20783

Source document

# Frontier conflict event: Attack on Aboriginal people - Kaliduwarry (February? 1879) Source dataset: University of Newcastle, "Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930" (c21ch.newcastle.edu.au), entry 20783. Coordinates: latitude -24.912383, longitude 138.632217. Day/month: February? Year: 1879 Nature of event: Attack on Aboriginal people Location type: Lagoon/waterhole Location: 'Kliediewarry, in South-west Queensland' Pastoral run/station: Kaliduwarry Run landowner/lessee: Roderick Robert Urquhart and Angus Fraser Location notes: Location of Kalidawarry locality on Mulligan River Number of people killed: 50 Names of people killed / details: According to one newspaper account - not clear that this accurate, however Perpetrators: NMP Cause / reason: Deaths of Thomas Patterson Scott and John McConachie Associated Native Mounted Police camps: Jundah Associated Native Mounted Police officers: Gough, Henry Bloomfield;Kaye, Henry Pollock;Mazlin, John Other associated individuals: Carr-Boyd, William Henry ;Urquhart, Roderick Robert;Miller, "Johnnycake" (Johnny?) Associated events: Attack on Europeans/others - John McConachie, Coonigheera waterhole (December 1878);Attack on Europeans/others - Thomas Patterson Scott on Kalliduwarry, Mulligan River (17 January 1879);Attack on Aboriginal people - NMP dispersal on Glengyle station (March? 1879);Attack on Aboriginal people - Koonchera waterhole, Clifton Hills (SA) (February? 1879) Related native title boundary: The Wangkangurru/Yarluyandi Native Title Claim Related language group: Wangkamana Related pastoral district: Gregory North Contemporary reference: Brisbane Courier 28 March 1879, p3 Date first reported: 1879 Other sources: Silcock, J. 2009 Identification of Permanent Refuge Waterbodies in the Cooper Creek and Georgina-Diamantina River Catchments for Queensland and South Australia. Final Report to South Australian Arid Lands Natural Resource Management Board. Queenslander 24 May 1879, p668 Cairns Post 23 February 1926, p9 Brisbane Courier 13 April 1929, p27 Sydney Mail 20 September 1933, p2 Sydney Mail 8 November 1933, p2 Sydney Mail 3 January 1934, p4 Notes / comments: 'Station-managers like J.W. Wylie at Coongie and the notorious Johnnycake Miller fenced people out of their own lands and poisoned or shot anyone who returned.' (Silcock 2009:91) Description of event: One of two reprisals for the deaths of Thomas Patterson Scott and John McConachie. "They had a severe lesson a few months ago just over the Queensland border, when having killed two stockmen the whites and police made a raid and killed about 50 "bucks."" (South Australian Advertiser, 6 October 1879, p11) ‘Next day, from Birdsville, the police and a body of men rode out to the scene of the tragedy. Under a gnarled old box-tree they came upon the mutilated body of the gin. Maconochie's head was found in a camp oven. The necessary formalities being completed, vengeance followed, swiftly and surely. The blacks had split into two parties. One lot was rounded up and shot at Coonchery, in South Australia, whilst the others, who were making for the springs in the desert west of the Georgina River, were rounded up and shot at Kliediewarry, in South-west Queensland. Only two escaped. One of these, Taffy, is still at Birdsville. The other was a young boy who dug into the side of a sandhill and covered himself with bushes, remaining there until the shooting ceased and sufficient time had elapsed to assure him that it was safe to venture forth. He returned to Miranda. The ruins of the old hut stand, silent and eerie, on their rocky perch hard by the side of the Betoota Birdsville road. — Cy. Rhodes. MACONOCHIE'S HUT, ON THE DIAMANTINA RIVER, Where a station hand was murdered by blacks nearly sixty years ago. A punitive expedition sent out to punish the offenders destroyed nearly the whole tribe.’ (Sydney Mail 20 September 1933, p2) ‘Miller jumped on to his horse bareback and galloped through a barrage of spears and nulla-nullas. He rode all night to the Daroo Plain, nearly ninety miles away, where were encamped a company of black police commanded by a white sub-inspector. Arriving at daylight, Miller told them the news, and going across country the police, with Miller accompanying them, reached the scene of the tragedy two days later. No quarter was given, and scores of blacks were ruthlessly killed. Butcher was very young at the time, but one only had to mention 'Johnny-cake' Miller to realise the aversion he felt to the name. Inquiries from several old-timers who knew Miller and the district in the days when the blacks were bad point to old Butcher's version of the happening being the correct one.— 'Ringer’’ (Sydney Mail 8 November 1933, p2) ‘Cooninjhurra recalls the murder of the cook, Maconochie, and 'Johnny-Cake' Miller's famous ride. These two events [the death of Thomas Patterson Scott and of Maconochie] took place about the same time [1880], and in each case a heavy toll was paid by the blacks responsible for the outrage.’ (Sydney Mail 3 January 1934, p4) '‘Native Police Duty in the West. SUB-INSPECTOR KAYE, who it will be remembered some time ago, accompanied by Sub inspector Gough, went out in pursuit of blacks who had committed a murder at Murgah station, Lower Diamantina, and with his companion was falsely reported to have perished from thirst, has written a report of his journey out west, which the hon. the Colonial Secretary has kindly placed at our disposal. … Gough and Kaye started after the blacks, found a large camp, and dispersed them.’ (Queenslander 24 May 1879, p668) 'I [William Henry Carr Boyd] was at Davenport Downs on the 12th of February, and was told that Mr. Kaye had passed down the river a few days before to have a look at the niggers who had killed poor Jim Maccronerky; and as that murder was committed by Diamantina blacks, I don't see what Messrs. Gough and Kaye would have to do far enough to the west of the Diamantina to put their lives in danger, as they would have to get west of the Herbert [Georgina] to run even any risk.’ (Brisbane Courier 28 March 1879, p3) 'WE learn that Sub-Inspectors Kaye and Gough, in their late pursuit of the blacks on the Mulligan who had murdered a man in the employ of Mr. Norquart [sic Urquhardt], had to abandon their horses and to walk 25 miles without water, going 30 hours without a drop to drink.’ (Brisbane Courier 13 April 1929, p27) ‘When I was droving out west on one occasion, Mr. Mazlin and Sub Inspector Kaye were called to proceed to the Lower Diamantina, then on to the Georgina—in those days called the Herbert—the blacks being very troublesome. Several murders were committed by the blacks on drovers of travelling stock. They (the police) were out about one month at that particular time. After a very severe chase and a most trying time, they captured the blacks who had committed the murders, being 38 hours without water on the deserts nearing the borders of South Australia. Some stages were 90 miles without water.’ (Cairns Post 23 February 1926, p9) ‘Thence [from somewhere on Eyre’s Creek] they made in for Annandale, as they had not had any water since noon of the previous day. Sub-inspector Kaye afterwards patrolled up the Herbert to Glengyle, where he dispersed a large camp of niggers as punishment for the murder of a stockman named Scott, about a month previously.’ (Queenslander 24 May 1879, p668) 'Many of the Wangkangurru people of the Simpson Desert were probably unaware of the presence of white men in their country. They found out quickly and violently when some of them travelled to Kalidawarry Waterhole near Muncoonie Lakes for a great Warrthampa ceremony. Nearly all who went were murdered by police in retribution for the death of a white man (Hercus 1990).' (Silcock 2009:91)