QUEENSLAND NATIVES

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3190, 14 June 1932, Page 7

QUEENSLAND NATIVES

RECORDS OF BRISBANE BLACKS. Captain Cook seems to have missed making the acquaintance of the Moreton Bay blacks, as ho missed the discovery of the Brisbane River, writes James Devaney in the Brisbane Courier. So did Matthew Flinders, who came 29 years later, in 1799. Oxlcy, who found the river in 1823, had little to say of the natives. Captain Logan the first commandant of the convict settlement here, allowed no free settlers within gO miles of Brisbane; and it was only after 1842, when the district was first opened for free settlement, that proper records of the local tribes began.

It is interesting nowadays to collect evidence of the manner of people they were. All early writers of Reminiscences seem agreed that they were fine physical specimens, intelligent, friendly when well treated, but when persecuted far more formidable than southern and inland tribes. Much more trouble was experienced from the blacks about Moreton Bay than from those of New South Wales or Victoria.

I knew the late Mr J. J. Lade, of Hamilton, who came to Brisbane from England, as a boy of 12, in 1852. Ho remembered great corroborees in many spots in the bush which are now thriving suburbs. In the days when residents gathered their firewood on the rising ground just to the west of Queen Street, and when adventurous land-seekers got " bushed " where we now find suburban churches and picture shows, he remembered the native camps and tribal fights, the aggression of the white man, and the re taliation of the black. He knew "Duramboi" Davis well—the ex-convict who had lived for 14 years with the Jinjinburras. Davis had a little blacksmith's shop in George Street, oppo site the present Court House, and afterwards a shop in Queen Street; he would never speak of the natives or of his own experiences among them. Mr Lade knew many of the Brisbane blacks personally, and considered them a splendid race who had been badly treated. IN THE BEGINNING.

As early as 1838 there were German missionaries about seven miles from Brisbane engaged in the work of civilising the blacks, but the work bore little fruit,! and was finally abandoned. In the " Historical Records of Australia" (Series 1., vol. xiii.) I find the Governor of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps, reporting to his superiors in England, as follows, under date March 21, 1844: —

" Report of the present state of the aborigines in the district of Moreton Bay for the Ist January, 1844. It would be in vain to attempt an enumeration of the various tribes of aborigines. A district tribe occupies every island or inlet of the sea from the River Tweed to the Numabulla, or Wide Bay River; they are probably not overrated at 3000. Upon the whole their condition is superior to that of the Inland Blacks. Cannibalism> I am told, is held in abhorrence by them. The Stradbroke Inland tribe, about 300 in number, and the Bvabies Island tribe, about 200, are the only ones which have yet ame in contact with civilisation."

His Excellency vent on to say that the whole Moreton Bay district contained about 5000 "untutored savages"; that they were predatory plunderers, of great ferocity, attacking drays on the road and settlers in lonely spots; and (contradicting his statement above) that they were "decided cannibals." BLACK VERSUS WHITE.

In the "Life of the Hon. William Brookes/' by the Rev. W. Osborne Lilley, we have a faithful picture of early Brisbane, when it was "a small township belonging: to the colony of New South Wales," telling how "the native blacks congregated and sometimes started the settlers with their wild and sudden appearances and noisy corraborees." We learn that any who set forth from Brisbane to select land were always in great fear of the blacks, for the town was full of tales of their atrocities.

Yet all the pioneers agree that the fault was mainly the white man's. The aboriginal was treated merely as a nuisance, shot or poisoned, as the native bird and animal pests were. In those early days a good deal of arrowroot was grown near Brisbane, and the natives soon acquired a great liking for it. They made regular raids, always with sentinels on guard, who had a system of prearranged signals. Only their "enemies" were thus molested. The blacks were friendly wherever allowed, and could be absolutely trustworthy; but once enmity was declared they became thieves and even killers. Who can blame the Stone Age man for what followed? TRIBAL BATTLES. The Brisbane tribe were the Turrbals (Brisbane itself was Magenchen , to them, and the Brisbane River was called Magenjie), while the Albert River Blacks were the Wangerriburras. Both were great fighters. The last of the Wangerriburras was Buli lumm, who was brought up from the

age of 12 by the Collins family on the Albert,, and by them given the name of Johnny Allen. He was highly intelligent, spoke perfect English, and could read and write. It is to Bullumm's excellent memory that we owe much of our knowledge of the local aboriginals here. His tribe often joined forces with other tribes from as far south as the Tweed to fight the Brisbane River blacks. Bullumm used to tell of one great battle heard of in detail by him from the camp storytellers—the battle of Yeerongpilly—where there was tremendous slaughter. He also used to tell of blind old Nayjum ("not see"), sightless from birth, who was dragged out from his hiding place and shot dead by the troopers during a raid in spite of the imploring gins who crowded around. But it was the late Mr Tom Petrie who knew more than any other writer of the manners and customs of the local tribes. His "Reminiscences of Early Queensland," dating back from 1837, and compiled by his daughter. is a very valuable record of first-hand knowledge. We learn that the Brisbane blacks were extraordinarily good to the sick and old; that they were not treacherous, but as trustworthy as the best whites; that they did not believe in natural death—some enemy was always to blame. They drew omens from the musical phrases of the grey thrush; they believed m magic, in rain-making, in many ghosts. They ate parts of the bodies of men killed in tribal battles, and also any man famous for his fighting qualities. Even a plump gin would be eaten after death, but they never killed for the sake of cannibalism. Those not to be eaten were wrapped up in sheets of bark and placed in ti-ee graves."

Tom Petrie also has preserved the meaning of many local place-names. Tu-wong was the name of the nightjar, and Yurong-pilly meant "rain coming-," Some others are: Binkinba, place of tortoise; Nundah, chain of waterholes; Kabul-tiir (Caboolture) place of carpet snakes; Badderam (Buderim Mt.), honeysuckle (banksia); Nambour, tea-tree bark; and Kurilpa, place for rats. What a pity it is that nobody sought to collect a comprehensive list of place-names while Tom Petrie end other brave old pioneers were living.—Courier.