RECOMENDACIONES

On a hot afternoon, 17 October 1861, Horatio Wills and his party were resting after lunch having reached their destination of Cullin-la-Ringo in central Queensland.

1996). Newspapers refer to some of this violence. There were rumours of killings which were revealed as false; and there is a pervasive air of hysteria and reflexive violence. Port Phillip Herald, 3 April 1840, p. 2. Geelong Advertiser, 8 May 1841, p. 2, is an example of the anxiety whipped up in town dwellers and the antagonistic feelings towards Robinson and others of the Aboriginal Protectorate. Geelong Advertiser, 12 December 1840, p. 2, refers to tribes that ‘barbarously murdered a hutkeeper on Mr Wills’ station below Mt William’. Its tone is one of despair at the inevitability of escalating violence perpetrated by aborigines and settlers.

367

Rape is indicated by the phrase ‘make connection’. The use of the term elsewhere confirms it as a euphemism for sexual assault. See also Michael Cannon, Who Killed the Koories? (Port Melbourne: William Heinemann Australia, 1990), p. 64.

368

Robinson, vol. II, p. 336. Also see reference to Horatio Wills, Lindsey Arkley, The Hated Protector. The Story of Charles Wightman Sievwright Protector of Aborigines, 1839-4 (Orbit Press: Mentone, 2000), pp. 77,78, 287, 288. Records of the Victorian Archaeological Survey, Journals of G.A. Robinson, May to August 1841, Edited with an introduction by Gary Presland, October 1980, no. 11, p. 123. See also, Ian D. Clark, Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria, 1803-1859 (Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995). Several of these killings are reviewed, pp. 73, 77- 8. Also see, Jan A. Critchett, ‘A Distant Field of Murder’, Western District Frontiers 1834-1848 (Carlton: Melbourne University Press, 1990), pp. 107, 126, 248-9 and J. F. Critchett, ‘A “Distant Field of Murder”: Portland Bay District Frontiers 1834-1848’, PhD thesis, Arts Faculty, University of Melbourne, 1988, pp. 512-3.

Tom Wills was not present at the campsite. He and two other men had been sent to Albinia Downs to collect a dray loaded with provisions which had been left en route to Cullin-la-Ringo. He did not return to the camp for several days. When he returned, his father and eighteen settlers had been murdered.

Tom Wills wrote to H. C. A. Harrison immediately on his return to the campsite: ‘I am in a great fix, no men. If we had used common precaution all would have been well, my poor Father and Baker were most brutally murdered’. It was a breathless incoherent letter scribbled by a man in shock. In the opening lines he implicated his father as not being sufficiently well prepared for a possible attack and expressed his desire for revenge.369

The details of what happened next were provided largely by newspaper reports including eyewitnesses who managed to escape detection and murder. Horatio was killed defending himself outside his tent. The others settlers were taken unaware and killed as they undertook domestic and work duties.370

The attack was reported in a disjointed, almost frenzied manner and was replicated in local and intercolonial papers playing out the same slice of time over several weeks.371 Tom Wills returned to find the camp overturned, goods plundered and

369

Letter, Tom Wills to H. C. A. Harrison, 24 October 1861. In sources at the time no specific name is given to the group of aborigines involved in the killings. The area involved was that of the Kairi people.

370

The killings were vicious and bloody. The details of the attack can be found in Wills Cooke,

Currency Lad, pp. 106-22 or Perrin Triumph and Tragedy, pp. 84-93. Ironically, as Tom Wills’ father was being butchered, the All England Team, was given their farewell prior to leaving England. See, G. H. Wayte (ed.), The ‘Great Britain’ Miscellany, A Log of the Voyage with H.H. Stephenson. A Weekly Journal (Melbourne, 1862), pp. 91-3.

371

Though an extraordinary story and one that received considerable press, it coincided with the reported death of Burke and Wills. As tragedy and surnames were superimposed, the deaths in Queensland were obscured from the national recollection in favour of the heroic exploits of explorers. For example, Geelong Advertiser, 5 November 1861 p. 2, the Burke and Wills story dominated the news. The killings at Cullin-la-Ringo were relegated to one paragraph. There have been numerous popular articles that cover aspects of the murders of Horatio Wills’ party. For example, see for a brief discussion on Horatio Wills and the erection of a ‘fort’ for protection at Rainworth Station, a property near Cullin-la- Ringo, ‘Kavanagh’s Queensland, “Mass murder in the bush”’, Courier Mail, 22 September 1994, pp. 32- 3. The issue of ownership of land is beyond the scope of this chapter. But some context for Horatio’s comments about settlers’ attitudes towards aboriginal rights to land is covered in Reynolds,

Dispossession, pp. 66-95. There have been many accounts of these killings over the years, Rolf Boldrewood ‘The Truth about Aboriginal Outrages’ Life, 15 June 1903, pp. 543-4. Also see, ‘Caravan Tales’ by Our Journalist Photographer, Queenslander, 15 January 1931, p. 4. This briefly refers to the killings but its most interesting point is the manner in which it alludes to sentiment and mythology as more appealing to common understanding than historical analysis. Also Mancini and Hibbins, Running with the Ball, pp. 140-4, for Harrison’s recollection of the Cullin-la-Ringo murders. The news of the

strewn randomly. His father had already been buried. Jesse Gregson, a neighbouring settler offered succour and comfort but more importantly he offered Tom Wills a place to stay and the offer of men to assist if he wished to remain on Cullin-la-Ringo. The thousands of sheep that the settlers had laboured to bring to Cullin-la-Ringo were spread throughout the bush.372

Tom Wills later wrote of the strange dance between strangers white and black that took place in the days leading to the murders:

A few of the natives then came up to the camp to look at the white “maries” (women) as they call them. One of the black women wanted to exchange her piccaninnie for the overseer’s wife’s baby; but of course the white woman did not see the point at all.373

The murders were relayed throughout the colonies:

The whole place was a total wreck. The only things left at the camp were the sugar, tea, tobacco, flour, and some pieces of iron and zinc. The boxes and cases were all broken open, and everything was taken away-amongst which were blankets, a quantity of hooks, crockery, tools, axes, adzes, knives, and some white-handled daggers, regatta shirts, trousers, clothing of every description, and other articles … Some of the women were found with their sewing in their hands. The cook was close by his fire – the children were by their mothers. Immediately outside the camp, one of the bullock-drivers who had been engaged drawing in logs for the sheep-yard, was found dead by his bullocks, with his whip in his hand. The team was still yoked, and three of the bullocks strangled. Another man who was assisting him was also found dead … Baker and son and third man evidently made a struggle for their lives. They were putting up a tent at the time the attack was made, and they used the tent-poles in defending themselves. Their bodies were very much mutilated, one of the men having his leg nearly cut off with a blow from a sharp instrument.374

murders was rapidly passed on to England, The News Letter of Australasia; or Narrative of Events; A Letter to send to Friends, December 1861, p. 4. ‘… Mr. Wills, one of the unfortunate victims, is an old and much-respected Victorian colonist’.

372

Wills Cooke, Currency Lad, pp. 109-18 quotes from ‘Wallaroo’, The Try Execelsior News, vol. 3, no. 10, The Try Boys Society, June 1896 [pages unknown].

373

Queensland Times, 28 January 1862, p. 3.

374

Rockhampton Bulletin, 9 November 1861, p. 2. Also see Rockhampton Bulletin, 30 November 1861, p. 2. This second reference is to P. F. McDonald’s description. He arrived at Cullin-la-Ringo on November 4. ‘The ground was strewn with broken boomerangs, nulla nullas and spears and here too the blood stained grass in several places indicated many sickening marks of savage atrocity. The bodies had been already buried closeby, and a good deal of property lay scattered around but otherwise the place seemed quite deserted, I have been informed by the survivors of Mr Wills’ party that although the men never felt the necessity of carrying firearms for their protection, though requested by Mr Wills to do so …’. As one might expect the topic found its way into the private letters written at the time, for example

The colony speculated on the causes and events before the murders. The theories for the attack were several and have been recycled with slight variations over the years.375 After the murders Wills stayed at Jesse Gregsons at Albinia Downs. From there he wrote to the Colonial Secretary in Brisbane for native police protection. It was a breathless request for Native Police to ‘…be quartered there as otherwise it would be impossible after the above events to get men to stop unless so protected. The widow and orphans of the late H. S. Wills join me in my prayer’. 376

There were various explanations forwarded to account for the murders. Aside from his fear and desire for revenge, Tom Wills, at the time did not articulate his reasons for the attack. However reports years later suggested that his neighbour, Jesse Gregson, may have been responsible for the killings. Tom’s brother, Cedric Wills, who lived on the Queensland property for many years after the departure of Tom Wills recorded what he believed to be the cause of the murder of his father and settlers:

Before the arrival of the Wills’s on Garden Creek, where the murder was committed the blacks were collecting on the Nogoa River at the foot of Separation Creek, with the object of attacking Mr Jesse Gregson, the first owner who stocked Rainworth and who with a detachment of native police had shot some blacks for the supposed stealing of sheep prior to the arrival of our party. My oldest brother Tom, who came out with the party but who happened to be away with two … and the drivers at the time of the murder told me ‘If the truth is ever known, you will find that it was through Gregson shooting those blacks; that was the cause of the murder.’377

see, Sally Graham (ed.), A Man about Town. The Letters of James Graham, Victorian Entrepreneur, 1854–1864 (Carlton South: Melbourne University Press, 1998), p. 259.

375

For example, Queensland Times, 28 January 1862, p. 3. These included a wild story of it being retribution for the kidnapping of an aboriginal boy, Queensland Times, 20 December 1861, p. 3, quoting the Sydney Morning Herald. Also see Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, p. 225, who puts forward a later discredited theory that the killings were in response to the kidnapping of two aboriginal children. In addition to kidnapping, there were accusations of interference with women, sheep, plundering goods, retribution for Native Police atrocities.

376

Letter from Tom Wills to the Colonial Secretary, 26 October, 1861. For a more general discussion on the history of the Native Police Force throughout Australia, see Henry Reynolds, Black Pioneers (Ringwood: Penguin Books, 2000), pp. 103-58. The galvanising effect and retribution by the police after the Wills’ party killings is highlighted on pp. 118-21. See also, Henry Reynolds, An Indelible Stain (Ringwood: Viking, 2001), pp. 99-105.

377

‘Early Central Queensland History’, Daily Record, Rockhampton, 8 November 1912, p. 7. Also see, Jesse Gregson, ‘Memoirs and related papers’, Mitchell Library. These include his comments about his early dealings with the aborigines; Native Police force; he mentions Tom Wills several times as a noted cricketer and that Tom was left to look after the stock after the murders. The fifth part has a commentary by James Nisbet which is scathing of Cedric’s version of events.

Cedric recorded that an aboriginal boy confirmed this story. Cedric believed that the attack on Cullin-la-Ringo was an act of revenge for Gregson’s action and he speculated that the aborigines mistook Horatio for Gregson:

It makes my blood boil when I start on this subject that Gregson just for the sake of a few sheep committed the act which was the cause of the murder of my father and all his party men, women, and children. My father had a presentiment of something having happened or being about to happen. In his last letter to my mother he asked if anything had happened at home as ‘his lady in white had appeared to him,’ twice previously. This ‘lady in white’ had appeared to him just before something serious had happened.378

The remote location of the attack first paralysed, then distorted the way information was received by the outside world. After the news first broke, there followed lulls of various lengths and an urgent desire for confirmation. Private letters and telegrams related the message to an incredulous outside world. A burst of telegrams, part by part, relayed the murders.

There was initial uncertainty as to whether Tom Wills survived the attack.379 Messages were confused and communication infrequent. One telegram read:

The telegram 1 November 1861 for Mr Menzies of the Menzies Hotel. ‘Horatio Wills Momas + eight others murdered by blacks at Rockhampton. Send word to friends immediately steamer for Rockhampton next week.

378

The Lady in White is mentioned in several accounts of the Wills’ killing in Queensland. J. T. S. Bird, The Early History of Rockhampton (Rockhampton: The Morning Bulletin, 1904). Written from a very pro-settler perspective this reference contrasts with the later reference that implicated Gregson in the killings: ‘Thanks to the kindness of Mr Gregson and his shearers, all that was possible had been done, and Mr T. W. Wills had moved with his flocks to Norwood, a portion of Rainworth run, where the sheep were shorn, and the party remained there till Cullin-la-ringo was ready for occupation again’.

379

Details were sketchy and sometime incorrect. See Geelong Chronicle, 2 November 1861, p. 2, they reported the incorrect number of deaths. The family letters reveal that Elizabeth was reticent to accept the news without confirmation. A similar reported death of another man, later proved to be wrong in the Geelong Advertiser, 14 November 1860, p. 3. Brisbane Courier, 5 November 1860, p. 2, ‘The untimely fate of this gentleman will be widely regretted, more especially in Victoria, in the parliament of which colony he once held a seat, as a member for South Grant … arrived in this colony in company with his son, Mr. T. W. Wills (the former captain of the Victorian eleven of cricketers) … Mr. Wills junior, was absent from the station at the time, on his way to the Albinia Downs for loading, and Mr. T. H. Hood, of Brisbane, who has a station in the last mentioned locality, states, we believe, that there can be no doubt as to his perfect safety’. Queensland Guardian, 16 November 1861, p. 2, ‘The reply was sent of yesterday morning and the confirmed intelligence of the safety of her son must have proved some relief to the distressed mind of Mrs Wills …’.

WH Aldis.

N. B. Word “Momas” may be “Thomas”.

There was a flurry of newspaper stories. Cloned stories emerged through the Rockhampton, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Geelong press. A single Wills letter might be replayed months after writing. William Roope was urgently summoned to the station. All was chaos and the truth uncertain. A party set out to take revenge upon the aborigines.380 There were many references to the retribution though the precise details were mired in deception and hysteria.381 Little is known of Tom Wills’ views about the local aborigines before his father was murdered. But his reaction to the murders was captured through private correspondence and in a public grief. His father’s death was a public fulcrum for debate on broader issues of land, squatters and aboriginal dispossession.382

Personal depictions of Horatio at this time were almost universally positive. His attitude towards the local aborigines was regarded as being too naïve in its trust. The main accusation against him was of a lack of vigilance that failed to prevent the

380

Brisbane Courier, 11 November 1861, p. 2, ‘According to Kenny’s statement, the blacks were allowed to come too near the station’. Meetings were held demanding action. A letter of sympathy was to be sent to Mrs Wills. There was an air of vigilante hysteria. There is no remaining evidence that implicates Wills as part of this initial retribution party. There have been occasional claims that Tom Wills was involved in the killing of aborigines in retribution for his father’s death. For example, ‘Horatio Spencer Wills’ by D.R. (undated), delivered to the Kew Historical Society. Also see, McPherson, ‘Marngrook’. McPherson makes several unsubstantiated assertions about Tom Wills being part of the retribution party that killed aborigines. A more thorough review of all the available correspondence does not support the assertion made by McPherson. In none of the surviving archival papers is it stated that Tom Wills took part in this retribution.

381

Leader, 30 November 1861, p. 8. A vengeful letter from George Crawford, Comet River, copied from the Sydney Morning Herald, detailing the attack. Geelong Advertiser, 2 November 1861, p. 2, ‘Quite a gloom was cast over the town yesterday by the announcement of the murder by blacks in Queensland, of Horace Spencer Wills, Esq. …’ The Geelong Advertiser, copied many entries from the Queensland papers in the following months. The official response from England also suggested concern about excessive retribution. See letter, Newcastle, Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Bowen, 8 March 1862.

382

For example see Queensland Times, 5 November 1861, p. 3. Also Queensland Times, 15 November 1861, p. 3, ‘In all our dealing with the aboriginals of Australia they have been treated as if they possessed no rights; their lands have been taken from them, and they have been driven from one place to another, and hunted about much in the same style as the kangaroo …’ Argus, 13 November 1861, p. 5, ‘Instructions have been issued for the despatch of a large force of native police to the scene of the outrage … This horrible butchery has had no parallel since the awful massacre at Hornet bank, some years ago, which will long live in the recollection of the settlers in that district. In this case we shall probably never learn the origin of the attack, the merciless savages having performed their barbarous work so thoroughly that no survivor is left to tell the bloody tale’. Also Rockhampton Bulletin, 23 November 1861, p. 3;