Telling Places in Country (TPIC)

August 21-26 1831 - TPIC

Commentary by Patsy Cameron.
Reference: (FM) Plomley, N.J.B. (ed.) Friendly Mission: the Tasmanian journals and papers of George Augustus Robinson (1966)

Daily Project Commentaries

21 August 1831

That morning a group set out towards the smoke and located two white men, Tyrrell and McGeary, accompanied by two tyereelore: Jock and Pung. The four had travelled from George Town and reported that they had not seen any sign of the clanspeople. Jock and Pung joined Robinson’s party. About mid morning Mannalargenna and several others went hunting and soon discovered footprints, embers of a fire and evidence where bark had been stripped to make a torch. Soon after they sighted the fleeing clanspeople whom they chased, calling out for them to stop. Robinson also discovered that the clanspeople had been close to his camp on reconnaissance and had camped about a quarter of a mile away near the place where Mannalargenna’s hunting party saw them. Kickerterpoller returned to the camp and reported to Robinson that a large hut had been located where the clanspeople had been living. Several fires were still burning in front of the hut and there were many tracks of men, women and dogs still evident around the dwelling. It was 2 hours after dark when Mannalargenna and the women returned to the camp reportedly having followed the fleeing clanspeople a long way but having been unable to make them stop.

22 August 1831

In the early morning Mannalargenna, Kickerterpoller and 3 women set out to locate the clanspeople and they did not return until 26 August—5 days later.

In their absence, Robinson went in search of the hut. About a kilometre from his camp he came across trees that had been barked for the construction of the hut and after passing through a ti-tree forest came upon the dwelling. It was described as very large- about 12 metres in length and semi-circular in shape that was constructed by interlocking boughs that were clad with sheets of bark. A row of small fires extended across the front of the hut and the ground was littered with kangaroo and emu bones, feathers and ochre. The bones had been broken to extract the marrow to mix with ochre for painting the clanspeople’s bodies and heads. Robinson was moved to find some ochre smeared leaves from a prayer book amongst the other remains. He called this place ‘celebrated’ (FM, 1966, 410) and took away emu claws and feathers plus the prayer book leaves as mementoes.

Robinson remained camped under a tier of hills he called ‘Bedford Hills’, however these are not named as such on modern maps. The tier is located about 8 kilometres south by west of the Great Forester River entrance (not the modern entrance). He estimated the distance to be about 1 hour’s walk from the entrance remembering that his pace was always quick.

Some of the guides noticed that a shadow of the Earth appeared across the face of the moon and read this as a sign that Kickerterpoller had been killed by the clanspeople and he ‘had gone up into the moon’ and were they all alarmed. Trugannini and Woorrady saw the same spectacle at Waterhouse Point. They immediately sent a message back to camp that they read from the shadow that Robinson had been speared (FM, 1966, 412). With the assistance of a local astronomer the project team was able to confirm this eclipse in August 1831.

26 August 1831

About 10 am Mannalargenna, Kickerterpoller and the three women returned to Bedford Hills camp after following the clanspeople a ‘considerable distance in the direction of Launceston’ (p 412). They reported that they did not have any success with making close contact with the group. However, I wonder whether this was correct! Could it be that the two groups met and discussed their options? Maybe they made arrangements for a meeting at a later date and place in order to prepare for what must have been their inevitable destiny. Mannalargenna knew his nationlands intimately and it seems incredible that he was unsucessful after five days pursuit, especially as it turned out that all but one of the clanspeople were not from the Coastal Plains nation themselves and would not be familiar with the terrain.

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