October 4, 2018
Australian Terrorism, by Stanley Lenoy, of Stan Lenoy Films, published in September 2018 is a short video about massacres that occurred in the Tully/Innifail region of colonial Queensland. The video includes excerpts from four hours of interviews recorded with Dr Ernie Grant, Jirrbal/Girramay Elder, in December 2017. Dr Grant talks about the killings of Aboriginal people in the Tully/Innisfail region of Queensland in the mid-1800s to the early 20th century. The title of Stan Lenoy’s video, Australian Terrorism, is taken from Danish man Thorvald Weitmeyer’s book, Missing Friends, after a visit to the Herbert River Police Camp, in 1892. After the visit he wrote: “It is the duty of this official with the assistance of his troopers, to fill the Aborigines with terror and to use such means to that end as his own judgement may dictate.” (Quote from Jonathan Richards, The Secret War: A True History of Queensland’s Native Police, UQP, 2008, p. 40). In the Lenoy video, Dr Grant mentions Kirrama Station, Mission Beach (where today’s Jumbun Aboriginal Community is located) and Tully Falls as sites of conflict between colonists and Aboriginal people who were often killed ruthlessly. You can view Australian Terrorism here: https://vimeo.com/286623629
October 4, 2018
More information is coming out about the extent of frontier violence in colonial South Australia. Read Jon Ovan’s story. ‘Bloody history comes to light’ in South Australia’s the Port Lincoln Times and in the West Coast Sentinel on 1 August 2018 at: https://www.westcoastsentinel.com.au/story/5562757/bloody-history-comes-to-light/?cs=5813
October 4, 2018
Read Paul Daley’s story about the true history of Bathurst in The Guardian on 7 August 2018 at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/07/bathurst-where-the-spirits-prowl-and-whisper-painful-bloody-truths
July 18, 2018
Australian Frontier Conflicts: The University of Melbourne’s Dr Katherine Ellinghaus, brings to light an 1839 letter that reveals the frontier violence that happened around colonial Melbourne. Read more at: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/criss-cross-history-hidden-in-a-letter One story related to the treatment of First Peoples during the colonisation of Victoria is that of Tullamareena. He was was a senior Wurundjeri man who resisted British colonisation around Melbourne. On 25 April 1838 he was arrested for stealing sheep from John Gardiner’s property at Hawthorn (now a Melbourne suburb). Tullamareena was imprisoned in the first Melbourne gaol but escaped, burning it down with friends Moonee Moonee and Jin Jin. Later Tullamareena was recaptured and sent by ship for trial in Sydney. When it was confirmed that Tullamareena could not understand English, the trial was halted. He was set free but was 700 kilometres from home. Hopefully Tullamareena made it back to Melbourne, although no colonial records of what happened to him apparently exist. The Melbourne suburb, Tullamarine, the Melbourne airport and the Tullamarine Freeway, are named after him. Read more at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullamareena
July 17, 2018
The University of Melbourne has called for papers by Friday 3 August 2018 for “Colonialism and its Narratives: rethinking the colonial archive in Australia conference” to be held on 10–11 December 2018. Among the many topics listed for potential coverage are: Militant colonialism and frontier violence, Indigenous dispossession and resistance, Colonial racism, its histories and legacies, Settler and Indigenous governance, and Colonialism today. Abstracts for papers are due on Friday 3 August 2018. Confirmed Keynote Speakers include: Professor Tim Bonyhady, Director Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities, ANU; Associate Professor, Penny Edmonds, UTAS; Bruce Pascoe, author of Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with Your Country and Dark Emu–Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?; and Professor Lynette Russell, Director of the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre, Monash University, Melbourne. Read more about submitting papers, the list of proposed topics and how to register at: https://arts.unimelb.edu.au/e/colonialism-and-its-narratives#call-for-papers