TRIBAL FEUD -

At Easter time in 1847, troopers at the barracks in Kojonup woke one morning to find 300 or so Aborigines surrounding the building armed with spears. When they got within about a hundred yards of the barracks they stopped and sat down. Three of their number approached the building and Corporal Norrish grabbed his musket and advanced on them. After a short confrontation the Aborigines retreated and it appeared that they were looking for two natives, Bimbert and his brother ‘George’.

The group returned around two weeks later and found Bimbert and George’s wife and child near the barracks. They were promptly speared, Bimbert five times and George’s wife speared about thirteen times (two spears actually went through her child as well). Troopers advanced on the scene after hearing the commotion and the large group of Aborigines started to move off. At this point George arrived and on seeing the condition of his brother, his wife and his child he flew into a berserk rage. The troopers fearing that the large group would make quick work of George followed him out but arrived to find George in his fury had speared three warriors and driven the rest away.

Not much hope was held for the recovery of Bimbert or George’s wife, but recover they did. Bimbert lived until 1898.

GET YOUR OWN COPY -

If you would like to get a PDF copy of the stories on this website that you can read offline or even print out and turn into your own hard copy book, you can order through PayPal at the link below. All sales of this book help us to gather more information and stories for this site and our main website. It is only $3.99 AUD!