FRONTIER CONFLICT AND THE NATIVE MOUNTED POLICE IN QUEENSLAND Attack on Europeans/others - Fraser family at Horne ... Attack on Europeans/others - Fraser family at Hornet Bank station (27 October 1857) Label Attack on Europeans/others - Fraser family at Hornet Bank station (27 October 1857) Coordinate (149.407222, -25.757222) GDA94 Location type Pastoral run If pastoral run, Station or run name Hornet Bank (Goongarry) If pastoral run, Landowner or lessee Andrew Scott Pastoral district and/or region Leichhardt; Upper Dawson Location description Hornet Bank station Location notes/issues Location of memorial cairn Location Day and month of event 27 October Year of event 1857 Nature of event Attack on Europeans/others Minimum number of people killed 11 Names of people killed and details John Fraser (23), Martha Fraser (43), David Fraser (16), James Fraser (6), Elizabeth Fraser (19), Mary Fraser (11), Ann Jane Fraser (9), Charlotte Fraser (3), Henry Nagle (27) (tutor), Bernado/Benmado (45) (hutkeeper), and R.S. Newman (30) (shepherd) Perpetrators Aboriginal people Cause/reason Thomas Boulton (superintendent of Euroombah station) alleged that the cause was the NMP camp on Euroombah/Hornet Bank and the Police taking women and men to labour for them: 'Not long after Mr. Ross arrived here, he thought proper to make Hornet Bank his quarters. Accordingly, he passed here on his way to that station with his detachment of Native Police, and ve or six gins. three of the latter belonging to a tribe of blacks in this neighbourhood. Some time afterwards, during my absence from home, Lieut. Ross took a mob of blacks up to Hornet Bank, entirely against the Messrs. Frasers' wishes as well as mine. I believe they were taken up there for the purpose of working as servants for the police, i.e., drawing water, cutting wood, bark, &c.; getting up their horses and making themselves generally useful to them. Matters went on in this way, however, tolerably well until the police began to make free with the women belonging to the blacks in question, which led to frequent collision between the latter and the police. One or two facts, amongst many of a similar nature, I will here mention, as they came under my own observation. A blackfellow named Caragejie went to the Police Camp at Hornet Bank one evening, and demanded that his gin, who was in their hands, should be restored. After taking her away, she returned to the Police Camp, and on his applying for her a second time he was bound with hands and feet together with two pair of handcu s, by the police, and so kept until the next morning. On another occasion, some half-dozen policemen, without an o cer, came down here in the evening from Hornet Bank, drew rations as usual from the store, and retired for the night a short distance from my house, with exception of one man, whom I allowed to sleep in the house. About midnight, I was awakened by a wild blackfellow coming to my window and shouting out the name of his gin, with other words, which I did not understand. I got up and, suspecting that his gin was with the police, I sent the man above mentioned to desire his comrades at once to send back the gin in question, which was done. I took the rst opportunity to acquaint Mr. Ross with this a air but he merely laughed at it. However, he thought it proper to warn him that if such gross conduct on the part of his men were repeated, I would make it my business to report the same to headquarters, as I was determined not to allow such things to go on *** the station. Once again, I heard the police ordering the blacks to fetch water for their use as usual: the blacks hesitated, when two policemen presented pistols at, and threatened to shoot, them if they did not immediately comply. This disgraceful state of things continued for several months, during which time the police and blacks were in the habit of hunting Event details together on the Euroonbah Run, and robbing the shepherds' huts. I should not have known that any of these thefts had been actually committed, — though I long suspected it — had I not been told that such was the fact by the late Mrs. Fraser, whose information on the subject was derived from the gins kept by the police.' (North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser 12 January 1858, p3) See also the series of letters to the editor by various squatters and others relating to Lieut. Ross and his conduct and accusing him of not doing enough to prevent the Hornet Bank deaths—e.g. by Thomas R. Boulton, superintendent at Euroombah, alleging that Ross' troopers consorted with the local people, stole their women and robbed his shepherds' huts. He also alleged that the Frasers were worried about an attack and tried to get the NMP to 'clear' the station (North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser 12 January 1858, p3); also from Cardew, Sandeman and Gregory and C.R. Haly supporting Boulton ('If the residents on the Upper Dawson are so easily satis ed with a Native Police Force consisting of one second lieutenant, one trooper, and a boy,' - North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser 10 November 1857, p4); and from Scott, Thompson, Dolan and Forster in support of Ross. Gordon Reid (1981:80-82) cites the Fraser sons and the NMP taking Jiman women and the Frasers killing dogs and breaking weapons: 'Martha Fraser was aware of the situation: she had repeatedly asked Nicoll, when visiting the Dawson, to reprove her sons for forcibly taking the "young maidens", telling Nicoll that she expected harm to come of it. They were in the habit of doing this, she said, notwithstanding her entreaties to the contrary. Among the working men in the area the Frasers were "famous for the young gins".' 'I have heard something from an o cer of the Native Police—Lieutenant Sweet—who told me himself that he had been informed by a trooper then in the Native Police, that the murder of the unfortunate women at Hornet Bank was in consequence of the young men who owned the station having been in the habit of allowing their black boys to rush the gins on the camps of the aborigines in the neighbourhood.' (Maurice O’Connell 19 June 1861 Qld Legislative Assembly Select Committee into the Native Police: 87) Description of event 'FRIGHTFUL MURDERS BY THE BLACKS AT THE UPPER DAWSON RIVER It is with feelings of unfeigned sorrow that we have to record another case of wholesale slaughter, by the aboriginal natives, at the Hornet Bank, on the Upper Dawson River, the station of Mrs. Fraser, which occurred on the morning of Thursday, the 29th ultimo, on which occasion eleven of our fellow creatures were murdered in cold blood, under circumstances of extreme barbarity. The following particulars of this dreadful occurrence have been furnished by Master Fraser, a youth of fteen years of age, and the only survivor of twelve persons, who were on the station at the time. It appears, that before sunrise on the morning of the day above mentioned, the head-station was surrounded by upwards of 100 blacks, fully armed, and that the rst intimation the survivor had of their presence was the sound of voices in one of the outer apartments, and suspecting that it came from the blacks, he immediately rose from his bed and armed himself with a gun, when several of the miscreants rushed into the room, and while in the act of presenting it at one of them, he was struck with a waddie at the back of his head, and laid prostrate on the oor. He then managed to secrete himself under the bed, while the work of destruction went on in the other apartments. The blacks then quickly dispatched the other sons of Mrs Fraser, of the respective ages of twenty-two, sixteen, and seven years, while in their beds, before the unfortunates were aware of the proximity of such dangerous and remorseless enemies. The wretches then murdered Mr. Nagle, the tutor to the family, who was formerly in the o ce of the Englishman newspaper, in Sydney. Having, as they thought, deprived the whole of the males of life, the villains then enticed the unfortunate mother and her helpless daughters out of the house, promising that they would do them no harm and telling them not to be afraid. The sequel proved how little their treacherous promises were to be relied on; for no sooner had they made their appearance outside the house, than they were treated in the same brutal manner as the in del Sepoys did the ladies and children in India, and were afterwards cruelly murdered. The ages of the daughters respectively were twenty, eleven, seven, and four years. Still thirsting for blood, the wretches then proceeded to a hut, about fty yards distant from the house, and there murdered a man named Newman, and a German named Bernangle, under similar atrocious circumstances. Having accomplished this fearful work of death, the miscreants plundered the house of nearly everything they could conveniently carry away, and departed, driving before them a ock of sheep in the direction of another sheep station, but it is not at present known whether they committed any more outrages on this occasion.' (North Australia, Ipswich and General Advertiser 10 November 1857, p4) 'Two of the murders above alluded to, took place within six miles of the township of Taroom, the head-quarters of the police; and two more occurred within four miles of the ill-fated station of Hornet Bank, where a number of troopers, under an experienced leader, raised by the squatters in those parts, were stationed.' (Moreton Bay Courier 9 June 1858, p2 -Letter to the editor from G. Pearce Serocold of Cockatoo Ck, upper Dawson). NOTE this is a private force under Frederick Walker (see note). 'The Blacks have broken out worse than ever. Six men were killed at Euroombah (40 miles from this) in August —and in the middle of our shearing we were astounded by hearing that the Head Station of Hornet Bank had been attacked at midnight and every one on the place except one lad murdered. The station which is about 50 miles from this belonged to Mrs Frazer, who was killed with all her children, viz. one daughter aged 20, one daughter aged 13, one son aged 21, one son 17, & three children of from 6 to 10 years old, also a family tutor, & 2 shepherds, sleeping in the adjoining hut. They killed the men whilst they were asleep; the ring leaders were blacks who had for years been on the station & they succeeded in stealing on the men in their beds—& they appear never to have moved. The lad who escaped was struck down with a tomahawk whilst in the act of reaching his gun; on coming to his senses he had presence of mind to roll under the bed. There were plenty of loaded rearms in the house at the time. The dogs had been coaxed away by some of the station Blacks who knew them, & gave no alarm. The scoundrels knew when all the men were killed they had nothing to fear. They told the women to come out —& they would not kill them, & they were prevailed upon to do so, The unfortunate creatures were kept alive for hours to form a part of their endish orgies. [The following line has been overwritten with: ‘whatever you do take care that nobody cannot be able [sic] to consider that in case you are applied to questionable as I do not wish anybody to be able to read I have written’] At last the closing scene of the tragedy came one after another they were butchered—& their bodies mutilated in a manner I shall not pain you by describing. The blacks then ransacked the store—& laden with spoil made for the scrub, thinking that everyone was dead & that they would get far away before the Native Police (Comprised of blacks of other districts) would hear of the massacre.' (GB 216 D/D T 2974/6 1857 Letter from George Pearce Serocold to Charles Serocold 25 December) "MR. WILLIAM FRASER, OF ROMA. I dare to say that the name of William Fraser was more widely known throughout Queensland than that of Sir Thomas McIlwraith; in my young days there was no person who looked upon with greater respect by the boys, when he came into Ipswich, than the same "Billy" Fraser. Of course, although it is a matter of history now, no outrage—namely, the murder by the blacks, at Hornet Bank Station, Dawson River, of his mother, four sisters, three brothers, the tutor, and two men-servants—in what is now Queensland ever created such a widespread horror as this one, which took place on the 29th of October, 1857, only one brother (Sylvester, who has since died at Normanton, North Queensland) escaping to tell the awful tale. Before going any further, I may say that I met Mr. William Fraser, a few evenings ago, at the residence of Mr. Hugh Campbell, in Limestone-street, and, though the interview was short, I gleaned a few particulars which cannot fail to be interesting. Mr. Fraser's parents—hardy Scotch people—came to Sydney in 1831, and he himself, a Sydney native, was born in 1833. Subsequently his father, Mr. John Fraser, accepted a situation as book-keeper on Jimbour Station, then owned by Messrs. Henry Dennis and Thomas Bell, and, in the year 1846, left Sydney with his family to take up their residence in the "Never-Never Country," "Billy" Fraser, then about 16 years of age, coming overland with a party who had charge of cattle, sheep, and horses for the Jimbour Station. In this connection the names of Messrs. Scougall and Cox were mentioned. Here I may state that the date of the wreck of the Sovereign (which occurred on the 17th of March, 1847) was introduced. Mr. Henry Dennis, part-owner of Jimbour Station, was a passenger on the ill-fated vessel, and, among others, was drowned. Mr. W. Fraser intended to proceed to Sydney in the same vessel, but, at the last moment, Mr. Dennis prevailed upon him to return to Jimbour with an important letter. Early in the fties the Fraser family removed to " The Swamp" (the name by which what is now Toowoomba was then known, "The Springs" being the name given to Drayton), and were one of the rst families to settle there. Subsequently, Mr John Fraser, the head of the family, leased Hornet Bank Station from the late Mr. Andrew Scott, and they took up their residence there in March, 1854, the surrounding stations then on the Dawson River being those owned by the Hon. W. H. Yaldwyn, Messrs. Pollet Cardew (father of Mr. P. L. Cardew, solicitor, of this town), and William Miles. Between 1854 and 1857, while on the road to Ipswich with sheep, John Fraser became ill, and was brought into Ipswich and taken to the residence of Mrs. McLean (mother of Mrs. Hugh Campbell and of Mr. James McLean, municipal inspector), in Nicholas-street (about on the site where the railway bridge crosses), where he died, and was buried in the Ipswich cemetery. William Fraser, his eldest son, was one of the principal carriers (bullock drays) in those days, and, as most of the early pioneers know—some, alas ! to their cost—the blacks were very treacherous, and were not to be trusted, as an old bullock-driver once informed me, "no further than one could sling a bullock by the tail!" Time, however, crept along, and the Frasers at Hornet Bank became quite used to the surroundings of their new home in the then wild West. William Fraser was frequently away from the station for months at a stretch on the roads that was his particular calling. The Frasers had a black boy, whose name, I think, was "Joey." Many reasons are alleged for this boy's subsequent treachery. Su ce it to say, that, while the eldest son was away, Joey evidently induced a large tribe of the Dawson River blacks (they being regular terrors, one "Beiba" notoriously so) to visit the Hornet Bank Station; and, as stated above, before the break of morn of the 29th of October, 1857, they surrounded the holding. So secure and safe did the Frasers feel, that in the summer months, on going to bed, they were accustomed to leave all the windows and doors open. Sylvester Fraser, the survivor, was awakened by the cries of his sisters, and, as he was in the act of reaching for his gun, he received a chop on the arm and a knock on the head, falling between the wall and his bed, and somehow or other he crawled under the mattress of his bed, and thus escaped any further butchering by the blacks, who, keeping the mother until the last, slaughtered her after her daughters had been shamefully treated and murdered before her eyes. It is supposed that her son John and the tutor, who slept in the one room at the rear of the building, were the rst to be killed. Just after the blacks had terribly butchered the Frasers, one of the men-servants, who were domiciled in huts some distance away, happened to appear at one of the doors, when the blacks noted their presence, and returned and killed them. Sylvester—or " West," as he was more familiarly termed—regained consciousness, and, without hat or boots, rode over to Mr. Cardew's station and reported the occurrence The news soon spread, the Hon. W. H. Yaldwyn came over from his station, as did also Mr. Miles and his daughter (now Mrs. John Nicholls, of Ipswich, and Mrs. Herbert Hunter, of Brisbane), and the ve female victims—the mother and her four daughters—were buried in the one grave, while the remains of the brothers (three), the tutor, and the two men-servants were buried in an adjoining grave. To show the duplicity of the boy, who led the attack, it is sup-posed that he knew that the men- servants, who had completed their time as per agreement, had handed in their ri es only the day before the murderous onslaught. It was a terrible a air, and caused a great deal of uneasiness in the Dawson district for years afterwards. "West" Fraser then rode on to Ipswich, some 320 miles distant, to acquaint his brother William, and accomplished the journey in three days. On arrival here, "Billy" Fraser had his drays in the yards of Messrs. G. H. Wilson and Co., East-street, and was on the top of one of the vehicles when " West" rode up and broke the sad news to him. I am told that " Billy" became frantic. He immediately left the drays in the yard, rode round to Mrs. McLean, bidding her "Good-bye" and he and his brother immediately galloped o for Hornet Bank Station. In the meantime the news of the tragedy had spread all over Moreton Bay, everyone sympathising with "Billy" Fraser, who told me himself that he reached Hornet Bank Station in a little over three days, fresh horses being ready for them at all the stopping-places. "Without telling you all I have since done," said Mr. Fraser, "I tell you that I vowed, at the grave-side of my mother and sisters, with an uplifted tomahawk in my hand, that I would never rest until I had sunk it in the head of the blackfellow who was the cause of the murder; and I did it." Questioned as to whether he received a permit from the New South Wales Government to shoot down the blacks, he answered "No." To the query of "Was a warrant ever issued against you for killing blackfellows?" Mr. Fraser replied "No." And he then recounted several close "shaves" he had of losing his own life at the hands of the blacks—one was where, while riding on horseback, a spear went through the rim of his cabbage-tree hat, down his shoulder blade, and then stuck in his saddle. He cannot tell, to this day, where it was thrown from, but he made a minute examination for the thrower with his most trusty ri e, the stock of which he after-wards broke in a struggle with a powerful aboriginal. Mr. Fraser was subsequently a sub- inspector of the Queensland police, stationed at Broadsound; and, in reply to a query "As to whether he had any complaints to make respecting the police force?" he replied in the negative, stating that he had a good billet, but that he was of too restless a nature to keep it. For one who has experienced so much hard life Mr. Fraser wears his 68 years well. But he very reluctantly refers to the Hornet Bank massacre, in which he lost so many who were near and dear to him—a loved mother, loved sisters, and loved brothers. I may add that Mr. Thomas Moore, of South-street, and his late brother (Mr. William Moore) were both on the scene of the murder, at Hornet Bank Station, shortly after the dreadful occurrence, and the rst-named describes the furniture, &c., as being in a terrible state." (Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 7 October 1899, p7) Associated event(s) Attack on Aboriginal people - Dawson River, northwest of Hornet Bank (31 October 1857) Attack on Aboriginal people - Jerry and Jackey on Taroom station (29 December 1857) Attack on Aboriginal people - Juandah station (December 1857) Attack on Aboriginal people - Mt Narayen (between November 1857 and March 1858?) Attack on Aboriginal people - Redbank station (December? 1857?) Attack on Aboriginal people - Taroom station (27 November 1857) Attack on Europeans/others - Fraser family at Hornet Bank station (27 October 1857) Attack on Europeans/others - Fraser family, Hornet Bank station (c15 June 1857) Attack on Europeans/others - Mrs Fraser, Hornet Bank station ('a very short time after' 10th November 1856) Attack on Europeans/others, Hornet Bank station (before March 1859) Associated NMP camp(s) Euromba (also spelt Euroomba and Eurumbah) Upper Dawson Associated NMP o cers Johnson, Ralph Cholmondeley Godschall Murray, John Patrick, Alfred March Gorsed Powell, Walter David Taylor (also Tayler) Ross, Thomas C. [Cameron?] Swete, William R.L. Other associated individuals Baullie (also given as Bahlee, Balley, Bally, Billy and Boney) Beilbah (also given as Bilbah, Bilbo, Billbo, Bulbo, Bulba and Beilba) 1 Bernado (sometimes Bernangle) Fraser, Ann Jane Fraser, Charlotte Fraser, David Fraser, Elizabeth Fraser, James Fraser, John (2) Fraser, Martha Fraser, Mary Fraser, Sylvester (West) Gregory, Henry Churchman Miles, William Murray-Prior, Thomas Lodge Nagle, Henry Newman, R.S Scott, Andrew Serocold, George Edward Pearce Contemporary reference (earliest source for event) North Australia, Ipswich and General Advertiser, 10 November 1857, p4 Date of rst reporting of event (earliest known date) 1857 Reliability of source(s) (e.g. whether the observation was from a rst hand witness, a police report etc) Range of evidence from o icial police reports and accounts from neighbours written at the time to recollections written later and third party newspaper accounts Other sources (e.g. modern/secondary references) for the event Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 7 October 1899, p7 Reid 1981:135 Praed Campbell 1902 Notes/comments Name prior to Hornet Bank was Goongarry; changed back afterwards. There were seemingly many reprisals after this event, both o cial and uno cial, carried out for months afterwards and across a wide region. As a result of these actions large numbers of Aboriginal people were killed and others driven from the area down into the Condamine and Balonne ('I am likewise informed (although not in possession of any o cial Report) that Lieut Bligh whom I had dispatched on the trail of those tribes implicated in the murder of the Frazer Family has been enabled to come upon them in the broken country and driven them to the Condamine and Balonne.' (QSA282454 1858 Letter from Edric Morisset to Government Resident 1 May, Letterbook NP 1857–1859, M lm 2437)) and into Wide Bay. None of these accounts are clear about the location of these events or the numbers killed: "It is reported, says the Brisbane Courier, that Mr. Macalister, Police Magistrate at Stanthorpe, and Mr. Macarthur, Police Magistrate at Longreach, will shortly change positions. Mr. Macarthur has been in the Government service for many years, and principally in remote districts. He came to Queensland from New South Wales in the early pastoral days of this colony, and was one of the party who captured and punished the blacks who were among the actual perpetrators of the outrages upon and the massacre of the Fraser family. Mr. Macarthur is a spare, active man, well on in years, but still a good horseman, and capable of getting through a lot of work." (Capricornian, 1 June 1895, p20). The Colonial Secretary's objections to the implications of certain phrases contained in John Murray's and Walter Powell's reports implies a suspicion of certain actions on their part: '2. Lieutenant Murray in his letter to the Commandant of the 19 January last says “a considerable number of Reference Blacks concerned in the late outrage have been killed by the Police, nding that they were allowed up to the Station, and evidently thinking that their evil[?] deeds had been forgotten”; and the expression to which the Colonial Secretary entertains objection is that portion of the above that is underlined. It, I am to say, would justify the inference that unawares and possibly while entrapped within reach of gun shot, they were in cold blood destroyed. ... 4.The murder of the Fraser Family with the attendant circumstances required that the perpetrators of such monstrous enormities should be punished in the severest manner wherever they could be found; but I am desired to state that there is something abhorrent to the feeling of humanity to read, even in that case, of three Gins being shot dead as they were running away, and the Colonial Secretary trusts that on any future occasion should a similar occurrence be reported, you will make enquiry at once into the matter in order to check the feeling that the lives even of the most ignorant savages may be unnecessarily taken from them.' (QSA17616 1858 Letter from William Elyard to John Wickham 15 March, Letters addressed to the Government Resident by the Colonial Secretary, Sydney, on the Native Police 1849–1858, M lm 1494) Mary McManus, Reminiscences of the Early Settlement of the Maranoa District (1913:online): In 1858 - 'The native police were patrolling the district as well. We were visited by two companies of native police at this time. One under the command of the Government o cer, Mr. Robert Walker, with eight troopers (I think) all blacks. Another under Mr. Fredrick Walker, or as he was familiarly called, "Philibuster Walker," because he went about the country with a band of six black troopers. He was the founder of the Native Police, and was raised to the rank of commandant of the Native Police Force. But alas! he could not resist the failing of intemperance. Consequently, he was requested to resign. He still patrolled this and other districts, chie y in the Dawson. His home, I believe was at Mr. Andrew Scott's station, Hornet Bank.' 'At Gwambagyne, beyond Taroom on the Upper Dawson, Sandeman had asked me [Oscar de Satge] to look up his partner, Henry Gregory ... Henry Gregory was tough as whalebone, and used to ride from Gwambagyne to Burandowan, a two days' ride, it was said, with one pocket full of oatmeal and the other of sugar, and no other provision, disdaining, in that semi-tropical climate, blanket and ration bags. Single-handed, after the murder of the Frazer family, he pursued the blacks, tracking them up from camp to camp, "dispersing" them, and doing thereby as much to protect his neighbours as a whole detachment of police.' (de Satge 1901:160) 'Long afterwards, Serocold wrote: 'It was a necessity to make a severe example of the black leaders of the tribe and about a dozen were taken into the open country and shot ... These men were allowed to run and they were shot at about thirty or forty yards distant' (George Edward Serocold Pearce Serocold, Extracts from unpublished autobiography (NLA—MS 626, p.221, cited in Denholm 1972:351) 'The blacks for months had been threatening all our stations, saying “You look out directly white fellow altogether bong” (i.e. dead). They had been treated with great kindness for years, coming in to stations and going away just when they liked. So anxious were we to prevent a war that we overlooked thefts of sheep etc— & even when the six men were killed at Eurombah little or nothing was done. The blacks put all our forbearance down to cowardice, & there is no doubt formed a design to sweep us away one after the other. The Police force only consisted of six men & one o cer for the whole of the Upper Dawson. The magistrates met and consulted; unless immediate severe measures were adopted it was clearly seen that fresh murders would quickly follow, the result of which would be that the whole of our servants would abscond, our ocks be left to the native dogs and blacks, our stores pillaged & the country given up. Severity was in reality mercy in the end. Accordingly twelve of us turned out, & taking rations with us we patrolled the country for 100 miles round for three weeks and spared none of the grown up blacks which we could nd. I had hopes that my sword was turned into a ploughshare for good—& loath indeed was I to draw it—but it was a choice of evils—& we acted as we believed to be for the best in this crisis. Little did I think that the very nice pair or pistols, your last present to me on my leaving England, would be required to take human life;—they now lay near my head—and God grant me a cool head & a steady arm if these treacherous scoundrels pay us a visit. I sincerely hope the lesson we have given them will prevent them even doing any more mischief but this is hoping too much. In dealing with all savages you must make yourself feared. Depend upon it, it is very fortunate that we have had men of so much energy & decision in India: the accounts are indeed sickening, but desperate crises require desperate measures.' (GB 216 D/D T 2974/6 1857 Letter from George Pearce Serocold to Charles Serocold 25 December) 'Willie Frazer was one of a family that had been nearly all killed by the blacks at Hornet Bank. About 4 or 5 years before one of his brothers escaped by crawling under the bed. His mother and sister were killed and the place robbed of all stores the blacks could carry away. He told me he had shot 70 blacks up to date of travelling with us. He used a double barrel shot gun, cut down to carbine length and was a good shot.' (Andrew Murray's diary Wednesday June 19th 1860). 'You will observe in the enclosed report from Lt. Bligh that several of the ringleaders in the past outrages on the Upper Dawson were shot by his men in an encounter with them on the Auburn and as their names were afterwards given by one of their own countrymen staying at Mr Pigott’s station, there can be no doubt as to their identity. Some old gowns[?] and wearing apparel were found in the camp which also proves their participation in the late scenes of bloodshed and plunder.' (QSA282454 1858 Letter from Edric Morriset to Government Resident 8 August, Letterbook NP 1857–1859, M lm 2437) 'One of the black troopers who had been employed in the native police force, once gave me an account of how a mob of blacks had been dealt with after sticking up a station and murdering all but one of a whole family of whites. ... One night, however, they attacked the station, entered the bedrooms where the di erent members of the family were asleep, murdered them in cold blood mother, little ones, and all; but one son of about 17, who had, indeed, been left for dead, but revived, and, unknown to the savage wretches, crept out, ed for his life, and then gave notice to the black troopers not many miles away. Before daylight the troopers had surrounded the station, and the blacks, seeing that they were hemmed in on every side, rushed for a lagoon or large water-hole close by, into which they plunged pell-mell. Here, by diving for a considerable time, they avoided the shots of the police, but as they became exhausted, they were shot in the water one after the other till the whole lot—it may have been 50 or 100—had been killed. Supposing that they had nished their work of slaughter, the police went to the kitchen for breakfast, which, having nished, and while smoking round the reside, one who was about to light his pipe noticed that some soot fell on his hand, and upon looking up the chimney he saw a wretched fugitive cowering and trembling with fear, clinging to a beam and half su ocated from the smoke. He was told to come down, was taken outside, the o er to run a certain distance was given to him, and to get away if he could. But upon the rst move 10 or 12 shots with loaded ri es made that impossible, and he fell dead, pierced through with bullets. A black trooper who had taken part in the whole a air, was the detailer of these circumstances, but from other accounts of it which I have heard or read, I do not think the story at all overcharged.' (Zillman 1889:124–125; see also his more detailed version of the same tale in the Truth 18 and 25 April 1909. In this version he names the ex-trooper as “Broadfoot Jackey”) "I learned from various sources that a party of twelve squatters and their con dential overseers went out mounted and armed to the teeth and scoured the Country for blacks, away from the scenes[?] of the murder of the Frazers altogether, and shot upwards of eighty men women & children. Not content with scouring the scrubs & forest country they were bold enough to ride up to the Head stations and shoot down the tame blacks whom they found camping there. Ten men were shot in this way at Ross’s head station on the Upper Burnett. Several at Prior’s Station and at Hays & Lambs several more. The party in scouring the bush perceived an old blind black fellow upon whom they immediately tried sending a ball through his back, another through his arm which slivered[?] the bone to pieces and a third grazing his scalp. This old man had been for a long time a harmless hanger on at the di erent head stations and of course could have been in no way identi ed with the Frazer murderers. A black boy belonging to Mr Cameron of Corambula long employed by that gentleman in carrying messages & rations to his out stations and in going with drays to Gayndah & Maryborough, went to Mr Prior’s station on the Burnett and was shot there. A black fellow was captured in the bush by an armed black fellow in the employ of Mr Hay who supplied him with a carbine for the purpose. The black brought his prisoner to the Head Station tied him to a sapling in the presence of all the white residents and having addressed him in broken English in the most cruel and disgusting manner, placed the muzzle of his carbine to the helpless mans arm and broke it with the rst shot he then addressed him again in the same strain as before & shot him through the head. The Native Police say they have shot over 70 blacks. One of their acts deserves especial notice. They arrived at Humphrey’s station, went to the Blacks encamped near the house, bound two of the men and led them into the scrub and deliberately shot them, the cries of the two poor wretches were heard by the superintendents family at his house. I had supposed that these things although acted with seeming openness in the far interior and with evident impunity would not be tolerated in more civilised society and that the neighbourhood of Maryborough the chief town in the District could not be disgraced by any such barbarities. I was mistaken however. On the evening of Friday or Saturday last the white police accompanied by some white volunteers proceeded to the Blacks Camp near Mr Cleng’s[?] homestead between the old & new township of Maryborough and drove every man woman & child out of it, then set it on re destroying all the clothing, bark, tomahawks & weapons of the blacks and burning willfully the Blankets which at no inconsiderable expense are served out to the blacks yearly but he Government. The party of whites then followed and shot a boy of twelve years of age dead—a lad well known in town as a harmless, helpless lunatic and wounded a man with a ball in the thigh, besides. Yesterday the Native Police force under the orders of their white o cers preformed the same meritorious action for the Blacks in Maryborough setting re to their Camp destroying their clothing & blankets and driving numbers of them into the river in sight of the whole town population. Not content with this the Native Police proceeded to the boiling down Station about a mile from town and deliberately shot dead two old black men and a young one. I have witnessed no actual murder but I have witnessed scenes that I considered, occurring where they did, in the heart of the town, libels on the very humanity of the people, a disgrace to its Magistrates its Storekeepers its fathers & sons and every thing British in the place." (SLNSW 1858 Letter from G.D. Lang to Gideon S. Lang 31 March, A63) "I saw enough human bones at a bend of the Dawson River near Carabah Station to ll a handcart—a result of a round-up of aborigines in the late '60s" (O'Sullivan, M. 1947 Cameos of Crime) Label Tools 2 entries Blog posts Label Tools Men in Blue (and Red): A Brief History of the Qld NMP Uniform "[The Native Police] are clothed in a uniform of blue with scarlet relief, armed with Snider ri es, drilled in semi-military fashion" (Brisbane Courier, 15 June 1878, p3). From the start of the Native Mounted Police (NMP), the uniforms worn by o cers and troopers were a central element of their structure and presence. The lure of a uniform was thought to be one of the key attractions for Aboriginal men to join the Force, although more often than not this was seen as vanity by white observers: "Mr. Clohesy has found some eight men, all new to the service, and has rigged them out in the uniform of the troopers of which they are evidently not a little proud" (Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser 15 February 1872, p2). In giving evidence to the 1857 Select Committee enquiry into the deaths of the 11 members of the Fraser family and their employees on the Dawson River, William Foster thought that the troopers, "... seem to be a better race than the wild men they were taken from. The vanity of each individual is a ected by having an uniform, and being made a soldier of, and an esprit de corps is formed among them" (Legislative Assembly of NSW 1858:11). It is more likely that the uniforms were seen by Aboriginal men as a visible symbol of a labour agreement between themselves and Europeans. Given how important reciprocal (exchange) relationships were in Aboriginal society, the guns, hats, boots, uniforms and rations that were exchanged for their labour were critical ‘proof’ of a European promise. Failure to deliver could result in dissatisfaction or even desertion, as was the case in 1853 when three recruits from the Macintyre River—“Herbert”, “Luke” and “Owen”—deserted because ‘they had been for six months kept at drill, without uniforms, saddlery, or arms, and consequently without anything to gratify their feelings of pride, or self respect’ (Moreton Bay Courier, 29 January 1853, p.3). Eight recruits deserted from Rockhampton in 1862 for the same reason, suggesting that the Native Police’s supply chain had not improved in the intervening 10 years: "It was reported to me on my return that eight Recruits had been sent from Moreton Bay to Head Quarters by Lieutnt Wheeler but that they had all deserted a fortnight after their arrival here; the men had been led to expect a full supply of Clothing, Arms and Accoutrements and deserted in consequence of their disappointment" (QSA846765_1862_John O’Connell Bligh to the Colonial Secretary 15 December, In letter 62/2994, M lm Z5623). Supplies were often hard to get on the frontier, and the system of distributing uniforms from far-distant centres meant that camps could go without for long periods. Scarcity also created frugality, and it was not uncommon to recycle uniform components between successive troopers. Lieutenant George Fulford, for example, noted that a collection of clothing sent to Wondai Gumbal from the Label Tools Dawson included several torn and useless items, including one jacket that appeared "to have been worn for some length of time and has the name “Ralph” in it" (Fulford to Commandant 5 August 1855). All we know of “Ralph” was that he had been a trooper in the Clar