WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

pioneered by already-established Kimberley pastoral families (ADB 1972a).
On 9 May 1901 Frederick Drake-Brockman and a party of 11 men departed from
Wyndham, followed the Pentecost River south, and then pushed north-west through
the King Leopold Ranges to Walcott Inlet and returned along the Drysdale River,
reaching their depot on 26 November 1901. Along the way, Drake-Brockman
attempted to validate reports of many topographical features of the region made by
previous explorers, including Grey and Hann, and in the process he named the
Princess May Ranges and the Calder and King Edward rivers. Drake-Brockman's
party collected specimens of plants, animals and rocks, and also Aboriginal artefacts,
for the Western Australian museum. His collection included the previously unknown
black grass wren (Amytis (Amytornis) housei). Drake-Brockman's report of the
expedition was published in 1902 in the Western Australian Parliamentary Papers
(ADB 1981a).
As pastoralism slowly spread across the rugged terrain of the north-west, so did the
dispossession of Aboriginal people from their traditional lands. Competition for water
and food, encroachment or violation of sacred places, mistreatment and brutality were
all catalysts that contributed to the onset of hostilities between Aboriginal people and
European settlers. The conflict resulted in loss of life on both sides, though numerous
contemporary reports indicate that Aboriginal people suffered far greater losses
through the violence than did European settlers.
Attacks by Aboriginal people on livestock were common. Large numbers of stock
were speared, bludgeoned, crippled or driven off runs (Jebb 2002). Stock supplied
much-needed food for Europeans, but it also fed Aboriginal people, who were denied
access to their traditional land and resources. From 1892, police and settler recruits
were granted greater discretionary powers to disperse Aboriginal people, and life
outside the stations became increasingly difficult and dangerous. Spearing of cattle
was made a criminal offence, and jail terms were increased for cattle theft. Aboriginal
people could be whipped for certain offences (Broome 2010).
Despite these measures Aboriginal people continued to successfully resist expansion
of pastoral interests, particularly in the rugged limestone country of the Oscar and
Napier ranges. The threat posed by the Bunuba resistance in this region brought a
severe response from the authorities, who threw enormous resources into efforts to
capture the perpetrators, particularly after Jandamarra joined the resistance in 1894.
Jandamarra and the Aboriginal resistance
Born in 1873, Jandamarra moved to the Lennard River Station to work at the age of
ten, and was soon regarded as the fastest shearer and best horseman in the district
(Nicholson 1997; Newbury 1999). He learned English and became popular with the
Europeans (Lowe 1994; Grassby and Hill 1988). Jandamarra grew up in two worlds;
he was Bunuba by birth but spent a significant part of his short life living and working
with the new settlers. In 1889 he was arrested on a charge of stock killing and was
imprisoned in Derby where he was put into service looking after horses and working
as a police assistant and tracker. Jandamarra learned how to use firearms and was
involved in a number of operations against his own people until the arrest of his uncle
and brother-in-law in 1894. To release the Bunuba prisoners, Jandamarra was forced
to shoot his police boss, William Richardson: his fate was sealed.
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