Note: The term "blacks", used in historical accounts and by the author, is regarded by many as disrespectful. The term aboriginal is preferred.
The death of King Barak, the last survivor of the Yarra Yarra tribe in 1903, brought to an end an interesting race of aborigines who were intelligent and left many legends, particularly dealing with the Yarra River. The decline and fall of the race makes interesting reading.
The Yarra Blacks played an important role in the early colonization of Victoria; they were the first to greet John Batman after his arrival in Melbourne in 1835, and it was largely due to their co-operation that he was able to maintain cordial relations with the aborigines from the onset. In 1842 frequent atrocities and depredations were being committed by the natives in the northern and western sections of Victoria, and were causing the authorities much concern. The Superintendent, C. J. Latrobe Esq., sought the Yarra Blacks' assistance to establish a native mounted police force, and they did a sterling job in influencing the northern and western blacks against their ruthless behaviour, whilst at the same time restoring the confidence of the settlers and removing any pretexts they may have had for taking redress into their own hands.
The chief of the tribe at this time was Belli-bellary, a very intelligent man who was deeply concerned for the moral decline which had set into his race since the coming of the white man - his untimely death in 1846 was regretted as much by the white man as it was by the blacks.
Other members of the tribe who rendered good service to Latrobe Native Police were Bug-up (or Buck-Up as he was enrolled) and Murrumbeena. The former was highly regarded by the white commander Captain Dana, and was entrusted to perform missions among hostile natives in up-country districts. In the year 1846 he had the misfortune to fall from his horse while skirmishing with natives and suffered injuries which necessitated the amputation of a leg, and he was the first person in the colony to undergo an operation under ether.
Murrumbeena, who has the honour of having a Melbourne suburb named after him, was an older member of the tribe. He was powerfully built and possessed a strong character; he too realized the dangers of alcholic liquor to his people and many of the younger ones lived to regret their coming home under the influence while he was around.
Many factors contributed to the decline of the tribe, but a disastrous inter-tribal rally near Warrandyte in 1852 probably marked the beginning of the end and spelt finis to the efforts of several high spirited individuals who were making such laudable endeavours to succour them. For the most part the aboriginal corroboree was a harmless expression of folklore, but it could be unhealthy, particularly when the white man sought to profit from their celebrations as was the case in 1852.
At the beginning of that year the two aboriginal tribes close to Melbourne were causing the authorities little concern; the Yarra Blacks were employed with farmers on the Plenty, and the Westernport were engaged on stations on the Mornington Peninsula. In February some members of the latter tribe went on a walk-about to Gippsland and returned bringing ten Warragul blacks with them; they encamped on Unwin Special Survey on the Yarra.
Knowing the dangers of the two tribes fraternising, the protector of aborigines, Mr. W. Thomas ordered the Warragul blacks to clear out at once and go back to their own territory, but they begged hard to be allowed to remain, stating that they had not met for many years and wished to have some corroboree together - they promised to stay only a few days. The situation was much too close to Melbourne for safety. Thomas at length succeeded in removing them to the Pound Bend Reserve about a mile from Warrandyte; messengers were sent to the Yarra tribe to join them and night after night for 14 days did they enjoy themselves, unfortunately, however, the celebrations did not cease with this. Scenes of awful dissipation ensued, as fast as the protector removed them from one camp they would be found again in a couple of days about 2 or 3 miles away, and each time nearer to Melbourne. For two whole months, from morning till night, there was nought but drunkardness.
Three were murdered and three were found dead owing to their state of intoxication; with the aid of the police, Thomas finally succeeded in removing the Gippsland and Goulburn blacks and vowed that he would never again allow another inter-tribal rally. By June he had the Yarra Blacks safely settled at the ranges and the Westernport Blacks near the coast.
The Yarra Tribe never fully recovered from the effects of the disastrous corroboree. Official statistics show that the population of the tribe in 1850 was 77, in the succeeding 4 years there were 18 deaths or nearly 25% of their total population, compared to only 2 births - a girl in 1851 and a boy in 1853. The worst aspect of the record is that only six of the deaths were due to natural causes, the remainder were due to intoxication, murders, and two were killed by the tribe for their wrong doings. By the 1860s the tribe's numbers had dwindled to less than 40 and by 1880 there were only 2 surviving - King Barak and an elderly Gin.
A man who, more than anybody else, strove to assist the aborigines but got scant recognition for all his hard work was John Green, a Scotchman who migrated to Melbourne in 1855. Shortly after landing he was much hurt to hear a Y.M.C.A. lecturer state that the Australian aboriginal was a doomed race which was incapable of being civilized. He was so disturbed that he resolved to try and help the unfortunate aborigines, but, knowing nothing of their language and way of life, he faced rather a difficult task. He first went as an evangelist among the white settlers at Brushy Creek, a small never never hamlet which stood adjacent to where Croydon now stands.
He built a small chapel and dwelling house and held services every Sunday, and also paid visits to the settlers during the week. He had no assistance from any outside missionary organization but just commended himself to the goodwill of those who benefited from his labours; while thus engaged he would walk 8 miles every Sunday afternoon to an encampment of blacks where he administered to their needs and sought every opportunity of winning their friendship. He advised them to abandon their wandering habits and try and settle down on a farm of their own, premising that if they did so he would come and live among them. He also sought to wean them from their propensity for strong liquor and, if any became ill, he procured their admission to the Melbourne Hospital.
His plans, however, progressed slowly. The Government of the day was showing little interest in the welfare of the aborigines; it was not until 1861 that he received any worthwhile encouragement. That year Richard Heales became Premier of Victoria; he was so interested in Green's work that he made him Inspector General of Blacks, a post in which he travelled a great deal and had an opportunity to interest people in the aborigines' welfare.
Green's next objective was to induce the Government to set up a station where he could bring all the tribes around Melbourne together. Heales was again sympathetic - he granted a site of 2,300 acres adjacent to the town which has since been called after him, and in March, 1863, Green's long cherished hope of bringing the Yarra, Goulburn and Westernport tribes together was realized with the opening of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, Healesville.
Simon, the King of the Goulburn Tribe, gave Green much valuable assistance in the arduous task of bringing his people over the little known Blackspur Ranges. There are no known records of Green's remarkable journey through the ranges at the beginning of 1863, but he succeeded in getting the tribe through intact, a feat which required much sympathetic understanding as the blacks were leaving centuries old ways of life to commence a completely new home in a different environment.
By 1865, Coranderrk had a population of 103, comprising of 38 men, 26 women, 24 boys and 15 girls. Though most came from the Yarra Yarra and Goulburn Tribes, there were a few from Seymour and Gippsland and even one from the Murray. They were housed in 2 roomed huts of slab and bark with thatched roofs; there was a spacious dormitory and school house for the children which resembled something of a hall in structure. The children assembled for school between 10 a.m. and 12 noon and 2 and 4 p.m. They were for the most part, bright as scholars but, strangely, had little capacity for arithmetic; this was probably due to the aboriginal language having numbers for one and two only. Any attempt at a higher calculation could only be expressed by a repetition of these. Adults also attended school for an hour every evening and on Sunday the whole station would assemble for Divine Service, where a small sermon would be delivered in the simplest terms either by Mr. Green or his assistant.
One of Green's first efforts was to make the station self-supporting. All meat was killed on the station and log-falling soon became the principal industry of the little colony. In the early seventies hop growing was introduced with marked success. In sport the aborigines also excelled; cricket was the principal game then and, like their famous brothers of the Edenhope tribe who toured England in 1868, they proved particularly apt at this sport. They were more than a match for the local district teams and sometimes were successful against leading Melbourne clubs; in 1877 a representative team from South Melbourne paid them a visit and were soundly thrashed.
Owing to political agitation, Green lost his position as Superintendent of the station in 1876. The news was received with regret by his many friends in the district and the station appears to have suffered much by bad management in the years that followed. In 1881 an official Board of Enquiry was appointed under the Chairmanship of Mr. E. H. Cameron, M.L.A., to investigate conditions at Coranderrk; it was stated that the aborigines were paid only 2½d. per hour and that they received no warm clothing beyond a shirt and a pair of trousers per year and that they were quite often denied even that. King Barak personally told the Commission that there was only sufficient food for two days a week - for the remainder, he said, they had to beg from passers-by on the highway.
The Rev. J. Shaw was appointed Superintendent in 1882 and conditions improved immensely, tenders were called soon after for the 2-storied brick homestead which has since become so well known that it is almost regarded as part of the landscape.
The blacks were never slow to recognise those who had befriended them; this is clearly shown by an address read by King Barak on Station Pier, Port Melbourne to the Hon. (later Sir) Graham Berry on the eve of his departure for England to become Victorian Agent-General in 1886. Berry, a liberal minded man, had always been sympathetic to the aborigines and he won their respect as few people have done; the 16 neatly dressed aboriginals who came down from Coranderrk especially to bid him farewell must surely be unique in the annals of any tribe in Australia. The address was prepared by Barak without assistance; it read :-
"We have come to see you have done a great deal for the aborigines. I feel very sorrowful, and the first time I hear you was going home I was crying. You do all thing for the station, when we were in trouble. When the Board would not give us much food or cloathes and wanted to drive us off the land, we came to you and told you our trouble and you gave us more food and clothes and blankets and better houses, and the people are all very thankful. And now you leave this country, Victoria, to go to England, where we may never see you no more. We give you small present with out love. When you go away keep remembering the natives, for the natives will remember you, for you doing good for Coranderrk. We have had a trouble in this country, but we can all meet up along "Our Father." We hope that God will lead you right through the water and keep you safe in England, and keep you in the straight way and give you eternal life through Jesus Christ, Our Saviour (Signed) Barrak. Chief of the Yarra Yarra Tribe of Aboriginals Victoria Australia."
William Barak was believed to be about 81 years of age when he died in 1903. He was a powerfully built and intelligent man with a snow white beard, though it was only in the last years of life that his hair began to turn grey. He was twice married but only one of his four children survived infancy. As a boy of 13 he was present at the famous meeting between the Port Phillip Tribes and John Batman when he landed on the Yarra in 1835. Barak served for several years in the Native Mounted Police and became chief of the Yarra Tribe on his shifting to Coranderrk. A memorial was recently erected to him at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Cemetery by the Bread and Cheese Club.
The decline of the Yarra Blacks can chiefly be attributed to one factor - too close association with the white man, though it can hardly be stated that they were unfairly treated, or any more so than the other tribes. In the early 1840s they shared freely in the £1,700 worth of provisions which were distributed annually to the aborigines, under the protectorate system then in operation; this was a sizeable effort for the small colony, considering that the district was not sufficiently financial to even afford a hospital.
There are signs that the Yarra Tribe suffered severely as a result of a big epidemic of Small Pox which raged among the Australian aborigines shortly after Captain Phillip landed at Sydney, but the worst of the damage was done in the 1840s when the native found himself unable to make the necessary adjustment to accept the white man's way of life. The protectorate system under which the colony was cut into 4 aboriginal districts was not a success due partly to unqualified staff, but principally because the method used was not radical enough. A suggestion made by the squatters that several large areas be reserved for the natives, and that they be completely confined to them was a possible solution which should have been thoroughly investigated, but no one in Australia had the power to put the idea into effect and the Colonial Office merely pigeon-holed it.
Aboriginal Stations, such as Coranderrk, were introduced with a fair amount of success in the sixties, but these were a physical impossibility in the forties when the damage was done.
Though the aboriginal stations came too late to save the Victorian Aborigine, there is little doubt that they performed their allotted task with a good degree of success. A Royal Commission which enquired into the condition of aborigines in the colony in 1877, observed that there were only 1,067 blacks then surviving in Victoria, of whom 527 dwelt in the 6 aboriginal stations and 540 were wanderers. The former had made satisfactory progress in civilization, they lived in houses and were decently and suitably clad, they supported their families and polygamy was unknown whilst marriage was greatly respected but, of the latter class who preferred to hold out, the story was entirely different. The Commission stated that they were for the most part of a very low type, the majority were given to drink and though they earned good wages, a week of orgy would destroy a whole year's labour; disease was rife and carrying them off at a great rate, concluded the Royal Commission.
The Yarra Blacks played an important role in the early colonization of Victoria; they were the first to greet John Batman after his arrival in Melbourne in 1835, and it was largely due to their co-operation that he was able to maintain cordial relations with the aborigines from the onset. In 1842 frequent atrocities and depredations were being committed by the natives in the northern and western sections of Victoria, and were causing the authorities much concern. The Superintendent, C. J. Latrobe Esq., sought the Yarra Blacks' assistance to establish a native mounted police force, and they did a sterling job in influencing the northern and western blacks against their ruthless behaviour, whilst at the same time restoring the confidence of the settlers and removing any pretexts they may have had for taking redress into their own hands.
The chief of the tribe at this time was Belli-bellary, a very intelligent man who was deeply concerned for the moral decline which had set into his race since the coming of the white man - his untimely death in 1846 was regretted as much by the white man as it was by the blacks.
Other members of the tribe who rendered good service to Latrobe Native Police were Bug-up (or Buck-Up as he was enrolled) and Murrumbeena. The former was highly regarded by the white commander Captain Dana, and was entrusted to perform missions among hostile natives in up-country districts. In the year 1846 he had the misfortune to fall from his horse while skirmishing with natives and suffered injuries which necessitated the amputation of a leg, and he was the first person in the colony to undergo an operation under ether.
Murrumbeena, who has the honour of having a Melbourne suburb named after him, was an older member of the tribe. He was powerfully built and possessed a strong character; he too realized the dangers of alcholic liquor to his people and many of the younger ones lived to regret their coming home under the influence while he was around.
Many factors contributed to the decline of the tribe, but a disastrous inter-tribal rally near Warrandyte in 1852 probably marked the beginning of the end and spelt finis to the efforts of several high spirited individuals who were making such laudable endeavours to succour them. For the most part the aboriginal corroboree was a harmless expression of folklore, but it could be unhealthy, particularly when the white man sought to profit from their celebrations as was the case in 1852.
At the beginning of that year the two aboriginal tribes close to Melbourne were causing the authorities little concern; the Yarra Blacks were employed with farmers on the Plenty, and the Westernport were engaged on stations on the Mornington Peninsula. In February some members of the latter tribe went on a walk-about to Gippsland and returned bringing ten Warragul blacks with them; they encamped on Unwin Special Survey on the Yarra.
Knowing the dangers of the two tribes fraternising, the protector of aborigines, Mr. W. Thomas ordered the Warragul blacks to clear out at once and go back to their own territory, but they begged hard to be allowed to remain, stating that they had not met for many years and wished to have some corroboree together - they promised to stay only a few days. The situation was much too close to Melbourne for safety. Thomas at length succeeded in removing them to the Pound Bend Reserve about a mile from Warrandyte; messengers were sent to the Yarra tribe to join them and night after night for 14 days did they enjoy themselves, unfortunately, however, the celebrations did not cease with this. Scenes of awful dissipation ensued, as fast as the protector removed them from one camp they would be found again in a couple of days about 2 or 3 miles away, and each time nearer to Melbourne. For two whole months, from morning till night, there was nought but drunkardness.
Three were murdered and three were found dead owing to their state of intoxication; with the aid of the police, Thomas finally succeeded in removing the Gippsland and Goulburn blacks and vowed that he would never again allow another inter-tribal rally. By June he had the Yarra Blacks safely settled at the ranges and the Westernport Blacks near the coast.
The Yarra Tribe never fully recovered from the effects of the disastrous corroboree. Official statistics show that the population of the tribe in 1850 was 77, in the succeeding 4 years there were 18 deaths or nearly 25% of their total population, compared to only 2 births - a girl in 1851 and a boy in 1853. The worst aspect of the record is that only six of the deaths were due to natural causes, the remainder were due to intoxication, murders, and two were killed by the tribe for their wrong doings. By the 1860s the tribe's numbers had dwindled to less than 40 and by 1880 there were only 2 surviving - King Barak and an elderly Gin.
A man who, more than anybody else, strove to assist the aborigines but got scant recognition for all his hard work was John Green, a Scotchman who migrated to Melbourne in 1855. Shortly after landing he was much hurt to hear a Y.M.C.A. lecturer state that the Australian aboriginal was a doomed race which was incapable of being civilized. He was so disturbed that he resolved to try and help the unfortunate aborigines, but, knowing nothing of their language and way of life, he faced rather a difficult task. He first went as an evangelist among the white settlers at Brushy Creek, a small never never hamlet which stood adjacent to where Croydon now stands.
He built a small chapel and dwelling house and held services every Sunday, and also paid visits to the settlers during the week. He had no assistance from any outside missionary organization but just commended himself to the goodwill of those who benefited from his labours; while thus engaged he would walk 8 miles every Sunday afternoon to an encampment of blacks where he administered to their needs and sought every opportunity of winning their friendship. He advised them to abandon their wandering habits and try and settle down on a farm of their own, premising that if they did so he would come and live among them. He also sought to wean them from their propensity for strong liquor and, if any became ill, he procured their admission to the Melbourne Hospital.
His plans, however, progressed slowly. The Government of the day was showing little interest in the welfare of the aborigines; it was not until 1861 that he received any worthwhile encouragement. That year Richard Heales became Premier of Victoria; he was so interested in Green's work that he made him Inspector General of Blacks, a post in which he travelled a great deal and had an opportunity to interest people in the aborigines' welfare.
Green's next objective was to induce the Government to set up a station where he could bring all the tribes around Melbourne together. Heales was again sympathetic - he granted a site of 2,300 acres adjacent to the town which has since been called after him, and in March, 1863, Green's long cherished hope of bringing the Yarra, Goulburn and Westernport tribes together was realized with the opening of the Coranderrk Aboriginal Station, Healesville.
Simon, the King of the Goulburn Tribe, gave Green much valuable assistance in the arduous task of bringing his people over the little known Blackspur Ranges. There are no known records of Green's remarkable journey through the ranges at the beginning of 1863, but he succeeded in getting the tribe through intact, a feat which required much sympathetic understanding as the blacks were leaving centuries old ways of life to commence a completely new home in a different environment.
By 1865, Coranderrk had a population of 103, comprising of 38 men, 26 women, 24 boys and 15 girls. Though most came from the Yarra Yarra and Goulburn Tribes, there were a few from Seymour and Gippsland and even one from the Murray. They were housed in 2 roomed huts of slab and bark with thatched roofs; there was a spacious dormitory and school house for the children which resembled something of a hall in structure. The children assembled for school between 10 a.m. and 12 noon and 2 and 4 p.m. They were for the most part, bright as scholars but, strangely, had little capacity for arithmetic; this was probably due to the aboriginal language having numbers for one and two only. Any attempt at a higher calculation could only be expressed by a repetition of these. Adults also attended school for an hour every evening and on Sunday the whole station would assemble for Divine Service, where a small sermon would be delivered in the simplest terms either by Mr. Green or his assistant.
One of Green's first efforts was to make the station self-supporting. All meat was killed on the station and log-falling soon became the principal industry of the little colony. In the early seventies hop growing was introduced with marked success. In sport the aborigines also excelled; cricket was the principal game then and, like their famous brothers of the Edenhope tribe who toured England in 1868, they proved particularly apt at this sport. They were more than a match for the local district teams and sometimes were successful against leading Melbourne clubs; in 1877 a representative team from South Melbourne paid them a visit and were soundly thrashed.
Owing to political agitation, Green lost his position as Superintendent of the station in 1876. The news was received with regret by his many friends in the district and the station appears to have suffered much by bad management in the years that followed. In 1881 an official Board of Enquiry was appointed under the Chairmanship of Mr. E. H. Cameron, M.L.A., to investigate conditions at Coranderrk; it was stated that the aborigines were paid only 2½d. per hour and that they received no warm clothing beyond a shirt and a pair of trousers per year and that they were quite often denied even that. King Barak personally told the Commission that there was only sufficient food for two days a week - for the remainder, he said, they had to beg from passers-by on the highway.
The Rev. J. Shaw was appointed Superintendent in 1882 and conditions improved immensely, tenders were called soon after for the 2-storied brick homestead which has since become so well known that it is almost regarded as part of the landscape.
The blacks were never slow to recognise those who had befriended them; this is clearly shown by an address read by King Barak on Station Pier, Port Melbourne to the Hon. (later Sir) Graham Berry on the eve of his departure for England to become Victorian Agent-General in 1886. Berry, a liberal minded man, had always been sympathetic to the aborigines and he won their respect as few people have done; the 16 neatly dressed aboriginals who came down from Coranderrk especially to bid him farewell must surely be unique in the annals of any tribe in Australia. The address was prepared by Barak without assistance; it read :-
"We have come to see you have done a great deal for the aborigines. I feel very sorrowful, and the first time I hear you was going home I was crying. You do all thing for the station, when we were in trouble. When the Board would not give us much food or cloathes and wanted to drive us off the land, we came to you and told you our trouble and you gave us more food and clothes and blankets and better houses, and the people are all very thankful. And now you leave this country, Victoria, to go to England, where we may never see you no more. We give you small present with out love. When you go away keep remembering the natives, for the natives will remember you, for you doing good for Coranderrk. We have had a trouble in this country, but we can all meet up along "Our Father." We hope that God will lead you right through the water and keep you safe in England, and keep you in the straight way and give you eternal life through Jesus Christ, Our Saviour (Signed) Barrak. Chief of the Yarra Yarra Tribe of Aboriginals Victoria Australia."
William Barak was believed to be about 81 years of age when he died in 1903. He was a powerfully built and intelligent man with a snow white beard, though it was only in the last years of life that his hair began to turn grey. He was twice married but only one of his four children survived infancy. As a boy of 13 he was present at the famous meeting between the Port Phillip Tribes and John Batman when he landed on the Yarra in 1835. Barak served for several years in the Native Mounted Police and became chief of the Yarra Tribe on his shifting to Coranderrk. A memorial was recently erected to him at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Cemetery by the Bread and Cheese Club.
The decline of the Yarra Blacks can chiefly be attributed to one factor - too close association with the white man, though it can hardly be stated that they were unfairly treated, or any more so than the other tribes. In the early 1840s they shared freely in the £1,700 worth of provisions which were distributed annually to the aborigines, under the protectorate system then in operation; this was a sizeable effort for the small colony, considering that the district was not sufficiently financial to even afford a hospital.
There are signs that the Yarra Tribe suffered severely as a result of a big epidemic of Small Pox which raged among the Australian aborigines shortly after Captain Phillip landed at Sydney, but the worst of the damage was done in the 1840s when the native found himself unable to make the necessary adjustment to accept the white man's way of life. The protectorate system under which the colony was cut into 4 aboriginal districts was not a success due partly to unqualified staff, but principally because the method used was not radical enough. A suggestion made by the squatters that several large areas be reserved for the natives, and that they be completely confined to them was a possible solution which should have been thoroughly investigated, but no one in Australia had the power to put the idea into effect and the Colonial Office merely pigeon-holed it.
Aboriginal Stations, such as Coranderrk, were introduced with a fair amount of success in the sixties, but these were a physical impossibility in the forties when the damage was done.
Though the aboriginal stations came too late to save the Victorian Aborigine, there is little doubt that they performed their allotted task with a good degree of success. A Royal Commission which enquired into the condition of aborigines in the colony in 1877, observed that there were only 1,067 blacks then surviving in Victoria, of whom 527 dwelt in the 6 aboriginal stations and 540 were wanderers. The former had made satisfactory progress in civilization, they lived in houses and were decently and suitably clad, they supported their families and polygamy was unknown whilst marriage was greatly respected but, of the latter class who preferred to hold out, the story was entirely different. The Commission stated that they were for the most part of a very low type, the majority were given to drink and though they earned good wages, a week of orgy would destroy a whole year's labour; disease was rife and carrying them off at a great rate, concluded the Royal Commission.
Source: We believe from handwritten notes in records that the following text is an unpublished manuscript in 2 volumes (Ch1-11 and Ch12-21) written by Louis Radnor Cranfield (1927- 14 Oct 1992) F.R.HIST.S. (Fellow of the Royal Historical Society). Find a Grave Record. National Library of Australia Record.
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