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| gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2026/04/03 12:18] – [Hawkwood 1854-58] judith | gaining_colonial_experience_early_properties [2026/04/03 12:19] (current) – [Hawkwood 1854-58] judith |
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| In his reminiscences for Rosa about Hawkwood, TLM-P stated that there was 18 months of war: 'Those 18 months of warfare were an anxious time for us. Business took me then a great deal from the station. When I came home I used to canter pretty sharply to the top of the ridge from which the place was visible with my heart in my mouth, for there was always the fear that all hands might have been massacred.' In the aftermath of the Hornet Bank murders, he ensured he had plenty of gun-powder and noted that 'I was better off [than my neighbours] at Hawkwood having 3 coast blacks & a gin [Aboriginal woman - as they were from the coast they had no necessary allegiance or even common language with the local Yiman tribe], Ernest Davis, Sydney Lind a German Dr & one of two other & plenty of arms & ammunition.' He described how a sheep-buyer called Horton convinced him and a neighbour Alfred Thomas that the Indigenous men were planning other murders and rapes. They formed a vigilante party which met at Hawkwood and which they named the Browns. The party comprised of Horton, 5 property owners, 2 overseers, 'a black boy from the Auburn' and 'Billy Hayes & Freddy [who were] my two blackboys (Brisbane boys upon whom we could depend' (p.32) One of the station owners, John MacArthur was nominated 'Captain', another indication of the quasi-military nature of the operation. The workers on the station, presumably aware of their own vulnerability, supported the action: 'It was shearing time but the shearers 'promised to shear s well, or better than if I were there, & they would not let anything go wrong on the station, & they kept their word.'(p.33) He claimed that Billy Hayes urged that they kill all Indigenous people they encountered but TLM_P insisted that he would leave if he saw a woman or child 'wittingly hurt'. They found them at a station and opened fire, some escaping and others being captured. One Indigenous warrior 'Ivery'(unclear - Terry?) he described as both a 'noted murderer' and 'a very fine man & a plucky fellow' single-handedly issued a challenge to McArthur despite him only having traditional weapons and McArthur a pistol. TLM-P again indicated the complexities of the situation as the warrior was protected by [[wp>William_Henry_Yaldwyn]] who owned Taroom Station, much to the neighbours' indignation. In the end, Police threatened to shoot Yaldwyn if he did not stop being used as a shield.(pp.35-36) TLM-P concluded 'The war was kept up for eighteen months during which there were continually either one or more parties out - & gradually a good many of the the ring-leaders were accounted for' - using 'most treacherous' means.(pp.37-38) Part of the latter conflict came about when the whites were convinced they had identified Indigenous 'murderers', in one case TLM-P objecting to a Mr Pigott employing Indigenous men building sheep-yards at a near-by property as he was convinced one of the labourers ('Auburn Boney') had been involved in killing white men on Hawkwood.(p.39) By this time Indigenous people needed a pass if they wanted to leave their camp (p.40). TlM-P described how 'the Browns' and the Native Police combined to capture those they thought were ringleaders - 'This put an end to the war'.(p.41)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.))\\ | In his reminiscences for Rosa about Hawkwood, TLM-P stated that there was 18 months of war: 'Those 18 months of warfare were an anxious time for us. Business took me then a great deal from the station. When I came home I used to canter pretty sharply to the top of the ridge from which the place was visible with my heart in my mouth, for there was always the fear that all hands might have been massacred.' In the aftermath of the Hornet Bank murders, he ensured he had plenty of gun-powder and noted that 'I was better off [than my neighbours] at Hawkwood having 3 coast blacks & a gin [Aboriginal woman - as they were from the coast they had no necessary allegiance or even common language with the local Yiman tribe], Ernest Davis, Sydney Lind a German Dr & one of two other & plenty of arms & ammunition.' He described how a sheep-buyer called Horton convinced him and a neighbour Alfred Thomas that the Indigenous men were planning other murders and rapes. They formed a vigilante party which met at Hawkwood and which they named the Browns. The party comprised of Horton, 5 property owners, 2 overseers, 'a black boy from the Auburn' and 'Billy Hayes & Freddy [who were] my two blackboys (Brisbane boys upon whom we could depend' (p.32) One of the station owners, John MacArthur was nominated 'Captain', another indication of the quasi-military nature of the operation. The workers on the station, presumably aware of their own vulnerability, supported the action: 'It was shearing time but the shearers 'promised to shear s well, or better than if I were there, & they would not let anything go wrong on the station, & they kept their word.'(p.33) He claimed that Billy Hayes urged that they kill all Indigenous people they encountered but TLM_P insisted that he would leave if he saw a woman or child 'wittingly hurt'. They found them at a station and opened fire, some escaping and others being captured. One Indigenous warrior 'Ivery'(unclear - Terry?) he described as both a 'noted murderer' and 'a very fine man & a plucky fellow' single-handedly issued a challenge to McArthur despite him only having traditional weapons and McArthur a pistol. TLM-P again indicated the complexities of the situation as the warrior was protected by [[wp>William_Henry_Yaldwyn]] who owned Taroom Station, much to the neighbours' indignation. In the end, Police threatened to shoot Yaldwyn if he did not stop being used as a shield.(pp.35-36) TLM-P concluded 'The war was kept up for eighteen months during which there were continually either one or more parties out - & gradually a good many of the the ring-leaders were accounted for' - using 'most treacherous' means.(pp.37-38) Part of the latter conflict came about when the whites were convinced they had identified Indigenous 'murderers', in one case TLM-P objecting to a Mr Pigott employing Indigenous men building sheep-yards at a near-by property as he was convinced one of the labourers ('Auburn Boney') had been involved in killing white men on Hawkwood.(p.39) By this time Indigenous people needed a pass if they wanted to leave their camp (p.40). TlM-P described how 'the Browns' and the Native Police combined to capture those they thought were ringleaders - 'This put an end to the war'.(p.41)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.))\\ |
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| An incident that illustrates the anxiety TLM-P felt for his family (as experienced by all sides of the conflict) during this time occurred when TLM-P and Matilda's eldest son Tom was about 7 years old (c.1855. TLM-P was unarmed when he heard Tom shouting. After rushing to get rifle and ammunition:'I saw my boy, who had just put the rams into the yard, in conversation with a blackfellow, who was gesticulating vigorously. Every time he moved his arm, I felt that the waddy might be intended for my boy ...[but] I reflected that had he intended to harm, he would have done it before. However it was an awful time'.(p.48)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.)) TLM-P also incidentally mentions that, fearful of black attack, 'the least noise alarmed us at night ... We had neither windows nor shutters to the verandah part of the hut [they slept in] & for protection, put some slight bars across. Anyone trying to get in would make quite noise enough to wake me.'((Rosa Praed papers, Box 3, 8370, packet 3/1/1, Oxley Library.\\ | An incident that illustrates the anxiety TLM-P felt for his family (as experienced by all sides of the conflict) during this time occurred when TLM-P and Matilda's eldest son Tom was about 7 years old (c.1855. TLM-P was unarmed when he heard Tom shouting. After rushing to get rifle and ammunition:'I saw my boy, who had just put the rams into the yard, in conversation with a blackfellow, who was gesticulating vigorously. Every time he moved his arm, I felt that the waddy might be intended for my boy ...[but] I reflected that had he intended to harm, he would have done it before. However it was an awful time'.(p.48)((Rosa Praed papers, Oxley Library OM64-01, item 3.1.1.)) TLM-P also incidentally mentions that, fearful of black attack, 'the least noise alarmed us at night ... We had neither windows nor shutters to the verandah part of the hut [they slept in] & for protection, put some slight bars across. Anyone trying to get in would make quite noise enough to wake me.'((Rosa Praed papers, Box 3, 8370, packet 3/1/1, Oxley Library))\\ |
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| TLM-P sold //Hawkwood// in the year after the Hornet Bank massacre. The property had not been a financial or any other success. It appears the final straw was another outbreak of scab among his sheep. The family was apparently popular with his neighbours as they are said to have gifted him some 900 sheep to replenish his flock.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, Masters thesis, pp.214-15. It is possible that this is a confusion with the initial scab outbreak, or vice versa - or that scab was endemic.)) The station ledger includes a page listing 10 'working bullocks' and 39 horses in addition to 10 horses which were sold with the property. For TLM-P's next venture, he tried to leave behind the problems of livestock.\\ | TLM-P sold //Hawkwood// in the year after the Hornet Bank massacre. The property had not been a financial or any other success. It appears the final straw was another outbreak of scab among his sheep. The family was apparently popular with his neighbours as they are said to have gifted him some 900 sheep to replenish his flock.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, Masters thesis, pp.214-15. It is possible that this is a confusion with the initial scab outbreak, or vice versa - or that scab was endemic.)) The station ledger includes a page listing 10 'working bullocks' and 39 horses in addition to 10 horses which were sold with the property. For TLM-P's next venture, he tried to leave behind the problems of livestock.\\ |