Barrow Creek, Northern Territory

Barrow Creek Ot Station

Is a very small town, current population of 11, in the southern Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the Stuart Highway, about 280 km north of Alice Springs, about half way from there to Tennant Creek. The main feature of the town is the roadhouse/hotel. A number of mining companies are currently exploring in the area, although none of the current residents are involved in the mining industry.

History

Indigenous people

The Barrow Creek area is the traditional home of the Kaytetye Aboriginal people. Humans have lived in Australia, and perhaps this area, for at least 40,000 years.

European settlement

With the arrival of Europeans in the latter part of the 19th century, settlers competed with the Kaytetye for land and resources. Cultural misunderstandings resulted in violence and settlers murdered the Aborigines. John McDouall Stuart passed through the area in 1860. He named a creek near the current town after John Henry Barrow, a preacher, journalist and politician who was born in England in 1817 and migrated to South Australia in 1853. At the time of first European habitation of the site, he was Treasurer of South Australia.

Barrow Creek Telegraph Repeater Station

Barrow Creek was chosen as a site for an Overland Telegraph morse repeater station by John Ross in September 1871. The station was officially opened on 16 August 1872 by Charles Todd. It was one of 15 such repeater stations on a network traversing Australia and linking to Europe, providing essential communication services. The Telegraph Station has been preserved and is now a monument to the troubles which beset the early days of the Territory.

Arrival of graziers in the area

In 1873, 5,000 sheep were overlanded from Adelaide by Alfred Giles for distribution to Telegraph Stations along the line. During 1877 and 1878 Alfred Giles and Arthur Giles overlanded stock for Dr W.J. Browne to the Katherine River. On the 1878 journey Frank Withall, a young Englishman, was included on the suggestion of Browne to gather some colonial experience. Alfred Giles later started Springvale, Delamere and the Newcastle Waters runs.

World War II

During World War II Barrow Creek was used by the Australian Army as a staging camp for convoys of troops and supplies, which was known as No. 5 Australian Personnel Staging Camp. It was the first overnight stop on the northern trip from Alice Springs to Birdum.

Water limits Barrow Creek population

Barrow Creek has always had a problem with both quantity and quality of groundwater supplies. This problem was already recognized in the 1870s, and only 20 years after the Telegraph Station was built there is evidence of plans to shift it about 40 kilometres further north to the crossing at Taylor Creek because of better groundwater supplies. There is still a bore at that locality called New Barrow Bore. Today, the only good water at Barrow Creek is rainwater and that is limited due to the arid climate.

Crime

1870 killing

During 1870 some 3,000 sheep from the Lake Hope area in South Australia were overlanded to the Northern Territory, for the men working on the line at Roper River, by Ralph and John Milner. NearWauchope Creek they lost 900 sheep which had eaten poisonous herbage. John Milner was killed by the Aborigines and Ralph arrived at the Roper River with only 1,000 sheep.

1874 Skull Creek massacre

In February 1874 Mounted Constable Samuel Gason arrived at Barrow Creek and a police station was also opened. Eight days later a group of Kaytetye men attacked the station resulting in the death of two white men, Stapleton and Frank, and the wounding of Ernest Flint. Some believe the attack was retaliation for the white men’s treatment of Kaytetye women. Others say it occurred because the white men had fenced off a major waterhole and refused the Kaytetye access to water and rations during a time of drought. It is probable that both these issues were grievances for the Kaytetye.

On 22 February Gason cabled to Adelaide:

This Station has been attacked by natives at 8. Stapleton has been mortally wounded, one of the men, named John Franks, just died from wounds. Civilised Native Boy has had three spear wounds. Mr Flint, assistant operator one spear wound in leg, not serious. Full particulars in morning.

Samuel Gason later mounted a large police hunt against the Aborigines resulting in the slaughter of up to ninety men, women and children, some fifty miles south of where the white men had been killed. No prisoners were taken. The area where they were slaughtered was later called Skull Creek for the number of bleaching native skulls left there. According to Alex Ross, who had been a member of Ernest Giles 1875–76 expedition in Central Australia, as interviewed by the anthropologist Ted Strehlow in 1932:

As for Skull Crk.,-well of course nobody ever knew if any one who was shot there had ever had any hand in the attack on BC. They were just blacks sitting in their camp, and the party was looking around for blacks to shoot. Quite possibly some guilty ones were among them.

1928 Coniston Massacre

The Coniston massacre, which took place from August 14 to October 18, 1928 near the Coniston cattle station, Northern Territory, Australia, was the last known massacre of Indigenous Australians. People of the Warlpiri, Anmatyerre and Kaytetye groups were killed. The massacre occurred in revenge for the death of dingo hunter, Frederick Brooks, supposedly killed by Aborigines in August 1928 at a place now known as Yukurru, (also Brooks Soak). Official records at the time stated that 31 people were killed. The then owner of Coniston station, Randall Stafford, was a member of the punitive party for the first few days and estimated that at least twice that number were killed between August 14 and September 1. Historians estimate that at least 60 and as many as 110 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed. The Warlpiri, Anmatyerre and Kaytetye believe that up to 170 died between August 14 and October 18.

Background

For administrative reasons, from 1927 until it was reversed in 1931, the Federal Government divided the Northern Territory into North (population 4000 “whites”) and Central Australia (population 500). By July 1928, Central Australia was in its fourth year of a particularly severe drought with fewer than 25 millimetres (0.98 in) of rain falling in the previous seven months. Overgrazing by stock had literally denuded the country of its vegetation, leaving little feed for wildlife. Waterholes were drying up and even the most experienced Aborigines were finding game and water almost unobtainable. Almost all the permanent waterholes and soaks were on station properties and as Aborigines began to die from thirst and hunger they moved to the stations for the water where they became an “aggravation” by begging for food and spearing cattle. The pastoralists were forced to chase the Aborigines away to ensure the survival of their cattle. Sixty-seven year old Fred Brooks had worked as a station hand on Randall Stafford’s Coniston station, 240 mi (390 km) N/W of Alice Springs, since the end of World War I but due to the drought had not been paid for some time. In July he bought two camels and on August 2, left with two 12 year-old aboriginal boys, Skipper and Dodger, to trap dingos for the 10 shilling bounty ($33:50 2009) on their scalps. Approaching a soak 14 mi (23 km) from the homestead, he found around 30 Ngalia-Warlpiri camped. Brooks knew some and decided to camp with them. The first two days were uneventful and Brooks caught several dingos. On August 4, Charlton Young and a companion who were exploring the area for a mining company, stopped by and warned Brooks that the Aborigines had been getting “cheeky” lately by visiting the mining camps heavily armed, demanding food and tobacco. Brooks had been approached several times to trade but had so far refused.

Barrow Creek NT In The Middle Of Australia

On August 6, Bullfrog with his wife Marungali asked him to trade and Brooks offered some food in exchange for Marungali washing his clothes. Bullfrog camped nearby but Brooks neither paid him the promised food nor did he return his wife. In the morning Bullfrog became enraged when he found his wife in bed with Brooks and attacked him, severing an artery in his throat with his boomerang. Bullfrog, his uncle Padirrka and Marungali then beat Brooks to death. Aboriginal elders fearfully banished Bullfrog and Padirrka and ordered Brooks’ two boys to return to the homestead and say that he had died of natural causes.^{[notes 1]} The following day an Aborigine named Alex Wilson camped at the now deserted soak and finding the body rode back to the station, where he described hysterically how Brooks had been “chopped up” (the body was intact) by 40 Aborigines and the parts stuffed in a rabbit burrow. Randall Stafford had been in Alice Springs requesting police to attend to prevent the spearing of his cattle. He returned to be told of the murder and “dismemberment” of Brooks but chose to wait for the police. No one returned to the soak and no one attempted to retrieve the body. On August 11, the Government Resident J.C. Cawood sent Constable William Murray, the officer in charge at Barrow Creek who also held the post of Chief Protector of Aborigines,^{[notes 2]} to Coniston to investigate the complaints of cattle spearing. Told of the murder, Murray drove back to Alice Springs and telephoned Cawood who refused to send reinforcements, telling Murray to deal with the Aborigines as he saw fit. Returning to Coniston, Murray questioned Dodger and Skipper who described the circumstances of the murder and named Bullfrog, Padirrka and Marungali as the killers. According to his own report, Murray also obtained the names of 20 accomplices (he never recorded the names, or explained how his informants, who were not eye-witnesses, knew them; nor were these inconsistencies ever questioned at later proceedings). Murray organised a posse consisting of tracker Paddy, Alex Wilson, Dodger, tracker Major (elder brother of Brooks boy Skipper), Randall Stafford and two white itinerants Jack Saxby and Billie Brisco.

The massacre

Brooks was killed on or about 7 August 1928, and his body was partly buried in a rabbit hole in the Northern Territory. No eyewitnesses to the actual murder were ever identified, and there are conflicting accounts of the discovery of the body and subsequent events. On August 12, dingo trapper Bruce Chapman arrived at Coniston and Murray sent Chapman, Paddy and Alex Wilson to the soak to find out what happened. The three buried Brooks on the bank of the soak. In the afternoon two Warlpiri, Padygar and Woolingar arrived at Coniston to trade dingo scalps. Believing them to be involved with the murder Paddy arrested them but Woolingar slipped his chains and attempted to escape. Murray fired at Woolingar and he fell with a bullet wound to the head. Stafford then kicked him in the chest breaking a rib. Woolingaar was then chained to a tree for the next 18 hours. The next morning the posse, with Padygar and Woolingar following on foot in chains, set out for the Lander River where they found a camp of 23 Warlpiri at Ngundaru. With the posse encircling the camp, Murray rode in and was surrounded by Aborigines yelling, Brisco started shooting with Saxby and Murray joining in. Three men and a woman, Bullfrog’s wife Marungali, were killed with another woman dying from her wounds an hour later, a search of the camp turned up articles belonging to Brooks. Stafford was furious with Murray over the shooting and the next morning returned to Coniston alone.

Panorama from the Barrow Creek Road House

During the night Murray captured three young boys who had been sent by their tribe to find what the police party was doing. Murray had the boys beaten to force them to lead the party to the rest of the Warlpiri but had they done so, they would have been punished by their tribe. To resolve the dilemma, the three boys smashed their own feet with rocks. Despite the injuries Murray forced the now crippled boys to lead the party. By nightfall they reached Cockatoo Creek where they sighted four Aborigines on a ridge. Paddy and Murray captured two but one ran with Murray firing several shots at him which missed, Paddy then knelt and fired a single shot hitting the fleeing man in the back and killing him instantly. After questioning the other three and finding they had no connection with the murder Murray released them. The next two days saw no contact with Aborigines at all as word had spread with many Aborigines heading into the desert, preferring to risk dying of thirst, rather than face the police patrol. Returning to Coniston, Murray left Padygar, Woolingar and one of the three boys, 11 year-old Lolorrbra (known as Lala, he became a chief witness at the enquiry), whose crushed feet had become infected, in Stafford’s custody before heading north to continue the search. Following tracks, the patrol came upon a camp of 20 Warlpiri, mostly women and children. Approaching the camp Murray ordered the men to drop their weapons, not understanding English the women and children fled while the men stood their ground to protect them. The patrol opened fire killing three men; three injured died later of their wounds and an unknown number of wounded escaped. By Murray’s account, he met four separate groups of Warlpiri, and in each case was obliged to shoot in self-defense – a total of 17 casualties. He later testified under oath that each one of the dead was a murderer of Brooks. The Warlpiri themselves estimated between 60 and 70 people had been killed by the patrol.

On august 24, Murray captured an Aborigine named Arkirkra and returned to Coniston where he collected Padygar (Woolingar had died that night still chained to the tree) and then marched the two 240 mi (390 km) to Alice Springs. Arriving on September 1, Arkirkra and Padygar were charged with the murder of Brooks while Murray was hailed as a hero. On September 3, Murray set off for Pine Hill station to investigate complaints of cattle spearing. Nothing has been recorded about this patrol, but he returned on September 13 with two prisoners. On September 16, Henry Tilmouth of Napperby station shot and killed an Aborigine he was chasing away from the homestead, this incident was included in the later enquiry. On the 19th, Murray again departed, this time under orders to investigate a non-fatal attack on the person of a settler, William Nuggett Morton, at Broadmeadows Station by what Morton described as a group of 15 Myall Warlpiri who were also in the same area. Morton, a former circus wrestler, had a reputation for his sexual exploitation of Aboriginal women and violence against both his white employees and Aborigines. On August 27, he left his camp to punish Aborigines for spearing his cattle. At Boomerang waterhole he found a large Warlpiri camp, what happened here is unknown but the Warlpiri decided to kill Morton. During the night they surrounded his camp and at dawn 15 men armed with boomerangs and yam sticks rushed Morton. His dogs attacked the Aborigines and after breaking free Morton shot one and the rest fled. Morton returned to his main camp and was taken to the Ti Tree Well mission where a nurse removed 17 splinters from his head and treated him for a serious skull fracture.

From the station, on September 24, a party consisting of Murray, Morton and half-castes Alex Wilson and Jack Cusack, embarked on a series of encounters (three incidents were later described by Murray in which 14 more aborigines were killed, but it is likely there were more). At Tomahawk waterhole four were killed, while at Circle Well one was shot dead and Murray killed another with an axe. They then moved east to the Hanson River where another eight were shot. Morton identified all of them as his attackers. The party now returned to Broadmeadows to replenish their supplies before travelling north. No records of this patrol were kept. According to the Warlpiri, this patrol encountered Aborigines at Dingo Hole where they killed four men and 11 women and children. The Warlpiri also recount how the patrol charged a corroboree at Tippinba, rounding up a large number of Aborigines like cattle before cutting out the women and children and shooting all the men. There is anecdotal evidence that there were up to 100 killed in total at the five sites. Constable Murray was back in Alice Springs on October 18 where he was asked to write an official report on the police actions. The report was only several lines long, he wrote: “….incidents occurred on an expedition with William John Morton, unfortunately drastic action had to be taken and resulted in a number of male natives being shot (sic).” No mention was made of the number killed, the circumstances of the shootings or where they occurred.

The trial of two apprehended Aborigines

The trial of Arkirkra and Padygar for Brooks murder took place in Darwin on November 7 and 8 before Justice Mallen. The first witness was 12 year-old Lolorrbra (known as Lala) who testified in detail that he saw Arkirkra, Padygar and Marungali kill Brooks. He also testified that all the Aborigines that had helped them were now dead. Constable Murray took the stand next, his evidence becoming so involved in justifying his own actions in killing suspects that Justice Mallen reminded him that he himself was not on trial and to avoid facts not relevant to the guilt of the accused. The court then adjourned for lunch. The verdict was a foregone conclusion as all that remained was the reading of the confessions made by the accused in Alice Springs. Despite lunch for the jurors being provided by the local hotel, two of the jurors went home to eat. A furious Justice Mallen dismissed the jury, ordered a new jury be empanelled and a new trial to be convened the following day. The new trial began with Lolorrbra being asked to repeat his evidence. This time his evidence, although still maintaining that the accused were the murderers, was completely contradictory. Under cross examination it became apparent within minutes that he had been coached on what to say. When the prosecution tried to introduce the written confessions of the accused, Justice Mallen pointed out that as the accused had been charged by a South Australian rather than Central Australian magistrate he would disallow the statements. The prosecution declined to call the accused to testify. Murray took the stand next, angering Justice Mallen when he repeated his justifications for killing suspects. With no evidence of guilt presented, Justice Mallen ordered the jury to acquit the accused.

During his testimony, Murray made a revealing remark: “We shot to kill”, he said.

• Justice Mallen: Constable Murray, was it really necessary to shoot to kill in every case? Could you not have occasionally shot to wound?
• Murray: No your honour, what is the use of a wounded black fellow hundreds of miles from civilization?
• Justice Mallen: How many did you kill?
• Murray: Seventeen your honour.
• Justice Mallen: You mean you mowed them down wholesale!
• —The Northern Territory Times, November 9, 1928

In the courtroom to hear this and other evidence of massacre was Athol McGregor, a Central Australian missionary. He passed on his concern to church leaders, and eventually to William Morley, outspoken and influential advocate of the Association for the Protection of Native Races, who did the most to secure a judicial enquiry. The Federal government was also under considerable pressure to act. The British media had been reporting on Australia’s treatment of Aborigines (Australia was in financial difficulties at the time and an economic mission from London was considering financial assistance), a federal election was due on November 17 and the League of Nations had publicly criticized the case. During the trial Murray was billeted with the Northern Territory police. Although only officially admitting to 17 deaths, according to constable Victor Hall he was shocked with Murray’s “freely expressed opinions of what was good enough for a blackfellow” and claimed he bragged to fellow officers that he had killed “closer to 70 than 17″.

Board of Inquiry

The Board of Inquiry was presided over by police magistrate A.H. O’Kelly and was deeply compromised from the start – its three members being hand-picked to maximise damage control; J.C. Cawood, Government Resident in Central Australia, and Murray’s immediate superior, being one of them. Cawood revealed his own disposition in a letter to his departmental secretary shortly after the massacre: “… trouble has been brewing for some time, and the safety of the white man could only be assured by drastic action on the part of the authorities … I am firmly of the opinion that the result of the recent action by the police will have the right effect upon the natives.”

The Board sat for 18 days in January 1929 to consider three incidents (Brooks, Morton and Tilmouth) that resulted in the deaths of Aborigines, and in one more day, finished its report, finding that 31 Aborigines had been killed and that in each case the death was justified. Among the more obvious shortcomings of this much criticized document:

• Neither police party was duly sworn to act under the law; they were, in effect, vigilantes.
• Glaring inconsistencies in Murray’s evidence were ignored.
• No survivors were called as witnesses.
• No corroboration was sought for any of the implausible claims of witnesses with an interest in fabrication.
• The hearing decided, in the face of indubitable evidence to the contrary, that there had been no drought in Central Australia, evidence of ample native food and water supplies and thus no mitigation for cattle spearing.
• Unsubstantiated claims about the guilt of the victims were accepted at face value.
• Imputed motives for aboriginal violence were taken to be self-evident.
• Gross deficiencies in Murray’s police recording were overlooked.