WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

to catch up with him, Jandamarra was again captured by police for absconding bonded
service and ended up serving out the rest of his sentence as a black tracker away from
his country (Allbrook 2009).
Jandamarra was assigned to the remote Robinson River police station, 130 kilometres
north of Derby under the charge of Police Constable William Richardson. He and
another Aboriginal tracker from the south worked with Richardson and the three
formed a close bond. Together they captured many Aboriginal people, and on at least
one occasion Jandamarra saved Richardson's life while under attack (Lowe 1994).
Because of their success, the three man team were then transferred to Bunuba country,
despite the long-standing policy of never using Aboriginal trackers against their own
people.
Jandamarra's role in the Bunuba resistance from 1894-1897
Shortly after setting up the police station at the abandoned Lillimooloora homestead,
Richardson and his two black trackers captured sixteen Bunuba people, including
known stock-spearing ringleaders, ex-police trackers and escapees from Derby prison.
Some of the prisoners were relations of Jandamarra. The prisoners were held for
nearly seven days, during which time Ellemarra and the other captured Bunuba tested
the loyalties of Jandamarra, who in the end shot Richardson dead and released his
countrymen (Kinnane 2008, Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). Collecting all the
firearms and ammunition stored at the police station, Jandamarra with the released
prisoners and others then ambushed two cattlemen who were attempting to move
cattle and weapons through nearby Windjana Gorge, a natural opening in the bastionlike
Napier Range. Both the cattlemen were shot dead and the following wagon
containing an armoury of firearms and ammunition was captured (Lowe 1994;
Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995).
When news of the murders at Lillimooloora Station and Windjana Gorge became
known, Sub-Inspector Drewry immediately mobilised all the police in the district and
commissioned settlers as special constables (Lowe 1994). A force of some 30 police
attacked the Bunuba in Windjana Gorge. In the ensuing eight hour battle Jandamarra's
uncle Ellemarra, who was also the leader of the Bunuba resistance, was shot and
seriously wounded. It is unclear whether he died that day from his injuries or was later
hanged in Derby, but he certainly is not recorded as being part of the resistance from
that time (Lowe 1994; Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). Jandamarra was also
seriously wounded during the gunfight whilst providing cover fire to allow Bunuba
men, women and children to retreat through the interconnecting tunnels and
passageways to the Napier Range plateau. The police followed the retreat for three
days but claimed few Bunuba lives.
The Bunuba resistance caused great concern in the colony. Settlers and the press
blamed the government for the recent deaths, citing government inaction in dealing
with Aboriginal resistance (Pedersen and Woorunmurra 1995). Sub-Inspector
Drewry's superiors were not happy with his management of the resistance: 'Although
he had the largest fighting force since Stirling led his murderous army against the
[unarmed] Nyoongars at Pinjarra in 1834, he still could not claim victory' (Pedersen
and Woorunmurra 1995, 131). The settlers and Premier were fearful but determined to
quash the uprising as quickly as possible. New forces under the command of Police
Inspector William Lawrence and ammunition arrived by boat a month later.
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