The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Thursday 5 January 1933, page 29

BARRIERS OF SPEARS. The Ousting Of The Bibbulmun.

a law, at least a knowledge of it should it cannot be rightly said have caused them to hold their hands- m ALTHOUGHthat the Swan River Settlement was the early stages of the troubles with the pioneered in blood, England did in natives. It is probable that had not the time pay in lives for her first act of aggression by the native* been .umpire to the western half of the Aus punished by the indiscriminate slaughter tralian continent. Unmolested at first, of members of the offending tribe, the early the colonists who came to found years of bloodshed and fear that followed a new State were shortly opposed by the might, have been avoided. Bibbulmun tieopl* of who the South-West, Be that as it may, the first pages of for untold centuries had roamed and Western Australia's history were stained land. hunted over the Seeing themselves with much innocent blood and many a gradually but surely being dispossessed stirring chapter was written' before the soil, from the their 'kalleeps,' or home chronicle of events became a more sober fires, their hunting grounds and their tale. The 'natives, in the end, suffered rivers, lakes and lagoons passing from the heavier penalty. Many of them paid into them the control of the white men, for their crimes with their lives, many the aboriginal savages commenced to harry more were unjustly slaughtered, and at middle of the newcomers, and from the length the tribes of the South-West were of 1830, just a year after the foundation driven from their haunts, .so that to-day settler the Colony, until 1840, settler after they are but homeless outcasts in the fell and clubs. So victim to their spears land of the whites, or are segregated with frequent and numerous did the outrages their half-caste brothers and sisters in times the despairing set ' become that at the native settlements— a sad end to a tlers seriously considered abandoning the race that, however low in type, deserved Colony altogether. Along the Swan, the ? better fate. and the rivers, at Perth, Canning Murray STONE-AGE SURVIVALS. Guildford, York and Leschenault settlera, were interesting BoldierB and even women and children^ were They an people, these lie of cruelly done to death. Their graves Bibbulmun the South-West whom the first settlers scattered wide over the area first held found along the shores if by the colonists. the Swan and in the country to the To what extent the price paid in human south. Differing only in local peculiarities blood for the possession of this State may from their fellows scattered over the be charged to the settlers themselves, for length and breadth of the Australian con their failure to understand the primitive tinent, they are of a race as interesting 'any laws of their savage neighbours and for as on the face of the earth. Their their harshness in exacting the lives of origin is shrouded in mystery, .their in the aborigines in payment for petty thefts tricate tribal laws but imperfectly under committed and for insolent threats Btood by white 'men, and the uncanny uttered, must remain a matter for con power of superstition,! over, their lives a for jecture. It is certain that every murder matter never-ending wonder on the of civilised observers. For of a white man perpetrated by the natives part years after their existence first was claimed by them to have been, an act became known of retaliation for the killing of one of few troubled to learn much about them; their number by whites, and if innocent not many seriously attempted to learn their language, victims fell it was but in keeping with and to this day few have mastered it. degree, ? native custom sanctioned by time and Primitive to a in and practice. A life for a life had always nomadic habit possessing only the skill been the native law, and the aborigines rudest in arts and crafts, they are in short a prehistoric race cut off for of this country never held it necessary thousands, millions, of that the actual killer should be the one perhaps years from the influences affected to pay the price. While Britons could that the develop not have been expected to tolerate such ment of the peoples of the other conti nents—people of the old Stone a law, at least a knowledge of it should Age per

National Library of Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32585326 per haps, who became isolated from their a theory, with its sombre imagery, has fellows before the dawn of civilisation. much to commend it, unsatisfactory as Certainly wood and stone are the only ethnologists may regard it. substances that they have ever turned HAPPY SAVAGES. to their own use. Being what they are Whatever their origin, the Bibbulmun they have left practically nothing to were certainly, the owners of every acre serve as a guide to their early history, of land in the south-western portion of though some of their customs, such as the State before the white man came. those of circumcision and the practice of For untold centuries they had lived out burying their dead with their faces to their unchanging lives in the vast land, the sun, their totem worship and their doubtless happy enough in their *tvagery, clan distinctions within the tribes, have hunting the plains, spearing fish in the given slender clues for ethnologists to rivers and finding an abundance of frod work on. The mystery of their past has throughout the year. Although they built not, however, yet been solved. The re no permanent abodes, contenting them cent discovery of replicas of their kylies, ' selves with the rudest of temporary 'mia- or boomerangs, in Egypt has given mias,' or shrub and bark shelters. v-Jien ethnologists fresh food for thought, but they were not lying out under ta-? stars, all ia yet conjecture. Unlike most native they were nomads only within the limits races, they do not even possess tradi of their own tribal territories, and within tions of origin, and at the rate they limits edible-root supply, every are those every disappearing from the earth it ap swamp where the wildfowl nested, every pears likely that the secret of their ances favourite haunt of the kangaroo and the try will die with them, although many and every watering place, was known learned inquirers are working hard to emu other, e solve the puzzle. to some tribal group or and garded as the peculiar property of that was THEORIES a particular food OF ORIGIN. group. Wherever plentiful it was the totem food of the Ethnologists agree that the first abori claiming that territory as ite own. ginal race migrated to Australia from the group Every group amongst the Bibbulmun north, aeons ago, when Australia was still food, or 'bo- to people had its own totem joined Asia, when Tasmania was a (elder brothers) as they called part of the Mainland, and when Central rung-gur' that 'bo-rung-gur.' meaning, as Australia was a fertile, it and verdant plain. it' it. did, life to the group who possessed They agree, too, that later a second migra ' mystically related a regarded as being tion of race higher in type than the was In the of the flimple first followed from the north, intermixing to the group. eyes those it endowed with spirit quali with who had preceded them ages savages was before, but failing to reach Tasmania, ties. When the season arrived that saw then had which by become separated from a group's 'bo-rung-gur' ready for the eat the Mainland by Bass Strait. Whence ing, neighbouring groups were invited to offering. those migrants came and the manner of share in the plenty that was is still their coining a profound mystery, When that particular food was out of theories are it was though numerous. It a said season, the group whose totem-food that the first pure, but lower-grade, stock accepted the hospitality of another group available. became extinct when the last Tasnianian whose totem-food was then hospitality, for died, after the coming of the white man, Every group could accept it offer and it is a fact that the hybrid people the time would come when could who are the aborigines of the Mainland hospitality in return. Thus did the Bibbul of highly to-day are fust following their Tasmanian nun groups have a sense property forebears 'winytch,' the abiding-place developed. Deprived of the source of to __ with of their dead. their food* they would be utterly The Bibbulmun people of the South out possessions, and as they undoubtedly one could not West of this State have offered bad a strong group pride and ictl-pt without theory as to their origin. They told the food from their neighbours in an return the hospitality settlers of 100 years ago, according to being able to was to deprive account published in 'The Perth Gazette' season, an invasion that of November 5, 1836, that their ancestors them of their totem-food supplies would their whole social system came to this land from over the sea on inevitably upset certainly bitterly resented. the backs of crows in the 'jang-ga-nyit- ind would be Bibbulmun had nothing ting,' or cold time of long As sym For centuries the ago. fell, bolic of the obscurity of their origin such to fear. Empires rose and new worlds of the native lore were discovered, but the home of the and customs while in the spirit-land. Bibbuhnun remained secure from the They expressed their con viction land-hungry whites. Its existence was that their 'janga' were very foolish on barely guessed at. that account. . So the white men and thus they * COMING OF THE 'JANGA.' came, were received. For almost a year the astonishing Then the great ships came, natives along the Swan and Murray rivers apparitions Bibbulmun. First to the dusky offered them no hurt. When, after the Dutch craft loomed the great high-decked troubles had started, one of the earliest sea-mists, and the of up out of the poor super friends the natives asked a Swan River stitious terror-stricken at it aborigines were native how was that the blacks could us that the awful sight. They have told murder their own 'janga,' he was told the terrible their forebears, on seeing that the natives considered that they had things and thinking that the great wauguL treated them very well, considering that was me of their fabled sea-monsters, many of the 'janga' were the spirits dead of unfriendly tribes. The coming to devour them, At palsied on the of the native pointed out that if the beach and howled in fear. But the Dutch people of those unfriendly tribes had come to men passed on. Then came the French the Swan River territory direct from their and the English— and the English came to without having first stay. own haunts, been to spirit-world, they would have One of the firmest of aboriginal beliefs the been a much nioro hostile reception. is that after death their people pass to given a land beyond the sea. When Captain FIRST ATTACK ON WHITES. Stirling's boats came up the Swan River The Swan River tribes saw tbat their in March, 1827, on a preliminary explor 'janga' had learned many useful arts in ing expedition, the Bibbuhnun along the that land across the sea, not the least river saw in the occupants of the boats of which was the production of flour and their 'janga,' or departed ones, return the making of bread, or 'very good' os ing from the spirit-land. Some thought it. they came to term They could not they recognised the returning ones among understand, however, the parsimonious the 'janga' of cannibals from tribes to manner in which their returned brethren the their north of own country, . and again hoarded those delightful foods, and many they thought that they were to be de and artful were the persuasions they roured. Those who saw the 'cannibal adopted to wheedle 9ome of it from the spirts' fled to the bush in terror. When, white men. In a short space they be iiowever. Stirling Captain returned two in came persistent beggars and, time, rears later with the first colonists many accomplished thieves. With the passage )f the Bibbuhnun were certain that. more of the months they became more and Friendly disposed 'janga' had arrived, for more audacious, stealing from bousea when bhey recognised amongst the white men ever they got a chance, robbing vegetable the 'spirits' of friends relations. and That stock whan belief gardens, and even spearing that 'the white people were the their cupidity 'was sufficiently aroused. 'janga' of their own dead fixed became their first outrage. On in Then came open the minds of the black men, and many of them openly claimed the newcomers May 8, 1830, in broad daylight, they at u their long-departed relatives and more house of a settler named Paton, wanted tacked the . their than once, to hug 'them to settlement of on the western edge of the bosoms.' Even one of the early Gover Perth, in the vicinity of what is now nors was claimed by an old native woman the West Leedervule station, hurling of Perth as her dead son,' come back from at the occupants and their neigh 'winytch,' the spirit-world, and would spurs and driving them away, while they not be appeased until she had embraced bours pillaging the house. It was fact, commenced him. The that the newcomers were only after one of the marauders had been white was accounted for by. the fact that wounded by a neightbour of after death shot at and in the Bibbulmun country off. ' that the thieves were driven ' Paton's they had made their way through the In the absence at Port Leschenault of ocean to the spirit-world and the waters Stirling), the Governor (Captain James the had. washed them white in the course of military force (Cap It-: Commandant the of the long journey. was frequently tain F. C. Irwin) followed up the raiders a matter for surprise to the natives that and overtook them near Monger's Lake. the all their killed the white 'janga' had forgotten Whether any natives were in native and in the followed is not known, as encounter that followed is not known, as all the natives carried away of their party who had been shot, and only the groans of their wounded were heard by the soldiers. The natives claimed later that several had been killed, and although Captain Irwin whom his impressed on the natives with own party had come in contact that he had spared them aD, when they were had disas at his mercy, the encounter first trous consequences. The blood had been spilt, and the next was soon to flow. A few weeks later a settler named McKenzie was fatally speared on the Murray River by a party of natives of the Kalyute tribe, in retaliation for the natives shot near Monger's Lake. A second murder of a white man was perpetrated before the end of the year. A party of Perth aborigines were disturbed while robbing potatoes from the garden of a settler named Butler, on the shores of Melville Water, and one of them was shot dead as he was escaping. In revenge, a party of savages, led by Midgegooroo and Yagan, who were to become in the next few years the most implacable enemies of the small band of settlers along the Swan River, surrounded Butler's house and murdered a Mr. Entwistle in front of his two young sons. The unfortunate man was horribly mutilated, Midgegooroo Vwife EffojgtiTig in th» desecration of the corpse.

decked out for a corroboree. Natives in their savage state, decked out for a corroboree.

ROBBERY AND MURDER.

In the following year the natives be came even more daring in their acts of robbery and violence, and punitive meas ures taken by the whites were invariably followed by attacks on isolated settlers, many of whom were slaughtered. Yagan and Midgegooroo were in the vicinity whenever a fatal, attack was made on the whites, and in several instances were known to have led the attackers. Yet such was their insolent courage that they openly approached the settlers against whom they intended no harm, and even strolled unmolested around, the straggling streets of the township of Perth. They declared to more than one settler that if i black man was killed a white man should iie as well, and there were few who eared to jeopardise the lives of themselves or their families ~by shooting down the re doubtable chieftans. Many settlers even came to regard the two with a certain treasure of admiration, for there is no doubt that, despite their ruthlessness, they were magnificent savages. However, when the outrages were continued in 1832 fear took hold of the community. In May Yagan and a party of his tribesmen attacked two settlers on the Canning River and killed one. Thefts from gardens, re garded at that period as crimes to be punished with swift death, continued to be numerous and punishments meted out by the settlers brought sudden reprisals in their train. Alarm spread through the white community, and in June there was talk of abandoning the settlement. In August Governor Stirling left for England on business connected with the Colony, and during his absence Yagan was captured and placed on Carnac Island. H«~ escaped and came smilingly back amongst * the whites/ moving unmolested around The advent of civilisation: Natives who have come under the

influence of a missionary.

lull Fremantle and Perth, a temporary in MIDGEGOOROO KILLED. the campaign of aggression and repulsion killers escaped into the bush, but deciding the authorities to hold their The their crime had sealed the fate of one of hands for the sake of peace. It would their doughty leaders. The wave of horror have been wiser, as events proved, to the community when have taken firmer action. Once the that swept through details were published in 'The Perth trouble had started, whoever had been the Gazette' led to the three ringleader being responsible for it, it was too late to adopt was offered i hesitating policy. While Yagan, Midge mtlawed, and a reward by Acting-Govemor-in-Council for their ;ooroo and Jlunday lived both sides paid he alive. timid i heavy price for the unfortunate circum sapture dead or Although of stances that had set the feud in operation. lettlers still ignored easy opportunities them the heels, Shortly after Yagan's escape a sol aying one or other of by Ellis, of lier's wife was speared, and the cam Captain Superintendent Native paign of repulsion and aggression com tribes, succeeded in capturing Midge 16, into menced anew. In February, 1833, a poroo on May and bringing him tried, to death Mr. Gaze was killed at Kelmscott and in Perth. He was sentenced later led out in front of April a foolish servant of a Major Nairn's ind a few hours then in St. wantonly murdered a native on the Can ie Perth Gaol, George's the site of the Dean ning-road, by shooting him down from a terrace, on present of s rejoicing cart, just to show how they dealt with 37,- and in the presence firing natives in Van Diem en's Land. Immedi :rowd shot by a squad. of other ately afterwards another native named Still lusting for the blood the ringleaders of the Bull Creek outrage, Domjuin was shot dead by a man named settlers scoured the bush be Chidlow, who detected him robbing Down jarties of rween the Swan and Canning rivers, ing's store at Fremautle. On hearing the learching especially for Yagan. Many news Yagan became frenzied with rage. nnocent natives were shot and others Foaming at the- mouth he set off in com flogged the incensed settlers and a and by pany with Midgegooroo, Munday aught lefore Yagan was shot down in a rather party, from Preston Point, early on April xeacherouB manner by a lad named Keats, 30, 1833, on slaughter-bent. By a coin bank of the fell in, Bull -n July 11, on the eouth cidence the avengers near Swan River. Keats and his younger Creek, off the Canning-road, with the same -rother had been fraternising with Yagan eart from which the native had been shot and when brothers, named throughout that morning, Yagan down in cold blood. Two efiler ras about to leave them the lad Velvick, who were in the cart were [hot him in the back. Yagan'a com riddled with spears and then further panions retaliated by spearing the slayer mutilated. a- death, though not until a companion a- lecided on giving the Murray River tribe -f Yagan's had been shot dead. i salutary lesson. A party of 25 mounted The two principal, and incidentally the men, led by Governor Stirling, then re wo most picturesque chieftains, having cently returned from England, where ho alien the decree of outlawry imposed on bad been knighted, and including Mr. tfunday was lifted and friendly overtures Robert Peel and Captain Ellis, as well vere made to him and his followers. The is 11 soldiers of the 21st Regiment, ?esult was that a truce was declared. moved off from Mr. Peel's home, near the ATTACK OF SHENTON'S MILL. Murray River, where Sir James Stirling happened to be on a business visit, and It was rudely broken on the morning let off for the townsite of Pinjarra. -f April 2i, 1831, when a party of 30 natives from the Kalyute tribe, led by BATTLE OF PIN JARRA. the attacked Mr. 6. 6hen dusky Galute, On October 28, 1834, they fell in with ton's i'iT| known as at Pi. Belches (now about 60 natives of the Kalyute tribe who the Mill, South Perth), bunt Old open were on the north side of the Murray the after seizing the owner door, and River, near the Pinjarra townsite. Cap ind threatening to spear him, decamped tain Stirling's party had forded the rivei (rith OSOIb. flour. A set-out of party to the southern bank a little earlier, but pursuit and a strategem captured n by liter making an attempt to parley with tour including Galute, of them, Yey-Dong, natives from across the water, Captain near the Gtammol and Wamba, Murray Ellis and the greater part of the ex fifth River. A member of the marauding pedition recrossed the stream and rode tribe was shot dead when trying to towards the natives. The Kalyutes, fear The were to iscape. captives brought ing an attack, got their spears ready. public^ flogged, Perth and three of them Captain Ellis gave the signal to charge, lashes. in Salute receiving 60 The next and the now historic battle of Pinjarra udent in the occurred in campaign May. opened. It proved a slaughter of the when the farm of Mr. Burgess at Upper natives. After several of their number 3wan was attacked and robbed. Yeeda had been shot down the terrified Kal nira, one of the marauders, was cap yutes took to the river and made for the tured. As he was attempting to escape opposite bank. Sir James Stirling's party Tom the soldiers' barracks, on the Can rode up on that side and the fleeiag aing Eiver, he was shot dead by a sol natives were caught between two fires. lier named Denis Larkin. His chief, Slipping back into the river, those who OTestp by name, on hearing the name of had reached the bank cowered beneath &? dayar from two officer* of th« mili the water, with only their faces visible, tary forct came op to the barracks and, their spears still, clutched in their hands. ifter conversing with Larkin for a while, There, many of them were ignobly done iurled a spear through his body with to death, including three .women and one rach force that it struck the wall in child. Early.- reports :bf the encounter.^ ront of which Larkin was standing, and gave the number killed as from 25 to Exclaiming rebounded out of the wound. 30, though a later, semiofficial report set Ily God! I'm a dead man!' Larkin fell down. the number killed ;a3 14. Amongst to the ground a corpse. In June a boy the whites one man was speared in the na killed by natives on the York-road arm and Captain Ellis was mortally ind a Mr. Chipper was speared in the wounded. The surviving natives were cap jack near dripper's Leap on the same tured and warned that if they persisted road. At the aid of the month Mr. Bland in their ways a larger force ?would come tnd a party were attacked in the same against them and exterminate them. They locality and a servant named Souper were then set at liberty, and told to speared through the arm. In July a Mr. warn the other tribes. A song, 'The Barron and a servant of Captain Adam Jackets of Green,' was written to cele Armstrong's, one Hugh Nesbit, a 10year brate the great victory, and was for a »Id private of the 21st Regiment, were time popular in Perth: ittacked oa the Peel Estate by members On the return of the Governor to of the Murray River tribe. Barron was Perth efforts at civilising the natives were sritically wounded and Nesbit was killed, commenced. A reserve was set aside at ind then horribly mutilated. the foot of Mt. Eliza and placed in charge The murder of Nesbit marked the be* of Mr. F. F. Armstrong, one of the few end of the native trouble settlers who had learned the natives' nnning of the , in the South-West. The incensed settlers language and made an attempt to under lecided on giving the Murray River tribe stand .their ways1. The reserve remained The stand .their ways1. reserve remained clothes-props at the doors of the dwellings in existence for many years, and the work of their white 'janga.' done there had a considerable effect in quietening the local tribe. No further murders by natives were recorded close to Perth after the Pinjarra shambles, but in May, 1835, the scene of conflict shifted to the York district and many murders wtere committed there in the four follow ing years. In September, 1835, Mr. Lay man received spear wounds a few miles south of the Murray river, as he was travelling from Augusta to Perth and a year later a man named Knott, known as the King of Guildford, was killed at Guildford. Those were among the last recorded outrages committed by the Swan and Murray river natives, but the trouble at ¥brk persisted until, following the murder of a woman and her eightmonths* old baby in that district in 1839, two of the culprits were caught and publicly hanged on the scene of the outrage. PEACE IX THE SOUTH-WEST. Hampered by orders from the Colonial Office, the settlers in this Colony during the period of the York troubles were pre vented from repeating the lesson inflicted on the natives at York, and with the arrival of Governor Hutt, in 1839, a change in the method of dealing with the black inhabitants was instituted. Native schools were established and less ruthless methods of suppressing native crimes were adopted. When, in 1842, Captain Molloy avenged a murder by rounding up the Vasse natives and, so unconfirmed report it, has exterminating them, it was the end of the battles with the blacks in the South

West. Hutt's humane policy was persisted in around the Swan River, despite many temptations to visit condign punishment on uative'malefactors, and no further mur ders of whites by blacks occurred after 1841 in the whole of the south-west divi sion of the State. In the northern and eastern districts troubles with the natives continued until much later, several explorers and squat ters meeting with their deaths by the spears and clubs of the natives. Even to day white men on the fringes of civilisa tion, and beyond, on the borders of the State, are not free from native attack, particularly in districts where unscrupu lous whites have outraged native laws and customs in the past, or where a is proper regard not shown for native sus ceptibilities. But in the south-west the Bibbulmun are seen no more, save in small, straggling groups wandering around the haunts of their forebears, or peddling clothes-props at the doors of the