S3-E07-The Mark's Murders - The Murders Continue

Following the attack on Umbercollie, a series of tit-for-tat murders occurred.  Aboriginal women and children were murdered on Callandoon and Canning Creek Stations and then a bullock driver who was removing goods from James Mark’s station was murdered. However, there are some inconsistencies in some murders described in the Wallabadah Manuscript. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

[inaudible]

Greg: 0:11

From“Today’s Stories”…… This is“The Mark’s Murders”…. A story of murder and mayhem told over several episodes- by myself, Greg and by Peter. If you haven’t listened to this series from Episode 1, we suggest you stop listening now and go back to the very beginning. Also, a warning. This series of podcasts discusses the murders of indigenous and non-indigenous people. It contains the names of aboriginal people who have died. While quoting original historical material, this series also contains racist language, some language that would be seen as inappropriate today, and historical ideas that are offensive.

Peter: 1:01

Previously on the“Mark’s Murders”…… It’s 1847– about 50 km north-west of modern-day Goondiwindi.

Richard Bligh: 1:12

One of the aborigines(‘Tinker’) accused of the recent murder of Messrs Campbell and Smith’s hut-keeper having been captured by the settlers was slain in a struggle which took place between him and the two men who had him in custody.

John Watts: 1:32

Marks was a splendid shot, and the blacks were very much afraid of him, and from information I obtained from the Beebo people, they had long been watching to kill him.

Richard Bligh: 1:46

The Blacks it appears took away both the boy and the sheep and upon search being made for them the upper half of the boy’s body was discovered hanging among the branches of a tree. The lower portion of the body seems to have been carried away and has not yet been discovered.

Denise: 2:07

Young described Marks's frenzied response, calling him'a hater of all aboriginals', shooting every native in sight'.

Daniel McLean: 2:19

Billy was looking about and found a gin concealed by the fence, and he pulled her out. She escaped from his grasp and ran. Someone called out"shoot her," and the whole party fired at her, and she fell by the slip panel. Martin then struck her once or twice on the head with a pistol he carried.

Peter: 2:40

The murder of Mark’s son and the subsequent murder of aboriginal people started in 1847, around modern-day Goondiwindi. We know the bare bones of the story from the Personal Reminiscences of John Watts, an early squatter on the Darling Downs, and from other historical accounts. But these accounts don’t provide any context as to why the murders occurred, what actually happened, and their aftermath. We want to tell the truth of what happened. In the previous episode, we discussed the murder of James Marks’ son and possible motives for that murder. Seeking revenge, James Mark put a gang of stockmen together and started killing aboriginal people in the area. It was only after the murder of Bootha on Umbercollie that Commissioner Bligh got involved. He came to Umbercollie to investigate. Bligh soon knew who the culprits were. He instructed his constables to arrest the gang while he returned to Warialda. But the intervention of the legal authorities didn’t stop the killings!

Greg: 3:53

Why? What happened after Bligh left Umbercollie?

Speaker 4: 3:54

On 2 September 1848, after several days of taking depositions and inspecting the body of Bootha, Bligh departed the Macintyre with one of the first five prisoners from the Umbercollie murders, while his troopers remained behind to track down the remainder. That night– the night that Bligh left- and before the troopers had arrested the others- the gang struck again. This happened at Augustus Morris's station. Morris was not present at the time but he learned the details from Thomas Young(He’s no relation to Jonathan Young but was on the property). On September 10th, Morris wrote to Bligh and informed him that seven white men had been riding around the district killing harmless aborigines, including two female shepherds, Isabella and Mary, and also Isabella's baby son, who were murdered on Morris's head station. Another boy had been shot, though not fatally, on the squatter's cattle station, four miles from the head station. The murders took place late at night when the victims were asleep. Augustus Morris believed that the killers' intended victim was lsabella's husband, Pantaloon, who survived because he was away from the station. Bligh subsequently concluded– and I quote:"I have much reason to suspect that he(James Mark) and some of those now in custody were with the others concerned in the murders now reported by Mr Morris."

Greg: 5:26

So, how did Pantaloon respond to the murder of his wife? I’d assume he wouldn't be too happy.

Peter: 5:32

We can't know what was in Pantaloon’s mind but the murders continued. By this time, James Mark had realised that he no longer was safe on Goodar with Bligh’s troopers and the Bigambul warriors all after him. He decided to leave. A bullock team was arranged to remove his goods from Goodar to Yeoman’s station at Boggabilla. The following is a newspaper report about the next incident. It happened just 12 days after the murder of Pantaloon’s wife.

Denise: 6:04

I have yet a more painful and melancholy case to relate, and that is the murder of a man in the employment of Messrs. Yeomans and Baldwin, who was known by the name of Scotchie. Upon the 14th September, Scotchie was driving a team belonging to Messrs. Y. and B., and employed in removing flour and stores from Mr. Marks's station. George Harris was with Scotchie, armed for protection. They had not proceeded far on their journey when they were surrounded by a tribe of about a hundred and fifty blacks and Harris's gun having missed file, the blacks set up a yell, and speared Scotchie. Harris, who was on horseback, managed to get Scotchie up behind him, and they decamped, but as they had no safety without returning to Mr. Marks's station, upon their return they were again attacked, and Scotchie murdered, his jaw being broken, and ten spears run through his body. The dray was completely stripped of 3000 lbs. of flour, tea, sugar, clothing, and opossum cloaks. One of the bullocks was also killed, cut up, and carried away. Mr. Marks had the body of poor Scotchie buried after Mr. Jonathan Young and others had been to witness the lamentable sight. His faithful dog kept close by the body, and it was with difficulty the men could approach it. The owners of stations in this unhappy quarter are suffering more than ever, and unless immediate and efficient protection be granted them, they must abandon their stations.

Greg: 7:56

Do we know if Pantaloon was responsible for the murder of Scotchie?

Peter: 7:59

No– we can suspect that he was involved but there is no evidence. But I don’t think that, by this stage, it mattered. The tit-for-tat murders continued.

Greg: 8:10

Why? What happened next?

Peter: 8:12

Before we move on, Margaret Young makes an interesting comment about the murder of Scotchie. She says:

Margaret: 8:21

It was no longer safe for Mr Marks to remain; a bullock wagon was sent to collect him and his possessions, this wagon was waylaid by the natives, they drowning the bullocks and sinking the wagon in the river. Later under strong police escort, he and his family were taken away.

Peter: 8:42

We know that there are many mistakes in Margaret's journal, but this little section implies two things. Firstly, th at M ark's family was on Goodar. I assume that she means Mark's wife, Mary and the daughter Isabella, as well as the remaining son William. Margaret says on a couple of occasions in her journal that she was the only whi te woman in the area.

Greg: 9:04

Yeah. That is a bit strange. I mean you'd think that she would know for certain if there was other women around.

Peter: 9:06

Yeah. Secondly, Margaret says that James M ark got a police escort. Th is s eems re ally odd given t hat the police were supposed to be looking for him to arrest him. Perhaps, the local constables had some sympathy to James Mark that was not shared by Commissioner Bligh.

Greg: 9:30

Yeah, that is a bit odd but I wonder too if they were just happy to get him out of the area and they'll remove the family first. So where w ere the next murders?

Peter: 9:41

On 26 October, seven white men struck again. This cannot have been all of Mark’s original gang as some were in custody in Warialda but the pattern was familiar. Three Aboriginal women and a boy were murdered, on Morris's Canning Creek run.

Greg: 10:00

It seems that the area is becoming a bit of a mess of tit-for-tat murders, but it all seems to start with James Mark murdering the two aboriginal people. Did this ever end?

Peter: 10:11

In the next episode, we'll discuss Bligh’s attempt to bring justice to the area. Following that, to maintain real order, Frederick Walker and Native Police were sent to the McIntyre. Walker’s force was a group of aboriginals from the Murray River area. They arrived on the MacIntyre on the 10 May 1849 but one person relevant to this story was murdered just before Walker arrived. This murder is described in a newspaper report of 9 May 1849.

Denise: 10:46

A constable has just come in from the McIntyre, where they have been lately stationed, and informs me that the blacks lately killed five head of cattle belonging to Mr. Jonathan Young, and sent him notice that they were preparing another attack. He applied to the constables, and some of his neighbours joined him. The party came up with a body of the blacks, but the only one they got near was that notorious one, Gibber, who murdered Mr. Marks's boy some time ago, and also Mr. Yeomans's bullock driver. For this man they had a warrant, and they called to him repeatedly to stand, but he would not, and came in contact with Mr. Marshall, whom he knocked from his horse senseless to the ground with his nulla nulla. He was of course quickly despatched. The constable describes him as the most fierce looking savage he has ever seen, standing full six feet high; on one foot he had no toes, and on the other only two, of a peculiar form, like claws.

Peter: 12:02

So the final murder before the arrival of the Native Police is that of Gibber– allegedly the aboriginal warrior who took revenge on James Mark for the murder of the two aboriginal boys, and also the murderer of Scotchie, the bullock driver. I don’t know how they can say that Gibber killed those men. Bligh had investigated the murder of Mark’s son and concluded that no one knew who did it and we have Pantaloon as the most likely culprit for the murder of Scotchie.

Greg: 12:33

OK. You said earlier that you're a bit curious about the source of the story about the killing of 40 aboriginal people on Boonal. What’s your concern?

Peter: 12:42

This account– which is the only one I can find about the Boonal incident– comes from a document called the Wallabadah Manuscript. This is a really interesting document. It’s a long story but, in 1961, the proprietor of Wallabadah Station donated a whole lot of documents to UNE– the university based in Armidale. These documents included a long hand-written history– for want of a better description– of life on the frontier in northern NSW. It took a long time to ascertain the author but it is now known that it was written by William Telfer Jnr in about 1900. William lived in the Armidale area during the squatter period, so in one sense, this is very similar to Margaret Young’s and John Watts’ journals. However, there are two big differences. Firstly, William had a poor education so his original hand-written pages contained very poor English– bad spelling and no punctuation- and are hard to read. They have since been transcribed. Secondly, in 1980, the Manuscript was published by Roger Milliss and he fact-checked the manuscript wherever possible. Roger concluded that the document is– to use his words–“remarkably accurate in the bulk of its detail”. However, it’s not perfect and we need to check the veracity of the claim that 40 people were murdered on Boonal.

Greg: 14:20

Fair enough– but if there is no other report of the Boonal incident, how can we do that?

Peter: 14:26

Telfer has a long section talking about the Mark’s Murders even though he wasn’t in the district at the time. We can look at what he says about some other incidents that we’ve talked about so far and see how his story stacks up. Let’s start with the murder of James Mark’s son. Here is what Telfer says:

William Telfer: 14:47

the blacks had comited a lot of depredations one of the worst happened to Mr Marks he had taken up a new station called Goodah on the weir on Jones River near the present town of Goondiwindi now Queensland at that time a portion of new South Wales he had two flocks of Sheep on the Station he and his little son Johny Marks were Shepperding them not far from his residence he told his son to look after the sheep while he went to the house for a short time he stopped away for an hour on his return he could not see him any where he was sure something had happened as the sheep dog was barking and howling running towards the scrub he had two kangaroo dogs with him they went after the sheep dog Mr Marks following armed with a double-barrelled gun cautiously approached the scrub where he came on traces of blood following this trace for about four hundred yards he came to a hollow stump of a tree the three dogs were at the stump barking and howling he knew there was something wrong being a man of great courage he went to the stump and looked in there was the body of his little son the boys head had been severed from the body a foul murder had been done there were marks on the body as if done with an eagles talons the head was not to be found the poor greif stricken parent went to his residence taking the body with him that night the boys head was placed on the limb of a tree just in front of the house by the black fiends

Greg: 16:49

OK. Well, that’s sort of similar to the other versions that we have, but the others didn’t say that the boy was decapitated or that there were marks on the body done by eagle’s talons. So do you have anything else?

Peter: 17:02

Yes. Here's Telfer’s description of the murder of Scotchie, the bullock driver who was removing goods from James Mark’s station. Following his description of the Boonal murders, Telfer says:

William Telfer: 17:17

those blacks are suposed not to be any of the murderers only a trouble to the Squatters further up the river- hunting and spearing their cattle for food and their men being in danger- also killing a bullock driver of Mr Marks going down country with a load of Wool this murder happened in the vicinity of wallengra the man was after his bullocks in the morning when the blacks waylaid him in a scrub- spearing him through the body he went by the name of Scotchey coming from Scotland they stuck his body in the middle of the road with ten spears in it- also spearing some of the working bullocks roasting and eating them- also burning the dray with the load of wool

Peter: 18:06

Now this section is riddled with errors. The murder of Scotchie happened near Goodar, not at Wallangarra. The wagon was carrying Mark’s house goods, not wool and no one mentioned the bullocks being roasted. Scotchie’s body wasn’t stuck in the middle of the road with spears. But here is an even more erroneous section. Soon after the section on the murder of Scotchie, Telfer says:

William Telfer: 18:36

Marks was out about six months shooting them before he found the murderer of his son- there was a tame blackfellow from the namoi river living on a station twenty five miles from there- heard some of the other blacks talking in the camp about a blackfellow that had comitted the murder of the boy- so he found out his name through being able to talk their language and went to the overseer telling him about it who at once went to Mr Marks station with the news- they organised a party to go after him Mr Marks in command- they were after him three weeks having the Namoi blackfellow tracking him which was not a very difficult Job in the sandy ground as he had a very peculiar foot having six toes on each foot the toe nails like claws- also six fingers on each hand- they said his finger nails were like Eagles talons- the most repulsive aboriginal that was ever seen in australia standing six feet four inches in height- after a long hunt they came on his camp on a creek on the upper Moonie Mr Marks in the lead saw him making away fired putting a bullet through his body when he fell dyeing in a short time- this was the end of the black fiend whose name was Gabbar- in their language devil,- the murder was done alone by this savage.

Peter: 20:17

By the description of the aboriginal man who is killed, this has to be Gibber. There’s many errors here. The newspaper report at the time says that Gibber was killed in May 1849, not 6 months after the murder of Mark’s son. Gibber wasn’t killed in the Upper Moonie. He was killed near Goodar. In that sam e newspaper re port, there is no mentioned of“a tame blackfellow from the namoi” and certainly, James Mark can no t hav e been involved in the killing of Gibber as he’d left the district by tha t ti me, by t he time that Gib ber was- if w e remember-“qui ckly dispatched”. The only similarity in the stories is the description of Gibber– but now he somehow has finger nails like eagle’s talons. So, this is a bit curious. Taking that in mind, this is how Telfer describes the murders on Boonal:

William Telfer: 21:19

after burrying his son he went and got his saddle horse taking amunition and firearms went in pursuit of the murderers he was joined by several others who had an acount to settle with the blacks the first attack they made was at Boonall on about forty blacks encamped in a bend of the River at night they were shot down and burned on their camp fires being taken unawares those blacks are suposed not to be any of the murderers only a trouble to the Squatters further up the river hunting and spearing their cattle for food and their men being in danger– also killing a bullock driver of Mr Marks going down country with a load of wool

Greg: 22:11

I can understand why you’re curious about the veracity of this section. Given the detail that he has on the killing of Mark’s son and the killing of Gibber, this description of the murder of 40 people seems a bit light on.

Peter: 22:23

Yes. I am quite suspicious about the detail of the Boonal event. Telfer is writing his manuscript many years after the event– like Margaret Young did. We know that both of them have made errors when compared to contemporaneous reports. One big issue that I have though with the Boonal story is that the MO of the gang appears to be quite different from the other murders. In all the other cases we've have found–“Tinker” on Minimee– Isabella, her son and friend on Callandoon– Bootha and Mary on Umbercollie– the four killed on Canning Creek– the gang attacks individuals or small groups of defenceless women on stations, not a large group of 40-plus“encamped in a bend of the river”. This sounds like a whole clan and would include warriors rather than defenceless women and children. I haven’t seen any evidence that Mark’s gang would take on a large group of warriors. Another issue I have is the lack of detail. In Telfer’s other accounts, he's got lots of detail– Mark’s son was decapitated– Scotchie’s body was stuck with spears in the middle of the road– Gibber had 6 toes on each foot– but there is no detail in the Boonal massacre story. Finally, Telfer is the only person who tells this story. I would have thought, if 40 people were killed, somebody– somewhere– would have mentioned the event.

Greg: 23:58

Yeah, I agree. There are good reasons to question the“Boonal massacre” as told by Telfer. It would be really good to find some corroboration of the story– but how does this affect our story? Does it really matter what was the exact number of aboriginal people that Mark’s and his gang murdered?

Peter: 24:16

That’s an important question but I don’t think that the exact number does matter or will ever be known. We've found good evidence that the Mark's gang killed at least ten people. In this modern-day world, Mark and his gang could be described as mass-murders. Their culpability is no different if we talk about 10 murders or 50, if we include the Boonal event.

Greg: 24:43

Yes. When you look at it that way, the exact number doesn’t’ change how we should regard James Mark. Is there anything else we can say about his“final tally”.

Peter: 24:52

I think we must remember one of the outcomes of the Myall Creek massacre and trial– the Conspiracy of Silence amongst the squatters. We know that the killing of aboriginal people did not end after the trial– the Mark’s murders are ample evidence of that– but there was an understanding amongst the squatters and their workers to keep these events quite. We have lots of hints throughout our episodes that this happened in the McIntyre.

Greg: 25:20

What sort of hints do you mean?

Peter: 25:23

Well, for example, in Episode 3– A Tale of Two Squatters– it seems clear that Captain Scott’s men used muskets on the aboriginal people there and presumably killed some in revenge for the killing of a hut-keeper on Bengalla, but I’ve never seen the Bengalla story in any newspaper or official report. Then, Margaret Young described James Mark as“a hater of all aboriginals and would shoot any seen approaching his property”. And later she says that“he went all over the district asking all hands to join his gang shooting every native on sight.” I think that Margaret is describing more events than just the killing of Bootha and Mary on Umbercollie.

Greg: 26:11

Yeah. Well Margaret certainly hints at Mark’s activities being more widespread than just Umbercollie. Do you have anything else?

Peter: 26:18

Yes. In following episodes, we will talk about Frederick Walker and the Native Police who came to the McIntyre to establish law and order. In 1853, Walker was criticised in a letter to the Moreton Bay Courier. Walker referred to the author of this letter; who he believed to be James Mark, in a letter that Walker wrote to the Colonial Secretary. When talking about James Mark, Walker wrote,“an individual whose atrocities on the MacIntyre first induced His Excellency to command me to raise the Native Police.” Does Frederick Walker know of more atrocities than just the ten murders that we have found?

Greg: 26:59

Well you'd have to think that unoffically he might have had a better idea and certainly his record keeping was intentionally quite suspect.

Peter: 26:59

Yes, but I think that the existence of this“Conspiracy of Silence” is evident in a newspaper article that I found. It's in the Moreton Bay Courier in December 1848. The article is talking about the mayhem on the McIntyre in the previous 15 months– that is– back to about the time of the murder of the hut-keeper by“Tinker”. The article says:“Within that time not less than seven whites have been murdered by the blacks. First, there were two men killed on the road; then Mark’s boy; then two men of Mr Perriers, then Jemmy the Jockey; on Mr Wightman’s station; and just lately a bullock driver in the employ of Messers Baldwin and Yeomans while removing the stores and other property from the deserted Mark's station.” Now we are aware of most– but not all– of the murders of the Europeans mentioned here– but with regard to the aboriginal people, the article says:"There is no such authentic record to be had of the blacks who had been killed by the whites during that period; but we may rest assured that at least life for life has been exacted and something more"..

Greg: 28:16

Yeah, I like that- no record. What does that mean?

Peter: 28:16

In other words– everyone knows that there have been many deaths of aboriginal people but the Conspiracy of Silence will prevent us from ever knowing the complete truth. And this brings us back to the Boonal incident. Telfer recounts the stories of the murders of Mark’s son, Scotchie the bullock driver and Gibber– even though it's riddled with errors. Telfer almost certainly heard about some event on the McIntyre and his story of the Boonal incident probably has more than a kernel of truth hidden in there somewhere. So, the true number that Mark’s gang killed between August 1847 and May 1849 when Frederick Walker and the Native Police arrived will probably never be known.

Greg: 29:21

Yeah, we'll probably never know the full story but why wasn't he stopped? We've said that the magistrate from Warialda, Commissioner Bligh had been to the area and taken depositions. So Bligh knew who was responsible. What happened there? And after a ll, i n the second episode, we discussed the Myall Creek Massacre where Europeans were charged, convicted and hanged following the murder of aboriginal people. Did that happen here?

Peter: 29:46

Yes and No. I previously noted that Commissioner Bligh conducted a Coroner's Inquest into the murder of M ark's s on and took depositions about the murder of Bootha. This led to legal action starting and charges were being laid. But that's a long story. For the next episode.

Greg: 30:07

OK, We'd like your views on this topic. Do you have a similar story in your family tree? If so, please contact us on email or comment on our Facebook- contact details are on our webpage– www.todaysstories.com.au. Full details of this story are available on our website and please remember to subscribe to our podcast. For this podcast,• Your hosts were Greg and Peter• Research by Peter• Voice actors were Mark, Denise and Mick• Original music and Sound Engineering by Pete Hill• IT solutions by Shelly Thank you for listening

Speaker 7: 30:50

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