Tulmur: First Contact

In 1843, Dr. Simpson reported that there were 5000 First Nations people in the Moreton Bay area. By 1847, there were less than 4000 with 150 being at Limestone (later Ipswich) and forty at Woogaroo (now Goodna), and two hundred at Brisbane.

Early conflicts arose between Aboriginal peoples and the newly arrived convicts and soldiers in the 1820s, and the people who arrived after 1842.

Soldiers, settlers and stockmen chased a large group of Aboriginal people led by Multuggerah into the Rosewood Scrub, following the ‘Battle of One Tree Hill’. Carried out by Crown Lands Commissioners Christopher Rolleston and Stephen Simpson, with a vigilante group of settlers, and Lt Johnstone and 10 soldiers from the 99th Regiment (Copland et al, 2006, pp 25-26). Copland estimates that 12 Yugarah people were killed (Copland et al, p 26). [1]

The Moreton Bay Courier in 1847 reported that "Uncle Marney" was sent to Sydney to stand trail for spearing cattle on the Government run at Redbank. He was released without charge.

Thomas Welsby who was born in Ipswich in 1858, recalled a 'skirmish among Aborigines' in 1862 that took place at the site of what is now the Ipswich Grammar School. His family's cottage was close by in Waghorn Street and even though he was only 4 years old he recalled the skirmish that was a three day event. This young boy watched the proceedings through peepholes and openings in the family's cottage, his anxious mother nearby and his father with his gun primed in case of trouble. Thomas noted that no one died in the daily battles and that at night the clans returned to their campsites. He wrote: "Despite my keen years, from this one occasion I retained my original views of the deep worth of their ancient culture."

The Welsby family moved to Booval House in 1866. When he was ten years old he happened across "a cache of combat weapons and saw a hundred Aborigines in Ipswich in a single afternoon at the back of the Grammar School." Between the age of twelve and sixteen he used to ride to the Aboriginal camps at Redbank and Oxley and recalled seeing a large gathering near the Redbank Hotel in approximately 1870.