Listed below is a tabulated representation of the heroic acts that have been visually represented on our mapping portal. You can also download an excel spreadsheet of this data directly below.
Download the latest spreadsheet of our mapped data here - Aboriginal Heroes Data [XLSX 115 KB]
| Location | Estimated Number of non-Aboriginal people saved | Names or number of Aboriginal rescuers | Sources | Type of heroic action | Short Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ovens River | 3 | 2 to 4 | Port Phillip Patriot and Morning Advertiser, Saturday 30 September 1848, page 3 | Rescued from drowning | The native blacks went into the water immediately, and brought the two men out from the boat; the schoolmaster was not more than three minutes in the water, when a blackfellow also brought him out. |
| Goulburn River | 1 | 1 | Kerang New Times, Friday 27 October 1911, page 5 | Rescued from drowning | A white woman got into trouble when bathing in the Goulburn River. One of her companions called out to a black girl, who rushed to the river and dived in, and succeeded in getting hold of the drowning woman. |
| Mornington Peninsula | 1 | 1 | Kerang New Times, Friday 27 October 1911, page 5 | Sought medical aid | On one occasion I was seriously injured. This [Aboriginal] boy ran for help at the rate of about ten miles an hour, and brought help, and thereby saved my life. |
| Tarraville | 1 | Browney | Gippsland Guardian, Friday 6 May 1859, page 3 and Friday 23 October 1857, page 3 | Guiding through the bush | One of the blackfellows of this district named Browney, while on his annual trip to the Lakes to collect swan eggs, fell in [met with], near Mr. James Taylor's run, with a man named Maloney, who had been for three days lost in the bush, and so exhausted that he must in a short time have perished but for the assistance rendered him by the blackfellow. |
| Hepburn | 2 to 15 | 2 to 10 | Quinlan, L. Here My Home: The Life and Times of Captain John Stuart Hepburn, 1803–1860. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1967. p.155 | Saved Egan families children, wool bales, crops from bush fire | When Black Thursday broke with a fierce northerly gale and smoke began to darken the skies, Dad said to the black head-man: 'Fire a long way to come yet?'' 'No fear' said the blackfellow. 'Soon jump Big Timber. You come 'long see'. By big Timber he meant Kooroocheang. they went to the top of what was later called Burnt Hill and, looking northwards, saw Koorrocheang and Moorookyle ablaze. Hurrying back they marshalled their forces and had them ready to fight the fire at all points. The young black gins ran the babies to safety in the running creek, where there some isolated rocks and plenty of water. the men also carried the wool bales to the same safety. Further operations saved the hay and oat stacks and the homestead buildings. |
| Bucklands Hill, Barwon River, Geelong region | 1 | 1 | Quoted in Cary, J. (1904). ‘Canoes of Geelong Aboriginals’. pp. 35-6 | Saved from being lost in the bush | I wandered about for some time, not knowing which way to turn, then I was attracted by a fire on what is now called Buckland’s Hill. I made for it hoping to get help. As I neared the fire, two or three dogs bounded towards me barking loudly, and in an instant I was surrounded by a number of aboriginals [Wadawurrung] each holding a tomahawk in his hand. I was greatly alarmed and could scarcely speak, but knowing that Dr Thomson had been very kind to the natives, I called out: “I have lost my way; I want Dr Thomson’s”. Immediately one of them, in his own language, ordered the others away, and seizing me by the arm, pulled me off at a pace I could scarcely keep up. We were soon on the banks of the Barwon, where the native with his tomahawk cut a large piece of bark from a tree, and, in less time than it takes me to tell, placed it on the water, laid me on it, and plunged into the river beside me. I was conscious of being slowly paddled across the stream. All the time, I could feel his hot naked body touching my face, and hear his heavy breathing. Soon I was lifted up on the other side, and, in the same manner, almost dragged on until we reached Kardinia. |
| Mt Rouse | 1 | 20-50 | Robinson, 3 May 1841 in Clark, I. D., Ed. (1998). The Journals of George Augustus Robinson | Saved from being lost in the bush | A man who lost himself for five days and fell in with a large party of wild natives as they are called, who not only pitied his condition but took him to their camp, gave him food, made him a bed. And in the morning went and conducted him on his way to Mt Rouse where he was going when he was lost. |
| Cape Otway | 5 to 20 | 1 | Geelong Advertiser ‘Shipwreck’ n.d. 1843, p. 3 | Saved from being lost in the bush | The survivors of the Joanna, a vessel wrecked near Cape Otway…fell in with a party of natives who did not however show any hostility except in asking for clothes. The shipwrecked men gave them such as they could spare, and induced one of the blacks to go with them as a guide... next day they arrived at Geelong in a state of great exhaustion. |
| Werribee | 1 | Murrydeneek | Steiglitz, R., W, Von (1878). Reminiscences of R.W Von Steiglitz. SLV | Saved from being lost in the bush | I saw a black fellow holding up his arms and calling me to stop. I had a brace of pistols in my belt so I did... he told me I was going wrong and signed that if I went that course the horse would be bogged, so I allowed him to direct me, he walking by my side patting me on the back and I appearing pleased but very watchful of him. His name was Murrydeneek and a right good fellow he was. I knew him for years after. That day he saved me from being lost in the bush. |
| Moorabool River | 2 to 5 | 2 to 5 | Sievwright to Robinson, The Bush, Geelong District, June 1 1840 in Wrench, R., Lakic, M., Eds. (1994). Through Their Eyes. Melbourne, Museum of Victoria. p. 129 | Rendered assistance in crossing rivers | Where from the state of the roads and rivers, I got them [Wadawurrung guides] to render, essential service to settlers and travellers, whose provisions must have been lost, and progress stopped but for their timely aid. The servants of Mr. Murray at Colac, and the Surveyors who were proceeding to Portland Bay, can bear testimony to the skill and safety with which their provisions and equipment were transported across the Nar-ra-hil [Moorabool River], in a bark canoe, when without such assistance they must have remained some weeks upon its banks ere the river subsided. |
| Little Desert region | 1 | 1 | H Haustorfer, Reminiscences, NLA MS, Canberra | Saved from being lost in the bush | HE Haustorfer recounted his great relief at being rescued whilst in the dark bush by unidentified ‘blacks’ who beckoned him to lie down near their fires. After spending a night under considerable apprehension as he ‘felt all sorts of misgivings, thinking they might be longing for a White Roast’, in the morning he was relieved when ‘the oldest black told his lubra to show me the track’ and was shown the direction to his destination. |
| Barwon River, near Geelong | 2 | 1 | Russell, G. (1941). The narrative of George Russell of Golf hill, p. 116 | Rendered assistance in crossing rivers | We left for Mr. Roadknight’s station on the Barwon River, about three or four miles from Cowie & Stead’s. We left our horses on the north side of the Barwon and were put across the river in one of the natives’ canoes, which consisted of a sheet of bark bent upwards at one end and having a few tussocks of grass with their roots built across the other end to keep the water out. Only two persons could get into the canoe at one time, and they dare not stand upright for fear of upsetting it. |
| River near Benalla | 1 | 1 | Campbell, Rough and Smooth or Ho! For an Australian Goldfield. pp.68-9 | Rescued from drowning | Mrs Campbell claimed to being saved, along with her sister from drowning whilst crossing a river near Benalla by an Aboriginal guide named ‘Captain Cook’. |
| Barwon River, near Geelong | 1 | Dan-Dan-Nook [Jerry] | Cited in I.Clark Atlas of Clans | Rescued from drowning | In 1840 King Jerry (Dan-Dan-Nook) had saved a European named Samuel Mossman from drowning in the Barwon River. |
| Clinkers Hill, near Castlemaine | 1 | 1 | Robins in Castlemaine Association of Pioneers and Old Residents, Records of the Castlemaine Pioneers. pp.176-7 | Rescued from drowning | George Robins was saved by Djadjawurrung people on the gold fields near Castlemaine: I sank a hole near Clinkers Hill…while bailing water out of the claim l fell in and was pulled out by a blackfellow. |
| Near Moama | 1 | 1 | Mereweather, Diary of a Working Clergyman in Australia, 1850-3. p.145, 149-150, 193 & 209 | Conveyed across rivers safely | Mereweather noted in 1852 ‘To lose oneself in this district is a serious matter…I hear of many accidents and disasters which have occurred in my district during my short absence in Melbourne.’ Mereweather noted several occasions where a ‘black who managed a frail skiff’ safely conveyed he and his party across numerous river crossings. Moreover, he also recorded the prolificness of Aboriginal people and their crafts, noting at Moama they ‘have twenty five canoes with them.’Mereweather exclaimed: ‘When l considered how wide and deep the river was, and how strong the current ran, l considered l had great cause for thankfulness in getting safely over.’ |
| Murray River | 2 to 20 | 2 to 20 | "Bark Canoes," Illustrated Melbourne Post 1862 | Rescuing goods lost in the river | Aboriginal people on the Murray were described as rescuers of non-Indigenous peoples’ goods and chattels, and would consider ‘nothing loath to take a good dive, fetching up anything that may thus found its way to the bed of the river. |
| Murray River | 1 | 1 | Westwood, Journal of J Westwood Being an Account of Eight Years Itinerary to the Townships and Squatting Stations of Victoria. p.401 | Conveyed across river safely | Joseph Westwood, an evangelist in the Murray region noted that a ‘blackfellow paddled me across the Murray in a canoe.’ |
| Murray River | 2 to 4 | 1 | Mossman and Bannister, Australia, Visited and Revisited. p.134 | Conveyed across river safely | We had some difficulty in fording the back-water course of the river, which we were compelled to do in consequence of the accident to the bridge; and unless we had had the assistance of a native, who directed us which way we should incline when we were in the river, we might have failed in safely getting over. |
| Murray River, near Benalla | 1 | 2 to 4 | Dannock`, Autobiography. NLA, p.63 | Conveyed across river safely - and given medical care | I took bad with the dysentery and the black lubras kindly got me wattle gum and when l did not get better they said 2 days that fellow go bung [dead] so l thought l had better clear out and got the blacks to put me over the river in a canoe. |
| Dimboola | 1 | 2 | Longmire, Nine Creeks to Albacutya - a History of the Shire of Dimboola. pp.28-9 | Given medical care | In the Dimboola district when Horatio Ellerman accidentally wounded his companion, the Wotjobaluk / Wergaia stemmed the flow of blood by packing the wound with a poultice composed of the fresh contents of a sheep’s stomach, probably an adaptation of traditional medical procedure. |
| Kinypaniel region | 1 to 6 | 2 to 10 | Cited in Fernihurst District History Committee, Reflections from the Kinypaniel. p.21 | Conveyed goods safely across river | FR Godfrey were struck by the usefulness and utilitarian nature of Aboriginal canoes, especially noting in his journal the debt owed to the Aboriginal water carriers who rescued “two tons of trussed hay in a fine canoe made by the blacks” on one occasion in September 1852...‘The Aboriginals were often sent across by canoe for urgently needed goods – flour, tea, sugar, tobacco and the like, which were loaded onto waiting drays.’ |
| Various regions in Victoria | 2 to 5 | 2 to 5 | Sugden, Pioneering Life in Outback Stations of Victoria. Pp.85-96 | Rescued from being lost in the bush | Frequent references in George Sugden’s reminiscences of his pioneering experiences relates numerous men and stock being expertly tracked and guided to safety over a period of time.“Sugden take Sandy the black boy and see if you can find the man [lost in the bush, and subsequently rescued]”. I was quite in his hands and knew that as long as I stuck to him I was safe…a black tracker was employed who can easily pick up your tracks [shepherd rescued]…I was rescued by Sandy the black tracker…rescued by black trackers again…my eyes got so bad that l could not see. I was given a black gin to look after me and lead me about. |
| Various regions in Victoria | 2 to 5 | 2 to 5 | Graham, J. (ed.). (1863). Observations and Experiences During 25 Years of Bush Life in Australia. pp.129-30 | Rescued valuable livestock | The blacks began to be very useful to us, some of them at least. Some of them had powers of tracking cattle, more surely than a hound would fox or hare; though they did it all by eye...Many a fine bullock or heifer they saved for us then; and more for myself afterwards. |
| Unknown | 1 | 2 to 4 | Lancelott, Australia as It Is: It's Settlements, Farms and Goldfields. pp.190-1 | Tracked lost child | Francis Lancelott described the pitiful story of a 14 year old girl who had been missing in the bush for ten days before it was ‘deemed indispensable’ to call for their assistance, but it was too late.'They however, did their part very well. On being told where the girl was last seen to enter the scrub, they went down instantly on their hands and knees, and with their large, sooty eyes, scanned every blade of grass, fallen leaf, and twig, with as much care and delicacy as if they had been objects of infinite worth…it was tedious work for the blacks, but they seemed proud of the great consideration in which their services were held…and, as the blacks had conjectured, her dead body was found on the summit of the rock'. |
| Loddon River | 2 to 3 | 1 | G Mackay, History of Bendigo (Bendigo: Lerk and McClure, 2000). p.12 | Rescued suicidal mother [and her children] | According to her own account, she felt impelled to drown herself and her children. Standing there, looking at her shivering, little ones through her scolding tears, and hesitating as to which of them she would throw into the river first, she was startled by a sharp, shrill cry. Turning round, she perceived a young black boy bounding towards her…he quickly explained to her that he was with a dray, which was returning home from an out-station…”No, you cry, Mrs. Charley,” said the boy affectionately. “You all right now – directly.” “Bless his dear black face,” she used to say afterwards in telling her pitiful tale. “It seemed to me like an angel come down from heaven.” |
| Corinella | 2 to 6 | Charlie Tarra | Broome, R. (1994). ‘Aboriginal Workers’ | Provided food for starving party | In 1840, Charlie Tarra from the Goulburn Plains saved the lives of Count Paul Strzelecki's party as they made 'their way through the impenetrable scrub at Corinella near Western Port, by sustaining the party on koalas he hunted for them. |
| Bolwarrah run near Ballan (Bradshaw's Creek) | 1 (Squatter and his family) | Approx 10-30 | Walsh, J. & Turner, J. L. (1985). The Walsh papers, memoirs of the early settlement of western Victoria and, in particular, Ballan Shire, 1830-1875. J.L. Turner, Creswick, Vic, p. 114 | Assisted in saving crops from bush fire | ‘A crop of seven or eight acres of oats in the stocks at Bradshaw’s Creek which would undoubtedly have been destroyed but for the assistance rendered by a lot of passing blacks to the station hands.’ |
| CBD Melbourne | Unknown | Unknown | Waterfield, in Cannon, M., Ed. (1984). The Early Development of Melbourne. p.564 | Assisted Melbourne townsfolk to escape impending flood | Knowledge about floods was passed onto the colonists. The Reverend William Waterfield, based in Melbourne, noted local biocultural knowledge about flooding enabled local clans to predict an impending flood: ‘The Yarra had overflowed its banks...Ten days ago the natives foretold it.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Unknown / prolific | Unknown / prolific | Lawrence Struilby in Graham, J. (ed.). (1863). Observations and Experiences During 25 Years of Bush Life in Australia. pp.129-30 | Assisted many colonists by tracking the colonist's lost stock including sheep, cattle, horses - and themselves and their children | The blacks began to be very useful to us, some of them at least. Some of them had powers of tracking cattle, more surely than a hound would fox or hare...[we would] hire out a tracker to follow a stray mob of cattle or horses. Through scrub and stream, and river and forest, and over sand or rock, he will go, till he brings you to your object, whether it is alive or dead. When he discovers dropping of the cattle, or a blade of grass cut by them, he can tell within a few hours or miles of their whereabouts. Many a fine bullock or heifer they saved for us then; and more for myself afterwards. |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Unknown / prolific | Unknown / prolific | C Burchett, Letters, RHSV MS, Melbourne. p.82 | Assisted colonists to get supplies to workers cut off from supplies by floods | During floods ‘we had to carry rations to outstations in a bark canoe manufactured by the blacks in a very few minutes.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Unknown / prolific | Unknown / prolific | G Sugden, Pioneering Life in Outback Stations of Victoria, RHSV, Melbourne. p.21 | Assisted colonists to travel between stations and get supplies to workers cut off from supplies by floods | ‘The men would get over [swollen rivers] in blacks dugouts [canoes] …[the] dray ferried over by blacks.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Lancelott, F. (1852; 1967). Australia as it is. Tokyo: Charles Tuttle, pp. 50-1 | Assisted colonists to travel safely in as yet 'unexplored' Country | Those who have had long experience in the bush are always careful to avail themselves of the services of one or two trusty black attendants…As their services are given more from goodwill than from hope of reward, it is only from attachment to persons with whom they are well acquainted that they are ever prevailed upon to lend themselves as parties in an exploring expedition. |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | K McK, (1910). Old Days and Gold Days, Melbourne, McK, p.20 | Assisted colonists to access clean water | Once Father told us of how, after a long waterless journey, he and his native guide came on a waterhole in an almost dry creek. Father, being very thirsty, took his pannikin to dip a draught out of the film-covered water; but the black guide restrained him warningly, and gathered a bunch of coarse grass that was growing about the creek and placed it on the surface of the water, first dexterously removing a patch of the film or scum, and slowly pressed the pannikin on the filter of dried grass until it was filled with clear water. |
| Horsham, near Mount Arapiles | Three children | Jungunjinanuke / King Richard, Jerry or Red-cap, and Fred | Simpson, Patrick (1864) The story of the lost children: Duff family, RHSV, MS 000083 (Box 032-9) | Tracking of lost children in the bush | The Duff family lived near the town of Natimuk. The children, Jane Cooper (7), Isaac (9) and Frank (4) were lost in the bush for nine days in 1864. When they were located only Frank was conscious, but they all recovered. Three Aboriginal trackers from the Vectis station, found them. |
| 90 mile beach to Sydney | 17 | Parties of 3-30 | Clark, 'Narrative of the shipwreck of Captain Hamilton and crew of the Sydney Cove', Asiatic Mirror, 27 December 1798, p.1 | Assisting shipwreck victims to ford rivers, directed along pathways for convenient travel and given food | Shipwreck victims walking from present day Gippsland to Sydney were helped by 'three of our native friends, from whom we departed yesterday rejoined us and assisted us over [the river]'. Their services were described as 'really kind, as they knew we had to cross this river and appear to have followed us purposefully to lend their assistance'...'kindly treated us with some shellfish, which formed a very acceptable meal, as our small pittance of rice was nearly expended'. |
| Indented Head / Geelong region | 1-14 escapee convicts | Groups of 2-50 | Buckley, W. (c.1838). Reminiscences of James Buckley who lived for thirty years among the Wallawarro or Watourong tribes at Geelong Port Phillip, communicated by him to George Langhorne, MS 13483, MS 7723, H3025, SLV MS, Melbourne | Saved from starvation and thirst | They took me to their encampment, one black holding one of my hands and the other, on reaching a hut or Willum near which was a Waterhole, I made signs that I was thirsty and they gave me some water and without being asked offered me some gum beat up and prepared after their manner. They then all sat down and general howling was set up around me as the women crying and sobbing and tearing their faces and foreheads with their nails (a token of excessive grief—I learnt afterwards that they believed me to be a black who had died some time since and who had come again to them in the shape of a white man)...I was to them an object of the utmost care and solicitude [for 32 years from 1803-1835]—they never allowed me to walk any distance unattended—and if I happened to leave them for a little, Blacks were immediately sent in search of me—when tears were often shed on my reappearance...I had lived about six months with them when I fell in with one of my companions whom I found living with some Blacks on the Sea Coast. He then came and lived with me. Image: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/230224266?keyword=william%20buckley |
| Indented Head / Geelong region | 4 convict castaways | Groups of 2-50 | Hobler, G. Diaries, December 1825 to March 1879. SLV, PA. 720 | Saved from starvation and thirst | Some old blacks of the Geelong Bay tribe [Wadawurrung] have always reported that many years ago [1797] four white men appeared in the Bay and stayed with them for some time. At last, three of them went off in the direction of Sydney. The one who stayed behind was called ‘Doctor’ and used to walk about with a black’s rush basket, collecting plants, insects, and all sorts of objects of natural history. |
| Mornington Peninsula | Squatter and his family | Unspecified Mornington peninsula | McCrae, G. (1912). ‘Some Recollections of Melbourne in the 'Forties'.’ Victorian Historical Magazine, vol. 2. p. 25 | Guided to safety, taught bush skills | ‘They not only guided us accurately, but taught us many lessons in bush craft, and in the mode of approaching game, which perhaps we should never have picked up otherwise.’ |
| Rutherglen | Squatters and townsfolk | Muriel McGivern’s book (1983, pp.102-3) | Guided to safety from bush fire | The Aborigines one evening warned Carl Butcher of a bad bushfire approaching from the north. All night the wind screamed and raged furnace-hot. About fifteen tribesmen arrived at the homestead the next morning to pick up skim milk and Carl discussed the fire threat with them. It was decided to make a firebreak at once on their advice, to run it from the orange grove down to the Chinese camp. Stock was quickly brought out of the north paddock and yarded. Carl and the Aborigines, with the Chinese to help, started the firebreak, getting it well down in a triangle; the Victoria swamp tribe was brought up and went into the cart and buggy as the wind grew stronger...Suddenly the fire jumped the river, and flying, flaming gum tops lighted all the trees round about. Fleeing figures sought shelter in cow-bails; the fires burned out all the paddocks. Acting on the Aborigines’ advice the Chinese had quickly buried their plant, bedding, furniture and food on the south side of the sand-dunes, and thus saved all of it, even as the timely warning by the natives had saved the homestead, outhouses, and not least, the owners’ lives. | |
| Orbost region | Unidentified colonist | Joe Banks | Mary Gilbert’s (1972, p. 8) Personalities and Stories of the Early Orbost District | Guided to safety by canoe | Aboriginal named Joe Banks rescued a sick colonist during the floods by ‘making a canoe out of a sheet of bark from the roof and placing the sick man in it, swam through the turbulent waters, towing the canoe and its helpless occupant to safety’. |
| Unknown, Melbourne area | 2 non-Aboriginal children | 2 unknown Aboriginal men | William Strutt, Black Thursday, February 6th. 1851, 1864 | Guided children to safety from bushfire | William Strutt depicts the intensity of the fires, in his painting Black Thursday, February 6th 1851. The apocalyptic scene shows people and animals chaotically fleeing from a rising inferno. Two Aboriginal men have been painted into the scene. One man is on foot, carrying a child and the other is riding a horse with a child sitting behind him. |
| Eddington | Eddington townspeople | King Tommy | "Report of Eddington Bridge Fire," Dunolly & Bet Bet Shire Express, Central Goldfields, 22 February 1876 | Helped save a bridge from fire | The Dunolly & Bet Bet Shire Express reported that Constable Weekes and his deputy ‘black King Tommy’ fought with ‘great energy and exertion’ to extinguish a bushfire that was threatening the Eddington Bridge. Without Tommy, the report claimed, ‘the bridge must have been entirely consumed.’ |
| Lake Condah | Cecil Cooke [squatter] | Large group of Aboriginal people at Condah Mission | "Devastating Bush Fires," Hamilton Spectator, 01 March 1879, 2 | Helped to extinguish a busfire | The Hamilton Spectator reported on 1 March 1879 that ‘devastating bush fires’ had begun near Lake Condah, on land that Cecil Cooke was farming. The report does not hesitate in drawing attention to the eagerness with which the help of presumably Gunditjmara people was employed: ‘The aboriginals located at the Mission station were at once despatched to the scene of the disaster’. |
| Westernport Bay | Assistant Protector William Thomas and party of men and bullocks | Large group of unidentified Aboriginal people | Stephens, M (1840) The Journal of William Thomas: Assistant Protector of the Aborigines of Port Philip & Guardian of the Aborigines of Victoria, 1839-1867, 1, 129 | Extinguished a bush fire | Assistant Protector William Thomas described a journey made around part of Westernport Bay on February 9 1840, in which their party of men and bullocks was forced to travel through a bushfire that ‘burnt furiously’, ‘the flames ascending high’. His dependence on his companions became evident as they reached the top of a rise, which Thomas described as the point where they were ‘were forc’d to make all the speed possible as the natives said the fire might overtake us.’ Apparently taking responsibility, ‘the natives went before & put it out or it had cut off our progress.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Gilmore, Mary (1934). Old days: old ways. Melbourne, Angus & Robertson, p.219 | Assistance in extinguishing bush fires | As to fire, it was the natives who taught our first settlers to get bushes and beat out a conflagration. My grandparents used to tell of how new immigrants when they first came to the country, unaccustomed to the danger in the wild country, would start fires and let them run heedless of the result; and then stand panic-stricken at having loosed something they could not control. And they would go on to relate how the natives would run for bushes, put them into immigrants; hands, and show them how to beat back the flame as it licked up the grass. Indeed, it was a constant wonder, when I was little, how easily the blacks would check a fire before it grew too big for close handling or start a return fire when and where it was safest.‘“Send for the blacks!” was the first cry on every settlement when a fire started.’ |
| Dandenong Ranges | Squatters and townsfolk north of melbourne | Fifty Aboriginal people (Native Police) | Beilby, JW ‘Reminiscences’ The Herald, 16 January 1892 | Assistance in extinguishing bush fires | The Gap ranges to the south-east … became ignited, and there all available local hands, including some fifty of the black (aboriginal) police, under their original commandant, Captain H. E. P. Dana, worked like Trojans to keep the line of bush fire from crossing a bare, well-beaten cattle path, running along the top of the range. |
| Portland Bay District | The Macdonald family | 2 unidentified Aboriginal people | B. Meckel, Pioneer Profiles. Vol. 2: The Stories, in Brief, of Some of Victoria’s Early Settlers (Mentone, Vic.: Betty Meckel, 1991): 92 | Saved family and house from bush fire | the Macdonald family, in the Portland Bay District, recalled how ‘The Black [Thursday] fires swept through "Retreat", but the men were able to save most of the stock by putting them in the dry river bed. Mary was very ill and the [presumably Gunditjmara] aboriginal couple saved her and the children by taking them to a water hole and then returned to save the house.’ |
| Probably melbourne area | Mrs Madeleine Scott [and family] | Unidentified clan of Aboriginal people | Port Phillip Gazette, 13 March 1841 | Assistance in extinguishing bush fires | Mrs Madeleine Scott stated that ‘the blacks were helping her to put a bush fire out.’ |
| Inverleigh District | Clyde Company station managers | Unidentified (approximately 5-10) Aboriginal people | PL Brown (Ed) Clyde Company papers London: Oxford University Press 1971, 215, 499 | Assistance in extinguishing bush fires | Fires in 1854 and 1858 in western Victoria were, according to one squatter, fought with ‘as many of my Black troop’ as he could muster and, on another occasion, noted ‘I have had a lot of blacks with me at the fire’. On yet another occasion he noted: ‘[t]he blacks’ were once again ‘busy fighting fires for me’. |
| Cranborne | Squatting station | Unidentified clan of Aboriginal people | W. Thomas, 4 January 1842, in Stephens (ed.), The Journal of William Thomas, 422 | Assistance in extinguishing bush fires | William Thomas experienced a fire at ‘Mount Ararat’, a sheep station near present-day Cranbourne (south-eastern suburb of Melbourne), in 1842. Thomas journaled his observations that the squatter was relieved when the resident clan helped bring the fire under control. |
| Darling River | Katie langloh parker | Miola, unknown language group | Langloh parker, Wise women of the dreamtime, p. xi | Saved a girl from drowning | Miola, an Aboriginal girl swam to the rescue of a drowning white girl (katie) in 1862. |
| Ovens River | Three unidentified white men | Unidentified Aboriginal (approximately 2-3) men | Port Phillip Patriot and Morning Advertiser, Saturday 30 September 1848, page 3 | Saved three men from drowning in boating accident | Tho native blacks went into tho water immediately, and brought tho two men out from the boat ; the schoolmaster was not more than three minutes in tho water, when a blackfellow also brought him out. |
| Moe | 4-8 unidentified white people | Unidentified Aboriginal woman | George Dunderdale, The Book of the Bush…, 1870 | Provided food and canoe for safe travel from flood waters | At Moe in eastern Victoria, one overlanding party ‘afraid to cross the creek on account of the flood and having eaten all their provisions’ received succour from an Aboriginal guide whose prodigious bush skills the travelers depended upon.'Before dark a black gin came over in a canoe from the accommodation hut on the other side of the creek, having heard the travellers cooeeing. They told her they wanted something to eat, but it was too dangerous for her to cross the water again that night. A good fire was kept burning, but it was a wretched time. It rained heavily, a gale of wind was blowing, and trees kept falling in all directions. Scott, the hutkeeper, sent the gin over in the canoe next morning with a big damper, tea, sugar, and meat, which made a very welcome breakfast for hungry travelers… they resolved to try and cross the creek at all risks, preferring to face the danger of death by drowning rather than to die slowly by starvation… ' |
| Murray River | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Unidentified group of Aboriginal people (approximately 20-40) in the Murray Darling River region | Hubert De Castella, Australian Squatters (Melbourne University Press 1987) | Assisted people and their stock to cross river safely | Aboriginal people guiding large numbers of people, cattle and supplies across the Murray River in the 1850s: ‘Crossing the Murray, which is half a kilometre wide at that spot [junction of the Murray and Darling]was a large number of savages, [who] were camped on the river banks and had boats ready to help the travelers cross.’ |
| Mitchell River | Alfred Howitt | Two men: Long Harry and Charley Boy | B Attwood A Life together, A Life Apart, 1994 | Assisted Alfred Howitt to travel in canoes | I wanted to examine a long portion of the Mitchell River which runs through horizontal strata and which are almost unknown, I therefore sent up two blackfellows ‘Long Harry’ and ‘Charley Boy’ under the care of a trustworthy man to Tabberaberra station at the head of the Gorges. Here they made two bark canoes by the time I arrived from Crooked River and the following morning we started on our voyage… Long Harry [sat] behind with a piece of green wattle bark in each hand about 6 in. by 12 in. which he used as a paddle… The other canoe contained Charley and the provisions for three days. |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Joseph henry walker - and other parties approx 5-20 people | Unidentified Aboriginal people (approximately 5-10) in the Murray River region | Memoirs of Joseph Henry Walker, State Library of Victoria manuscript | Assisted people and their stock to cross rivers safely | Our party employed a party of ‘blackfellows’ to ‘drag a horse out of a morass’ and take their women folk, their dray ‘and all your things’ across several rivers by ‘canoes which are very useful, made out of a log hollowed out.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | JH Trevena - and other parties approx 5-20 people | Unidentified Aboriginal people (approximately 5-10) in the Murray River region | J H Trevena, ‘Reminiscences of a Journey to the Victorian Diggings’ | Assisted people and their stock to cross rivers safely | A party of miner families were paddled across by Aboriginal people in canoes, and their bullock drays pulled across by Aboriginal people on the opposite bank. |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | T Blyth - and other parties approx 5-20 people | Unidentified one-two Aboriginal people in the Campaspe River region | T Blyth Diary, National Library of Australia | Assisted people and their stock to cross rivers safely | ‘Proceeded about 3 miles and camped near a gentleman with two blacks…Crossed the Campaspe taking the horses and cart through the R[iver] and paying a native with a canoe to cross our goods.’ |
| Goulburn River | H De Castella | Unidentified Aboriginal person in the Goulburn River region | Hubert De Castella, Australian Squatters (Melbourne University Press 1987) | Assisted people and their stock to cross rivers safely | When crossing the Goulburn River. De Castella, on his way to the Bendigo goldfields, found the Goulburn had been swollen over-night by a rain storm. 'Went up to them and speaking to the most intelligent looking I offered him a shilling if he would make a boat and take me across. My offer was immediately accepted and taking off his possum skin which was his only clothing my man asked me to dismount so that he could take my saddle. ‘Make the boat first’, I told him. ‘Canoe sit down alonga water’, he replied with a cunning smile, which meant that he already had one available by the bank… Slowly and peacefully he took us over the dead water of the little inlet we were in…' ‘Be careful of my saddle when we get to the other side’, I said, because the edges of the boat were not two inches above water level. ‘All right, everything’s right’, he replied. |
| Serpentine River | A G Pierce | Unidentified Aboriginal people (approx 5-10) in the Serpentine River region | Knocking about: being some adventures of Augustus Baker Pierce in Australia, Shoestring Press, 1984 | Assisted people and their stock to cross rivers safely | Gold miner turned photographer, noted that the: 'natives aided us in fording the Serpentine and getting our [photographic] supplies across in their canoes. These boats are of the most primitive construction, being nothing more than a large strip of bark cut to the correct size, with pointed ends, from the eucalyptus tree and dried in the sun, and shaped by a cross stick in each end. The heat of the sun naturally curls the bark and produces a rude boat'. |
| Fernihurst district | F R Godfrey and all station hands and family | Unidentified clan of Aboriginal people in the Fernihurst district | Reflections from the Kinypaniel, Fernihurst District History Committee, 1992...Quoted in F Stevens Smoke on the Hill, Bendigo, Cambridge Press 1969 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | One squatter noted in his journal the debt owed to the Aboriginal water carriers who rescued ‘two tons of trussed hay in a fine canoe made by the blacks’ on one occasion in September 1852. He adds: ‘The Aboriginals were often sent across by canoe for urgently needed goods – flour, tea, sugar, tobacco and the like, which were loaded onto waiting drays.’...in about 1851 rivers such as the Loddon, in central Victoria, were prone to flooding and how one year ‘All the country on both sides of the Loddon was flooded, and the wagons could get no nearer than four miles from the homestead, so supplies had to be brought in by bark canoe.’ |
| Genoa district | Joseph Lingard [and party of three] | Unidentified clan of Aboriginal people in the Genoa district | Joseph Lingard 1846 Narrative of the journey to and from New South Wales | Supplied fish and canoe [and canoe expertise] to travellers | One day a lot of blacks came down the River Genore [Genoa] in their canoes...I brought some hooks out of my luggage and put the natives into the way of catching fish with the hook, which pleased them greatly. They made lines for themselves from the bark of a tree, they went into the inland water in their canoes… The blacks brought us plenty of fish every night, as much as we could do with...The black man made me a canoe that would hold three of us as a present. I went from one Island to another… on shooting excursions as there were thousands of ducks, sometimes with a black man, and at other times with a black woman to row the canoe’ |
| Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray | District pioneer [family]' | Unidentified Aboriginal people in the Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray River region | Mornington Standard (27 January 1917) | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | ‘Hemmed in by flood on one spot for three months... large articles of furniture ferried across the rivers Lachlan, Murrumbidgee and Murray in aboriginal canoes of bark’. |
| Murray River region | Kirby [and other travellers] | Unidentified Aboriginal people in the Murray River region | (Kirby 1895, p. 45) | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | A colonist notedt he had ‘seen, and been in these canoes, that would carry eight persons across the Murray’ and adding how adeptly Aboriginal people ferried white people’s highly valued commodities: ‘the blacks had tied light lines to the horses, and swam them over, holding the other end in the canoe’. |
| Tarwin River region | Haydon [and party] | Mumbo | Haydon 1846, p. 48 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | Our canoe about ten feet in length, with a beam of two feet six inches, being completed and launched a native called Mumbo took charge of it, and by crossing thirty times managed to get all the lighter baggage and the individuals composing the party across in safety, but not without many narrow escapes from getting swamped, in consequence of the number of snags in the river'. Later in the journey Haydon emphasized how the Aboriginal canoes were also used to assist in transporting very large and heavy items such as their dray across the Tarwin River. Haydon explained how the ends of their ‘heavy conveyance’ were fastened to bullock chains and the ‘ends taken across [the creek] in the canoe.’ |
| Swanhill region | Unidentified Aboriginal in the Swanhill region | Bendigo Advertiser Anonymous 1863, p. 1 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | Female settlers on the Murray River routinely dealt with their stations being ‘seventeen miles under water in consequence of the Murray overflowing by boldly entering into a canoe, in the charge of a blackfellow’. The account continued: 'she steered along courageously and crossed the Edward, the Gulpa, and other deep water. She landed, and met the governess, who inspired by the example of her employer, ventured herself in the frail canoe, and traversed the seventeen miles of water to her new home in the bush.’ | |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | The Graphic, Anonymous 1883, n.p | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | On the ‘back cattle stations of the interior a visit from ladies is a rare occurrence’ and 'When such an event takes place all the stockmen and native assistants gather together and share their utmost. ... the truth is that these blackfellows are indispensable. The boat is only a frail bark canoe, and to keep this from upsetting the balance must be very exactly maintained. Few Europeans possess the delicacy of touch and sight requisite for this, so the safest way especially for ladies who cannot swim, is to be piloted by a couple of blackfellows, one swimming on either side of the canoe.' |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Eyre 1845, p. 132 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | ‘In travelling about from one place to another, I have always made it a point, if possible, to be accompanied by one or more natives, and I have often found great advantage from it…They are useful also in cutting bark canoes to cross a river, should such impede the progress of the party…’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Burchett c.1846, p.82 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | We used ‘the blacks canoes’ to ford swollen rivers and that during floods ‘we had to carry rations to outstations in a bark canoe…manufactured by the blacks in a very few minutes’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | McCartney 1859, n.p | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | In order to survive dangerous flood waters, we were ‘obliged to cross the creeks one by one in a boat made of a small piece of bark and only holding the native beside, who paddled it’ |
| Swanhill region | Joseph Conrick & party | Party of Aboriginal people in the Swan Hill region | Conrick 1923, p. 4 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely with their stock [cattle] | TWO DAYS IN RIVER. We drove the cattle to the river and into it, but as the current was running strongly they began to ring and soon landed on the bank they had left. For two days we were in the water practically aill the time, swimming and wading, and at the end of that time we had only put about 500 head across.On the third day a Mr. Foster, a retired police officer with an expert knowledge of the aborigines, offered to get a number of blacks with their canoes to asist us in crossing, and we gladly accepted his offer. Mr. Foster secured 18 blackfellows with bark canoes, practically every available man. When we drove the cattle into the water the blacks came in canoes behind them and formed a moving fence on the downstream side, which stopped the cattle ringing. By this means we soon got the remainder of our mob over with the exception of a few beasts who sulked and refused to enter the water; those we punted across. I crossed the river myself in a bark canoe, with my saddle and swag at one end and myself in the other, the black fellow standing in the ceitre of the deeply laden craift and paddling it across with a long, spear-like stick which he used as a paddle. These canoes were made of a single strip of bark, about 16 ft. long, which had been stripped off a river gum tree and shaped at each end with a toma-hawk. They held a lot of goods and people. |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Smyth 1878, vol 2 p. 334 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely with their stock [sheep] | ‘Having thus got a canoe…and with the assistance of my men and the three Blacks, I got one of my flocks transported across the Goulburn. The operation was performed by placing the sheep, six at a time, in the canoe with their legs tied, when a Black punted them over.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Clark 2014, p. 631 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely with their supplies [mail] | Wordonger [Wodonga] under 3½ miles water. Three weeks mail white man came in canoe. Town of Albury, mail could be conveyed [only by] canoe.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Anonymous 30 July 1847, p. 2 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely with their supplies [mail] | ‘The mail man had to take to a bark canoe for upwards of one mile and a half to get the bags safely through.’ |
| Macalister River in Gippsland | Mr McLachlan | Billy Wood and his gin’ | Anonymous 1867c, p. 7 | Rescued people from drowning | The courage and readiness displayed by Aboriginal people (‘Billy Wood and his gin’) by building a canoe and rescuing a Mr McLachlan who could not swim from the swirling flood waters of the Macalister River in Gippsland.’ |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Boldrewood 1889, p. 52 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | I succeeded in inducing two blackfellows, by promise of unlimited shirts and tobacco to return with me. We walked to the edge of our plain, when they cut out a bark canoe, and after a miserable journey, raining in torrents all the time, I got home again. We now do all our work in bark canoes. |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Allen 1853, p. 29 | Assisted people to cross rivers safely and transported food and goods | ‘The process of carriage is very inconvenient. Their station is on the Victoria side of the river {Murray], from which they have to convey it across the stream bale by bale, in native canoes, which though so very fragile in appearance, are capable of conveying a bale of wool across, weighing 400 pounds.’ |
| Lake Tyers | At least three people | Three Aboriginal women | The Herald, Fri 27 Jan 1922 Page 1 BLAZING MOTOR-BOAT SINKS | Assisted people who were fleeing from a boat which had sunk | Text to accompany image: These three aborigines took a leading part in the rescue proceedings in the Lake Tyers tragedy, on which the - inquest was held today. The mother (left) lit a fire on the beach, and the two daughters - for eight years domestic servants in Melbourne - rowed out and brought in survivors. Heroic Self-sacrifice Leslie S. Merchant, auctioneer, of Sale, gave a graphic and concise account of the incident that led up to the tragedy. "We had gone about a mile and a half when the engine stopped...I saw flames running along the centre of the boat and round the engine. Several passengers and the driver were trying to put tho flro out with their coats. The boat started gradually to tip to starboard. The stern went under, and the boat sank...The next thing I saw was all the people in the water...Just as. the boat, was sinking I saw two young blacks come in a boat about 100 yards away. We called to them and they rowed to our assistance. |
| Snowy River near Bendoc | One person | One unkown Aboriginal man | Age NEWS OF THE DAY., Thursday 23 June 1870, page 2 | Assisted people to cross the Snowy River | I then started to cross the Snowy River, but was obliged to return, as the boat was on the other side, and it would be madness to attempt to swim it...when we went to the river and met the mailman from Bendoc, and a black fellow, who brought across the boat. |
| Cummeragunga Mission | 2 children | Tom Dunolly | Family oral history [tape recording] from the Price Family | Assisted to get people across Murray River safely | "Two sisters had to cross the Murray River to get to school…when they they got to the Victorian side there would be an Aboriginal man named Tom Dunolly waiting for them. Tom ensured they got across the river safely and would then look after the pony for the day until school finished. They would then recross the river with Tom waiting to ensure they were safe. Apparently Tom lived in a house nearby.
|
| Wannon River | John O'Neil | One unknown Aboriginal man | Hamilton Spectator and Grange District Advertiser, A scene on the Wannon, Friday 28 August 1863, page 2 | Assisted in rescuing horses and dray from flooded river | …A bold "darkie", knife in hand, volunteered to reach the dray, assisted by the rope, and cutting the harness, thus free the horse. This he gallantly accomplished, although it was an anxiious time to all who witnessed it, for the current fairlyb upset him two or three times." |
| Ninety mile beach | Clark and three sailors | Party of Aboriginal people | Diary of Patrick Coady Buckly, RHSV, August 1852 | Assisted shipwreck victims - and rescued their belongings | We assisted to get what we could out of the wreck and I brought the people here. |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Age, The Loss of the Duff Children. TO' THE EDITOR OF THE AGE, Saturday 15 September 1934, page 19 | Tracking of lost people (including children) in the bush | I, like all the old school of natives [non-Indigenous people born in Australia], have a great regard for our aborigines. For close on forty years I have on numerous occasions given a lecture, entitled Lost in the Australian Bush In that lecture I always pointed out tho debt of gratitude we owe to our aboriginal trackers for saving the lives of scores of men, women nnd children lost at various times in all the colonies. Again. I have worked in shearing sheds in Victoria and New South Wales with our natives. |
| Gorae/Bolwarra Forest in Portland region | Hodgett family | Unspecified number [entire Clan] | Excerpts from a transcript of an interview about family history with Kevin Nash formerly of Bolwarra. It was recorded in Portland (Vic) circa 1983 | Warning of a fierce storm that would engulf the Gorae forest where the Hodgett family lived. | The Aborigines used to forecast weather more accurately than they do today. How they used to do it nobody knows. One particular time they - all the tribe came - a lot of the young men - came up to the hut and they said to her. “You come with us Missa into the bush and lie down along a big log ‘cause a big bwoolee bwoolee he comin’ and he kill ya, all the trees come down and smash house down and blow away and everything. We got big logs already, Missa you come with us Missa.” And of course she never went, and the next day they were back again. The third day they started crying, they were crying round the house ‘cause they liked her you see, she was good to them and they’d do jobs for her. The third day they were crying, trying to git her to lay down alongside these big logs with them so she wouldn’t git killed. But she didn’t know what a bwoolee bwoolee was. Anyway Granny said after the day they came crying was quite calm but she said the following day after that, didn’t it blow. A few houses down along the coast blown clean into the sea. Now, they knew that storm was comin’ a least 4 days before it hit. |
| Lake Alexdrina region | Unnamed shipwreck victims | Unspecified number [entire Clan] | Register, 25 August & 8 September 1838. Register, 29 September 1838 | Rescued people from drowning after their ship was wrecked | Aboriginal people from east of the Murray Mouth had helped the survivors of the wrecked ‘Fanny.’ |
| Lower Murray River | 2 colonists (overlanders) | Unidentified Aboriginal clan | Register, 1 September 1838 | Helped colonists to cross Murray River safely | Two men had successfully crossed overland to Adelaide from Port Fairy in western Victoria, which opened up a stock route. They were helped by local Aboriginal people when crossing the Murray River. |
| Barham Station, Murray River | 1 colonist (Mrs Green) | Unidentified Aboriginal woman | c. 1840s cited in 'Founders of Australia and their descendants' , p.19 and also in The Diamond Valley News 3/3/1971 Page 5 | Saved a colonist from drowning and secured her well-being. | On one occasion during a heavy flood a black gin saved Mrs Greene's life by getting her on to the roof of a building and staying with her for two days until rescued.' |
| Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Ubiquitous - occurred in many regions of Victoria | Unidentified Aboriginal people | c. 1840s cited in 'Founders of Australia and their descendants' , p. 21-22 | Secured communications across the colony by transporting mail and people during flooding | The overland mail from Fiery Creek to Mt Gambier and Melbourne to Geelong was interrupted when the rivers and creeks were flooded - 'when that was the case the blacks were of great assistance with their bark canoes.' |
| Yarra River banks, Melbourne area | Emily Waite | Unidentified 'Black trackers' | Weekly Times, Saturday 17 June 1882, page 13 | A lost infant was tracked | The Black trackers - it was recently decided to have several black trackers stationed at the Victoria Barracks now the police depot on the St. Kilda road, so that they might be available to aid the police at anytime their assistanee might be deemed necessary,..The first time tlieir services were called into requisition was when an infant child Emily Waite was discovered on the bank of the Yarra. |
| Murray River, near Cumeragunja Mission Station | Finemore Jackson, his wife and their two children | Henry Nelson | Evening Echo, Monday 25 March 1918, p.1 | Rescued four people from drowning in the Murray River | A boat, containing a man named; Finemore Jackson and his wife and two children, capsized in the Murray River, near Cumeragunja Mission Station, and the occupants were left struggling in the water. Jackson managed to get hold of a log, on which he supported himself and the two children, but Mrs Jackson was in danger of drowning, when George Nelson, an aborigine, arrived on tha scene, and, without divesting himself of his clothing, plunged in and brought the woman ashore. Subsequently he swam to where the man and the children were stranded and effected their rescue. |
| Hughes' Creek | A man named Phillips | Mooney and John Hennessy | Euroa Advertiser, Friday 18 September 1885, page 3 | Two Aboriginal men rescued a white man from drowning | FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT A GALLANT RESCUE. The heavy rain of Friday night, con-tinuing all through Saturday and Sunday morning, caused a very heavy flood in Hughes' Creek on Sunday afternoon. The creek, ordinarily a steady stream, being turned into a rushing, roaring torrent, fully a quarter of a mile wide, and nearly in the middle, on a log in which he had camped for the past few weeks, was a man named Phillips, who earned a precarious living by doing such odd jobs as he was able to, being an old and weakly man. Some of the residents in the neighbourhood endeavoured to induce him to get into a place of safety early in the morning, but he simply jeered at them, and could not be induced to move, and in the afternoon (the creek having risen con-siderably in the meantime) threatened to overflow the immense log he was sitting on, and none but a very strong swimmer could dare to venture into the raging torrent. At this time, nearly all the population of Avenel being ranged on the bank, two aboriginals, Mooney and John Hennessy, volunteered, by the direction of the police, to endeavour to swim to the old man's rescue, and a number of stout lines and ropes having been produced and firmly tied together, Hennessy dived into the stream, but was almost as quickly thrown back on to the bank : nothing daunted, and with a light line in his mouth, carefully paid out from the bank, he again took the water, and after stren- uous exertions, succeeded in crossing the worst of the flood, and obtained a footing, although very insecure, being continually carried off his legs by the flood, chest high, and in some places being thrown down by the weight of the water, managing, however, to reach the log on which the unfortunate man was perched, the water now being within a few inches of the top. In the meantime, Mooney, not being encumbered with the rope, had followed, and the line being firmly at-tached to the log, which was fortunately a very heavy one, firmly, imbedded in the ground, was drawn taut by those on the the bank. The man Phillips then un-dressed, and all three started for shore, but after proceeding a few yards, it was feared the line would break with the heavy strain, and they therefore returned to the log. Rope was now attached to the lines, and the aboriginals drew it, after great exertions, over to the log, to which they firmly attached it, and another start was made, this time with greater success, the strain on the rope being excessive, and the aboriginals having great difficulty in pre- venting the rescued man from being swept away. Having crossed the flooded country, the actual creek, a far more diffi- cult undertaking, had to be encountered, Phillips not having the slightest idea of a swimming. The position of the rope being changed, by fixing the shore end further down the stream; one of the aboriginals having been washed off it in its old position while trying to gain the land. A rope was passed round Phillips, the shore end being held by those on the bank, and he was happily safely landed, although under water during a portion of the transit. The aboriginals were warmly cheered for their courageous action. |
| Unknown location on the Murray River | Charles Sturt and seven other men in his party | Unidentified party of Aboriginal people | Sturt, Charles. Two expeditions into the interior of southern Australia. 2 volumes. London: Smith Elder, 1833 | A party of Aboriginal people rescued Sturt's party by helping Sturt and his men to negotiate some rapids and the strong current of the Murray River | Sturt's party, travelling in a whale boat up the Murray River became trapped by the force of the current in rocky rapids…we stood [whale boat] in the stream, powerless and exhausted…we explained to the natives that we wanted assistance. This was given without hesitation at a moment when we so much needed their assistance; and we at length got under the lee of the rock…With several of their canoes they now paddled around us with the greatest care. |
| Near the mouth of the Murray and Murrumbidgee | Crew and passengers on board the 'Lady Augusta' | Unidentified Aboriginal man | Allen, James. Journal of an Experimental Trip by the 'Lady Augusta' on the River Murray. Adelaide: CGE Platts, 1853 | An unidentifeid Aboriginal man piloted the first paddle steamer safely along a treachorous part of the Murray River | The blacks we met were not hostile, and became quite friendly..At that time there were plenty of snags in the river, and we had to keep a constant lookout for them…Shortly after nightfall, a native canoe came paddling out to us from the bank of the river, containing two or three natives, anxious to inspect the 'big one mongoe' (the native mame for canoe), which had arrived in their waters. One of the natives remained on board, and piloted us up to Chapman's station. |
| Mouth of the Murray River | 2 unidentified white men | 2 unidentified Aboriginal men | Adelaide Register, 20 January 1838 | Two unidentified Aborignal men rescued two white men from drowning after a ship overturned. | On 12 December 1837, Captain Blenkinsopp attempted to return from a week’s exploration of the Lower Murray by exiting through the Murray Mouth in a whale boat. It was overturned by ocean rollers, drowning the Captain, Sir John Jeffcott and two crew. Aboriginal people, who had rushed down from nearby sandhills, dragged the two surviving members of the party out of the water. |
| Unspecified location | George Haydon | Barlut or 'Little Benbow' | Haydon, George. Five years Experience in Australia Felix, p.117 | George Haydon ( a colonist in the district of Port Phillip) recorded without elaboration that he owed his life to Little Benbow [Barlut?] | Little Benbow [Boon Wurrung man] was once instrumental in saving my life, I have good reason to be grateful to him.' |
| Unspecified location, near Melbourne | William Johnson and Joseph Harper | Yonki Yonka | Family History, Brian Wills Johnson, recorded in 'A most dangerous character': The remarkable life of Yonki Yonka. MA thesis, UWA, 2017 | Two overlanders travelling from Sydney to Melbourne in 1841 were rescued after becoming lost in the bush. | William Johnson and his friend Joseph Harper were travelling overland from Sydney to Melbourne in 1841 and not far from Melbourne, the party became lost in the bush. 'They were found by by Yonki Yonka and guided into the settlement [Melbourne], for which William was extremely grateful and which quite possibly saved their lives.' |
| Murray River , near 'Bacon's Police Station' near Barnawatha | Unidentified white man | Tommy the Bull | Journal of GA Robinson, 12 November 1842 | Aboriginal man lept into the Murray River and rescued a whiteman from drowning | Mr Loft mentioned a pleasing anecdote of humanity of the blacks. Tommy the Bull, at Mr Landy’s station saved a white man from being drowned in the Murray. He, of his own accord, jumped in, dived and brought him safe to shore…Tommy the Bull had been previously shot and wounded by white men. |
| King Island | 9 unidentified white men | 4 unidentified Aboriginal women | Chronicles of Early Melbourne | Nine survivors of a shipwreck were rescued | David Howie, the Straits Constable, arrived on the [King] island three or four days after the shipwreck to visit the four Tasmanian women (Aboriginals) employed by him hunting for kangaroo on the island, and who informed him of the wreck. Nine sailors were subsequently rescued. |
| Colac region | Joseph Gellibrand and George Hesse | Unidentified group of Aboriginal people in the Colac region | GT Lloyd (1862) Thirty three years in Tasmania and Victoria p.491 | Two men lost and starving in the Colac region received aid from an unknown Aboriginal group | Two white men on foot, in a dreadful state of exhaustion, had come tottering up to their miam maims late on one evening and, in imploring attitudes, and with various signs, told them they had travelled a long way, and that they were very ill, and starving.The natives, who had been in communication with the whalers at Port Fairy, assisted them [Gellibrand and Hesse] to their fire, and endeavoured to administer to their wants by giving them some black fish; to eat. The stouter man, Mr. Gellibrand, was described as having partaken thereof, but the other was far too weak and exhausted either to eat, speak, or, once down, to raise himself up from his recumbent position. |
| Wannon River | Henry Dana | 2 Aboriginal men from the Melbourne region: Buckup and Yupton | VPRS 19, Box 38, 42/2153); 5 Dec 1842 | Two Aboriginal men saved Henry Dana from drowning | Commandant [Dana, of the Native Police Corps] commends Buckup and Yupton[ who gallantly rescued him from drowning while Dana was trying to swim the flooded Wannon River; Buckup in particular deserves every praise for his conduct.' |
| Warrnambool beach [Lady Bay] | Captain Caught and the entire crew (5-10 sailors) | Buckawall, a local Aboriginal man | Geelong Advertiser, Monday 23 September 1850, page 2 | Buckawall saved the entire crew of a cargo ship from drowning by swimming to the stricken vessel with a rope | The Enterprise was anchored in Lady Bay when the wind commenced from the south and gradually veered to the south east, increasing to gale force. She carried only one anchor and when this dragged, she lost her rudder and blew broadside on the surf well up on the sand. Image: https://monumentaustralia.org.au/display/33914-buckawall |
Image: Unknown artist, 'The Ladies want to cross a river,' 1883, illustration taken from The Graphic, wood engraving on paper. Art Gallery of Ballarat. Purchased with funds from public donation, 2014.
We wish to advise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that this website contains images of deceased persons. All of the documented information contained in this website has been published previously, or is publicly accessible. The words of nineteenth and twentieth century writers are quoted at length. Many of these writers used words and phrases that may not be considered appropriate today. In quoting these words, without alteration, no disrespect is intended to living peoples.
