In Australia we know about the American Plains Indian wars and the mighty native warriors such as Cochise and Sitting Bull but know very little, if anything, about our own Frontier Wars and mighty native warriors.

One such warrior was Dundalli, who was an Aboriginal warrior so large and so powerful, “news crews” of the 1850s came from Sydney to Brisbane to witness his trial and hanging.

Born around 1820, Dundalli was an aboriginal Dalla man – from the Blackall Ranges north of the Glasshouse Mountains. By 1842 he became the key man in Aboriginal politics and the man chosen to lead the struggle against the Europeans.

As Dundalli grew to become an adult, it became his early role to try to negotiate with the Europeans, to hold them back and to strike at their homesteads to strike fear into the homes.

“Around about Marburg they sent warnings. They said from now on we are going to attack your horses, we are going to attack your oxen, we are going to steal from drays and that sort of thing,” he said.

They had tried to confine Europeans to the river’s edges and burned their crops as they pushed further north, west and south.

“And at times, they would kill individual Europeans who were vulnerable.”

“They would evict Europeans from the coastal plains. And often one of the parting messages was ‘You are not coming in this direction. You go in the other direction’.”

From 1841 and into early 1842 settlers pushed out into the Brisbane Valley, but it was when up to 60 Aboriginal people were poisoned at the MacKenzie’s station near Kilcoy that relations changed.

In the absence of the Squatters, who owned and ran the Kilcoy property, staff panicked and poisoned food to ward off the Aboriginals.

Between 1842 and 1843, “the bora” – the collective council of the aboriginal people – met twice to decide their strategy against the Europeans.

Dundalli slowly became the warrior for these people. By 1843 his role had changed. For the first time he is involved in an attack at the Durundur Station out near Woodford, and the warrior of Southeast Queensland’s Aboriginal people takes on the role of aggressor.

A legend grew up around Dundalli as he evaded capture over a fourteen-year period and the Whites sought to connect him with almost every act of violence committed on the northern side of the Brisbane River. The indigenous community was divided between those who supported and attempted to protect him and the traditional enemies of the Djindubari, who feared him and were prepared to inform the police of his whereabouts. One reason for his mystique was his size. His trial judge later wrote that Dundalli ‘was the largest man I ever looked upon’, well over six feet tall.

Captured at Fortitude Valley in May 1853, next year, Dundalli was tried at the Brisbane Circuit Court in November. In his Reminiscences (London, 1863), Judge Therry described how the prisoner brazenly attempted to bribe him, for sixpence, and on another occasion offered to row the judge to Sydney if he would release him.

Dundalli faced five counts of murder but was ultimately led out in chains – “with every town constable on duty because of his size and strength” – to face two charges of murder.

Dundalli was sentenced to death for the murders of Andrew Gregor and William Boller. The gallows were erected on the Queen Street footpath in front of Brisbane Gaol.

References:

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dundalli-12895

Forgotten War. By Henry Reynolds

“Warrior” by Libby Connor

The scenario for our game on 17 October 2018 is an apocryphal attempted rescue while Dundalli was being transferred to Brisbane for trial. Having rested overnight at a small hamlet the police escort decided to push on without their mounted escort because there had been no evidence of any trouble………..

 

The recent capture of Dundalli had incited outrage, and there were hot heads in the tribes demanding his release, by force if necessary. Word was that Dundalli was in the vicinity and warriors gathered to attempt a rescue.

Dundalli

Natives confront the police escort.

The driver of the prison wagon was speared through the chest and the wagon came to a halt.

With boomerangs and spears flying everywhere the police tried to gain control of the wagon and some composure, but not before another officer was taken out by a boomerang.

The police decided to retreat with the wagon in the hope of joining up with their mounted compatriots while the majority attempted to fight off the natives.

With men falling on both sides the prisoner was in danger of being freed.

Dundalli grabs a troopers weapon.

With the escort now almost wiped out, and the native morale also all but evaporated, Dundalli was freed, but in an unlikely turn of events the natives speed off in the wagon, which needed to stay on the road, and could only move as fast as them anyway!! Speeding off at snails pace the natives headed for the bush with the wagon.

Finally the mounted police arrive.

A short sharp engagement that caused the loss of a trooper followed.

The couds hang low as a trooper goes down.

Revenge is swift.

The mounted charge broke the native morale and caused the recapture of Dundalli. With the status quo restored Dundalli was escorted to Brisbane to face trial.