By Lynley A. Wallis and Heather Burke
The Gregory South pastoral district is located in the extreme southwest corner of Queensland, bordering the Simpson Desert. Three ephemeral river systems run approximately north-south through it, ultimately feeding southwest into Lake Eyre: the Mulligan, the Diamantina, and the myriad of braided channels that comprise Coopers Creek (listed from west to east across the District). As the land is desolate and flat, on the occasions when the rivers flood, much of the low-lying land is inundated for extended periods, giving the impression of a vast inland lake. This ‘boom and bust’ cycle results in certain seasons being highly productive, interspersed by repeated years of drought, meaning the carrying capacity for livestock is poor, and cropping is impossible.
White Exploration
White explorers first passed through the Gregory South district in the 1840s, though it was several decades before that any permanent White occupation commenced. On his 1845 journey north while searching for an inland sea, Captain Charles Sturt pushed north into the margins of Gregory South (Sturt 1849); this was essentially the same route that the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition was to later follow. While Sturt failed to locate any ‘sea’, he did follow the Mulligan River and named Coopers Creek (sometimes erroneously referred to as the Barcoo, which is one of the major tributary rivers flowing into Coopers Creek and then into Lake Eyre). Based on the reactions of many of the Aboriginal people they encountered, this was certainly the first time they had seen White people. Sturt, through sign language, communicated effectively with almost all people he saw, even those who were clearly terrified of the white strangers and horses, and no incidents of conflict occurred – a far cry from many other explorers. He himself stated
My path amongst savage tribes has been a bloodless one, not but that I have often been placed in situations of risk and danger, when I might have been justified in shedding blood, but I trust I have ever made allowances for human timidity, and respected the customs and prejudices of the rudest people. (Sturt 1849).
Augustus Gregory later pushed south down the Barcoo (formerly Victoria) River into Coopers Creek in the far northeast of the Gregory South district in 1858, and indeed it is in his honour that this and the Gregory North districts were named. He, too, saw a few parties of Aboriginal people while travelling, although reportedly none whilst in the Gregory South district. His views of the district were generally unfavourable, reporting the country to consist of,
… barren plains, subject to inundation, low rocky ridges covered with dense scrub, and sandy ridges producing triodia… low sandstone tableland approached the west side of the river, … we attempted to travel along the slope between it and the mud plains, but found it so stony that the horses’ hoofs were soon worn to the quick … had it not been for green bushes of salsolae, and some similar plants which had sprung up since the rain, this tract of country exactly resembled the stony desert described by Captain Sturt as existing 200 miles to the westward. (Gregory 1884)
John McKinlay in 1861-62 followed the course of Farrar’s Creek across the Gregory South district in his search for Burke and Wills, and NMP officer, John Merry Gilmore, travelled east-west across Gregory South in 1871 searching for signs of the missing explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. William (‘Billy’) Hodgkinson later (in 1876) led the last of the major government-funded expeditions to examine and report upon the lands in the far south-west with respect to their mining, pastoral and agricultural potential.
Key Pastoralists and Stations
Far from the coastal trading and communication routes, saddled with answering to two colonial governments (SA and QLD), and comprising land with limited permanent water, Gregory South was of little interest to most pastoralists, and was not formally gazetted as a District until 1873. Being at the boundary of SA, much of the activity of pastoralists and police in Gregory South was linked to South A Australia, rather than to Queensland in the east.
Just as there had been a land grab in the adjacent Warrego district, so too was there a minor one in Gregory South, its comparatively poor pastoral prospects notwithstanding, and by 1885 all the available land had been claimed. According to Tolcher (1997), the first White occupation of the region took place under a License granted in 1868 to Charles Enright and J.B. Tinson, who reportedly stocked the Maapoo block on the Cooper in 1869 but abandoned it shortly after.
This account is challenged by Cameron (1959), who suggested the first pastoral run was Nockatunga, located in the far east near the Warrego border along the Wilson River, established in 1866 when Alexander Munro took up the lease.. By 1869 Nockatunga had been purchased by the Drynan brothers (Cameron 1959), who then sold it on to Herbert Brisdow and John B. Hughes (of Adelaide) in August 1872. Cameron (1959) also suggested Patrick Durack took up Thylungra on Kyabra Creek in 1867. Drynan was also credited by Cameron (1959) with taking up Annadale in the extreme west of Gregory South, described by him as “still the most remote station in Queensland”.
Prominant pastoralist John Costello took up Kyabra, downstream from his brother-in-law Patrick Durack. This property was purchased by Peppin and Webber in early 1877 for £35,000 (who also had Abbotsford station on Cooper Creek, which was sold to Messrs Rouse and Tooth in 1882), and Costello went on to purchase Lake Nash station to the west in the NT. Costello also originally took up Mooraberrie on Farrar Creek, bordering the Gregory North district, though he sold it in 1873/74 to Edward Coman and Bros. Coman and Bros. were forced to relinquish it after years of drought, after which a series of banks held it before William Duncan took it over.
Michael Pender took up Lake Pure in the 1870s. Brothers William and Robert Collins took up Morney Plains on the Diamantina waters, but quickly sold it on to Hugh Hamilton in 1877, who disposed of it the following year to a Mr. Scott of Melbourne. The brothers also took up Whitula on the Cooper system.
Brothers John, Hector and Norman Wilson initially formed “The Bluff” (aka Salmonville) around the present site of Birdsville in 1875 as an outpost of their massive Coongy Ardoch station across the border in SA. The nearby stations of Annandale (taken up initially by Patrick Drynan in July 1876 but sold the following year to brothers Robert and William Collins), Pandie Pandie (SA), Glengyle (North Gregory) and Roseberth were taken up in 1876; and Carcory (aka Wigugomrie) in 1877, the latter being sold to Alexander Campbell and Duncan MacGregor in 1879 (Sydney Mail, 3 January 1934, p.4).
The Nutting brothers (Charles, John and William) were important early players in the Gregory South district and it is worth noting that all three served as NMP officers: John first between 1862 and 1878, followed by Charles (1872–1873) and William (1873–1874). John had been stationed in the Warrego district and at Yowah on the Paroo, not far from the Gregory South boundary in the late 1860s and early 1870s, and Charles at Yo Yo, also in Warrego. John was the driving force in the pastoral exploits of the Nutting brothers, partnering with Robert Doyle at Chastleton (also known as Barraoola/Baryulah) on Coopers Creek, and administratively gazumping John Conrick and George Ware, whose stock was already pastured on the spot. Conrick and Ware were thus forced further down Coopers Creek, where they took up Nappamerrie in 1873 (Tolcher 1997). As well as interacting with Nutting in 1873, Conrick also met William Parry Okeden (the then Police Magistrate and later the Qld Commissioner of Police) at Cunnamulla.
Alexander Reid took up Wombadara on Coopers Creek in the 1870s. His hut keeper, John Maloney, was killed there in 1873, though Alex was not present at the time.
E.T. Brissendon and Co held Bransby, which they sold unstocked to George Broad in mid-1881, who then retained it for at least another 15 years during which he experienced five severe droughts (The Week, 27 November 1896, p.13). Bulgroo, held by Hobson, Hamilton and Co, was also sold in 1883 to Willis, Swanston and Co.
Durham Downs was owned by a group of partners who included Donald McCrae and his son-in-law, Donald MacGregor, who also held Glengyle station in Gregory North. MacGregor arrived there around 1874, about the time that McRae died, and by 1884 MacGregor was in partnership with James MacBain, Alex McEdward and John Bell as “MacGregor & Co.” In 1909 Durham Downs was purchased as part of Sir Sidney Kidman’s extensive holdings.
William Duncan took up Mooraberrie on Farrar Creek, on the boundary of Gregory South and Gregory North.
Political Representation
Combined with the Gregory North district to form the broader Gregory electorate, there were two representatives of relevance for the period of interest: Charles Lumley Hill (1878-1882), followed by Thomas McWhannell (1882–1888). Lumley Hill was a pastoralist who had been involved in reprisal actions in 1867 against Aboriginal people in the Mitchell District after the killing of two of his fellow pastoralists (John Fanning and Richard Welford), so it seems reasonable to suggest he held particular views about Aboriginal people. McWhannell had taken up large stations in the Burke District (including Headingly and Oban), though there is little known about his attitudes towards Aboriginal people. He was certainly in favour of retaining the NMP around Carandotta and Urandangie in the late 1880s, offering them a site for a camp on Headingly (QSA290289 1887 Letter from Thomas McWhannell to Commissioner of Police 20 July, Moonah Creek Native Police Camp file).
NMP Presence
Far from any administrative seats of power, residents of the South Gregory district first sent a petition requesting NMP presence in the district to the Colonial Secretary in August 1875. They argued the NMP detachment at Thargomindah (in the adjacent Warrego district to the east) was inadequate to service the needs of settlers further west: amongst the signatories were John Conrick, Frank Dovetail, George and William Ware, John Wilson, Alex McKay, Thomas Dargin and WJ O’Donnell (QSA846945 1875 Petition from residents of Coopers Creek August, Colonial Secretarys Office In Letters, In letter 75/3170, DR63927).
Established in response in the latter half of 1875, the NMP camp on Cooper’s Creek was on the Chastleton run; the decision to position it there was likely to have been strongly influenced by the fact that the proprietor was the then still current NMP officer John Nutting (who didn’t retire from the NMP until 9 December 1878 owing to ill-health). How long the NMP remained on Chastleton is also unknown.
The second possible NMP camp in Gregory South was at JC Waterhole, though this may never in actuality have been a camp, since there is only one reference to its existence in a 1917 newspaper article. The latter suggested that a camp at J.C. operated in the 1870s under Inspector Gough. The J.C. was also a small township with a hotel, and the NMP detachment from the McKinlay Downs camp frequented the area, so this source may be confused.
It is not clear when exactly the McKinlay Downs NMP camp was formed, although it was certainly present by the early 1880s. Several sources suggest it was established in 1879, although the notation “Dunn’s camp” on an undated map of Mooraberrie run suggests that John McKay Dunn may have set up this camp, presumably when he was in Thargomindah; this would place its establishment date between 1874 and 1877. Certainly by 1880 there was a Sub-Inspector, constable and six troopers on McKinlay Downs, a strength that grew to two Sub-Inspectors and eight troopers the following year; throughout the life of the camp the number of troopers never fell below five. A police reserve was not proclaimed here until 1882 (Week 8 July 1882, p.4), and was cancelled in 1885 (Week 10 October 1885, p.7).
Conflict Events
There are fewer than 16 known conflict events for Gregory South between 1871 and 1878, though this is likely to be only a fraction of what really took place, given the extreme remoteness and limited documentation pertaining to the region generally. A severe drought in 1875–1876 might have been a harbinger for sustained violence in 1877–1878, bringing Aboriginal people and Whites into direct and immediate contestation over dwindling water sources.
Several of the conflict events in Gregory South were recounted by William Oliffe, a former stockman and manager who worked for many prominent pastoralists in the region, including John Nutting and Robert Doyle. His memoirs were published in a series of articles in the Longreach Leader in 1954, based on notes he had written that came into the hands of his daughter, Beatrice Schaffer (the wife of a pastoralist who then owned Waverly station at Windorah). Oliffe mentioned various encounters between the NMP and Aboriginal people, and many instances of Aboriginal people spearing stock in the district, though the dates in his accounts are sometimes irreconcilable, likely a factor caused by his writing them decades after the events. A similar situation arises with accounts written by John Conrick of Nappamerrie, who likewise published his memoirs in the Adelaide News in 1923 when he was in his 70s, 50 years after most of the events had taken place (Sallis 2023:60).
NMP officer James Merry Gilmour, who travelled to the Gregory South district in 1871 on an unsuccessful trip to attempt to determine the fate of Leichhardt, met an Aboriginal man who showed him the Wantata waterhole, and recounted that
… here (Wantata) a long time ago, when he was a child, the blacks had killed four Vinie Vinies at night, and … three more that had gone out westward were also murdered as they were returning to their camp at Wantata …The blackfellow when asked and shown some of the saddles, etc., and what had become of them, said that the blacks had burnt everything belonging to the Vinie Vinies. (Brisbane Courier, 5 April 1871, p2)
Gilmour and his men reportedly then searched the area, and,
… found the remains of three separate human skeletons, about twelve or fourteen yards apart, and but a very small portion of each remained; those I gathered carefully together, and brought them to these barracks. The remains were all lying on the surface of the ground, and had evidently never been buried. It is invariably the case for blacks always to bury their dead; and the remains found by me not having been buried strengthens the belief that they are those of white men. (Brisbane Courier, 5 April 1871, p2)
It is unclear who these men could have been; given the Aboriginal informant was thought to have been about 30 years of age when Gilmour encountered him, and the event had occurred when he was a child, this would have placed it around the 1850s or 1860s. Certainly, there had been White explorers through the area in that time, including Charles Sturt and Augustus Gregory, but there is no indication from their accounts of any members of their parties being killed. It is possible, also, that the Aboriginal man was misrepresenting when the killings had occurred – it is possible the men were killed just a few years prior to Gilmour finding their remains, being unknown persons setting out to take up new land with few family members back home to report their not having returned. It is also possible that the bones were, contrary to Gilmour’s interpretation, the remains of Aboriginal people and not those of Europeans.
Regardless, the first documented confrontations in Gregory South occurred in 1871 and were related to Aboriginal people taking stock. William Oliffe recounted at least two such instances, the first on Keeroongooloo station (part of Nutting and Doyle’s interests) where he and Charlie Charters fired on Aboriginal people who were trying to kill a cow, and a similar event at Toonkabarnoo waterhole near Thargomindah.
John Conrick indicated there had been a massacre of Aboriginal people prior to 1872 at Thudnapurtie waterhole, carried out by the NMP, which, if correct, was not carried out by members of the Force stationed in Gregory South, as the NMP were not based there until 1875. In 1872 John Nutting was still an active member of the NMP and stationed at Thargomindah in Warrego, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he led patrols into Gregory South in order to protect his interests there.
The first known White death in the Gregory South district was that of a young hut-keeper named John Maloney at Wombadara Station on Coopers Creek, who was killed on 24 July 1873. There are different explanations for the killing, but both include Maloney having offended Aboriginal people. Although details are lacking, there is a suggestion of a reprisal event by the NMP as described in the Queensland Police Gazette of 1 October 1873: “The blacks resisted capture, therefore force of arms was resorted to by the Police.”
John Conrick himself recounted having been attacked by an Aboriginal man, but he is entirely vague about the date, though, given that he had been “alone for two months”, it too might have been in 1873 or the first half of 1874:
After I had been alone for two months the blacks decided to attack me, and they chose the hour before daylight to surround the hut. There were about 200 blacks, and they were waiting for me to go out to milk, when a volley of spears and boomerangs would have finished me quickly no doubt. I did not know, of course, that there were blacks all round me. Suddenly my dogs charged out and at tacked something which I at first thought was a dingo, but when it yelled I knew at once that it was a blackfellow and that an attack had been planned. I looked at my two revolvers, which were always in the belt round my waist day and night, and then hurriedly inspected the gun and rifle, and found all the weapons ready. Meanwhile the nigger who had been seized by the dogs was having a bad time, and I determined to try to save his life, although I knew he was after mine. I put my head out cautiously and whistled the dogs off. They obeyed at once, and I went out and found the black fellow, who was lying on the ground about 90 yards away. He was badly bitten and torn, but I saw that he would recover. I spoke to him, but he feigned death and kept up the pretence even when I gave him a good hard kick. I put my revolver near his ear and clicked the trigger, at which he turned up the whites of his eyes in deadly terror. I made him understand that I did not intend to kill him, and that if he crawled to an old wurly (blacks’ camp) about 400 yards away his friends would find him. He crawled away and reached the wurly, where he was found by the tribe when they came back that night—they had run away in fear when the dogs rushed out; the blacks will never kill a dog—apparently a dog has some part in their superstitious beliefs—and they care more for their dogs than for their piccanninies. (News 17 September 1923, p.9)
In about 1877, Aboriginal people were still reportedly killing cattle in the district, resulting in the NMP making many patrols in response (e.g. Oliffe 1954; Sallis 2023). William Oliffe recounted one occasion on which: “Charters … had trouble with the stock as the blacks have been killing a good many for beef. The police have been out here several times.” (Longreach Leader, 5 February 1954, p.15). Sallis (2023) suggested NMP reprisals were led by Walter Cheeke’s detachment (then stationed at Cooper’s Creek), resulting in the deaths of a ‘whole tribe’ of likely Yandruwandha people on the border of Chastleton and Nappamerrie, and also in a sand-dune southwest of the Chastleton homestead (see also McKellar 1984:57). At least one boy survived these killings, reportedly with an injury from having been shot in the leg, and lived to an old age on Nappa Merrie (Sallis 2023:78). These NMP killings allegedly happened when Conrick was away from Nappamerrie, and John was reportedly furious about it (Sallis 2023:80-81), though, given that he and his workers had requested the presence of the NMP in 1875, it seems unlikely they would have disagreed with their methods.
By the end of 1877 it wasn’t just cattle that were the target of Aboriginal people: in November Charles Keys was allegedly killed whilst on his way from Brisbane to Mount Leonard station (Brisbane Courier, 19 April 1879, p.6). Some time that same year Jack Norman was allegedly killed on Chastleton station by an Aboriginal man named Narracoola (though the only reference to this death is the memoir of William Oliffe). According to Oliffe, NMP Sub-Inspector John Dunne, then stationed at Thargomindah NMP camp in the adjacent Warrego district, went out after the perpetrator.
In the first half of 1878 a stockman name W. Smith was also killed on Coorengila station, and in December 1878 an unnamed cook was killed on the same station, as was John McConachie at Cooninjhurra (also spelt Cooninghurra) Waterhole, on the Diamantina River. In January 1879 a stockman named Thomas Patterson Scott was also killed on Kalliduwarry on the Mulligan River in the adjacent Gregory North district. The NMP allegedly led reprisal expeditions for these killings, which likely impacted Aboriginal people in Gregory South.
In early 1879 NMP Sub-Inspectors Henry Kaye and Henry Gough, together with troopers and stockmen from The Bluff and other properties, conducted a sweeping patrol on the Lower Diamantina River as far as the South Australian border, searching for the perpetrators of the murder of a stockman named Welford. They came across two camps of Aboriginal people and ‘dispersed’ them, one on Bluff Station and the other on Glengyle. A pastoralist on the nearby Warburton Creek reported to the SA Police Commissioner that 67 people were killed in these raids and that survivors from the violence had fled to his property.
By May 1882 residents of the Gregory South district (including William Campbell and John Conrick) were petitioning the SA Police Commissioner to establish a police station at Innamincka, citing issues with sly grog selling and other minor offences. As noted by Sallis (2023:88), the lack of mention of cattle spearing or other issues relating to Aboriginal people suggests that, by this time, “there were no longer any issues with Aboriginal people spearing cattle or threatening pastoralists”.
Breaking Aboriginal resistance in this district had required less than a decade.
References
Austin, C.G. 1959 History of the south-west corner of Queensland. Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland 6(1):216–219.
Cameron, K.T. 1959 Pastoral settlement of far south-west Queensland (1866-1900). Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland 6(1):214–215.
Costello, M.M.J. 2002 [1930] To the Savage Land: The Life of John Costello. Victoria Park: Hesperian Press.
Gregory, A.C. and F.T. Gregory 1884 Journals of Australian Explorations. Facsimile Edition, 1969 ed. Brisbane: Government Printer.
Pearson, S.E. 1940 The south-west corner of Queensland. The Historical Society of Queensland Journal 3(2):100–122.
Sallis, M.P. 2023 ‘Your Connections to Nappamerrie is as Strong as Ours’: Pastoralism, Paternalism and the Legacies of Settlement. Unpublished MPhil thesis, Department of Historical and Classical Studies, School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide.
Sturt, C. 1849 Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia, Performed under the Authority of Her Majesty’s Government, During the Years 1844, 5, and 6: Together with a Notice of the Province of South Australia in 1847. London: T. and W. Boone.
Tolcher, H. 1997 Conrick of Nappa Merrie. Linden Park: Ian J. Itter.