1 November 1830 - 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

1 November

During discussions with the clanspeople that morning Robinson reiterated several times that the military were carrying out The Line operations in the bush and the people were in danger of being shot by the soldiers. The bark hut people were alerted to a planned military operation because one of their companions, Ghonyannenner, told them that she had been taken from the Bass Strait islands by James Parish to assist the soldiers with their plans. On transit she had escaped from Parish at Pipers River and fled through the bush, and guided by the smokes, she eventually found refuge with the clanspeople. Ghonyannenner’s news is the only plausible reason why a reconnaissance party had left Bark Hut before Robinson’s arrival to travel south to talk directly with Governor Arthur. Their fate was not known at this stage but the seven clanspeople at bark hut were now convinced that their lives were in grave danger. Receiving no news from the reconnaissance party they had no other option than to leave with Robinson.

The route taken that afternoon was based on the compass bearing he had taken the day before from the apex of luethcracener using warekalenner as the landmark that would lead him back to basecamp. They followed the northern margin of the Last River and through the button grass plain towards a safe crossing over moretermooner (Ansons River). Robinson wrote ‘We had a long way to go, all through the bush’ (FM, 1966, 262), so it is clear they did not follow the coast. They were accompanied by over twenty ‘large dogs of a fierce kind’ and walked in single file singing and hunting as they travelled through the country (FM, 1966, 262). We know they travelled inland to cross over the upper reaches of moretermooner (Ansons River) and camped beside what Robinson describes as ‘a small streamlet, the source of the river on the east coast where I forded over up to my breast’ (FM, 1966, 263). They were obviously taking a direct route north towards warekalenner (Mt William). Discussions with a local farmer in 2009 informed us that, as a young lad, he had driven sheep across the Ansons River using a stoney part of the river to cross (John Tucker, Pers. Comm. 23 October, 2009). The crossing place was in the path of a narrow button grass plain out of the Ansons Plain and through low country bounded by hills and ranges on both sides. The button grass plains in the area provide us the visual evidence of firing practises by the clanspeople and represent what remains of the East West Corridor or the ‘native track’ referred to in Robinson’s journals.

To prevent his guides from being spooked by Plerpleropaner, who was carrying a bundle of large lances (not small hunting spears) and a firebrand, was requested by Robinson to show the way. Robinson constantly used his compass to check their bearings to ensure that Plerpleropaner was taking the correct route. Luccernmicticwockener and the adolescent, Polelerwinelargenna (son of Tarnabunnalargenna) followed the main group at a distance and keeping out of sight. We know that Luccernmicticwockener carried a sacred bundle of clansmen’s bones (FM, 1966, 266) for ritual and healing purposes and she would have also been one of the females responsible for grinding the red ochre found inside the Bark Hut. I wonder whether she was also responsible for concealing the granite ochre grinding bowl that was found by a local landowner when it was unearthed by a plough in close proximity to the Bark Hut site in the 1960s? If this grinding bowl belonged to her, witnessing the exodus of the men of her group, she would have gone to great lengths to hide it in Country and this might explain why she and the young lad had not immediately followed her husband (Tarnabunnalargenner) and the rest of the clanspeople when they left Ansons Plain. Being large and heavy it could also be that the grinding bowl was found where it had always been left in close proximity to where it was used.

Robinson continued to check the route travelled using his compass and he was convinced not to go northwards rather than northeast probably because of the rugged part of the river lay in that direction (FM, 1966, 262). The troupe was loaded with game by the time they reached the crossing stones of the moretermooner where, with night approaching, they made camp. They roasted kangaroo and sang and danced ‘avoiding the spears’, ‘hunting kangaroo’, ‘battles’, ‘love stories’ and ‘outrunning the horse dance’. Robinson was also learning the language as he wrote: ‘What before I was acquainted with these people and language appeared foolishness. Now appeared to me interesting’ (FM, 1966, 263). Through his two English speaking Coastal Plains guides and probably Tanleboneyer and Ghonyannenner (both of whom had spent time on the Bass Strait islands and could speak English well), Robinson was told about their recent raiding expedition to the Big River nation and that on return they had been surprised by soldiers near Campbell Town and three of their warriors had been shot. In retaliation of the killings they waited and killed two soldiers as they slept. Sleep did not come to Robinson and his guides that night and after secreting Plerpleropener’s lances in the bush they kept vigilant throughout the night for fear that the clanspeople would abscond. The Bark Hut people were the first trouwunnans to begin their walk into exile and Robinson had learnt quickly how to ‘persuade’ the clanspeople to follow him.

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