KIDNAP AND ESCAPE -

The European population of Laverton were less than thrilled with the continued presence of the local Wongutha Aboriginal people around town.

In order to discourage them from congregating within the town boundaries at noon each day a mounted policemen with a stock whip would drive any of the local tribe that happened to be in town out of the immediate area.

Due to the presence of a dam in town, the Aborigines still remained in the area despite all attempts to drive them away and finally it was decided to remove some of them to the Moore River (Mogumber) settlement.

On the 15th of August 1921, fifteen Aborigines were lured to the local police station to receive their annual blanket and clothes issue.

They were rounded up and forced in to the cells and remained there overnight.

The following day they were bundled into a cattle truck that had the following notice attached to the outside:

“15 niggers for Mogumber”

By the end of that day the rest of the tribe had fled into the bush.

Moore River Settlement was a place where to Protector of Aborigines sent mixed race children as well as those serving a sentence for some minor infraction of rules or occasionally more serious crimes.

Moore River was greatly feared by the Aboriginal people and this was the place this group of fifteen arrived after a long rough ride in the cattle truck.

This group was not kept in the enclosure but were placed on the north side of the river. Being desert people they were not familiar with water and could not swim. They were afraid of the deep water and were told that monsters in the river would eat them if they tried to cross it.

From the moment they arrived, the Wongutha people planned to escape but how would they cross the feared water?

Soon they saw a tree leaning well out across the river and if they climbed up and across, they would only have to jump down into shallow water near the opposite bank.

Late one evening they climbed the tree and made it safely to the other side.

They walked on into the night making sure they got as far away from the settlement as quickly as they possibly could.

The group had swelled to 17 as there were two tribal members already at Mogumber when the 15 arrived.

Swiftly they made their way to Wongan Hills where they sat down in the bush to work out what to do next.

It was agreed that the group was too big to travel together so they split up and took different routes.

The leaders of each group were Jidu, Gadajibi and Ngada.

Jidu led his party towards the Kalgoorlie to Perth railway. Things went well for this group who were given bread and eggs by farmers along the way.

They reached Southern Cross and rested a while and then moved on to Bulla Bulling. They camped overnight and then moved on to Coolgardie where they hopped on an empty rail cattle truck and got off at Morgans before walking the last 32 kilometres to Laverton.

Gadajilbi’s group decided to stay away from inhabited areas and set off across country.

Thanks to recent rains they found enough water along the way and fed themselves by gathering native bush tucker.

After a walk of 400 kilometres they hit Menzies bang on target before hopping a railway car the final part of the way.

Ngada’s party did not fare as well. After leaving Wongan Hils they headed for Mount Magnet but not long into the march, an old man named Wanu came to a stop and could go no further.

His companions made him a fire and left him with some firewood and, as is the way of nomadic people, they left him to his fate. He was never seen again.

One of the party, Jinera, was blind and some time later due to him slowing down the progress of the group, he was left n a farmer’s paddock where he shouted loudly in anger at being abandoned.

Jinera was soon found by a farmer who was alerted to his plight due to all the wailing and shouting. He took Jinera to his farm in Yalgoo but nobody in that area could speak the same language as Jinera and it took some time to locate someone who did.

The translator (a previous member of the Wongutha tribe who had been kidnapped and taken to Cue by the Darlot tribe) decided to lead Jinera back to his home area.

They travelled to Mount Magnet, Cue Meekatharra, Wiluna and Leonora before hopping a train to Laverton.

The determination of this group to return to their home country is obvious.

It was obvious that the tribes peolple could not continue to endure such treatment and this was the impetus for the establishment of Mount Margaret Mission by Rodolphe Samuel Schenk.

Source: A drop in the Bucket. Margaret Morgan.
Find out more about Mount Margaret

These people had no say at all in their lives. Europeans dictated their fates and today we have the chance to help change things. The coming referendum on giving the Aborigines a vioce to our federal parliament has been far too long coming. We seriously urge every Australian to vote YES to give the Aboriginal people a voice that has, for far too long, been denied them.

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