November 14.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Disproportionate killing
Conflict and mass killing in North Queensland
There were ten (including four Aborigines) in the Jardines’ expedition which was droving 250 cattle and had as well 41 horses and one mule. That such a large, slowly moving party should provoke the Aborigines is not surprising: but their determined, persistent, and often reckless attacks are. The first show of real hostility occurred at the Staten River just over a month after they left Carpentaria Downs on the Einasleigh River, which was the outer limit of expansion when they set out in October 1864. It seems clear that they had been under observation previously but from this point on until they were about one hundred miles from Cape York they were dogged by persistently hostile Aborigines and attacked eleven times. On four occasions the Aborigines stood firm or returned to the attack after being fired on. A minimum of fifty-four Aborigines, with a credible maximum of seventy-two were killed and others wounded. None of the expedition was killed or wounded although several experienced uncomfortably near misses. [1]
Byerley, The Jardines’ Journals, p. 19: on 14 November 1864, Aborigines menaced the party for three miles but there was no outbreak of violence; p. 22: on 20 November 1864, no deaths recorded, possibly some; pp. 22,23: on 22 November 1864, three Aborigines were killed; on 23 November, possibly some deaths; p. 25: 27 November, two separate attacks on the divided party in which F. Jardine killed one and the rest of the party killed ’some’ and wounded ’some’ seriously; p. 34: on 16 December, eight or nine Aborigines were killed; pp. 35, 36: 18 December, termed the Battle of the Mitchell by Byerley, about 30 Aborigines killed for certain but ‘Many more must have been wounded and probably drowned, for fifty-nine rounds were counted as discharged’. I have taken a minimum of six and a maximum of ten killed for ‘many more’; p. 37: on 21 December, Aborigines who were stalking the party were chased for two miles for sport but not fired upon; pp. 39, 40: on 28 December ’some’ Aborigines were killed when they stood firm, apparently unable to comprehend the destructiveness of the firearms; p. 48: on 14 January two Aborigines were killed. For the minimum figure I have considered only the entries where it was definitely stated that Aborigines were killed and interpreted ’some’ as two. in the ‘Battle of the Mitchell’, above, hostile Aborigines were decoyed back to the main party of explorers. they had thrown all their spears, and were trapped with their backs to the vast flowing Alice River, a large anabranch of the Mitchell. The ten explorers then fired the fifty-nine shots into the weaponless Aborigines.
Acknowledgment: Noel Loos, Invasion and Resistance, pp. 21, 252-253 n.52.
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“It proved impossible, however, to gather a jury...”
A book by [Jonathan] Richards tells us the story of what unintentionally became a very public massacre of six or more Aboriginals at Irvinebank on the Tableland southwest of Cairns in October 1884. The act was committed by a detachment of Native Police under the command of Inspector William Nichols and Cadet Roland Garraway. The Brisbane Courier in November reported that 'over fifty persons had seen the bodies' and it was reported that the Native Police later returned to burn the remains. A well known local identity, the 'most reputable' Scottish-born mine owner John Moffat (1841-1918), was one of the witnesses testifying at the inquest. He stated that he had himself later 'found the remains of a large fire that had been made at the spot where the bodies formerly lay'. Being guilty of an indiscretion Nichols was dismissed from the force as sometimes happened in such cases. Yet to the credit of the liberal government at the time they went a step further and ensured that he and his troopers were charged with murder. It proved impossible, however, to gather a jury who would pass a guilty verdict for either murder or manslaughter and the case was subsequently dropped. [1]
Richards, J: The Secret War, St Lucia 2008, p.33 (sources given as Brisbane Courier 14 Nov 1884 & inquest Jus/N110/511 1884). See also Australian Dictionary of Biography article on John Moffat (1841-1918).
Acknowledgment: Robert Ørsted-Jensen, Frontier History Revisited p. 75 and n.142.