This article was published in the Royal Historical Society of Queensland Journal Volume 16 No. 12, November 1998. It explores the contact history between settlers and Aborigines in the Cairns district until 1892, when the Bellenden Ker Mission (later Yarrabah Mission) was established.
To better understand the relationship it is useful to detail the pattern of contact in the district as well as the theories that influenced settlers' thoughts and actions. This will provide the basis for an understanding of the reasons for what took place and reactions to it. Wherever possible I have quoted the writers themselves so that we may read what occurred from their perspective, coloured and filtered as they are through the beliefs and attitudes of their times. This provides an atmosphere of authenticity while capturing the flavour of an era, which although only a century ago, was so markedly different to our own.
The philosophical underpinning for black and white relations was different to that found today. Social Darwinism was influential from 1859 until the 1940s. This theory held that:
· Separate races are different species that have evolved through Darwinian processes of natural selection. Aboriginal People were seen as examples of the lowest rung of evolutionary development, the childhood of humanity itself. Naturally the European races were seen as the highest form of human evolution.
· Cultural differences have a biological basis which can be explained through the laws of evolution, natural selection and the survival of the fittest.
· The survival or disappearance of cultures is determined by these natural laws. Those cultures that survive are the fittest and the strongest; those which disappear or are clearly inferior, are weeded out by natural selection and doomed to extinction.[i]
This theory legitimised and provided scientific support for;
· Invasion and subsequent colonisation of Aboriginal land, with no recognition of prior ownership or sense of obligation to those dispossessed.
· The apparent complacency at the appalling living conditions, health and death rates amongst Aborigines.
· Willingness to permit punitive expeditions, massacres and killing of Aborigines with no real sense of outrage.
· The concern of the dangers of interbreeding, which threatened the racial purity of the white race with inferior Aboriginal strains.
· A denial that Aborigines were genetically capable of becoming civilised (ie. adopting white values and lifestyles) and looking after their own lives.
· A denial that Aborigines were genetically capable of becoming educated.[ii]
At the time of European settlement the area was inhabited by four main Aboriginal groups.[iii] On the western side of Cairns, from Redlynch to over the ranges were the Djabugay People. On the central and northern side of Cairns, from approximately Bessie Point to Port Douglas and westward to Redlynch, were the Yirrganydji People. On the Southern side of Cairns to Babinda, eastward to the Murray Prior Range and westward to Lake Barrine were the Yidinji and the area occupied by Yarrabah was the traditional land of the Gunngandji, who inhabited the Cape Grafton Peninsula westward to the Murray Prior Range and southward to the mouth of the Mulgrave River.[iv]
The first known European to sail past was Captain James Cook who rounded Cape Grafton on 10 June 1770 and anchored in Trinity Bay.[v] His passage was observed at Brown’s Bay in the Yarrabah district and two paintings of his ship Endeavour were painted onto the rock.[vi] In the 19th Century explorers, surveyors and then beche-de-mer fishermen began sailing up the North Queensland Coast. J.S.V. Mein established a beche-de-mer station on Green Island, off the Cairns Coast, in 1858.[vii] On one trip to the mainland he and his party were tracked by a large group of Aborigines. In Trinity Inlet they came across canoes full of Aborigines but had no commercial dealings with them. However they managed to trade with people at Cape Grafton.[viii]
In 1868 Philip Garland set up a beche-de-mer station on Green Island and in 1870 he was attacked at Smith’s Creek when he went up the Inlet looking for food and water.[ix] This is the earliest recorded case of conflict in the Cairns area. Unfortunately it was to be the first of many. Aborigines in the district fought the settlers wherever and whenever they could in an attempt to hold on to their land and way of life. While many details are sketchy or not recorded, I have listed some of the attacks on both sides that did occur during the early days of Cairns. These attacks resulted in the inevitable subjugation of the Aboriginal People and their eventual removal to missions and reserves. This conflict set the pattern for future race relations in the district. It is sobering that the vast majority of documented cases concerned Europeans. Aboriginal deaths were rarely recorded and where the accounts have survived they were rarely mentioned by name. Names were only given if an Aboriginal was caught killing a European.
A series of murders took place on Green Island in 1873. William Rose and William White were killed on 12 April 1873, by three Aboriginal men picked up by these beche-de-mer fishermen off Palm Island. On 10 July 1873, John Finlay, James Mercer, Charles Reeve and a man named Towie were allegedly killed by four other Palm Island Aborigines on Green Island.[x] Sub-Inspector Johnstone was sent to the Cairns district to hunt down the perpetrators of the Green Island massacre and describes being met by a large group of Aborigines. In his own words;
We did not wait for them to attack us, as directly I saw they meant (to) fight we commenced at 200 yards range, and when they saw the result of our first volley they cleared, and we, with a yell, charged, and saw no more of them that day.[xi]
In 1873 Dalrymple undertook his North East Coast Expedition from Cardwell to the Endeavour River (where Cooktown is now situated). They arrived at Trinity Inlet on 16 October 1873. On 17 October they saw two parties of Aborigines in outrigger canoes and:
Endeavoured to get them to fraternise: but they jumped ashore and disappeared in the
mangroves and mud, abandoning their vessels.[xii]
Sub-Inspector Johnstone was also a member of the expedition, being in charge of the accompanying native police. On 20 October 1873 he;
Saw a mob of blacks coming towards us, yelling and brandishing spears poised on the woomera, each carrying a bundle of spears in the left hand. I saw at once they intended attacking us and made preparations accordingly.[xiii]
In 1874 a man named Old Bill Smith was killed at Green Island.[xiv]
Cairns was named after Queensland’s first Irish born Governor, William Wellington Cairns, who was the Governor at the time.[xv] It was established in 1876 to serve the mining industry, with Trinity Inlet chosen as the first port for the Hodgkinson Goldfield, a new field west of Cairns, after William Smith blazed a track through the Great Dividing Range to the Cairns port.[xvi] Cairns was declared a port of entry in November 1876 and the site of the town surveyed.[xvii]
Cairns struggled to establish itself in the early years. Smithfield, 15 kilometres to the north, overshadowed it until it was abandoned after successive floods from the adjacent Barron River from 1877 to 1879.[xviii] In June 1877 an easier route to the Hodgkinson Goldfields across the steep coastal range was discovered to Salisbury (later Port Douglas).[xix]
What saved Cairns was the decision in 1884 to make it the railhead for the mineral rich interior at the expense of Port Douglas.[xx] It was also felt that Cairns had a superior harbour. Its other rival was Cooktown, but it declined due to the dwindling reserves of the Palmer River Goldfields in the 1880s and the inability construct a viable inland railway in time. Thus Cairns was able to sustain its position as a growing settlement throughout the 1880s while its rivals weakened.[xxi] Construction of the railway to the tableland commenced in 1886, with the first section to Redlynch opened in 1887 and the second or range section to Myola in 1891.[xxii]
Industries began to emerge in the 1880s that would help to sustain it and ensure its growth. The Chinese who had abandoned the Palmer River Goldfields were instrumental in the development of Cairns.[xxiii] They established pioneer agricultural industries such as sugar plantations, rice growing and market gardens and by the mid 1880s comprised up to 33% of the population of 1 376 people.[xxiv] They were also involved in trade and commerce, establishing several stores in what became known as Chinatown, centred on Sachs Street.[xxv]
Three large sugar plantations were established, a banana export trade developed and Cairns became the port for mineral and timber shipments from the Atherton and Hahn Tablelands.[xxvi] Large companies from the southern colonies invested in the sugar industry which boomed for a short period. However this ended with a price slump when markets were flooded with European sugar beet after 1883 and was compounded by disease, natural disasters and labour problems.
The founding of Cairns soon caused tension. In November 1876 there was an attack on a Chinese Camp near the Three Mile.[xxvii] It appeared that from settlement onwards there were few attacks on residents in Cairns itself; Those that did occur were on packers, settlers and farmers in isolated areas. It is useful to quote Collinson in this regard:
But other influences were at work, and the advent of the timber-getters soon resulted in hostilities. Blacks thieved the camps when the men were absent, and in retaliation were shot on sight. Their fishing and hunting grounds were filched from them, and they were gradually driven back into the scrubs. They watched every opportunity to rob the camps, way-lay pack teams, drive off cattle and horses, and raid maize or sweet potato patches. From 1877 till well into 1884, it was unsafe for any person to travel far away from Cairns without arms. Packers and teamsters’ outfits always included a revolver and a rifle.[xxviii]
In 1878 a packer was killed west of Cairns[xxix] and in the same year an Aboriginal man named Monday was killed at Smithfield.[xxx]
The first Aborigines to come into Cairns itself did so in 1882 when three of them arrived from the Cape Grafton or Yarrabah side in canoes.[xxxi] As Jones notes, it is interesting that no native police camp was ever established in Cairns and that until the mid 1880s only a handful of police were available in the town.[xxxii] By June 1886 there were about 100 Aborigines who had come into Cairns seeking work with settlers although they were too uncertain of their reception to bring women with them.[xxxiii] This may have been because of an incident in April 1885 when a so called “tame black” rushed into a house in Spence Street demanding “rations, tobacco and coin”. With the husband being absent Constable O’Brien was called and:
Administered his sable opponent a good horsewhipping. Next day all the Blackfellows loitering in the town were hunted out by the police.[xxxiv]
Aborigines continued to be steadily forced off their land and further into the interior as land was taken over for cultivation and settlement. They reacted by attacking isolated properties and crops whenever they could. Selectors and timber-getters were encroaching upon the rainforest and its inhabitants from the east, so denying them the fertile rivers and river flats of the Barron and Mulgrave. Miners in the west restricted access to hunting grounds and freshwater fishing. While the scrub provided refuge, it contained insufficient food. In 1878 the Police Commissioner noted that from the Mulgrave to the Mossman “the natives were literally starving”.[xxxv] By 1886 most of the available agricultural land around Cairns and the Barron River had was taken up by selectors. It was thus inevitable that conflict would erupt.[xxxvi]
Jones lists a litany of attacks and reprisals that occurred around the district from 1884 to 1890.[xxxvii] At the end of July 1884 John (Jack) Conway was murdered in the Russell River McManus selection area. It was believed that his death was in retaliation for the way he treated Aborigines.[xxxviii] On 21 December 1884 Donald McAuley, a selector on the Mulgrave River, was killed as was another selector in the same area.[xxxix] These deaths took place after selectors on the Mulgrave River and Trinity Inlet petitioned parliament for the native police to be relocated closer to them and thus provide greater protection against “The incursions of the blacks upon their crops and the consequent loss that are sustaining.”[xl]
Not content to wait for assistance, retribution was taken by the settlers in the Mulgrave Valley, which resulted in “completely breaking up the tribe.”[xli] What assistance was provided was condemned as the “uselessness of an occasional visit from the native police after these murders and depredations are committed.”[xlii]
James Jameson, manager and proprietor of the Mount Buchan Estate complained that his homestead was not safe to leave unless well protected by the occupants and he had his horse turned off and his dog speared to death.[xliii] In April 1885 a serious attack was mounted on the Mount Buchan estate homestead with 2 Aborigines wounded and a horse and several cattle speared to death and goods destroyed. The Cairns Post was forced to suggest that:
The entire northern population of Blacks so far as practicable should be massed together towards the north of Double Island... The Native Police, if they are to be of any use at all beyond the ornamental, ought to be able to patrol regularly, and see that their charge is kept strictly within a certain boundary. The present state of things is becoming intolerable.[xliv]
On January 1, 1885, Inspector Carr of the Native Police arrived with his detachment and proceeded to the Mulgrave River to inspect the scene of the murder of Donald McAuley. All that “could be done by the Native Police was followed out to serve as a warning to the numerous Blacks in this district.”[xlv] In the same week Surveyor Munro’s camp was pillaged and a quantity of rations stolen.[xlvi] An altercation took place in January 1885 between a mob of 100 Aborigines and a group of Chinese at the Pyramid Plantation, but tragedy was averted by the arrival of a Mr Loridan and a number of his men. There were also reports of insecurity and unease in the Freshwatwer area,[xlvii] with clothes and rations being stolen from Parker’s selection,[xlviii] while on the Mulgrave River Kinsmill’s selection was cleaned out.[xlix]
Attacks continued and the call for assistance reached a fever pitch, without any response from the authorities. Instances of other incidents in 1885 included the clearing out of a selector within three miles of the post office,[l] attacking a bullock at the 4-Mile,[li] and three bailiffs on various selections were forced to vacate their posts and take refuge at the Mount Buchan estate for Mr Jamieson for mutual protection.[lii] Tom Thomas had a horse speared to death on the Mulgrave.[liii]
In the same year Aborigines fired the cane several times at Pyramid Estate south of Cairns. 200 acres were lost in a fire in August 1885.[liv] Cattle were slaughtered and in February 1886, Four miles from the Cairns Post Office at the Hop Wah Estate, armed Aborigines were found driving horses off after having turned them loose.[lv] There was also concern over the supply of liquor to Aborigines leading to outrages against settlers when intoxicated and the Cairns Post was moved to point out that this was an punishable offence under the law.[lvi] On January 5, 1886, Charles Henry Townsend was killed at Cape Grafton in the Yarrabah area.[lvii] In February 1886, 8 head of cattle were stolen from James Allen near Toohey’s Creek.[lviii]
One has to query what the response of the selectors was to all these attacks. Given what occurred elsewhere in the district it would be reasonable to assume that they took matters into their own hands. An incident in the Herberton district, west of Cairns is instructive in this regard. 20 Aborigines were seen raiding a potato crop and were forced to retreat through the use of fire arms. This course of action was repeated the following day.[lix] I am unable to find any documented instances of White on Black massacres in the Cairns area in the Cairns Post for this period. Certainly the selectors and the paper would have been extremely circumspect about reporting any after the Post informed its readers on 8 January 1885 that Sub-Inspector Nichols was arrested in Port Douglas “on the charge of being accessory before the fact of the recent outrages on the Aboriginals near Irvinebank.”[lx] Continued calls for a Native Police presence in the area do not necessarily mean the settlers were incapable of settling any problems that may have arisen but probably suggest that they preferred the Native Police to keep the peace for them. Either way it was still to take a couple of years before the frontier was completely subdued.
The first blanket day was held in Cairns in May 1886, with between 80 and 90 Aborigines, coming from as far as the Mulgrave and Barron Rivers, receiving blankets at the Customs Office.[lxi] The Post noted that:
The gathering of so many Blacks in the town caused a great deal of amusement to the spectators assembled, and an attempt was made endeavouring to get the myalls to perform a corroboree, but they seemed very reticent to give this exhibition, and dispersed carrying their blankets on their shoulders ... Each myall when presented with a blanket, as they stood ranged in single file, distinctly said Thank You and before dispersing endeavoured to give three cheers for the Queen and afterwards cheered for themselves.[lxii]
Many of them would have come from the Lilly Street fringe camp as they did not bring their women with them, but were given extra blankets if requested.
In September 1886 John Nairne was almost killed in an attack at Freshwater. In 1887 stock was still being speared at Mt Buchan and bush across the Trinity Inlet was being fired.[lxiii] In October 1887 selectors in the Barron Valley petitioned the Minister of Lands for permission to abandon their selections for 12 months by which time things may have improved.[lxiv] Cane was still being set on fire at the Pyramid Estate.
Aboriginal women were to be found in selector’s camps and beche-de-mer fishermen were known to steal Aboriginal women. Aborigines started congregating in town amidst squalid conditions and abuse of liquor. The first fringe camp formed in 1886 on the banks of Lily Creek, at the turn-off of the West Cairns and Mulgrave roads. This makeshift settlement was a collection of gunyahs built of bags, old Kerosene tins and bark. The residents were forced to earn a living by begging or through wood and water-carrying.[lxv] Aboriginal men roamed the streets of Cairns scavenging, leading to frightened housewives. After an incident in which a constable was threatened with a tomahawk, the Aboriginal inhabitants of Cairns were rounded up and forced out of town.[lxvi] Opium use also became a problem. Attacks continued throughout the district in 1888,1889 and 1890, leading for calls for an Aboriginal Reserve along The Barron River or north of Buchans Point.[lxvii] In July 1890 George Hobson was killed on the Lower Barron.[lxviii] Reverend John Gribble arrived in the district in 1891 looking for land on which to start a mission, leading to the eventual formation of the Yarrabah Mission. In his report to the Colonial secretary he stated that the:
Barron and Kuranda Blacks were succumbing to white exploitation and that they were no longer regarded as dangerous although the settlers take every precaution.[lxix]
In 15 short years the Aboriginal inhabitants of the Cairns area had been dispossessed of their land and forced to subsist in fringe camps under appalling conditions. The Cairns Post of 20 January 1892 describes conditions at one such camp. It was located on the Hop Wah road (now Mulgrave road), less than one kilometre from the post office and inhabited by 100 men, women and children. Tobacco and opium usage were rife, coupled with disease ridden dogs and an influenza epidemic was ravaging the community. This article also mentions that a group of white men had recently set fire to several gunyahs in the camp.[lxx] Shortly after this incident the camp was deserted and a disabled man left behind, who was taken into care by the Salvation Army and sent to hospital.[lxxi]
In 1892 there were further complaints about Aborigines being allowed to live in Cairns, specifically the fringe camp in the upper part of Lake Street.[lxxii] There were complaints about the possibility of the spread of contagious diseases and that the camp, which with its:
Gunyahs are really picturesque; still this wide illustration of savage life is far too near to be considered wholesome by the Whites living literally in its midst.[lxxiii]
This state of affairs paralleled what was going on elsewhere in Australia. With Yarrabah established and the original owners vanquished, the black problem was conveniently put out of sight and out of mind. Settlers could concentrate on taming the land, exploiting its resources and pursuing commerce to improve their living standards. But the guilt and the memory of what occurred never completely died. It remained in the psyche and collective consciousness, like a cancer in the benign Australian landscape; hidden, but vaguely sensed and deeply feared; ready at any moment to erupt in the open. Until we recognise this and attempt to acknowledge the past and reconcile it with the present, we will all be diminished. It is to be hoped that by charting the events of what happened in the Cairns district some 100 years ago in some small way the cause of reconciliation will be advanced.
Bibliography
Broughton, Pat J (1984) “The Rise and Fall of Smithfield”, Establishment Trinity Bay: a Collection of Historical Episodes. Cairns, Cairns Historical Society, p. 17-18.
Broughton, Pat J and Stephens, S. E (1984)
“A Magnificent Achievement: The Building of the Cairns Range Railway”, Establishment Trinity Bay: a Collection of Historical Episodes. Cairns, Cairns Historical Society, p. 24-33.
Cairns City Heritage Study: A Report for the Cairns City Council and the Department of Environment and Heritage. (1994)
Allom Lovell Marquis-Kyle Pty Ltd.
Collinson, J. W (1939) Early Days of Cairns. Brisbane, Smith and Paterson.
Dalyrmple, G. (1873) Narrative and Reports of the Queensland North-east Coast Expedition. Brisbane, Houses of Parliament.
Doherty, W. J (1928) “Fragments of North Queensland History”, Cummins & Campbell’s Monthly Magazine, March 1928, p. 13 and 15.
Gribble, John (1891) Summary of the Report of Rev. J.B. Gribble to the Colonial Secretary on his Missionary Visit to the Northern Districts of Cairns, Atherton, etc.
Johnston, W. T (1983) “Early European Contact with Aborigines of the Present Mulgrave Shire Area Up To the End of the Year 1889”, Mulgrave Shire Historical Society Bulletin no 54.
Johnstone-Need, J. W (1984)
Spinifex and Wattle: Reminiscences of Pioneering in North Queensland. Being the Experiences of Robert Arthur Johnstone, Explorer and Naturalist, Sub-Inspector of Police and Police Magistrate. Cairns, The Author.
Jones, Dorothy (1976) Trinity Phoenix: A History of Cairns and District. Cairns, The Author.
Kelly, Kerrie and Sue Lenthall (1997)
An Introduction to Recent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History in Queensland. Cairns, Rural Health Training Unit.
Kerr, Ruth Sadie (1984) “Packers, Speculators and Customs Collectors: The Opening of Cairns in 1876”, Establishment Trinity Bay: A Collection of Historical Episodes. Cairns, Cairns Historical Society, p. 10-12.
Loos, Noel (1982) Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier, 1861-1897. Canberra, Australian National University.
Martyn, Julie (1993) The History of Green Island: The Place of Spirits. Cairns, The Author.
Prideaux, P. (198-?) The Genesis of Cairns. Unpublished Paper.
Seaton, Douglas (1952) “Rock Paintings in the Brown Bay Area, North Queensland, Irukandji People”, North Queensland Naturalist, vol 20 no 102, September 1952, p. 35-37.
Viater (1929) “Trinity Bay: Genesis of the Port of Cairns”, Cummins & Campbell’s Monthly Magazine, March 1929, p. 51-53.
[i] K. Kelly, An Introduction to Recent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander History in Queensland, p. 35
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] The exact boundaries and locations are unclear and indeed may overlap. Evidence of this can be seen in Native Title Claims where the same area is claimed by different groups
[iv]There were also sub groups and clans. For example the Yidinji can be divided into seven sub-groups such as the Malanbarra-Yidinji of the Goldsborough Valley. There are also several spelling variations for each group. The Djabugay were also known as Tjapukai, Tja Pukai, Tja Pukanja and Tja Boga. The Yirrganydji were known as Irukandji, Irukandji and Yirkandji. The Yidinji were known as Indinji, Idindji, Yidindji and Yidindyi and Gunngandji were previously known as Konkandji, Kunggandyi, Kunngganji and Kungandji (Jones, Trinity Phoenix: a History of Cairns and District, 1976, p. 291-292)
[v] Jones, p. 2
[vi] D. Seaton, “Rock Paintings in the Brown Bay Area, North Queensland, Irukandji People”, North Queensland Naturalist, vol 20 no 102, September 1952, p. 35-37. W. Johnston, “Early European Contact with Aborigines of the Present Mulgrave Shire Area Up To the End of the Year 1889”, Mulgrave Historical Society Bulletin no 54, p. 1, notes that Yarrabah folk lore has it that an ambush had been set to prevent Cook’s party from approaching a sacred site. Fortunately the site was not discovered by Cook
[vii] Jones, p. 13
[viii] Ibid., p. 15
[ix] Jones, p. 16 The site became known as Battle camp or Battle Creek and later Smith’s landing. The clash set the tone for race relations in the district and it is thought that what occurred here in 1870 was the reason why Aborigines approached later contacts with settlers with wariness or hostility. According to Collinson a prominent Government official at Cooktown publicly stated that “if the people at Cairns had trouble with the natives it could be traced back to that event” (Collinson, p. 61) The fight was over the attempted theft of a canoe by Garland. This account was mentioned by Johnstone, Queenslander, 5 March 1904 (In J. Johnstone-Need, Spinifex and Wattle: Reminiscences of Pioneering in North Queensland. Being the Experiences of Robert Arthur Johnstone, Explorer and Naturalist, Sub-Inspector of Police and Police Magistrate, p. 2 and 54). The account then briefly resurfaces in 2 articles in Cummins & Campbell (W. Doherty, “Fragments of North Queensland History”, 1928, p. 13 and Viater, “Trinity Bay: Genesis of the Port of Cairns”, March 1929, p. 51) and then Collinson, p. 60 and 61 and all subsequent accounts appear to have emanated from the account in Collinson.
[x] Martyn, J. The History of Green Island, p. 14-15
[xi] Queenslander 5 March 1904. In, Johnstone-Need, p. 55. Johnstone states this event occurred in 1872. However the Green Island murders took place in 1873
[xii] G. Dalrymple, Narrative and Reports of the Queensland North-east Coast Expedition, p. 17
[xiii] Johnstone in his report of the Expedition (Dalrymple, p. 44). It is not mentioned what the preparations were. However Collinson mentions the encounter and that it was “demanding (of) stern measures” (Collinson, p. 61-2). Jones, p. 29, gives a fuller account; shots were fired at 30 yards. Johnstone wrote about this incident in greater detail in the Queenslander 17/12/1904 and reprinted in, Johnstone-Need, p. 154. An unspecified number of Aborigines were shot and killed
[xiv] N. Loos, Invasion and Resistance: Aboriginal-European Relations on the North Queensland Frontier, p.213
[xv] Jones, p. 84. Jones makes the comment that “his short term in office was in no way distinguished”
[xvi] R. Kerr, “Packers, Speculators and Customs Collectors: the Opening of Cairns in 1876”, Establishment Trinity Bay: a Collection of Historical Episodes., p. 10. For an exhaustive account on the events leading to the founding of Cairns and its establishment in 1876 see Prideaux, P. The Genesis of Cairns
[xvii] Cairns City Heritage Study: a Report for the Cairns City Council and the Department of Environment and Heritage, p. 12
[xviii] P. Broughton, “The Rise and Fall of Smithfield” Establishment Trinity Bay: a Collection of Historical Episodes, p. 18
[xix] Ibid., p. 18
[xx] Cairns City Heritage Study, p. 14
[xxi] Ibid., p. 14
[xxii] P. Broughton, “A Magnificent Achievement”, Establishment Trinity Bay: a Collection of Historical Episodes., p. 24
[xxiii] Ibid., p. 15
[xxiv] Ibid.
[xxv]J. Collinson, Early Days of Cairns, p. 70. Sachs Street was later renamed Grafton Street.
[xxvi] Ibid., p. 15
[xxvii] Jones, p. 301
[xxviii] Collinson, p. 61-2
[xxix] Loos, p. 221
[xxx] Ibid., p. 223
[xxxi] Ibid., p. 301
[xxxii] Ibid.
[xxxiii] Ibid., p. 97
[xxxiv] Cairns Post 23 April 1885, p. 2
[xxxv] Ibid., p. 93
[xxxvi] This did not always occur. In the Cairns Post, 6 March 1884, mention is made of one property that was immune to attack and cattle spearing as the selector was supplying food to Aborigines on his selection
[xxxvii] Jones, p. 302-314
[xxxviii] Jones, p. 303. Cairns Post 14 August 1884. Loos, p. 231. Collinson, p. 62
[xxxix] Loos, p. 232
[xl] Cairns Post 22 May 1884, p. 2; 3 July 1884, p. 2 and p. 3; 10 July 1884, p. 2 and Jones, p. 306. The need for a centralised native police camp was justified on the grounds that “By the long immunity from punishment, these blacks are now getting very bold in their deprecations, and unless the district has a native police force in a central position we may expect to hear of even more serious offences than thieving committed” (Cairns Post, 3 July 1884). Examples of the losses sustained are also given. In less than a week a calf was speared on Fallon’s selection, Jamieson lost a working bullock, Anderson had 2 cows speared and a calf was speared in the Mulgrave district. The paper points out that “Such a state of affairs in a well settled district and within a short distance of a populous town, surely points to something radically wrong in the administration of the forces appointed to keep the blacks in check and protect the settlers” (Cairns Post 10 July 1884, p. 2). However in a letter to the Cairns Post on 7 August 1884, p. 2, John Atherton wrote that Inspector Carr had told him that he was stationed in the district to “protect the blacks, not to punish them”
[xliii] Cairns Post 3 July 1884, p. 2 & 8 January 1885, p. 2
[xliv] Cairns Post 16 April 1885, p. 2
[xlv] Cairns Post 8 January 1885, p. 2
[xlvi] Ibid.
[xlvii] Cairns Post 25 January 1885, p. 2
[xlviii] Cairns Post 30 April 1885, p. 2
[xlix] Cairns Post 15 May 1885, p. 2
[l] Cairns Post 4 June 1885, p. 2
[li] Cairns Post 11 June 1885, p. 2
[lii] Cairns Post 13 August 1885, p. 2
[liii] Cairns Post 24 September 1885, p. 2
[liv] Cairns Post 8 October 1885, p. 2
[lv] Cairns Post, 11 February 1886
[lvi] Cairns Post 7 August 1884, p. 2
[lvii] Loos, p. 377. Jones, p. 309
[lviii] Cairns Post 25 February 1886, p. 2
[lix] Cairns Post 9 July 1885, p. 2
[lx] Cairns Post 8 January 1885, p. 2
[lxi] Jones, p.310 & the Cairns Post 27 May 1886, p. 2
[lxii] [lxii] Cairns Post 27 May 1885, p. 2
[lxiii] Jones, p. 310
[lxiv] Ibid.,
[lxv] Collinson, p. 64-5. This camp was probably established in 1885, not 1886
[lxvi] Jones, p. 311-312
[lxvii] Jones, p. 312-314
[lxviii] Ibid., p. 241
[lxix] J. Gribble, Summary of the Report of Rev J.B. Gribble ..., p. 1
[lxx] Cairns Post 20 January 1892, p. 2
[lxxi] Cairns Post 20 February 1892, p. 2. The Blacks
[lxxii] Cairns Post 5 October 1892. The Blacks in Cairns
[lxxiii] Ibid.
