We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 June 2019
The Battle of ’Narawai on North Stradbroke Island, and skirmishes that culminated in this event (c. 1827–32) have been sidelined in recent decades, based on the assumption that the event was more likely a massacre, and that sources are too conflicted to build a workable narrative. Here we utilise known and unexamined sources, and the untapped oral tradition and environmental knowledge of Stradbroke Island Aboriginal peoples, to reconstruct both the build-up and phases of the confrontation. We find that our primary sources for this incident ultimately derive from Aboriginal informants; together with current Aboriginal perspectives, these allow a more nuanced and Aboriginal-driven narrative than is normally possible for a frontier wars skirmish. It is argued that the Battle of ’Narawai was not a one-sided massacre but rather a well-planned operation by Aboriginal combatants, orchestrated to provide tactical advantages. We contend that the battle merged tactics of traditional pullen-pullen (inter-tribal tournaments) with strategies more suited to the demands of the frontier wars, and that it was perceived as a victory by Aboriginal Stradbroke Islanders.
1 Bulbeck, Chilla, ‘Aborigines, memorials and the history of the frontier’, Australian Historical Studies 24(96) (1991), 168–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Lemelin, Raynald Harvey, Whyte, Kyle Powys, Johansen, Kelsey, Desbiolles, Freya Higgins, Wilson, Christopher and Hemming, Steve, ‘Conflicts, battlefields, indigenous peoples and tourism: Addressing dissonant heritage in warfare tourism in Australia and North America in the twenty-first century’, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality 7(3) (2013), 257–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3 Burke, Heather, Roberts, Amy, Morrison, Mick, Sullivan, Vanessa and the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation, ‘The space of conflict: Aboriginal/European interactions and frontier violence on the western Central Murray, South Australia, 1830–41,’ Aboriginal History 40 (2016), 145–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
4 Welsby, Thomas, Memories of Amity (Brisbane: Watson, Ferguson & Co., 1922), p. 59.Google Scholar
5 Welsby, Memories of Amity, p. 65. The theatre of action ran from here to Ananarawai Creek.
6 Watkins, George, Notes on the Aboriginals of Stradbroke and Moreton Islands (Brisbane: Royal Society of Queensland, 1891), p. 43.Google Scholar
7 Welsby, Thomas, Early Moreton Bay (Adelaide: Rigby, 1977 [1901]), p. 50.Google Scholar
8 Welsby, Memories of Amity, p. 65.
9 ‘When pirate convicts roamed Moreton Bay’, Sunday Mail, 9 October 1938, p. 37.
10 ‘Old Cannon in Brisbane’, The Telegraph, 2 May 1942, p. 4.
11 Phyl Garrick, ‘Two historians and the Aborigines: Kimberly and Battye’, in Bob Reece and Tom Stannage (eds), European–Aboriginal relations in Western Australian history, Studies in Western Australian History 8 (December 1984), 111–30; Raymond Evans and Bill Thorpe, ‘Indigenocide and the massacre of Aboriginal history’, Overland 163 (Winter 2001), 21–39.
12 Ryan, Lyndall, ‘Untangling Aboriginal resistance and the settler punitive expedition: The Hawkesbury River frontier in New South Wales, 1794–1810’, Journal of Genocide Research 15(2) (2013), 219–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
13 Lyndall Ryan, personal communication, University of Queensland, 5 December 2018.
14 Contos, Natalie, ‘The Pinjarra Massacre Site Project: From doctoral student to community consultant’, Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community 19(2) (2000), 13–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15 Pamela Statham, ‘James Stirling and Pinjarra: A battle in more ways than one’, in Christine Choo and Shawn Hollbach (eds), History and Native Title, Studies in Western Australian History 23 (2003), 167–94; Harris, Jennifer, ‘Memorials and trauma: Pinjarra 1834’, in Broderick, Mick, Traverso, Antonio, Trauma, Media, Art: New Perspectives (Newcastle on Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), pp. 36–57 Google Scholar.
16 Wheeler, Gerald C., The tribe and intertribal relations in Australia (London: John Murray, 1910), p. 59.Google Scholar
17 Prentis, Malcolm, A Study in Black and White: the Aborigines in Australian History (Sydney: Hicks, Smith & Sons, 1975), p. 27 Google Scholar.
18 Dennis, Peter, ‘Aboriginal armed resistance to white invasion’, in Dennis, Peter, Grey, Jeffrey et al., The Oxford companion to Australian military history (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 3.Google Scholar
19 Grey, Jeffrey, A military history of Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1999), p. 25.Google Scholar
20 Allen, Mark W., ‘Hunter-gatherer violence and warfare in Australia’, in Allen, Mark W. and Jones, Terry L. (eds), Hunter-gatherer conflict: The last bastion of the pacified past? Violence and warfare among hunter-gatherers (London: Taylor and Francis, 2014), pp. 97–8.Google Scholar
21 Curr, Edward M., The Australian race (Melbourne: John Ferres, 1886)Google Scholar; Wheeler, The tribe and intertribal relations, p. 57; W. E. Roth, North Queensland ethnography, Bulletin No. 8 (Sydney: Australian Museum, 1910), p. 5.
22 Moreton Bay Courier, 26 February 1848, p. 89; ‘Moreton Bay’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 November 1844, p. 2.
23 Moreton Bay Courier, 31 May 1856, p. 2.
24 ‘Old Warwick days: An Aboriginal battle’, Warwick Examiner and Times, 10 January 1916, p. 5; ‘Aboriginal warfare,’ Leader (Melbourne), 16 April 1864, p. 19.
25 ‘Aboriginal battle’, Daily Examiner, 27 August 1932, p. 5.
26 Petrie, C. C., Tom Petrie’s reminiscences of early Queensland, (Brisbane: Watson & Ferguson, 1904), pp. 44–48, 160–64Google Scholar; Gaiarbau and Winterbotham, L. P., ‘The Gaiarbau story’, Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts 1 (1) (1982), pp. 60–2.Google Scholar
27 Kilcullen, David, The accidental guerrilla: Fighting small wars in the midst of a big one (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 22fGoogle Scholar. Taber, Robert, The war of the flea: Guerrilla warfare in theory and practice (New York: Lyle Stuart, 1965), 27–8Google Scholar.
28 Gapps, Stephen, The Sydney Wars: Conflict in the early colony 1788–1817 (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2018), pp. 124, 156, 198, 221Google Scholar.
29 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
30 See, for example, McGregor, Kathleen, Quandamooka people: Tales of old Moreton Bay (Brisbane: Kathleen McGregor/Kaffiti Ink, 1991)Google Scholar; Diamond, Marion, Stradbroke: A brief history (Brisbane: University of Queensland Folios, 2012), p. 13 Google Scholar; Iselin, Margaret and Borey, Keith, Minjerribah: An Indigenous story of North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah: Moorgumpin Elders, 1998)Google Scholar.
31 Keats, J. A., Smith, Hazel M., Rogers, Carole C. and Rowe, G. P., Dunwich: A study of Aboriginal and European Integration, University of Queensland Papers (Social Sciences) 1(1) (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1966), p. 10 Google Scholar.
32 CSIL 33/678 in Mamie O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history of Stradbroke Island’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 86(15) (1975), 3.
33 Steele, John, Brisbane town in convict days 1824–1842 (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1975), p. 172 Google Scholar.
34 Raymond Evans, ‘The Mowgi Take Mi-An-Jin: Race relations and the Moreton Bay penal settlement 1824–1847’, in Raymond Evans, Fighting words: Writing about race (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1999), p. 64, n.84; Timothy Bottoms, Conspiracy of silence (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2013), p. 16.
35 Raymond Evans, ‘The Mowgi Take Mi-An-Jin’, p. 64, n. 84.
36 W. R. F. Love, ‘Henry Stobart and the Brisbane Aborigines in 1853’, Anthropological Society of Queensland Newsletter 152 (30 October 1984), p. 4.
37 Thomas Welsby, ‘Memories of Amity’, Queenslander, 23 July 1921, p. 11.
38 Thomas Welsby, ‘Memories of Amity: No. XII,’ Queenslander, 27 August 1921, p. 11.
39 ‘Pioneering in Moreton Bay’, Queenslander, 7 July 1894, p. 22.
40 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
41 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 40.
42 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
43 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
44 J. J. Knight, ‘In the early days’, Brisbane Courier, 11 January 1892, p. 2.
45 ‘Pioneering in Moreton Bay’, p. 75.
46 Knight, Brisbane Town in Convict Days, pp. 174–5.
47 ‘Obituary: Mr F. W. Mole’, Daily Mercury (Mackay), 3 October 1946, p. 2.
48 ‘Public curator’, Brisbane Courier, 14 December 1918, p. 4.
49 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, pp. 65–6.
50 Lynette Russell, Indigenous knowledge and archives: Accessing hidden history and understandings (Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 2005), 36(2), p. 162.
51 Maria Nugent, ‘Mapping memories: Oral history for Aboriginal cultural heritage in New South Wales, Australia’, in Paul Hamilton and Linda Shopes (eds), Oral history and public memories (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2008), pp. 47, 50.
52 Bain Attwood, ‘Aboriginal history, minority histories and historical wounds: The postcolonial condition, historical knowledge and the public life of history in Australia’, Postcolonial Studies 14(2) (2011), 176–8.
53 Marlene Brant Castellano, ‘Updating Aboriginal traditions of knowledge’, in George J. Sefa Dei, Budd L. Hall and Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg (eds), Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts: Multiple Readings of Our World (Toronto: OISE/UT University of Toronto Press, 2002), p. 23.
54 Stephen Muecke, Alan Rumsey and Banjo Wirrunmarra, ‘Pigeon the outlaw: History as texts’, Aboriginal History 9(1/2) (1985), pp. 81–100.
55 Author’s research.
56 Howard Morphy and Frances Morphy, ‘The “myths” of Ngalakan history: Ideology and images of the past in Northern Australia’, Man 19(3) (1984), 459–60.
57 Bruce Granville Miller, Oral history on trial: Recognizing Aboriginal narratives in the courts (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011), p. 3.
58 Miller, Oral history on trial, p. 8.
59 Morphy and Morphy, ‘The “myths” of Ngalakan history’, p. 459ff.
60 Wendy Beck and Margaret Somerville, ‘Conversations between disciplines: Historical archaeology and oral history at Yarrawarra’, World Archaeology, 37(3) (2005), 468–83.
61 Mark McKenna, From the edge: Australia’s Lost Histories (Melbourne: Miegunyah Press, 2016), pp. 200–7.
62 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 51.
63 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
64 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
65 Cooke-Bramley, Jenny, Durbidge, Ellie and Shields, Margaret, Historic North Stradbroke Island (Dunwich: Stradbroke Island Historical Museum Association, 1999), p. 9 Google Scholar.
66 Steele, John, Aboriginal pathways (Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1983), p. 98.Google Scholar
67 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 51. See also The Australian, 29 September 1837, p. 2.
68 Lockyer, Nicholas Colston, ‘Exploration by Major Edmund Lockyer of the Brisbane River in 1825’, Journal of the Royal Historical Society of Queensland 2(1) (1920), 54–73 Google Scholar; O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 63.
69 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 51.
70 O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 2.
71 Cooke-Bramley, Durbidge and Shields, Historic North Stradbroke Island, p. 20.
72 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 59.
73 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 59.
74 Archibald Meston, ‘Morton Bay and Islands: 11’, Queenslander, 17 October 1903, p. 8.
75 Patrick Logan Letterbook (JOL OM1-97).
76 Moreton Bay Courier, 11 November 1848, p. 2.
77 UQ Fryer, 1973, Kath Walker talks to Paul Tripcony (audio).
78 ‘Moreton Bay’, The Australian, 22 December 1838, p. 3.
79 JW, ‘Romance of real life in Australia’, Colonial Times (Hobart), 24 May 1850, p. 4.
80 Frederick W. Mole, ‘Our serial story, Moreton Bay: Chapter XVI’, The Week, 20 May 1931, p. 38.
81 JW, ‘Romance of real life in Australia’, p. 4.
82 ‘Old Hand’ claimed McIntosh was killed in the Yerrol Point skirmish, whereas Knight proposes McIntosh was the slain ‘mailman’. In fact, McIntosh was not killed in either incident but seems to have retired back to Sydney.
83 Mole, ‘Our serial story, p. 38.
84 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 59.
85 Archibald Meston, ‘Morton Bay and Islands: IV’, Queenslander, 14 November 1903, p. 25.
86 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 59.
87 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 60; Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 49.
88 Anderson, Robert, History Life and Times of Robert Anderson, Gheebelum, Ngugi, Mulgumpin (Brisbane: Unikup Productions, 2001), p. 27 Google Scholar; Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
89 Bottoms, Conspiracy of silence, p. 14.
90 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 49; Knight in Steele, Brisbane in convict days, pp. 174–5.
91 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
92 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 62.
93 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 62.
94 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
95 Faith Walker, ‘A very different mission: The Myora Aboriginal Mission on Stradbroke Island, 1892–1940’, BA Hons thesis, University of Queensland, 1996, p. 7.
96 James Porter papers (JOL OM 68-18, Box 8642)
97 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
98 Anderson, History, life and times, p. 27.
99 Uncle Bob Anderson, interview, Tarragindi, 6 October 2018.
100 Uncle Bob Anderson, interview. Moreton Island’s vegetation is mostly open scrubland.
101 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
102 Anderson, History, life and times, p. 46.
103 Dale Ruska, Interview, Polka Point, Dunwich, 25 August 2018.
104 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
105 The lagoons have changed and partly disappeared and reappeared as the island’s sands have shifted.
106 Stephen Gapps, The Sydney Wars, p. 235f.
107 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 32.
108 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 39.
109 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
110 Bradley, Joseph, Adventures of a native of Australia when astray from his ship, the Barque ‘Lynx’ (a whaler) and his consequent cruise in a boat on the ocean: A true narrative (Brisbane: Amphion Press, 1988 [1860]), pp. 28–9Google Scholar.
111 Anderson, History, life and times, p. 40.
112 CSIL 31/5634 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 2.
113 CSIL 31/5634 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 2.
114 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe 1975, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
115 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
116 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
117 Mole, ‘Our serial story’, p. 38.
118 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
119 Ruska, Interview: Polka Point, Dunwich, 25 August 2018.
120 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 49.
121 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
122 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
123 Archibald Meston, ‘The Late F. F. Campbell’, Brisbane Courier, 28 June 1894, p. 7.
124 Meston, ‘The Late F. F. Campbell’, p. 7.
125 ‘Pioneering in Moreton Bay’, Queenslander, 14 July 1894, p. 75.
126 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
127 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
128 Steele, Aboriginal pathways, p. 97.
129 Steele, Aboriginal pathways, p. 98.
130 Elisabeth Gondwe, Curator, North Stradbroke Island Museum, personal communication, Dunwich, April 2017.
131 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
132 Dale Ruska, interview.
133 Dale Ruska, interview.
134 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
135 Anderson, History, life and times, p. 27.
136 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
137 O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
138 ‘The oldest living white native’, Queenslander, 7 August 1909 p. 22.
139 ‘Moreton Bay’, The Colonist (Sydney), 24 December 1835, p. 1.
140 John MacKenzie-Smith, ‘Dunwich: Convicts, passionists and shattered hopes’, in Murray Johnson, ed., Brisbane: Moreton Bay matters (Kelvin Grove: Brisbane History Group, 2002), p. 4.
141 Elisabeth Gondwe, ‘Dunwich causeway and tunnel,’ North Stradbroke Island Historical Society & Museum Collection (2016), pp. 1–2.
142 Dale Ruska, interview. Uncle Bob Anderson heard similar details from his family.
143 ‘Passing of a pioneer’, Truth (Brisbane), 22 February 1914, p. 4.
144 Elisabeth Gondwe, ‘Dunwich causeway and tunnel’, pp. 1–2.
145 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
146 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
147 Cooke-Bramley, Durbidge and Shields, Historic North Stradbroke Island, p. 10.
148 Cooke-Bramley, Durbidge and Shields, Amity North Dunwich (Dunwich: North Stradbroke Island Historical Museum Association 1999), p. 9.
149 Dale Ruska, Interview.
150 Welsby, Memories of Amity, p. 64.
151 Ellie Durbidge, ‘Myora — Capembah Spring’, in Cooke-Bramley, Durbidge and Shields, Historic North Stradbroke Island, p. 67.
152 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 48.
153 Barry Brown, North Stradbroke Island Historical Society & Museum linguist & researcher, personal communication, Dunwich, 18 May 2017.
154 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
155 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, 23 July 1921, p. 50.
156 Brian Coghill, personal communication, Dunwich, 25 August 2018.
157 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
158 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 64.
159 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 59.
160 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
161 Dale Ruska, interview.
162 Dale Ruska, interview:
163 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
164 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
165 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
166 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
167 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
168 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 64
169 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65
170 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
171 Dale Ruska, interview:
172 Dale Ruska, interview.
173 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 51.
174 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
175 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
176 Dale Ruska, interview.
177 Dale Ruska places the soldiers’ camp at the foreshore between Coorooign-Coorooign-pa and Arananwai Creeks. This remains a traditional camp ground to this day.
178 Dale Ruska, interview.
179 John Oxley Library: Gearbaugh, ‘Notes’ (transcribed by L. P. Winterbotham), November 1961.
180 Dale Ruska, interview.
181 Dale Ruska, interview.
182 Cooke-Bramley, Durbidge and Shields, Historic North Stradbroke Island, pp. 19–20.
183 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
184 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
185 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
186 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65-6
187 Raymond Evans, ‘What do you want? Do you wish to kill me? Early racial contact and conflict on Stradbroke Island’, in Regina Ganter, ed., Whose island? The past and future of North Stradbroke (Brisbane: Queensland Studies Centre, 1992), p. 31.
188 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 62; Thomas Welsby, ‘Memories of Amity — VII’, Brisbane Courier, 18 June 1921, p. 16.
189 CSIL 31/5634 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 2.
190 Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, p. 92.
191 O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 2.
192 Welsby, Memory of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 63.
193 Knight, J. J., In the early days: History and incident of pioneer Queensland: with dictionary of dates in chronological order (Brisbane: Sapsford, 1895), p. 36 Google Scholar.
194 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
195 Twenty was the usual minimum. Rolf Grein, personal communication, 20 September 2018.
196 Pratt, Rod, ‘The military at Moreton Bay, 1825–1842’, Queensland History Journal 21(12) (2013), 819–26Google Scholar; see also Rod Pratt, personal communication, 20 September 2018.
197 Raymond Evans, ‘The Mowgi Take Mi-An-Jin’, p. 64.
198 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
199 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
200 John Oxley Library: Peter Whalley, ‘An Introduction to the Aboriginal social history of Moreton Bay South Early Queensland From 1799 to 1830’, BA Hons thesis, University of Queensland, 1987, p. 13.
201 JW, ‘Romance of real life in Australia’, p. 4.
202 Uncle Bob Anderson, interview.
203 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
204 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
205 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
206 Knight in Steele, Brisbane town in convict days, pp. 174–5.
207 At this time, the manner in which soldiers’ end of duty was recorded did not usually detail the circumstances or whether they were deceased. Rod Pratt, personal communication, 14 September 2018.
208 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
209 Raymond Evans, ‘The Mowgi Take Mi-An-Jin,’ p. 64, n.84.
210 Uncle Bob Anderson, interview.
211 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
212 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
213 CSIL 33/678 in O’Keeffe, ‘Some aspects of the history’, p. 3.
214 W. R. F. Love, ‘Henry Stobart and the Brisbane Aborigines in 1853’, Anthropological Society of Queensland Newsletter 152 (30 October 1984), p. 4.
215 Elisabeth Gondwe, personal communication, 15 May 2017.
216 Petrie, Tom Petrie’s reminiscences; ‘Aboriginal warfare’, Leader (Melbourne), 16 April 1864, p, 19; JW, ‘Romance of real life in Australia’, p. 4.
217 Dale Ruska, interview.
218 Petrie, Tom Petrie’s reminiscences, pp. 44–8, 160–4; Gearbaugh notes.
219 ‘An Aboriginal fight’, Daily Examiner (Grafton), 16 July 1931, p. 6.
220 ‘An Aboriginal fight’, p. 6; JW, ‘Romance of real life in Australia’, p. 4.
221 Uncle Bob Anderson, personal communication, 4 January 2019.
222 Gaiarbau and Winterbotham, ‘The Gaiarbau story’, p. 61.
223 Welsby, Memories of Amity, 23 July 1921, p. 65.
224 Gaiarbau and Winterbotham, ‘The Gaiarbau story’, pp. 60–1.
225 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
226 Peter Bell, Joshua, Moreton Bay and How to Fathom It, 8th ed. (Brisbane: Queensland Newspapers, 1984 [1950]), p. 50 Google Scholar.
227 Welsby, Early Moreton Bay, p. 50.
228 Jenny Cooke-Bramley, ‘Early Settlement in Dunwich’, in Cooke-Bramley, Durbidge and Shields, Historic North Stradbroke Island, p. 42.
229 Dale Ruska, interview.
230 Thomas Welsby, ‘Men and things of long ago’, Courier-Mail, 14 October 1933, p. 19.
231 Dale Ruska, interview. This may pertain to soldiers dispersing a gathering at Russell Island oyster camp.
232 Watkins, Notes on the Aboriginals, p. 43.
233 Uncle Bob Anderson, interview.
