In September 1865 reports emerged that John Dowling of Paroo in the Warrego District had been murdered by his Aboriginal assistant and guide, Waddy Galo, of the Buela River and that Mr William Hall and Mr George Podmore with an Aboriginal assistant had tracked them to where they found his body with his belongings and with his skull crushed (Sydney Mail, 2 Sep, 1865, p 4).
Long after the event, in 1922, E.O. Hobkirk claimed to have been at a massacre led by John Dowling's brother, Vincent Dowling, and attempted to sell his story for 10 shillings at the Home Secretary's Office. He wrote:
'When Mr Vincent Dowling heard the sad news, he was very math [sic] as well as may be expected and cut up.
A short time after he received the sad tidings, he came to Thouringowa Station. I was informed that he (Mr
Dowling) had written to the Queensland government authorities concerning the murder and the reply was "to
take whatever measures he thought best to revenge the murder" as there were no Native Police at that time in the District
to see to the matter.
The following procedure was adopted. All the men in the neighbourhood who were available and willing (not
including myself) were banded together, armed with revolvers and rifles, set out to revenge the blacks' camp,
which was close to the homestead and when doing so there they found belonging [sic] of the murdered man consisting of
his hat, coat, blankets, tomahawk, sheath knife etc.
Mr V Dowling who could talk the blacks' lingo pretty well asked several of them "who killed white fellah?
brother belonging to me." They one and all answered "they knew nothing about the murder." He also enquired,
"Where Pimpilly." This they also confessed "that they knew nothing whatever about him." Mr Dowling then said, "If
you do not tell me, I will shoot the lot of yous." Still they all remained silent. Mr Dowling and the others, then set
to work and put an end to many of them not touching the lubras and young fry. This I know is true as I helped
first to burn the bodies and then to bury them. A most unpleasant undertaking but as I was only a jackaroo on
Cheshunt station at the time, I had to do what I was told. Later in the day the party went to another camp of blacks
about 20 miles down the river and there again shot about the same number.
After the massacre, the whole tribe of blacks left the river frontage and that locality and went miles away out
in the ranges and elsewhere. We found it hard to prevent the few that were employed on the stations from doing
likewise as they were so scared at what had taken place that we had to lock them up in the hut that was used as
a store for a short time. For many months there was not A single black to be seen for miles around excepting
the few already mentioned among these was an elderly man who was deaf and dumb' (Hobkirk in Dillon, 2019, pp 108-110).
Although arguing against the veracity of details reported in this massacre, Dillon has researched and published many relevant sources (Dillon, 2019).
Hobkirk also tried to sell other stories, and Dillon highlights many discrepancies in details between his stories and other evidence. As Hobkirk was an old man recalling an event after 57 years and is trying to sell his story we should expect some details to be misremembered or exaggerated. None the less, it is most likely that his story has some basis in real events. Hobkirk's story begins with a verifiable event - the killing of John Dowling.
As well as the full text of Hobkirk's story, Dillon provides sources on a controversy in the press prior to John Dowling's murder that provides important context. In 1864 and 1865, a series of letters were published in newspapers beginning with a claim made by a correspondent referred to as 'Bourke' in 1864 that Mr Dowling had been killed by Aboriginal people (Dillon, 2019, pp 95-103).
About a year prior to the murder of John Dowling an article appeared stating that 'Mr Dowling, son of Judge Dowling' had been murdered along with three or four of his men. This appears to refer to either Vincent or John Dowling, though no first name was used, as their father was a judge. According to this article 3 or 4 men were murdered with Dowling and the Native Police and colonists were 'stuck up' and held under siege at Thom's station by Aboriginal people. Another group of Native Police came to reinforce them after 'dispersing' Aboriginal people at Tooth's run (The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 25 Jun 1864, p 4)
This was contradicted by Vincent Dowling, who wrote that he was alive and that 'The blacks on the Paroo are the quietest I know in the colonies' (Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 12 July, 1864, p 3). 'Bourke' replied that it was a shepherd also named 'Dowling' who had been killed (Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 9 August, 1864, p 3). The exchange then focuses on whether the region is safe or dangerous, with Vincent Dowling arguing that '...many of those paragraphs are not only untrue in themselves, but calculated to seriously injure the character of the district... The Warrego district, which is, without exception one of the largest and most valuable possessed by Queensland, is not the lawless state your correspondent would evidently lead your readers to believe... I have no hesitation in asserting that the blacks are, as a body, perfectly inoffensive, quiet, and well disposed... This immunity from crime will, I think, convince every impartial member of the community that in this far distant portion of the Queensland territory there is greater security both for life and property than in any part of New South Wales...' (Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 1 April, 1865, p 5) Bourke's response stated that Mr Dowling (the shepherd) and others had died and lists the names of five men who had died of thirst, adding, 'And your correspondent did his duty in warning travellers against coming into this waterless country... We are only working men; but we read the papers, and know what is the truth and what is the untruth.' The letter from 'Bourke' is signed by 6 men of the Warrego River (Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 6 June, 1865, p 3).
From other news it appears that Vincent Dowlings was misrepresenting the situation. There was a drought in the region. It affected some more than others (The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 7 Dec 1865, p 4) but was bad enough to force some pastoralists off their runs (The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, 14 Sep 1865, p 3). Vincent Dowling seems to be no exception to the hardships in the region as
Maxwell's short biography of Dowling says that, 'During his life in the far west it may be said that he fought with nature to achieve success. Many times he suffered agonies from thirst, on one occasion having been for seventy hours without water, and then just getting back to the settlement when at the last stage and almost dying. His knowledge of articles of food is very extensive, having been acquired under the pressure of starvation' (Maxwell, 1889, p 386).
Pastoralists in the Warrego were keen to sell parts of their runs which they could not fully utilise (Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald and General Advertiser, 9 Jul 1868 p 3). This is probably why Vincent Dowling was concerned over the reputation of the region and motivated to portray it favourably. Contrary to Vincent's claims, there was conflict with Aboriginal people in the region. That Vincent's own brother John Dowling was murdered by his Aboriginal servant in 1865 (after the correspondence around Dowling the shepherd being killed) belies his insistence that the region was safe. Two articles calling for more protection from the Native Police show that, far from being peaceful, in 1864 and 1865 there was conflict between Aboriginal people and colonists including murders and stock raids:
'Information has just reached Brisbane, by a gentleman whose veracity is unimpeachable, that two shepherds of Mr. Cameron's, a father and his son, have been very recently murdered on a creek which runs nearly midway between and parallel with the Mungalarla and the Angelarla
Creeks and from the same source I learn that a flock of sheep belonging to Messrs. Humphries and Bullmore, on the Ward river, had been taken from a shepherd, and before they could be rescued from the blacks over 130 had been killed, and that the blacks were getting very
troublesome all over the district. These outrages, I believe, result more from the way in which the Native Police are distributed
throughout the western districts, than from any want of more police or officers. The Warrego is a very remote and large district, and
the aborigines cannot be depended on in any part of it for the protection of life and property' (The Brisbane Courier, 9 Dec 1864 p 2).
Another article states:
'That this district has received no protection from the hostile natives - with which it swarms - except a small force of native police, under Lieutenant Lambert, who, although a very meritorious officer, finds it impossible with his force to guard efficiently a district extending in length to 500 miles' (The Age, 20 Apr 1865, p 5).
This is important context as the stress on resources created by drought, Aboriginal resistance and conflict including murders and stock theft, and the killing of Vincent's brother amount to a situation similar to events leading up to many other massacres throughout the history of frontier conflict in Australia. It also corresponds with Hobkirk's statement that Vincent and other colonists proceeded without police assistance as there were no Native Police available in the area, bearing in mind that although Native Police were sometimes active in the area, the complaint was that they were too few and too remote to be adequate.
In 1888 Charles F Maxwell wrote in a biography of Vincent Dowling that, 'Although exposed to frequent attacks from the blacks, he escaped without hurt, but not without some close shaves, as on one occasion he had a spear driven through his hat; and on another a boomerang thrown by a wild man cut open the ribs of the mare he was riding. Yet he did not retaliate, and not until 1865, when his brother John was murdered by the blacks, did he ever shed a drop of blackfellow's blood' (Maxwell, 1889, v1, p 185).
According to Hazel McKellar in Matyu-mundu one of these massacres is recorded in Kullilla oral history, 'Some whites say these people belonged to the "Bitharra" tribe but Peter Hood, a Kullilla descendant, is certain they were his people. He says the site of this massacre was further south towards Bulloo Downs' (McKellar, 1984, p. 57). This is most likely the second massacre mentioned by Hobkirk which he said was further south (See
Bulloo Downs).
Various later accounts of this massacre claim the death toll of these massacres was as high as 300 (Bottoms 2013, p64). An estimate of 30 killed at each campsite is thus conservative. Although details may be uncertain it is most likely that the massacres described by Hobkirk and recorded in Kullilla oral history occurred.
