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From the Edge

Page 29

by Mark Mckenna


  Collins, Lt Colonel David, 39, 47, 53–4; description of Aborigines, 40

  colonial settlements, failed, 105

  Confalonieri, Father Angelo, 88–9; Aboriginal assistant ‘Jim Crow’, 89–90, 91; and Aboriginal people, 93–4, 95; background, 90; death, 94–5, 96, 96; lack of progress, 94, 95; ‘little shack’ for, 90, 95; and McArthur, 90, 95; maps tribes of Cobourg Peninsula, 92; personality, 90–1, 92, 94; Port Essington, 89–95; shipwrecked, 89; ‘Specimen of the Aboriginal Language or Short Conversation with the Natives of North Australia Port Essington’, 92–3, 92

  convicts, Sydney, 37–8, 49–50

  Cook, Captain James: Aboriginal oral history of landing, xiii; Botany Bay landing re-enactment, 197; Botany Bay landings, interpretations, 200–11; Cooktown, 166, 189; Endeavour, xx, 164, 165, 195; first Pacific voyage scientific, xiii; and the Guugu Yimithirr, xx, 164, 168, 189, 190–3, 194, 201, 209;journals, 200; landing re-enactment, 199, 200; naming places, 3–4; seen as returned ancestor, 164; souvenirs hunters, 166–7; violence of first landing, xiii

  Cooktown (Gangaar), xix, 163; a ‘place of pilgrimage’, 167, 168; Aboriginal custodians, 168; Aboriginal fringe dwellers, 174–5;Aboriginal language recorded, 166; Aboriginal women and children, 190–1; Aboriginal workers, 184–5; Aborigines start grass fire, 192, 93; ‘air of a country town’, 195–6; association with Cook, 184; Banks’ observations, 189–91; Battle Camp, 172; ‘blacks’ move out, 184; botanical specimens, 190; Charlotte Street, c. 1890, 174; Chinese population, 169, 172, 183, 184, 196–7; Cook memorial, 195; Cook repairs the Endeavour, xx, 188; Cook’s landing re-enacted, 196, 199–201; Discovery Festival, 198–9; firearm culture, 170–1, 172; founding (shared telling), 210–11; frontier town, 170, 171, 172–3, 175–6, 188; ‘escaping’, 190; Ghost Town of the North, 183–4; golden ‘era of prosperity’ ends, 183–4; Grassy Hill, 163–4, 169, 169, 190, 211; harbour, 188;James Cook museum, 167, 197, 198, 199, 201; kangaroos first seen, 166; legacy of fear of’blacks’, 182–3; ‘Lizard Island Massacre’, 180–1; Milbi Wall, 178, 201; mobile population, 170; named, 166; Native Police Force, 170, 172, 173, 177; Palmer River goldfields, xx, 165, 169–70; pubs and market gardens, 170; railway to Palmer River, 196; relics from Cook’s visit, 167; reprisal killings, 171–2; royal visit 1970, 196–7; Schwarz’s mission, 184–5; settler communities, 188; Solander, 189; tourism, 196; unfamiliar plants and animals, 189; see also Guugu Yimithirr people

  Cooktown Re-enactment Association, 199–201

  Coolman, Biddy, xiii

  Coolyerberri, 128–9

  Cossack, WA, 124; pearling fleet, 127; settlement preserved, 162

  ‘Country’: burning of, 103–4; Indigenous knowledge of, xviii

  Court, Charles, on the Pilbara, 146

  Croker Island, 106, 107, 108

  Cuttagee Beach, 29, 30

  d’Urville, Jules Dumont, 78, 101

  Dampier Archipelago, 113, 160;Bungaree, 118, 119; King explores, 117–18; King and Yaburara people, 118–20; named by de Freycinet, 117; ‘most barren place on earth’, 117; Mermaid, 117

  Dampier, William, 117, 146, 147, 162; describes Aboriginal people, xii–xiii; shoots Aboriginal at Lagrange Bay, 120

  Dark Deeds in a Sunny Land (Gribble), 139

  Davis, Henry, 129

  Davis, ‘Jack’, 85, 106

  de Freycinet, Louis, 117

  De Grey river, WA, 125–6

  De Grey station, WA, 138

  Deeral, Eric, 168, 185, 186, 187, 199–203, 202, 204–5, 206–7, 210

  Deeral, Gertie, 199

  Dening, Greg, xviii

  Depuch Island, 148–9

  disease: smallpox epidemic, 106, 127, 196

  Dolphin, 121

  Dolphin Island, 127, 133; rock art, 124

  Donaldson, Mike, 114

  Dunbar, Lieutenant, 94

  Durlacher, John Slade, 142

  Earl, George Augustus, 72, 73–4

  East India Company, 6, 7–8

  East Intercourse Island, 147–8

  Eliza (longboat): Bass Strait crossing, 16, 17–18, 41, 45, 46, 47

  Endeavour, xx, 164, 165, 188, 195

  Endeavour River, 21, 163, 166, 168, 169, 200, 201, 207, 208, 211

  Ennis, Henry, 66

  Eora people: death and loss of lands, 34; ‘Welcome to Country’, 34

  Essington, 67–8

  Fagan, James, 89

  Fitzgerald, Hervey, 173

  ‘Flash Poll’, 106

  Flinders, Matthew, 4, 39, 60; and Bass, 53; charts around Preservation Is., 52; circumnavigates Australia, 117; confirms existence of Bass Strait, 53; and wildlife, 52–3

  Flying Foam Massacre: amnesty to two alleged murderers, 138; blame shifted to Aborigines, 142; cost to Yaburara, 138; court evidence on, 138; Gara documentation, 145; King Bay memorial, 157–8, 157; legality and morality debated, 141; National Day of Commemoration, 158; numbers killed debated, 139; settlers claim to be victims, 139, 140; settlers’ views on, 136; ‘stern justice’ not a ‘massacre’, 140–1; ‘war’ and ‘massacre’ terminology, 138, 139; Watson recollects reprisals, 142–3

  Flying Foam Passage, 132, 133, 136, 138, 139, 144, 145; see also Angel Island

  Foelsche, Paul, 108

  Forrest, Andrew, 112–13

  Fort Dundas, Melville Island, 65–6, 67

  Fort William, Calcutta, 6

  Francis (rescue schooner), 41, 46, 47, 52, 53

  Furneaux, Tobias, 12

  Furneaux Archipelago, 1, 2, 59; Sydney Cove landing, 12–13; see also Preservation Island, Bass Strait

  Gangaar see Cooktown

  Gara, Tom; documents Flying Foam Massacre, 145

  Garig Gunak National Park, 107

  garrison at Port Essington, 66–8, 69, 71, 72, 74–5

  Gidley Island, 127, 134

  Gilbert, John, 82, 87

  Gipps, Governor George, 79, 85, 86

  gold, Palmer River, xx, 165, 169–70, 175

  Gould, John, 82

  Grant, Lt James, 50

  Grassy Hill, 163–4, 165, 169, 169, 211

  Gregory, Francis Thomas, 120, 121, 122, 122–3

  Gregory XVI, Pope, 89

  Gregory River shootings, 137

  Gribble, Thomas, 139; Dark Deeds in a Sunny Land, 139

  Griffis, Constable William, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135, 137

  Gunai Kurnai people, Victoria, 19

  Guugu Yalandi people, Cooktown, 171, 173

  Guugu Yimithirr people, 168–9, 170, 183, 184, 207; and Cook, xx, 164, 188, 189, 190–3, 194, 201, 209; dictionary, 201; and King, 193–4; dispossessed, 177; and goldfields, 164, 171, 172–3; and Native Police, 177; and pastoralists, 173; and progress of Endeavour, 164

  Gweagal people, xi–xiii

  Hallam, Sylvia, 150

  Hamilton, Captain Gavin, 8, 49, 56, 61; captain Sydney Cove, 9–10, 11–13; death and burial, 43, 54, 57, 58–9; family history, 57–8; explaining loss of Sydney Cove, 47; reunited with Clark in Sydney, 47–8; sells salvaged cargo, 53–4

  Hamilton, Captain Gavin, Preservation Island, 13–16, 50–1, 57; campsite, 43; care for men, 41–2; four-month wait for assistance, 42; ill health and deaths, 42; Lascars, 41, 42, 44; leaves island, 47; local produce, 43–4; logbook of Sydney Cove, 54; news of overland group, 45–6; signal cairn, 42; winter hardships, 52–3

  Hamilton, Captain Peter, 57

  Hamilton, John, 57–8

  Hamilton’s Road, 59

  Hancock, Lang, 112

  Harding River Dam, 153

  Harper, Charles, 139–40

  Hearson’s Cove, 121, 122, 132, 150

  Heroine, 88, 89

  Hicks, Wilfred, 155, 158

  historical consciousness, xviii, 210

  Hogan, Nicholas, 89

  Hope Vale Mission, Cooktown, 174, 175, 182, 183, 184–6, 186, 187, 200

  Hornsby, Alberta, 186–7, 199, 200–1, 202, 203–4, 205–6, 205, 207, 208–9, 210; on Guugu Yimithirr heritage, 188

  Hunter, 52, 54

  Hunter,
Governor, 48; discusses spirit sales with Hamilton, 49; failure to explore hinterland, 39; rescue mission to Preservation Island, 41; on ‘savage barbarism’ of natives, 40; sends preserved wombat to Newcastle, UK, 53

  Hutchings (Port Essington), 81

  Huxley, Thomas, 95, 102, 103

  Indian Head (Dumin bigu) massacre, 177

  Intercourse Islands, 120

  ‘Jack Davis’ (Mildun), 85, 106

  James Cook Museum, Cooktown, 167, 197, 198, 199, 201; perspective on Cook’s landing, 199–200

  Jermyn (pearler), 128, 129, 131

  Jervis Bay, 31, 33, 34, 35, 50

  ‘Jim Crow’, 91, 106

  Kamay Botany Bay National Park, xiv

  Kangaroo Island (Kingscote settlement), 105

  kangaroos, first seen, 166

  Karratha, 127, 147, 152; Gas Plant, 115–16, 116

  Keppel, Captain Henry, 103–4, 106

  Kimberley, xvi, 160

  King Bay, 132; see also Flying Foam Massacre

  King, Captain Phillip Parker, 166; and Aboriginal people, 118–20; captain of Mermaid, 67, 117–18, 120, 166, 195; explores Dampier Archipelago, 117–18; and Guugu Yimithirr Aborigines, 193–5; names Intercourse Islands, 120; ship’s name carved on tree, 195

  Kingscote settlement, Kangaroo Island, 105

  Lambrick, Lt George, 80

  Lascar sailors, 9, 60; and Australian landscape, 25; last to leave Preservation Island, 47; left behind on walk to Sydney, 32, 41; longboat sailing for Sydney, 16; lost during rescue voyage, 47; return to Canton, 48

  Leichhardt, Ludwig: death, 88; journey, 86–8; search for, 106; on Victoria Settlement, 88

  Leisham (Sydney Cove crewman), 9, 10–11

  Lewis, Edgar, 149

  life expectancy, 18th century, 5

  Little Eastern pearling vessel, 137

  Lizard Island, 175

  ‘Lizard Island Massacre’, 180–1

  Lockyer, Major Edmund, 123

  Lockyer’s Gorge, 153

  Loos, Noel, 176

  Mabo decision, 154–5

  McArthur, Captain John, 73, 79; abandons Port Essington, 80, 102–3; on Aboriginal people, 84–5; Brierley on, 97; and Father Confalonieri, 90, 95; Port Essington, 75, 97, 98; sketches of settlement, 97–8; morale-boosting activities, 81; and Leichhardt, 86; Victoria Settlement, 86, 88

  McCalman, Iain, 209

  McCrae, Alexander: and Flying Foam

  Massacre, 131, 132–4, 140, 143; on Worora, 135–6

  MacDonald, John, 199–200, 208

  Macfarlane, Robert, xvii

  MacGillivray, John, 85, 95, 102

  Maclean, Allan, 55

  Makassan fishermen, 68–9, 70, 76, 74, 108, 124, 126, 164

  Mallacoota, 23, 23, 24

  Mamitba, Tim, 107–8

  Maria Island, 12

  Meander, 103, 104–5; departing crew perform kangaroo dance, 107

  Melville Island: Fort Dundas, 65–6, 67

  Mermaid, 67, 117–18, 120, 166, 195

  Milbi Wall, Cooktown, 178, 201

  mining boom, WA, 112; and Aboriginal people, 150, 152, 153, 155

  missionaries and Aboriginal people, 88–9

  Mistaken Island, 56, 147–8

  Mitchell Library, Sydney, 56

  Morris, (Lady) Ettie, 198

  Morris, Henry, 57

  Moruya, 31–2

  Moruya River, 32–3

  Mount Burrup, 147

  Mount Cook, 163, 166

  Mount Dromedary, 4

  Mount Nameless, Afternoon (Williams, 1979), 153–4, 154

  Mount Saunders, 166, 167

  Mount Tom Price, 146, 147; Aboriginal name lost, 153, 154–5; ‘Nameless Festival’, 154; Williams’ Mount Nameless, Afternoon, 1979, 153–4, 154

  Mulligan, James, 169

  Mulligang, 133

  Mulvaney, John, 80

  Mulvaney, Ken, 113–14, 149, 160

  Murramarang Point, xii

  Murujuga, 123, 126, 127, 147–8, 153; Aboriginal Corporation, 156; Beagle visits, 148; industrial development, 149; National Heritage listing, 156, 158; National Park, 156, 160; pearl industry, 126–7; place names, 153; rock art, xx, 113, 114–16, 115, 148–9, 150, 151, 157, 159, 161–2; rock art ownership, 155; see also Burrup Peninsula; Flying Foam Massacre

  Nadgee Nature Reserve, 25, 27

  Nadgee River, 25–6, 26

  Nadjee Lake, 25

  Nairn, Charles, 124–6, 136, 137

  Narooma, 31–2

  Nash, Mike, 61

  National Museum, Canberra, 107

  Native Bier, Port Essington (Brierley, 1853), 99

  Native Police, Cooktown, 170, 172, 173, 177

  Native Title: recognised, 154; rights to Dampier Archipelago, 155–6

  Naturaliste, 53

  Neinmal, 85

  New South Wales coastline, 38

  New South Wales Corps and rum trade, 7

  Newman, 147

  Nickol Bay, 120, 126, 128, 139, 141, 157

  Nieuw Holland, 67

  ‘nigger hunting’, 138

  Norfolk Island convict rebellion, 79

  North West Shelf Gas Project, xx, 114, 147, 158

  Orontes, 67–8

  ‘out back’, xvii

  overlanders, earliest, 2–4

  Padbury, Walter, 124, 136

  Palmer, Revd Thomas, 39, 48; on kindness of Aboriginal people, 31, 40

  Palmer River: gold, xx, 165, 169–70, 175; railway to Cooktown, 196; shanty town, 168

  Pambula, 27

  Pambula Inlet, 28

  Parker Point, 145, 147–8

  Parkinson, Sydney: records Aboriginal language, 166, 203

  pastoral workers and Aboriginal people, 150, 151

  pearl industry, 126–7; Aboriginal workers, 136–7, 138, 152; ‘blackbirding’, 138; cruelty to women, 138; ‘slavery’, 138

  Pearling in 1868: A Tragic Adventure (Watson), 142–3

  Pearson, Noel, xviii, 168, 188, 210; on Cooktown violence, 175; grandfathers, 175; learns of ‘massacres’, 177; on Schwarz, 185

  Pelorus, 79–80

  Peron, Francois, 59

  Perth, 123, 138–9, 141, 142, 146

  ‘Peter’ (Aboriginal guide, WA), 128, 130, 132

  Phillip, Governor Arthur, xiv, 86

  Pigeon House, 4

  Pilbara, xvi; Aboriginal art, 109, 113, 148; age of region, 112; area, 112–13; changed by mining boom, 153; Indigenous cultural heritage, 113; landscape, 125, 126; pearls, 126; Rio Tinto operations, 110–11, 110, 112, 120, 147, 149, 155; sheep, 124–6; studies of earth’s crust, 112; see also Burrup Peninsula

  Point Hicks, 4

  Port Essington (Victoria Settlement;World’s End), xix–xx, 64, 65, 67, 71, 81, 91, 105, 126; abandoning, 102–3, 104, 105, 106; Aboriginal artefacts and bodily remains, 82;Aboriginal people, 74, 76–7, 83, 84, 70, 72, 98–100, 99; archaeological excavations, 78; Bremer returns to settle, 68, 70, 73; Brierley, 95, 97, 102, 103; Catholic missionaries, 88–9; cemetery, 96–7, 96; climate, 64–5, 101; description of (1839), 78–9; disease, 80; Dutch ships, 67; Earl on, 73–4, 76; Europeans, 71–2; fauna and flora, 82, 87; French ambitions, 78–9; garrison, 65, 66–8, 69, 71, 72, 74–5, 101; Gipps on, 76; Government House, 75, 78, 79; graveyard, 95–7, 96; hurricane, 1839, 79–80; Keppel ‘removes’ settlement, 103; King and Mermaid, 67; King names, 117; letters from ‘home’, 81; a ‘little England’, 75; McArthur, 79, 80, 86, 97–8; Makassan trepang fishermen, 68–9; marines, 86, 103; ‘Married Quarters’, 75, 75; Native Bier, Port Essington (Brierley, 1853), 99; rebuilding, 80; search for Leichhardt, 106; struggle to settle, 69, 86, 88, 100–2; wetlands, 77; wildlife, 76; the ‘World’s End’, 101–2

  Port Jackson, 4, 5, 7, 8, 31, 34, 78

  Preservation Island, Bass Strait, 1–2, 1, 15, 17, 59; European settlement, 2; excavation and research, 61; Hamilton, 13–16, 53; Hunter sends rescue mission, 41; Lascars stay when Bennett leaves, 46; longboat sails for Sydney, 16–17; named, 13; rum moved to Rum Island, 14; saving Clark’
s cargo, 47; ‘soak’, 45; Sydney Cove crew marooned, 13–14

  Raffles Bay, 65–6, 70, 72–3, 74, 79, 105; garrison, 65–6

  Rattlesnake, 95, 98, 102

  Reliance, 59–60

  Richardson, AR, 140, 141

  Ride, David, 148–9

  Rio Tinto, 110–11, 110, 112, 120, 147, 149, 155

  Risdon Cove, 53, 105

  rock art: Aboriginal rangers, 157; Arnhem Land, 70, 108, 109; Beagle crew see, 148; Burrup Peninsula, xx, 113, 114–16, 115; Depuch Island, 148–9; lost to industrial development, 160; need to protect, 160–1; Pilbara, 109, 113, 148; records contact history, 109–10; removal, 150, 155; thylacine engraving, Angel Island, 160, 161, 162; vandalised, 157; see also Murujuga

  Roe, John Septimus, 67, 69

  Roebourne Aboriginal community, 152–3, 162; see also Flying Foam Massacre

  Roth, WE, 182

  Rothwell, Nicolas, 116

  Rottnest Island gaol, 127, 135

  Rowland, Robert, 136–7

  Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, 152–3

  rum fever, 49

  Rum Island, 14, 15, 17, 59

  Savage, John, 182

  Schwarz, Georg Heinrich, 184–6, 186

  Scottish diaspora, 4–5

  sealers, Bass Strait: seal skins, 53; sell salvaged cargo, 53–4; trading Aboriginal women, 53

  Seddon, George, 112

  Self, Will, xvii

  settlers: dealing with ‘troublesome’ natives, 136; debate treatment of ‘natives’, 137; taking law into their own hands, 137; views on Flying Foam Massacre, 136; vulnerability on frontier, 137

  Shoalhaven River, 35

  Sholl, Horace, 129–31, 139; on Murujuga killings, 134

  Sholl, RJ, 129–30

  Sholl, Trevarton, 136

  Sibbald, Archibald, 81, 83, 84–6, 100

  Simpson, Thomas Beckford, 106

  smallpox, 106, 127, 196

  Smith, Alice, 152

  Smyth, Captain Henry, 72–3

  Snowball, Lilla, 153

  Solander, Daniel, 189

  Sovereign, 7

  Sowden MP, William J, 173–4

  ‘Specimen of the Aboriginal Language or Short Conversation with the Natives of North Australia Port Essington’ (Confalonieri), 92–3, 92

  Stanley, Captain Owen, 81, 95, 97, 98, 102

 

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