Pages 9 - 77 (1600kb) - Eurobodalla Shire Council

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EUROBODALLA ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE STUDY South Coast NSW Nathangera near Buttawang, two belonging to Mr Flanagan on the Moroyo River, & several on the station of Capt. Raine near Mt. Dromedary, beside numerous others that they have speared & hunted but not killed. They have also threatened the lives of Mr Thompson & his men and Mr Egan (Mr Flanagan’s overseer) and his men, so that they dare not go abroad without a musket. In fact they seem to show greater hostility to Mr Thompson and Mr Egan than to any other persons in the neighbourhood and I consider their lives are in Danger if something is not quickly done… If permission was given to those aggrieved to shoot such Blacks as are known to be ringleaders in these atrocities it would make an Example to the other Blacks and be in my opinion a means of preventing further loss of property & perhaps life. 43 Five days later Morris wrote again: … the native Blacks have committed further hostilities on Mr Thompson’s farm at Bateman Bay, having killed since then six head of cattle and attacked horses for the same purpose, threatening at the same time to destroy him & his huts and I am afraid lives will be lost there if a few soldiers are not quickly sent there as he has only three men on the farm. I have also discovered that three head of cattle belonging to Sydney Stephens Esqr. and four of mine have been killed by Blacks with whom I am well acquainted and I have the honor to request you will let me know what steps I am to take to punish them as I am very certain that until the chief instigators are severely punished these acts of Robbery will be increased among them, who moving about among the mountains are only seldom to be met with by White People. 44 Further representations were made in October by both Morris and Flanagan requesting the presence of soldiers or permission to shoot the leaders of the resistance. As a result of these requests in November the Executive Council of the government discussed what to do regarding what they termed the ‘Aboriginal atrocities’ in the County of St Vincent. The Council sent a patrol headed by Lieutenant Lachlan Macalister to the area. Lieutenant Macalister spoke to both European and Aboriginal people in the area and concluded that the coastal peoples were not involved in the conflict, rather that it was people from the mountain regions who were taking issue with not receiving blankets as the coastal peoples did. As a result of his report blankets were subsequently supplied to the mountain groups as well as the coastal groups and the conflict ceased. 45 There are very few references to conflict between Europeans and the Aboriginal people of the area after this time, in 1845 the settler Francis Flanagan stated that, “… 43 th W.T. Morris, Mooramoorang, to Colonial Secretary, 24 September, 1830. Transcription in Allison M. James, Batemans Bay: Story of a Town, self-published, Batemans Bay, 2001, p.5. 44 th W.T. Morris, Mooramoorang, to Colonial Secretary, 29 September, 1830. Transcription in James, op.cit., p.6. 45 James, op.cit., p.7. ; Gibbney, op.cit., pp.21-28. Goulding Heritage Consulting Pty Ltd 34
EUROBODALLA ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE STUDY South Coast NSW Some few cattle have been speared, and petty robberies are occasionally committed by them… They frequently fight amongst themselves, upon which occasions, the whites, though often spectators, never interfere… Few are killed in those encounters”. 46 Introduced Diseases The whaling and sealing vessels travelling the coast during the early 1800s may have transmitted new diseases to the Aboriginal population of the South Coast. The smallpox epidemic that devastated the Sydney coastal peoples in 1789 is likely to have had an impact further down the coast. Harper, on his visit to Bateman’s Bay in 1826, before the first European settlement in the area, recorded that the people he saw there had, “… no cutaneous sores upon them”. 47 However, even if the Eurobodalla people had managed to avoid the impact of the earlier smallpox epidemics the epidemic of 1829-31, which affected areas throughout the colony, is almost certain to have had some impact. In the journal that the Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Port Phillip District, G.A. Robinson, kept during his visit to the Eden-Monaro region in 1844, he referred to the impact of influenza on the area, “Four years ago large numbers of the coast and Maneroo blacks died of influenza”. 48 Although Robinson did not travel into the Eurobodalla area if influenza was active in the areas to the south then it was certainly also present in this region. In his report on the ‘Condition of the Aborigines’ for the year 1845 the Commissioner for Crown Lands for the district, Commissioner Lambie, stated: No material change has taken place in the condition of the Natives during the last year. Some Months ago a few of the Adult Males were attacked with Fever, and, although all received Medical treatment from one or other of the Surgeons who are resident Stock owners, those cases terminated fatally. 49 Also in 1845 a Select Committee was established to inquire into the ‘condition of the Aborigines and the best means of promoting their welfare’ 50 . This committee sent out a circular letter to magistrates, Crown Land Commissioners and ‘other Gentleman’ with a list of 18 questions regarding the Aboriginal people in their areas. For the area referred to as Broulee (including the areas around Moruya and Bateman’s Bay) Francis Flanagan stated in relation to population and the spread of disease that: 46 Response to Circular Letter from Francis Flanagan, Esq., J.P., Broulee, Report from the Select Committee on the Condition of the Aborigines with Appendix, Minutes of Evidence and Replies to a Circular Letter, Government Printing Office, Sydney, 1845, p.38. 47 ‘Mr. Harper’s Journal [October 1826]’, transcription in the Wesleyan Mission House Despatches, Bonwick Transcripts Missionary, 1824-1829, B.T.53, CY1529, Mitchell Library. 48 Ian Clark (ed.), The Journals of George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate, Volume 4: 1 January 1844-24 October 1845, Heritage Matters, Ballarat, 2000, p.158. 49 ‘Annual report on the State of the Aborigines for the year 1845’, Commissioner of Crown Lands Lambie to Colonial Secretary Thomson, 1 st January, 1846, Historical Records of Australia, Series 1, Vol. XXV, p.13. 50 Report from the Select Committee on the Condition of the Aborigines with Appendix, Minutes of Evidence and Replies to a Circular Letter, Government Printing Office, Sydney, 1845, p.2. Goulding Heritage Consulting Pty Ltd 35
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Page 3 and 4: Introduction EUROBODALLA ABORIGINAL
Page 5 and 6: Scope of this Investigation EUROBOD
Page 9 and 10: Methodology EUROBODALLA ABORIGINAL
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Page 29 and 30: Helping Hands: the Wreck of the “
Page 45 and 46: 553 Turlinjah (Benson) Reserve No n
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Pages 9 - 77 (1600kb) - Eurobodalla Shire Council

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