Final Article on Waterloo Bay "Massacre"

I have not considered what effect the murder of Baird at the end of 1850, and the whites' reprisal (which called for a Government enquiry) may have had as a factor in construing the Waterloo Bay "massacre." Reading "H.J.C's." account, it will be noticed that he follows the same sequence as the acting judge, but makes all the murders occur on one day— Capt. B. . . . first, then the wife of the shepherd Harry, (but omits the raid on Horne's station) and lastly the hut-keeper, whose head the natives cut with a saw. Though thinly veiled, there is no doubt that Beevor, Mrs. Anne Easton and John Hamp are the victims referred to. One wonders where he got his information, for surely the judge's report would not have been made public. Was there anybody on the Peninsula who might have had access to the papers ?

In true novelette style, "H.J.C." could not refrain from bringing in a love story. The black chief became enamored of the bonny wife of "Harry '' and set out to possess her, to add her to his household (or should it be wurleyhold ?) and in a style well worthy of a wild Red Indian story, introduces the slaying of the infant babe, with not a single iota of evidence to support such a fantastic and one might say, diabolical fabrication to bolster up his account, but only as an additional lever to justify the alleged rounding up and slaughtering of the natives. We have Geharty's definite account that the babe was naked, uninjured, but exhausted by continuous crying when found.

RAID ON HORNE'S STATION

It is not understandable why the raid on Horne's station was omitted, as that raid no doubt produced the genesis from which grew the tale of the alleged tragedy. Even "H.J.C." in 1880 had not progressed so far as to relate that the head of Hamp was found in the hut, let alone found in the oven; he relates that the blacks, "held him down to the ground whilst two others seizing the saw proceeded to cut his head in half while yet alive." Please remember that not a single white man saw any of the three murders but only blacks. So any details must be only attempts at reconstruction from assumption, from traces as viewed by the first arrivals, or the tales subsequently told by the natives. From the hut-keeper's hut (Hamp's ?), "H.J.C." takes the natives to a promontory on the coast, the scene of the alleged massacre. Actually we have the true account of the chase after the blacks from Hamp's, two or three days after the murder. But "H.J.C.'' in picturing the natives travelling from murder to murder, imagines the white men gathering in force, like a snowball — the further they went, the larger the crowd — ready for revenge, which was intensified by the murder of Harry's wife (Easton ?) and finally that of the hut keeper (Hamp?).

"H.J.C." speaks of a Sydney native, there may have been one, but no mention is made in any of the records ; was he confusing the tracker with Billy Grant, who was out with Stephen Hack eight or nine years subsequently. Cockburn's appellation "silly old yarn" is all that can be applied to "H.J.C's," account of the infuriated mob, who were restrained by a few cool heads. " H.J.C." has compressed into two days scenes that occurred as far apart as over a year. Actually what do we find, from official records?

Firstly, that Hamp was murdered a year before Beevor. Two policemen, Stewart and possibly a few of Pinkerton's hands chased the blacks for 20 miles, when all traces were lost. Geharty was not there (that is, in the first pursuit ).

Secondly, Beevor's and Easton's murders occurred a year after Hamps. By all accounts there was no conflict between the whites and the blacks ; the natives were able to get away before the whites became aware of the murders. The police went in pursuit unsuccessfully, and then Geharty went with the police, but according to the official records the blacks again evaded the pursuers all the time ; even private parties reported no signs of the natives.

DISCOVERY OF MURDERS

Thirdly, that the murders of Hamp, Beevor and Mrs. Easton were not discovered until the evening, so there was very little chance of advising neighbors the same day to enable them to collect in large numbers, as narrated by " H.J.C." All that could be done was to advise the head station in two cases and in the other a neighboring station.

Fourthly, "H.J.C." has no allusion to the raid on Horne's station. Here, the hut-keeper and shepherds were able to escape and get word promptly to the head station. Word was sent immediately to Port Lincoln, and Tolmer, now being free, took to the "war-path." Horne was not waiting for Tolmer, so jumped into the fray and followed the 16 or 18 natives, who, on being overtaken, showed fight and then divided into two parties - one going toward the scrub and the other to the coast. Horne with his two men elected to follow the latter lot to the cliffs. The natives went down the cliff, Horne following, leaving the two men on top. Horne admits two were killed at the cliff and some wounded, one of these subsequently dying. Horne eventually arrested a number of the natives at the cliff and handed them over to Tolmer on his arrival.

Fifthly. Tolmer's warpath led him into the scrub country away from the sea, and that was where he captured the rest of the natives that were arrested. In Tolmer's account and the official records there is no mention of him or his men killing a native in the pursuit. Of course there was the unfortunate circumstance of the accident to the "forced guide" who died subsequently as the result.

Between the time of "H.J.C." (1880) and A. Beviss (1926) the tale had altered quite a lot. Beviss thought the scene occurred in the sixties ; actually Hamp was murdered in 1848. Beviss introduces a new factor, that it was the son who found the head in the oven. In the official reports there is only one mention of Hamp's son and that occurred in Stewart's evidence. When being cross-examined as to the identity of "Tommy," he said, " I know no one at the station named Tommy — Hamp's son was one who lived there and another shepherd named Hammond. Hamp's son is still at Mr. Pinkerton's." There is no mention at all in the records of his being concerned in the pursuit. It was the shepherd Dewig Hammond who when he came home at night found the tragedy at Hamp's hut.

USELESS SEARCH

Geharty who went out in pursuit in the beginning of August, stated by the 14th of that month that it would be useless to try and catch the natives as so many horsemen had been to and fro. The natives were about, raiding the stations now and again, but the whites could not make contact with them. Some were caught, but generally discharged on account of insufficient evidence. However, there is not a word about Geharty planning the cliffs as his goal, and it is certain the number of whites available on the Peninsula could not have rounded up and driven 260 natives to any desired spot. Beviss makes Geharty leave off the search for Hamp's slayers to go in pursuit of Mrs. Easton's murderers. The actual fact is that the search for Hamp's murderers had died down long before.

When Easton's murder was committed Geharty was after Beevor's murderers. Beviss also said that John Chip Hamp and Sgt. Geharty were the principals in the mustering. According to the death certificate, John Chipp Hamp died on November 30, 1905, at the age of 70 years. Assuming that John Chipp Hamp was the son at the station at the time of the murder, he would have been only 13 years old then. Is it reasonable to suppose a youth of that age would take such a prominent part as suggested by Beviss. Incidentally it might be noticed that the death certificate shows two "p's"' in the name ; most writers usually use only one.

STORY FROM HAMP AND GEHARTY

Again, Beviss in his account said he gained his information from Hamp and Geharty and "not one ever mentioned any trial or hanging of the culprits, only driving over the cliffs." As we have seen there were court cases, natives were brought to trial, but through legal technicalities, the two charged in connection with the murder of Hamp, after being sentenced to death were respited. Two who were arrested for Beevor's murder were hanged at Beevor's station, and those charged with Mrs. Easton's murder were discharged, again possibly through legal technicalities. Geharty arrested one of Hamp's alleged murderers at Port Lincoln and the other about three miles out from there. All the accounts of the massacre associate the drive with the murder of Hamp and the inference is that the whole of the natives in the immediate vicinity were "wiped" out. If so, how come the murders of the following year and that some of Hamp's murderers were associated with the murders of Beevor.

Beviss mentions the various arms that the white pursuers carried and among them "capped dynamite." In this he was very much astray as dynamite was only discovered by Nobel in 1867. Revolvers are mentioned ; it is possible, but not at all probable, that these arms were used, as Colt had only produced the first practical revolving pistol in 1835, even then they would be of the most primitive pattern.

However much the Government desired to apprehend the murderers, it never countenanced the indiscriminate slaughter of the blacks and as a rule, when a native was shot, a departmental enquiry was instituted at once. Geharty was an able and conscientious officer, and received great praise from the Commissioner of Police for the part he took in the pursuit, but he did not receive the appointment as sergeant until 1852 or after. It is certain that the Commissioner of Police who wrote those definite instructions to Tolmer in 1849 would not have countenanced such a drive as "H.J.C." and Beviss narrated, nor would he have praised Geharty for organising and planning such had that ended in the natives being driven over the cliffs.

Calmly and dispassionately reviewing the whole facts as told by official accounts, remembering that the whites were not inclined to tone down any atrocity committed by the blacks, also that if anything did occur in the way of revenge, there must have been some inkling or leakage of it from some source, we must come to the conclusion that Hamp's head was on his body when found; that Easton's baby was alive, well and unharmed when discovered ; that after the murder of Hamp the natives escaped and the whites did not come up with them, and that after the raid on Horne's station a small party of natives walked down the face of the cliff, and that Horne and his two men pursued them; that Horne in following them down the cliff was threatened ; and that three natives died as a result. Further that there was no organised and planned drive to force the natives over the cliff. Again, there are so many inaccuracies in both "H.J.C. " and Beviss's account that as historical facts they must be disregarded as a whole.

The residents of Eyre Peninsula can consider the conduct of those early settlers above reproach (except for putting temptation in the way of natives) and the slate is clean as regards the alleged Waterloo Bay tragedy. According to their own laws, the blacks thought they were entitled to slay strangers, and leading officials at the time blamed the white men more than the blacks, in so much that huts and sheep were so slenderly guarded, offering easy targets for the blacks. The white men, now and again, in self defence and in attempting to arrest raiders, may have shot down a few natives, but it is a certainty that the Waterloo Bay "massacre" as pictured by "H.J.C.", A. Beviss and others did not occur, and that the natives did not cut the head off Hamp's body and place it in the camp oven. Somewhat altering Finlayson's phrase, "Raconteurs in their desire to please and appear interested in history raised the plane of discussion from fact to fancy." It devolves on us now to erase the erroneous impressions left by those raconteurs.

(Next week an article written by Mr. Somerville on activities of the Royal Australian Ornithologists Union on Eyre Peninsula will be published.)