ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Genever, Terence Geoffrey (1996) The road to Lotus Glen: Aborigines, the law, justice and imprisonment in colonial Queensland. PhD thesis, James Cook University of North Queensland. Access to this file is available from: http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/35099/ If you believe that this work constitutes a copyright infringement, please contact [email protected] and quote http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/35099/ THE ROAD TO LOTUS GLEN: ABORIGINES, THE LAW, JUSTICE AND IMPRISONMENT IN COLONIAL QUEENSLAND. Thesis submitted by Terence Geoffrey Genever, BA(Hons). March 1996. for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History and Politics James Cook University of North Queensland I, the undersigned, the author of this thesis, understand that the James Cook University of North Queensland will make it available for use within the University library and by microfilm or other photographic means, allow access to users in other approved libraries. All users consulting this thesis will have to sign the following statement: "In consulting this thesis I agree not to copy or closely paraphrase it in whole or in part without the written consent of the author; and to make proper written acknowledgment for any assistance which I have obtained from it." Beyon9Ahis, I do not wish to place any restriction on access to this thesis. /. f}···1R/.IC.. .... !.Jjft ABSTRACT This thesis examines aspects of the laws that were applied to Aborigines during Queensland's colonial era. It looks at the effect of imposing an alien judicial system on people who did not understand it but nonetheless recognised its inequity. It argues that the criminal justice system that was applied to black people had specific aims that were quite separate from those directed at Europeans. For Aborigines this law employed the thinking of a bygone draconian age, but did so in an epoch when white offenders were being subjected to a system that was marked by legal benignity. Therefore during this period a dual system was operating. To substantiate its argument, the work looks at the white response to crimes by Aborigines and in doing so it seeks to analyse the effects of an outmoded and imposed legal strategy that was manipulated to further the aims of colonialism at the expense of justice. This, allied to white racial attitudes and European constructions of Aboriginality, provides a starting point from which to consider a situation where black representation in Queensland's prisons grew from nil to over 50% in some gaols. It is a thesis on a failed system which is at least partially responsible for Australian Aborigines currently being counted as the world's most frequently imprisoned people. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Appendices Abbreviations 11 Map iii Declaration iv PART A FIRST STEPS ON THE ROAD Introduction v Chapter 1: British and Colonial Policy. 1 Chapter 2: The Application of English Law 33 to Aboriginal People, 1788-1850. Chapter 3: The White Response to Aboriginal 59 Crime at Moreton Bay. Chapter 4: Justice, Aborigines, the Press and 82 Pastoralism. Chapter 5: Crime or Armed Resistance? 115 The Northern District, 1840-1860. Chapter 6: The White Reaction to Aboriginal 150 Crimes against European Women. PARTB POLICING THE ROAD TO LOTUS GLEN Chapter 7: White Police: Historical Perspectives. 185 Chapter 8: Aboriginal/Police Relations in 202 Pre Separation Queensland. Chapter 9: Morum Billak's Policemen: 215 The Native Police in Pre Separation Queensland. Chapter 10: The Post Walker Native Police and the 1861 Enquiry. 246 PARTC THE ROAD TO LOTUS GLEN Chapter 11: Transportation, Reserves, Missions and Other Forms of 287 Imprisonment. Conclusion 322 Appendices 326 Bibliography 340 LIST OF APPENDICES Page Appendix A Offences Committed by Aborigines Tried by Supreme 326 Court during 12 months prior to 13 June 1860. Appendix B Aborigines Tried and Sentenced to Queensland's Major 327 Prisons. Appendix C Reported Sexual Assaults by Aboriginal Men on 333 European Women. Appendix D Strength and Cost of Queensland Police During Initial 335 Years of the Colony's Foundation. Appendix E Part of Frederick Walker's Bill, Royal Hotel 336 Maryborough, May 1852 Appendix F Strength and Location of NP as at 31 December, 1864 337 Appendix G O'Connell's Proposal for the Establishment of a 338 Mounted Police Force for the Frontier Districts of NSW Appendix H Queensland's Prison Population. 339 ii ABBREVIATIONS AONSW Archives Office of New South Wales. BPP British Parliamentary Papers. co Colonial Office. Col. Sec. Colonial Secretary. Comdt Commandant. HRA Historical Records of Australia. HRNSW Historical Records of NSW. JRHSQ Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland. MF Micro film. NA No Author. ND No Date. RM Royal Marines. RN Royal Navy. NP orNMP Native Mounted Police. NSWLC New South Wales Legislative Council. PRO Public Record Office England and Wales. QPD Queensland Parliamentary Debates. QPP Queensland Parliamentary Papers. QSA Queensland State Archives. QVP Queensland Votes and Proceedings. Lt.or Lieut. Lieutenant. 2/Lt. Second Lieutenant. S.I. Sub Inspector. 1ll MAP OF QUEENSLAND SHOWING PLACES REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT Scale I em = 200km iv DECLARATION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institution of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references given. I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Doctor Dawn May for her help, her guidance and for never failing to find the time to read my work no matter how busy she was. I am deeply indebted to James Cook University's Dean of Commerce and Economics, Karen McPherson for the priceless help she has given me in preparing the document. My thanks are also due to Margaret who was unstinting in help and encouragement even when she lay in hospital with a broken back, and it is to her that I dedicate the work. Geoff Genever March 1996 PART A: FIRST STEPS ON THE ROAD Introduction v It seems that countries that have indigenous people as part of their population find reason to gaol them more frequently than those who come from their settler stock. Recognition of this phenomenon caused Amnesty International to conduct a survey that asked such nations what percentage of their indigenous people were in prison. About one third of the countries declined to answer, but from the two thirds that did, it was concluded that Aboriginal Australians were the world's most imprisoned people. In Queensland's case, many of them become inmates of Lotus Glen. The correctional centre at Lotus Glen near Mareeba on the Atherton Tableland is Queensland's most northern prison. It was established to accommodate prisoners living between Cardwell, which is situated approximately 150 kilometres north of Townsville, and the islands of the Torres Strait. Opened in 1989, it was built to house 224 prisoners of all security classifications.1 Most of the state's Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander people live in this region, therefore one would expect the gaol to reflect the region's indigenous presence. Even so it is a shock to visit Lotus Glen. The first impression one gains is that it is a blacks only prison. In fact the population of this institution is about 60% black. Admittedly Lotus Glen is an extreme case, but one of the more noticeable features of all Queensland prisons is the number of black people they contain. The census of 1991 found that there are about 70,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the state of Queensland, but it does not differentiate between the two. The overwhelming majority however, are Aboriginal rather that Torres Strait Islanders and together they represent a little over 2% of Queensland's total inhabitants.2 This 2% provides over 16% of the State's prisoners.3 The statistics for women are even more depressing. The latest figures published by the Queensland Corrective Services Commission are for 30 June 1995 and these show that on The Queensland Corrective Services Commission, Annual Report, 1991!92, p.16. 2 Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of 1991. 3 Information supplied by Mareeba Area Office, Queensland Corrective Services Commission. vi that date 104 women were serving sentences in the state. Of these 86 were in Brisbane and 23 of them were black. In Townsville, the only other prison to house women, out of a total of 18, 11 were indigenous women. If all things were equal there should be two or three black women in Queensland's gaols, instead there are 34."' Their plight tends to be overlooked because it stands in the shadow of the massive imprisonment of black men. The fact remains however, that the incarceration of indigenous women is crying out for investigation. When Lotus Glen Correctional Centre first began to receive prisoners, one of the stated aims was to reduce the number of Aboriginal inmates by 50% within two years. What has happened is that the proportion of black prisoners has increased rather than decreased and it has been found necessary to open two small satellite prisons for Aboriginal people on Cape York Peninsula, with a third planned for Palm Island near Townsville in the very near future. To add to this bleak picture, Aboriginal prisoners in Lotus Glen are now being joined by their children.5 Surely this should be an intolerable situation for any society with even a modicum of social conscience. Recently an investigation commenced to discover why this was happening and why so many Aboriginal people are being gaoled for non serious crimes.6 Up until the time of writing, no report has been released and my belief is that a scarcely interested general public will never know that such an inquiry even took place, let alone what it discovered.