The Emu Hunters - Background

October/November, 1830 and 2007

In mid August 1831 Robinson, his son, servant and nine Trouwunnan guides making an overnight camp at a lagoon to the west of Waterhouse Point. He had been in the same area previously but, although he had seen evidence of them being in the area, had been unsuccessful in locating any clanspeople. Given this, he had arranged for Mannalargenna, known for his expertise as a bushman, warrior and diplomat to join his party. Mannalargenna was thus transported from Gun Carriage Island, where he was being held along with others in a temporary detention camp and set to the task of making contact with clansfolk still at large. After rejoining Robinson on 6 August 1831 he had travelled all the way to the Blue Tiers and back through the northeast plains, and had become convinced that the clanspeople he sought were in the vicinity of the Great Forester River. It is reasonable to expect, given the great majority of people still at large in the bush were males, that these small groups would remain in close proximity to their inland hunting grounds rather than the women’s harvesting grounds along the coast.

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