I began thinking about this question while reading Michael
O’Rourke’s recently published book, Passages to the Northwest, The Europe
they left and the Australia they discovered 1788-1858, A miscellany and
scrapbook of national, regional and family history, From Ireland, Scotland,
England and Germany to Liverpool Plains in colonial New South Wales, Volume II.
The full title provides an accurate picture of the nature of the book and what it is about. The history of how Michael’s family came to live on the Liverpool Plains, in the north-west of NSW, is central to the book but its focus is mainly on the context in which family members lived. I suppose Michael tells readers as much as he has been able to glean about the lives of individual family members. However, as anyone who has dabbled in family history would know, it is difficult to find much more than names and dates pertaining to ancestors unless they happen to have been rich, famous, or infamous.
Michael explains:
“I was able to pour the genealogy, almost like cream, into
the dry chronicles of local history while also keeping an eye on social changes
and the national political and cultural scene, especially in Australia and
Ireland”.
I agree with the author’s suggestions about who might
benefit from reading the book. He suggests that apart from his family and relatives,
those who might benefit include people who are interested in detail about the
impact of European occupation on Aboriginal people, and people who live in the
north-west of NSW. Some people who are heavily involved in family history research
might also find the book useful to provide context for names and dates.
Michael has provided an index of topics at the front, and a
detailed index at the back, which I found helpful. I have only read those parts
of the book that particularly interest me at present. I expect that is probably
how the author would expect most readers to approach it. At some later stage
(perhaps when I am pondering the injustices that my ancestors may have suffered)
I will probably go back to read more of what Michael has written about Ireland
and Scotland.
European occupation
I was particularly interested in Michael’s discussion of the
relationships between Aboriginal people and European pastoralists (sometimes
referred to as squatters, settlers, or invaders) in the Liverpool plains area. By
1835, the European occupation of Aboriginal land had extended beyond Narrabri,
up to 550 km from Sydney. There was violence, but as Michael describes it, the
incoming settlers “so effectively swamped the locals that there were only rare
clashes, peaking in 1836-38”.
Introduced disease had a devastating impact on the
Aboriginal population. An epidemic (probably smallpox) killed many during
1830-31. Venereal disease became rife, as convicts - who became shepherds
living in remote outstations - infected Aboriginal women.
The pastoralists were known as squatters because they originally
occupied the land without approval of the colonial government. By 1836, however,
they were able to exercise sufficient political influence to have the
government grant them short-term pastoral leases.
By 1850 the remaining Aboriginal population had apparently
established their home bases near to the pastoral stations. Pastoralists
employed Aborigines as shepherds during the 1840s but also employed Chinese in
that role.
Gold fever
With the discovery of gold in 1851, many Chinese and European
workers left the pastoral properties abruptly to go to the diggings, sometimes
apparently leaving flocks they had been tending to the mercy of dingoes. The
flocks became scattered before the owners were aware of the situation. Michael
quotes from the published account of what followed according to Mary Jane Cain,
a mixed-race matriarch:
“The squatters had to
go practically cap in hand to the blacks they had dispensed with, and entreat
them to again assume the role of shepherds. They got the flocks together, and
generally made a good save. After that the squatters steered clear of Chinese
labour for a long while”.
The discovery of gold apparently led indirectly to a
substantial improvement in economic conditions for aboriginal people living on
the Liverpool Plains.
Michael’s account of the indirect impact of gold fever led
me to look further for other information on the impact of gold discoveries on
the lives of Aborigines. Some accounts
view it as “a second wave of dispossession”, but also note an increase in
demand for the labour of Aboriginal people on pastoral properties at that time.
Aborigines became employed as police on the goldfields. They sold food
and clothing to the miners and were employed as guides. They also became expert
gold seekers.
Ararat
The illustration at the top of this article is a painting by
Edward Roper, which depicts the gold rush at Ararat, south-west Victoria, at
its peak in the late 1850s. At the centre of the scene, an Aboriginal family
observes the activity around them.
Michael has included the illustration in his book. I thought
it appropriate to have it accompany this article because some of my ancestors came
to the Ararat diggings in the 1850s and later settled in that district.
Conclusion
The more I learn about the detail of the impact of European
occupation of Australia on Aboriginal people, the more persuaded I become that “European
settlement” is an inadequate description of what happened. Words like “conquest”
and “invasion” are also inadequate because they conjure up images of warfare
that have little resemblance to the sporadic resistance that some of the occupants
of this country offered to the European squatters. The detail includes
massacres, but disease seems to have been a much more important cause of depopulation.
The best option for the indigenous people was co-existence with the new
occupiers, but that required a radical change in their lifestyles.
Seen in that context, the advent of gold fever in the 1850s opened
new opportunities for Aborigines to become more heavily involved in pastoral
activities. I see this as an interesting example of the way disadvantaged people
can respond to new opportunities. I hope there were lasting benefits for at
least some of the families involved but I have no evidence of that.
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