Quick Links
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat
|
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Jun 23, 2007 08:38 PM
|
From The Vaults
As well as getting a good feel for the the
lay-out of the Albany region, I have come across some very pertinent and
enlightening insights into the period of Collet Barker's life. My source has
been mainly through the history section of the Albany Library, with its staff of
Malcolm Traill, and Julia Mitchell, but in particular thanks to the wonderful
enigmatic Bob Howard, local historian, and extremely knowledgeable of the Barker
Journal and the period of my research.
During my first contact with Bob, by phone, he
drew my attention to a type-written version of Surgeon Braidwood Wilson's
journey into unknown country soon after he arrived at King Georges Sound with
Barker in late 1829, on the Governor
Phillip. Wilson had befriended Barker at
Raffles Bay after he had been delivered there after surviving a shipwreck near
Murray Island, and he accompanied Barker with his contingent of soldiers and
convicts when the Raffles Bay settlement, (Fort Wellington) was abandoned, and
shipped to King Georges Sound.While
the Governor
Phillip was being prepared for its journey
back to Sydney, Wilson, with soldier Gough, Mokarre as guide, and two convicts,
set out to explore. Unbeknown to his travelling companions, it seems that Wilson
was determined to be the first to travel overland from King Georges Sound to the
Swan River settlement, some 400 kilometres away. Needless to say, his companions
became rather grumpy as they were led further away from the King George
settlement, and Wilson's version of his journey (in which he admits to wanting
to get
near
the Swan River settlement) makes some fascinating reading. Fortunately they
were carrying plenty of rum, gin, and brandy to ease them through troubled
times. Wilson discovered and named many places, as mentioned in the last blog,
and did manage to get back in time to catch his ship - but only
just.
Bob
HowardThe other article Bob referred
me to was in a rare book of Historic Records of Australia, wherein an enquiry
was held at Raffles Bay by Commandant Smyth, into the circumstances of the
killing of some Aboriginal people by a party of soldiers and convicts, and the
capture of a six year old girl who was wounded during the affray, in which her
mother was also killed. Smyth could well have put himself on trial, as it was he
who armed the group, and offered a reward of five pounds for the capture of an
Aboriginal, in a most bizarre approach to establishing contact with the local
people, who had not demonstrated any animosity prior to the botched expedition.
The group of six, five armed with
muskets, had crept upon a large party (they said about sixty) of Aboriginals in
the dark as they gathered around their fires, and it appears, fired
indiscriminately into them immediately they spied each other. During the attack,
which set the natives to flight, a child was killed, and its mother, trying to
rescue it and another child by taking to the water, was bayoneted to death. In
addition, an Aboriginal man found wounded on the beach with his entrails hanging
out, was 'despatched to ease his
suffering.'The child, who was named
Mary Waterloo Raffles by Smyth, from there on lived in the Raffles Bay
settlement, and it was from such a disastrous initial contact with the natives
that Collet Barker had to build a positive relationship on when he took command
of the settlement on 13th September 1828, some nine months
later.
Posted: Tue - November 7, 2006 at 03:09 AM
|