SERRP Historical report; an overview

By Fiona Skyring, PhD, for South Native Title Services, 3 December 2016, SERRP Community Meeting Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders are advised

This slideshow contains images of and references to deceased people. Also, I quote from archival records and other documents from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and many of the terms used in these documents which refer to Aboriginal people are now regarded as offensive. These include terms such as ‘blacks’ and ‘half-castes’. Throughout the text of this presentation, I do not place such terms in quotation marks when I quote directly from the historical record. Although these terms are considered inappropriate today, they reflected the attitudes of the period in which they were written.

The groundwork

 This historical report was the very first stage of the SERRP project, and all of the work undertaken before the anthropological fieldwork began  The final report is over 200 pages, with 50 photo illustrations and ten historical maps was finished in December 2011  Close to 200 primary source records were reviewed by me and the QSNTS research team for the report, along with 70 published records, and collections of photographs and historical maps

Moreton Bay map 1842 QSA Item ID 634892 War : ‘the battle for the Darling Downs’

Squatter John Campbell took land on the Severn River and established Kittah Kittah station, later called Beebo. He befriended Multuggerah, who became leader of his tribe and in command of a force of 1,200 ‘fighting men’. Aboriginal oral traditions put the figure even higher – at 3,000. Campbell had moved to in 1843, and Multuggerah sent a messenger to warn him not to travel to the Darling Downs. Campbell described the message in the quote above. He initially scoffed at the threat but soon realised it was serious. In Brisbane, he and his fellow settlers received regular reports of shepherds being killed by Aboriginal people and sheep being driven from the outstations, to the point where white labourers refused to undertake such work and stations were abandoned. This illustration is from 1854, and the groups here were called the ‘Amity Point, Logan, Bribie’s Island and Ningy Ningy tribes’. Tom Petrie recalled that in the early 1850s, such ritual fights were held on the flat in front of what is now Roma Street train station. These ritual fights were often held after ‘kippa making’ ceremonies, when boys of 13 to 15 years old were initiated.

‘Depredations’ and ‘dispersals’; the Native Police in the south east

W. Compigne in the photo left was William Compigne, a squatter at Nindooinbah station who, in 1860, had requested that Lieutenant Frederick Wheeler of the Native Police come and ‘disperse’ the Aboriginal people gathering near his station. Portrait of Frederick Walker, John Oxley Library, Acc 80- ‘John Marlow posing with fellow police and Aboriginal trackers’, John Oxley Library, State Library of 11-7 Queensland, Negative 147045 – from left to right shows Aboriginal trooper Carbine, white officers John Marlow, G. Murray and W. Compigne and trooper and Nimble in c. 1865. The epic journey of Trooper Slab and his countrymen

This shows Aboriginal troopers in their camp at Kedron Brook, undated but c. 1860s.

‘Aboriginal camp - native police’, John Oxley Library, negative no.117029 Working for the settlers Working for the settlers

‘Station worker and children in the Beaudesert District, Whetstone Station near Inglewood c. 1910, Description: 1912’, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, ‘Hodgson’ who worked at Eton Vale station, the sheep run ‘Nurse with Charge. Baby Rabbitt’, John Oxley Library, State negative no. 107709 taken up on the Darling Downs in 1840 by squatter, Aurthur Library of Queensland, negative no. 15426 Hodgson, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative no. 36875 ‘Man and woman with shelter, Beenleigh, 1895’, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative no. 21299

Above: ‘Camp at Widgee Creek, Beaudesert district, 1907, Two families - William Smith and another’, John Oxley Library, negative no. 48267, and right: Canning Downs living Room, 1900, negative 1778. Salvation Army Jacko ‘Women in front of shelters at Southport’, and family, 1891, John Oxley Library, State Library of 1900, John Queensland, negative no. 11514 Oxley Library, negatives 16074 and 10422 Leaders

Old Coolum

‘Portrait of Coolum from the Beaudesert district, 1900- 1908’, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative no. 190295 Tarampa Johnny, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative no. 73911 Bilin Bilin /Jackey Jackey

Right: ‘Jacky from the Logan and Pimpama River District, ca. 1895’. The breast plate is inscribed ‘Jacky Jacky King of the Logan and Pimpama’. (Description supplied with photograph), John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Negative no. 21309. Above: ‘On the Albert - a day with the tribe and King’, Photo by Will Stark, 1893, courtesy Queensland Museum, negative no. EH 781 Sharing knowledge of language and country: Bullum /John Allen

These photos are from from J. Lane and J. Allen, ‘The grammar and vocabulary of the Wangerriburras’, in Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for the year 1913. Sharing knowledge of language and country; Bunjoey /Susan McArthy

Left: : ‘Susan from Coochin Coochin station sitting with another woman in the Boonah district’, John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative no. 8842 and right: ‘Susan and others in front of house on Coochin Coochin Station, ca. 1919’ (description with photo that Susan is the woman in the white dress), John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, negative no. 144142. Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897

This Act of Queensland Parliament was ostensibly for the ‘care and protection’ of Aboriginal people, but the impact was devastating for Aboriginal people. Policies such as forced removal of children, of families and in some cases entire communities from their country to overcrowded missions and settlements did not benefit Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders in any way, and the damaging legacy of those policies are still here today.

Forced removals to Deebing Creek

This photo from the early 1900s showed Bilin Bilin at Deebing ‘At Deebing Creek’ from Roberts Family of Ipswich, c. 1900s, Creek. , John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Queensland Museum Ethnohistorical Photograph collection, negative no. 18939 negative no. EH 5720 Deebing Creek mission,‘The cricket team’ from ‘Blacks in war paint for corroboree’, Deebing Crrek mission, from Roberts Family of Ipswich, c. 1900, courtesy Roberts Family of Ipswich, c. 1900s, Queensland Museum Queensland Museum Ethnohistorical Photograph Ethnohistorical Photograph collection, negative no. EH 5719-0. collection, negative no. EH 5721-0 Deebing Creek and Purga

Chief Protector Meston wrote in 1906, the number of applicants for native girls as domestic servants is still much greater than can be met by girls at the immediate disposal of the Protector of Aboriginals (Female).

‘At drill’, Deebing Creek, c. 1900, courtesy Queensland Museum Ethnohistorical Photograph collection, negative no. EH 5718 Life on the mission; Purga, Barambah and Taroom and applications for exemption

Transcript: Well Mr We get treated very bad the tea we get here is only hot water and milk and sometimes meat to make us sick full of maggots so this is our report to you and the small boys get skinny every day through the tucker we eat so please put an end to this. Our report, Purga mission Unsigned but possibly by Stanley Bell, S. Bell to Under Secretary, 8 October 1930 in Queensland State Archives Item dated c. 1930 ID 848416, Correspondence. Living and working on traditional country

From Hillview State School centenary souvenir. Aboriginal diggers in World War I

1917, Enogerra, 3rd general Service Reinforcements, Egypt, for Light Horse Regiment’, (Fred Coolwell is back row, second from right), image PO1074.001, Australian War Memorial. 'The pure dinkum Aussies of the AIF were our Aborigine cobbers who donned khaki.’ Quote from the editors of Reveille, the NSW Returned Soldiers’ magazine, 31 October 1931

This list is of Queensland Aboriginal men who served in the First AIF and was compiled by the Chief Protector. It was published in an issue of the returned soldiers’ magazine Reveille in November 1931.

Members of the Australian Light Horse (possibly the 5th LHR in Palestine, according to catalogue notes), c. 1918, image PO1719, Australian War Memorial. At least one of the soldiers seated on the left is Aboriginal though he is unnamed in the caption.

At right, letter from F. Fighting for Coolwell our liberty

Basil Renaudin Vel was organiser and Secretary of the branch of the Australian Aboriginals Progressive Association. Miss Anderson lived at Tweed Heads. Anderson wrote to her friend that Vel was, our organiser and secretary of the Australian Aboriginals Progressive Association…he is a beautiful speaker he is fighting for our liberty. We got a royal Commission granted to us…they are preparing our claims for the court and we are asking for the Aboriginal Protector to wipe off the foremost Book of Law in NSW. Oh if you could take a run up here and hear him speak on Saturday night, it will be a great day…you can tell all the coloured people about that this is going on. 13 April 1926, letter from Miss Zoe? Anderson, Tweed Heads to May, in Item ID 848217.

Texas and Inglewood

Excerpt from Report, NSW Aborigines Welfare Department, 10 April 1952 Woodenbong in 1960

A Woodenbong resident quoted in 1960: All the Board ever does is take our kids away from us. Why don’t they give us decent houses to live in? Look at it! Would you like to live like that?

People at Woodenbong, c. 1920s, from AIATSIS photo collection, image no. Haglund L4.BW N4968.04. Opal - One People for Australia League

‘Holiday Camp Committee of OPAL, Holland Park Brisbane’ (note in Young women 1970s OPAL, courtesy Queensland the catalogue that one of girls is Colleen Currie) in Queensland Museum Ethnohistorical Photograph Collection EH5052 Museum Ethnohistorical Photograph Collection, negative no. EH (2) 5098. The campaign for Deebing Creek cemetery

Right from Courier Mail, 3 December 1977 and above section of article quoting Budger Davidson, Queensland Times 30 December 1985

Then Queensland Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Bob Katter, argued that Aboriginal people did not need more land. He said they had reserves lands in the north with, 40 to 60 inch rainfall areas so this makes the Aborigines some of the richest people in the world Queensland Times, 6 December 1985

Images of the camp from the Queensland Times, 16 and 27 December 1985 Budger Davidson, head of the Deebing Creek Cultural Camp said: We are here to stay. The land is ours and we will stay until we get the freehold title to the land, not just a deed in trust. From Queensland Times, 6 December 1985