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| In his memoir of this time, TLM-P stated that he believed that the Hornet Bank murders were part of an Aboriginal conspiracy to exterminate the whites. He was clearly prepared for armed conflict when, he claimed, there was a gathering of Aboriginal people some six weeks after the Hornet Bank tragedy. Hawkwood employed three unnamed Aboriginal men and one woman (from the coast, not from local tribes), a Welshman gaining colonial experience Earnest Davies; Sydney Ling, a German doctor, and' one or two others'. They had 'plenty of arms and ammunition'.((Reid, a Nest of Hornets, p.134)) In his memoir, he states that he and some others decided on a preemptive strike against the local Aboriginal people. Leaving shearing to others, a vigilante troop of 13 or 14 people, including TLM-P and two of his Aboriginal employees) set off. He claimed that the Aborigines in the party wanted to kill women and children as well, but he prevented that by stating he would withdraw the Hawkwood group if he saw any woman or child hurt. Davies, in his reminiscences, states that they killed as many men as they could and retrieved items hat had belonged to the Frasers. They also appeared to continue on their deadly rampage, killing aboriginal employees of Redbank station.((Reid, a Nest of Hornets, pp.136-39)) According to TLM-P ((memoir, p.37), 'The war was kept up for 18 months, during which there were continually one or two parties out, and gradually a good many of the ringleaders were accounted for.[killed] ... These 18 months of warfare were an anxious time for us. Business often took me then a good deal from the station. When I came home I used to canter pretty sharply to the top of the ridge from which the place was visible with my heart in my mouth, for there was always the fear that all hands might have been massacred.'((memoir, p.41))\\ | In his memoir of this time, TLM-P stated that he believed that the Hornet Bank murders were part of an Aboriginal conspiracy to exterminate the whites. He was clearly prepared for armed conflict when, he claimed, there was a gathering of Aboriginal people some six weeks after the Hornet Bank tragedy. Hawkwood employed three unnamed Aboriginal men and one woman (from the coast, not from local tribes), a Welshman gaining colonial experience Earnest Davies; Sydney Ling, a German doctor, and' one or two others'. They had 'plenty of arms and ammunition'.((Reid, a Nest of Hornets, p.134)) In his memoir, he states that he and some others decided on a preemptive strike against the local Aboriginal people. Leaving shearing to others, a vigilante troop of 13 or 14 people, including TLM-P and two of his Aboriginal employees) set off. He claimed that the Aborigines in the party wanted to kill women and children as well, but he prevented that by stating he would withdraw the Hawkwood group if he saw any woman or child hurt. Davies, in his reminiscences, states that they killed as many men as they could and retrieved items hat had belonged to the Frasers. They also appeared to continue on their deadly rampage, killing aboriginal employees of Redbank station.((Reid, a Nest of Hornets, pp.136-39)) According to TLM-P ((memoir, p.37), 'The war was kept up for 18 months, during which there were continually one or two parties out, and gradually a good many of the ringleaders were accounted for.[killed] ... These 18 months of warfare were an anxious time for us. Business often took me then a good deal from the station. When I came home I used to canter pretty sharply to the top of the ridge from which the place was visible with my heart in my mouth, for there was always the fear that all hands might have been massacred.'((memoir, p.41))\\ |
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| TLM-P and his troop,returned to their properties after the Redbank murders((memoir, p.41)) These murders in all are now thought to have a toll of around 300 Aboriginal people. TLM-P was also one of four magistrates who wrote to the Colonial Secretary demanding harsher penalties for Aboriginal resistance((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, pp.117-18.)) In his memoirs he also considered it reasonable that William Fraser, who had survived the Hornet Bank massacre of his family, embarked on a lifetime of indiscriminate killing of Aboriginal people. William Fraser became a folk hero among whites; he is also noted in the Wikipedia entry as 'one of the greatest mass murderers in Australian history'. He subsequently died of old age without facing prosecution or his murders.\\ | TLM-P and his troop returned to their properties after the Redbank murders((memoir, p.41)) These murders in all are now thought to have a toll of around 300 Aboriginal people. TLM-P was also one of four magistrates who wrote to the Colonial Secretary demanding harsher penalties for Aboriginal resistance((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, pp.117-18.)) In his memoirs he also considered it reasonable that William Fraser, who had survived the Hornet Bank massacre of his family, embarked on a lifetime of indiscriminate killing of Aboriginal people. William Fraser became a folk hero among whites; he is also noted in the Wikipedia entry as 'one of the greatest mass murderers in Australian history'. He subsequently died of old age without facing prosecution or his murders.\\ |
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| Information about the Hornet Bank massacre has been complicated not only by an unwillingness to acknowledge that it was a result of a war between white and black for the possession of land, but also by the unreliable recollections of Rosa Praed. As Reid (pp.iv,77) comments, Rosa in her memoirs((//Australian Life: Black and White//, London, 1885 and //My Australian Girlhood//, London, 1904)), was an unreliable witness.One problem with how Rosa's books are currently read is that modern readers do not appreciate that mixing memoir and fiction "was not considered a fault in Victorian Life-writing" (Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex, //Outrageous Fortunes:The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son George//, La Trobe University Press, 2025). Rosa had a novelist's imagination and wanted - at times, needed - to sell her books. She did not write them as documentary evidence for future historians. \\ | Information about the Hornet Bank massacre has been complicated not only by an unwillingness to acknowledge that it was a result of a war for the possession of land, but also by the unreliable recollections of Rosa Praed. As Reid (pp.iv,77) comments, Rosa in her memoirs((//Australian Life: Black and White//, London, 1885 and //My Australian Girlhood//, London, 1904)), was an unreliable witness. The problem was not so much Rosa, but that modern readers rarely appreciate that mixing memoir and fiction "was not considered a fault in Victorian Life-writing - however annoying to the historian." (Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex, //Outrageous Fortunes:The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son George//, La Trobe University Press, 2025, p.33). That is, Rosa had a novelist's imagination and needed her memoirs to sell. She did not write them as documentary evidence for future historians. \\ |
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| TLM-P sold Hawkwood a year after the Hornet Bank massacre. The cause was an outbreak of scab among his sheep: he was apparently popular with his neighbours as they are said to have gifted him some 900 sheep to help replenish his flock.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, pp.214-15.))\\ | TLM-P sold Hawkwood a year after the Hornet Bank massacre. The cause was an outbreak of scab among his sheep: he was apparently popular with his neighbours as they are said to have gifted him some 900 sheep to help replenish his flock.((Reid, A Nest of Hornets, pp.214-15.))\\ |