violence… [4]
There are local stories about the soldiers from the fort being involved in affrays with the local Aboriginal people, such as chasing warriors to a waterhole by Blackfellows or Armstrong Creek on Lower Tenthill, and leaving them to die. [5] This is repeated in another account; that after the soldiers were established at the foot of the range, they chased a group that were harassing them, and shot an untold number past a creek by Tenthill...and [left] many dead. [6] Skulls found near the waterhole and creeks during the 1890s and 1900s on William Dailey’s farm were attributed to the affrays. Some dozen skulls all had bullet holes, according to some accounts. [7]
Ray Kerkhove, Helidon Fort, unpublished paper, 2015
Queensland Times, 5 May 1928, pg 13
Brisbane Courier, 25 April 1892. pg 7
Rod Pratt, via email to R Kerkhove, 16 September 2018
Queensland Times, 26 November 1927 & 28 April 1928
ibid
Queensland Times, 26 October 1893 & 23 February 1905 7 Nelson in 1993
Acknowledgment: Ray Kerkhove and Frank Uhr, One Tree Hill, pp. 175, 179, 180-1,257 n.7, n.19, n.25, n.26, n.27, n.28, n.29.