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| Name | Victoria River Wars |
|---|---|
| Description | The Victoria is the longest river in the Northern Territory and is located southwest of Katherine near the Warlpiri community of Lajamanu, formerly known as Hooker Creek (Lajamanu is a long way north of traditional Warlpiri country, but it is one of the places to which Warlpiri were driven while being pursued during the Coniston reprisal massacres of 1928). ‘The Vic’, as it is known, is about 560 km long, originates at Judbarra, flows into the Timor Sea and is fed by the West Baines, Wickham, Gordon, Armstrong and Camfield Rivers. The small town of Timber Creek is on the Victoria Highway, which runs broadly parallel to the river. Pastoralism was the catalyst for the Victoria River Wars, which commenced when Charles Brown Fisher and his business partner J Maurice Lyons took the first pastoral leases in December 1879. By the end of 1882 Fisher & Lyons had 100,000 square kilometres under lease and named it Victoria River Downs (Main, 1972, np). Nathaniel ‘Nat’ ‘Bluey’ Buchanan established Wave Hill Station in 1882. The same year, his brother William—who had vast pastoral holdings in New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory— took up neighbouring Sturt Creek Station and later went into partnership with Nat. With his son Gordon and Sam Croker, Nat Buchanan pioneered the Murranji Track, which was a 230km stock route from Newcastle Waters to old Top Springs, in 1886 (Smith, 2024, pp 84-87). A police station was established at Gordon Creek in 1894 and in 1898 was relocated to Timber Creek. The Victoria River Wars continued well into the 1900s as stations were established along the river, a bountiful and permanent water source, and the stock route it enabled from Queensland, across the Northern Territory and into the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Native Police were not common in the Northern Territory but were twice formed under the command of Constable William Willshire. Willshire had already killed 19 Aboriginal people (Mulvaney, 1990) before being arrested for murdering Aboriginal people in 1891, and released after a controversial trial that raised questions among colonists over its failure to accept evidence from witnesses (South Australian Register, 7 Aug 1891, p 6). Willshire was posted to the Victoria River region to command Native Police in 1893 where his brutal practices resulted in him being ordered back to Adelaide in 1895 (Mulvaney, 1990, np). While at Victoria River he was held back for a time by a group of 7 Aboriginal warriors, "You no doubt remember the weary, anxious time I spent on the Victoria, when there were seven civilized blacks at large in the ranges with firearms, and not one of them had any love for me, and had I overstepped the limits of prudence on that occasion I would have been shot from behind their hiding places." (Willshire, 1896, p 5) and was involved in the killing of a resistance leader known as 'Newingurry', 'It was a great blow to the blackfellows' prestige when they lost "Newingurry." He was a reserve force within himself, but he suddenly left for that "undiscovered country from whence no traveller returns." Proudly I recall the day when on the Lower Victoria I came full butt on to the murderers of "Joseph Bradshaw's boy"' (Willshire, 1896, p 6). Romantic narratives were attached to the pioneers of the era, however: In their later years…some men lifted a corner of this veil of secrecy to reveal glimpses of the dark past. Donald Swan, a member of Nat Buchanan’s 1882 party, explained the bush code that enshrouded punitive expeditions: The bushman’s code of honour is this way: either stand in with the mob and keep your mouth shut, or refuse to stand in and also keep your mouth shut. In either case you will be respected and no more will be required of you in the matter (Roberts, 2005, p 138; Owen, 2016, p 147). Warriors fought back by spearing stock and raiding stores, and by targeting colonial leaders and the worst colonial offenders. This led to severe reprisal killings of Aboriginal people. The earliest recorded massacre was at Waterloo in 1886, which was a reprisal for the spearing death of ‘Big Johnny’ Durack near Mount Duncan. Lewis (2018, pp 51-52) wrote that the ‘name Waterloo is said to be a reference to the “unrestrained slaughter” of local Aborigines by police’ after Durack’s death. Other reprisals were for:
The wars continued well into the next century. For example, ‘Brigalow Bill’ Ward was killed at Yarralin in 1909. Of this man, Rose recorded Tim Yilgnayarri, who said: And you know that Brigalow? Right. Brigalow was doing wrong. He was shooting all the people. Shoot-i-i-n-n-n-g, get all the sing girls for married. Take them down to his place. Just the young girl, and some of the middle aged, all that girl. Four fellow… Watchin him that waaay, get the towel and soap…Too late. That spear killed him. Bbbbb. Strike him la water. Right. All the boys go back, take the women. And sugar, tea, flour, all the blanket, fly, take the whole lot (Rose, 1991, p 122). Clashes were recorded at Humbert River Station in 1910 and elsewhere in the district well afterwards. A large massacre of Malngin people was recorded at Limbunya Station in 1920 (Charola & Meakins, 2016, pp 70-71); another at Bedford Downs in 1924. Police, without appropriate—or any—supervision, acted in the interests of the pastoralists. Rather than being dismissed for his conduct at Borroloola, Mounted Constable Gordon Cameron Heaslop Stott was posted to Victoria River in 1933. There, he resumed his sadistic practices, as Banjo Ryan recalled in 2015: "'You reckon you can run as fast as a horse?' Gordon Stott the policeman taunted the prisoner. Stott took the chains off one of the prisoner's feet and then the other. Then he got a horse rasp and filed the sole of his foot until it bled" (Charola & Meakins, 2016, p 221). The poisoning deaths of at least five Gurindji people was recorded at Timber Creek in 1936 (Chronicle, 11 June 1936, p 41). This is how Daly Pulkara, a Ngarinman man from Yarralin, recalled the wars, many of which were triggered by the abduction of women for sexual slavery: Pulkara: them bloody whatsa – European come on after that. Banging, banging time now. They reckon lightning somewhere. ‘Ah, that man he get out bushed’. They reckon that lightning. Another bloke drop. Yeah. Bang! ‘Nother bloke. They bin lookin’ at, you know, they bin lookin’ eye. Something wrong. Got a blood come through the nose. ‘Oh might be lightning’. Bang! See? They didn’t catch on for while. They pick up all the woman and European takem away. Eh? Aborign just followem up (Read & Read, 1993, pp 7-8). Contributor: Robyn Smith Notable PeopleJerry, a Ngarinman man who escaped the Waterloo reprisal massacres in 1886 (Moore cited in Lewis, 2021, pp 527-528). Newingurry, a resistance leader mentioned by Willshire, who implied he was killed during the Bradshaw reprisals (Willshire, 1896, p 6). Gurindji (Ngarinman and Bilinara), Wardaman and Karrangpurru warriors (see AIATSIS map). Bradshaw, Joseph ‘Captain Joe’ - cousin of and closely associated with Aeneas Gunn of Elsey Station, he took up Bradshaw Station in 1893. He was later involved with Arafura Station in Arnhem Land, which was owned by the Eastern and African Cold Storage Company from 1903 until 1908 and in which he was a shareholder and the General Manager (Smith, 2024, pp 82-83). Braitling, William Walter ‘Billy’ – a drover for Vesteys, he took up Passchendale Station in 1921 and sold it in 1928 (Smith, 2024, p 83). Buchanan, Nathaniel ‘Nat’ aka ‘Bluey’ – took up Wave Hill Station with his brothers in 1882 and pioneered the Murranji Track with his son Gordon and Sam Croker in 1886 (Smith, 2024, pp 84-87). Cahill, Patrick ‘Paddy’ – buffalo shooter who accompanied Buchanan on several expeditions. Managed Wave Hill, Delamere and Gordon Downs Stations. Crawford, Lindsay – originally employed on the overland telegraph line, appointed Manager of Victoria River Downs 1884-1890. In 1895, he said: …during the last ten years, in fact since the first white man settled here, we have held no communication with the natives at all, except with the rifle. They have never been allowed near this station or the outstations, being too treacherous and warlike (Smith, 2024, p 94). Croker, Samuel Burns ‘Greenhide Sam’ – long-time employee of Nat Buchanan. Shot dead during a card game by Charlie (also spelt Charley) Flannigan on Auvergne Station in 1892 because he refused to partner with a half-caste (Flannigan) or a Chinaman, the station cook. Flannigan hanged for it at Fannie Bay Gaol in 1893 (Smith, 2017, p 11). Eastern & African Cold Storage Co – held Elsey and Hodgson Downs Stations (Powell, 1982, pp 101, 129). Fisher, Charles Brown and Lyons, J Maurice – formed Fisher and Lyons and held extensive pastoral leases in the Victoria River district. Sold to Goldsborough Mort in 1890 (Main, 1972, np). Farquharson, Archie Mosman, Harry Gordon and Hughie (brothers) – owners of Inverway Station, 1896 (Lewis, 2021, pp 231-232). Ledgerwood, James Logan ‘Long Jim’ - Head Stockman of VRD Station in 1895 and was one of the leaders of the punitive expedition known as the Gordon Creek massacre that followed an attack on teamsters Mulligan and Ligar in the same year (Lewis, 2021, p 477). Stott, Cameron Gordon Heaslop ‘Gordon’ – born en route to Cooktown in 1905, Stott was the son of a well-respected police officer who went on to become Commissioner. The younger Stott’s conduct was highly questionable and included grievous bodily harm and ‘deplorable cruelty’ in relation to prisoners (Wilson, 2000, p 130). Watson, Jack ‘the Gulf hero’ – managed Victoria River Station after Crawford: There is a source which credits Watson and the previous VRD manager, Crawford, with making ‘it possible for white men to travel in most parts of the empty north without fear of being murdered to make a myall’s holiday’ (North Queensland Herald, 20-5-1911) (Lewis, 2021, p 16; see also Smith, 2024, pp 112-113). Wye, Oliver Garfield Walter ‘Walter’ - Manager of Bradshaw Station from 1907 until 1910. He was known by Aboriginal people in the district as ‘Old Wallaway’ (Lewis, 2021, p 69). SourcesAustralian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (1996) Map of Indigenous Australia: https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia Charola E and Meakins F (Eds) (2016) Yijarni: true stories from Gurindji Country, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra. Lewis D (2021) The Victoria River Doomsday Book, Lewis & National Centre for Biography, Australian National University, Canberra: https://hdl.handle.net/10070/836453 Main JM, ‘Charles Brown Fisher (1818-1908)’ in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 4, 1972, Australian National University, Canberra: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/fisher-charles-brown-379 Mulvaney DJ ‘William Henry Willshire (1852-1925)’ in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol 12, 1990, Australian National University, Canberra: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/willshire-william-henry-9128 Northern Territory Place Names Register search: https://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/placenames/ Owen C (2016) Every Mother’s Son is Guilty: policing the Kimberley Frontier of Western Australia 1882-1905, University of Western Australia Publishing, Perth. Powell A (1982) Far country: a short history of the Northern Territory, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne. Read P and Read J (1993) Long Time Olden Time: Aboriginal accounts of Northern Territory history, Institute for Aboriginal Development, Canberra. Roberts T (2005) Frontier Justice: a history of the Gulf country to 1900, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane. Rose DB (1991) Hidden Histories: back stories from Victoria River Downs, Humbert River and Wave Hill Stations, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra. Ryan et al (2024) Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930, Centre for 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle, NSW: https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/groups.php Smith R (2017) Habeas Corpus: deaths at Fannie Bay Gaol 1883-1972, Heritage Branch, Northern Territory Government, Darwin. Smith R (2021) ‘Kill or be killed: the real story of Charlie Flannigan, the first man hanged in the Northern Territory’ in NT Independent, 11 April 2021: https://ntindependent.com.au/kill-or-be-killed-the-real-story-of-charlie-flannigan-the-first-man-hanged-in-the-nt/ Smith R (2024) Licence to Kill: massacre men of Australia’s North, Historical Society of the Northern Territory, Darwin. South Australian Register August 7, 1891 p 6 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48241058 Staff Writers, ‘Put poison in food after being speared’ in Chronicle (Adelaide), 11 June 1936, p 41. Willshire, W.H. The Land of the Dawning W.K.Thomas & Co. Adelaide, 1896. Wilson, WR (2000) A force apart?: a history of the Northern Territory Police Force 1870-1926, PhD thesis, Charles Darwin University, Darwin: https://researchers.cdu.edu.au/en/studentTheses/a-force-apart/ |
| Type | Other |
| Content Warning | Colonial violence. Linked sources include racist language and violence. |
| Contributor | Dr Bill Pascoe |
| Entries | 18 |
| Allow ANPS? | No |
| Added to System | 2025-08-11 14:46:27 |
| Updated in System | 2026-01-07 16:03:04 |
| Subject | |
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| Creator | Dr Robyn Smith |
| Publisher | Australian Wars and Resistance |
| Contact | australianwars@gmail.com |
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| Date From | 1882 |
| Date To | 1936 |
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| Language | EN |
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The NT News (Hope 2016, p. 12) reported: 'According to his stories [Phillip Yamba Jimmy], Seale Gorge is not just a resting place for the murdered, but a massacre site in itself. "Two (white) men heaped up wood until there was a large pyre," he said... Author and historian Darrell Lewis wrote extensively of the region's violence in his book A Wild History[: Life and Death on the Victoria River Frontier] and knew the stories. "I don't know of any documentation, but it doesn't mean it's myth and legend" he said'.
Ronnie Wavehill Wirrpngayarri, (cited in Charola & Meakins 2016, pp 32-39) recounted: 'This happened right at the start when kartiya (Europeans) found the place on the east side of the Victoria River (the site of original Wave Hill Station) and they made their camp...'
As this was in the early years of colonisation at Wave Hill Station, it may related to spearings of Victoria River Station workers on 30 April 1886 and 1 May 1886 reported in The North Australian (April 30, 1886, p 3) and NTTG (May 1, 1886, p 2)
According to Ronnie Wavehill Wirrpngayarri, 'Those kartiya had a lot of rifles and they had men with them too, Aboriginal men. Where could they have been from? Maybe Darwin or Queensland - Aboriginal people who used to live alongside kartiya. They came to shoot. 'Well,' they asked each other, 'where to go from here?' 'We can go up west to Warluk (upstream from Daguragu).' Right here to the west they went on horseback, along the river at Daguragu, going to Seale River (Steven's Creek)... Early in the morning they ambushed people there and shot all the ngumpin there. They shot the whole lot of them right there at the yards at Warluk... Then they went back down to the river. But in the afternoon, two of the kartiya returned. 'You two young blokes go back!' Why did they go back there? What for? They went up-river to the same place near the yard, that very clearing where the dead bodies remained: children, grown men and women who had been shot dead en masse. They had been killed off like dogs from their own country... They just left them there, dead on the ground. The two men heaped up wood until there was a large pyre... They threw them all on the fire.' Two Aboriginal men then speared and killed the two kartiya men by the fire: 'Then they dragged them over to the fire and threw them on top, burning both of them... That's how ngumpin would sometime get their own back.' (Charola & Meakins 2016, pp 32-39).
Charola & Meakins, 2016, pp 32-29; North Australian, April 30, 1886, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47995543; NTTG May 1, 1886, p 2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3159411; Zach Hope, NT News, 'Bones tell of a past steeped in horror', 19 August 2016, p 12 http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/news/2000s/2016/ntnews19aug2016.pdf (Accessed 26 January 2020).
An undated index card from the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in London reads: '20.1601; 1028.1 - skull and femora, male. 20.1062; 1028.2 ... skull and femora, male. Natives of the NW Territory of Australia, near the Victoria River, shot early in 1900 in a punitive expedition, in which forty natives male and female were killed. They live sometimes on the coast, sometimes inland; white traders make no irregular unions with their women, so the race remains pure. (For other details of tribe see letters).' 'Pres by Dr Arthur J Gedge 1920' [but the cranium says 1921]. '(Accompanying these remains are glass & stone arrowheads made by them, and sharp oval stones used for an operation on many of the males).' Dr Arthur Gedge does not appear to have been in Australia. The British Medical Journal of 16 September 1927 (p 475) records that he died in London on 16 August 1927.
Royal College of Surgeons Archive, MS number RCS-MUS/7/8 (undated) http://surgicat.rcseng.ac.uk/Details/archive/110003808; British Medical Journal, 10 September 1927, p 475: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2524749/pdf/brmedj08291-0039b.pdf; Canberra Times, 21 November 1988, p 1: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110615322
Lewis (2021, p 214) wrote that 'Brigalow Bill' Ward was speared and killed at the homestead in late 1909. "His body was thrown into the river and never recovered (Timber Creek Police Journal (TCPJ), 5-3-1910, 17-4-1910). A report in the NTTG (8 April 1910, p 2) related news from a correspondent at Willeroo Station: "A poor fellow known as Briglo Bill (J. J. Ward) was murdered by blacks here some time ago. He has been missing in this district for nearly six months, and then the blacks report his murder. I think the police might interest themselves more than they do, especially in this district. The blacks do not fear the police out here in any way, and thousands of cattle are killed by these useless brutes annually." A court report (NTTG, 16 September 1910, p 3) noted the trial of two Aboriginal people for Ward's murder: "As in previous case, the crime was apparently an unprovoked and cold-blooded business, chiefly concocted by a lubra named Judy and a native known as Gordon. As a preliminary to the murder the deceased man's only firearm was cunningly stolen by the lubra Judy, and by her handed to her fellow conspirator, Gordon, leaving their intended victim practically at their mercy. A number of natives - including the prisoners Mudgella and Wolgorora - surrounded Ward as he was engaged in burning off grass near his hut, and chasing the doomed man speared him near the door of his house as they would do a kangaroo. After a patient hearing, the Jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy, against both the prisoners, upon whom His Honor then passed the death sentence." According to the police account of the hunt for his murderers at least one Aboriginal person, Gordon, was shot dead (TCPJ 26-6-1910). However, local knowledge suggests the death toll was higher. Charlie Shultz (pers comm) heard from old-time VRD locals that "a great many were shot." Rose quoted Tim Yilngayarri of Yarralin (p 122): "And you know that Brigalow? Right. Brigalow was doing wrong. He was shooting all the people. Shoot-i-i-n-n-n-g, get all the sing girls for married. Take them down to his place. Just the young girl, and some of the middle aged, all that girl. Four fellow - Watchin him that waaay, get the towel and soap - Too late. That spear killed him. Bbbbb. Strike him la water. Right. All the boys go back, take the women. And sugar, tea, flour, all the blanket, fly, take the whole lot."
Lewis, 2021, p 214 https://hdl.handle.net/10070/836453; Rose, 1991, pp 119-129; NTTG 8 April 1910, p 2 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3265599; NTTG 16 September 1910, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3266106; SEE ALSO Read & Read, 1991, pp 29-32 and Olney Justice Howard (1989) Kidman Springs/Jasper Gorge Land Claim, Report No 30, AGPS, Canberra.
Ronnie Wavehill Wirrpngayarri (cited in Charola & Meakins, p 45) recounts it in these terms: 'Yet another one was an ambush up at Nero Yard... This is where kartiya ambushed some ngumpin. And what for? Maybe for stealing cattle; that's how they told it to me...They had a big battle there. Spears were aimed and missed... they hooked up the short spears and sent them straight down ... couldn't miss! The first one aimed and hit a kartiya right in the belly as soon as he came out from his hiding place. One down! As soon as the other kartiya saw him get speared, they all went running away. Towards here, to the east is where they buried him. At Jurlakkula it happened the same way as at Warluk. They just massacred a whole lot of Aboriginal people. Is it right that kartiya come from another place and wipe out people on their own country? That kind of thing can't be right!'.
While this massacre is clearly different to the other massacres in the region, estimating a date is difficult. The year 1901 and number killed is a speculation from the following conjecture. This may be a massacre that Paddy Cahill was involved in at Wave Hill.
In his narrative Ronnie Wavehill Wirrpngayarri says that ngumpin [Aboriginal people] helped the kartiya [colonists] during the killing at Jurlakkula, saying they were from 'maybe Queensland or maybe from somewhere up here' (Charola & Meakins, p 45). While it was common for colonists to have Aboriginal workers, Paddy Cahill was from Queensland and was well known for working with a very close Aboriginal assistant named 'Quilp' and other Aboriginal people (The Register, 3 Mar 1919, p 6; The Register 6 Feb 1923, p 7).
Read & Japaljarri (1978, p 147) say that 'A white informant [Dr Stephen Harris] stated that Paddy Cahill, the manager of Oenpelli Station, had been called over in about 1924 to deal with cattle killers. He shot over 30 bush people'. However, Paddy Cahill moved to Oenpelli Station, further north, with his wife in 1906 and, after struggling for flu, died on 4 Feb 1923 in Sydney (NTDB, Vol 1, p 84). The estimated year '1924' must be wrong as he was dead, and while Paddy was famed for riding hundreds of kilometres in a short amount of time, it's less likely he was 'called over' during this more settled phase of his life.
Paddy's brother, Tommy Cahill, was the manager of Wave Hill Station from 1895 to 1905. Tom Cahill said that, 'At first the natives were very wild and used to give us a lot of trouble, killing our cattle' (SMH, February 19, 1921).
The Wave Hill station, and more broadly Victoria River District, were violent areas from at least from 1889 when 'Mr. T. Cahill, the station manager, and several of the station men (principally blackboys) were out one day in the locality where "Paddy the Lasher" was murdered a couple of years ago.' (Northern Territory Times and Gazette 20 Jan 1899) and continued at least until 1924 when 'the last massacre' (Ward, 2016, p 24) is estimated to have taken place. There were numerous killings and reprisals between these dates, and Paddy was involved in another massacre further north at Willeroo in 1892 (Arndt, 1965, p245) and was attacked at the Gregory Creek/Victoria River junction some time prior to 1900 (The Register 18 Dec 1905, p 6).
Following an intensification of resistance to colonists around Wave Hill in the 1890s, Paddy wrote a letter complaining that Aboriginal people had not been punished for murders in the Victoria River District, and that in the previous 6 months there had been repeated attacks on travellers and spearing of cattle and horses. He recommended, 'place police enough in the Victoria River district to cope with the blacks... and let us have the evildoers brought to justice' and warned that 'Unless something like this is done a wholesale murder will take place at some of the stations in the Victoria River district' (South Australian Register, 29 Jan 1901, p 5). Throughout the history of massacres it was common for colonists to complain that Aboriginal people were getting away without being punished for theft and murder and that the Government was not doing anything, or were inneffectual, as a justification for taking matters into their own hands.
For these reasons the best estimate is that this was a massacre that Paddy Cahill was involved in and that it occurred around 1901 as a reprisal for ongoing violent acts of Aboriginal resistance in the area.
Charola & Meakins, 2016, p 45; Northern Territory Times and Gazette 20 Jan 1899) https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4219064; Ward, 2016, A Handful of Sand: The Gurindji Struggle, After the Walk-off Monash University Publishing, p 24; Arndt, 1965 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40329542; The Register 18 Dec 1905, p 6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55652556; The Register 3 Mar 1919, p 6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60904518/4540090; The Register 6 Feb 1923, p 7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63834371; South Australian Register 20 Jan 1901, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/54557111; Read & Japaljarri, 1978, p 147 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24054573; Lewis, 2018, pp 257-258 https://hdl.handle.net/10070/305617; SMH February 19, 1921 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15959341; SMH, February 19 1921 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15959341; NTDB, Vol 1, p 84 https://dcarment.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ntdictionaryofbiography.pdf