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JOURNAL

of the

ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY

OF QUEENSLAND

Volume XIII, No. 12 November 1989

Kilcoy, The First Six Months — Sir Evan Maclienzie's Albatross

by John Mackenzie-Smith

Presented at a meeting of the Society, 25 May, 1989

At the end of August and beginning of September 1840, the tenantry of the Kilcoy estates, on Scotland's Black Isle, organised two related but socially disparate functions prior to departure of the guests of honour for New South Wales. The recipients of the earlier celebration would later view this occasion as the precursor to their adventurous and positive contributions to the development of the pastoral industry in the Moreton Bay district, though not achieved without struggle, conflict, controversy, and personal defamation.

Under the title of "Dinner at Munlochy", the Inverness Courier described the occasion of the tenth of August as follows:

The tenantry of the estate of Sir Colin Mackenzie of Kilcoy, Bart, in the parishes of Knockbain and Killearnan, recently entertained at a public dinner the amiable and promising sons of their worthy landlord, Messrs. Evan and Colin John Mackenzie, together with a number of gentlemen of the neighbourhood who were invited by the tenants to do honour to the meeting. The occasion of this festive gathering was the intended embarkation, in a month or two, of the two young gentlemen to South Australia, where the younger, Mr. Colin John, purposes permanently to locate himself, and wither his brother, Mr. Evan, accompanies him, to share in and lighten the hardships, and discomfort of his first settlement in this new land of promise.'

John Mackenzie Smith is general secretary of the Brisbane History Group and is currently a post-graduate scholar at the University of Queensland.

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As third son of Sir Colin, eighteen-year-old Colin John apparently rejected the prospects of a commission in the family regiment to enter upon a quest to gain "an independence" as a pastoralist in the colonies. He was almost certainly influenced by correspondence with his former schoolmates, John and James Balfour, who had taken out squatting licences for the Lachlan and Wellington districts of New South Wales.

J.A. Balfour, who spent seven years as a pastoralist in this colony advised would-be investors that

Australia presented many inducements to families having capital of about J?8,000 — and heads of which are men of educadon; possessed of strong minds, and good common sense, but not having been brought up to a profession or business, or have no likelihood of increasing their capital at home.̂

Balfour was convinced that with determination and hard work a person might double his capital in five years or treble it in eight. However, he warned that New South Wales was the graveyard of many a naive "new chum" capitalist who had been taken in by impulsive investments and projects without taking time and effort to become familiar with the local pitfahs.'

Thus cunning, intelligence, patience and access to the best local counsel were just as important as possessing investment capital to ensure a successful venture. Evan Mackenzie certainly possessed these requisite mental and personality attributes and Cohn John proved to be an alert apprentice. Aged twenty-four, educated at Eton and on the continent, and recently discharged as a cavalry officer from the Austrian Honour Guard, Evan was urbane, energetic, intelligent and ruthlessly canny. Being assured of having a significant role to play in Scotland as the inheritor of Sir Colin's title, Evan Mackenzie aimed to make the most of his temporary sojourn in the colonies. Having secured Colin John's enterprise on a firm footing, the dull routine of running a pastoral establishment would not satisfy his boundless energy and entrepreneurial flair. He aimed to play a significant role in the mercantile and marketing aspects of the pastoral industry. He wanted to establish himself as a colonial leader.

PREPARATIONS

The Mackenzies had no difficulties in obtaining the necessary capital and access to the best colonial intelligence through their father's assistance. Knighted for his contribution to Whig reform, the highly respected Sir Colin Mackenzie was Vice Lieutenant and convenor of the county in addition to holding the rank of Lieutentant Colonel Commandant of the Ross-shire militia.'* Through his political, economic, and social involvement in Scotland and with

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important famhy connections, the Kilcoys exerted influence in the Cabinet, Civil Service, the Royal Court, and the British banking world. Hence, in accordance with the Balfour prescription. Sir Colin advanced his sons a total of J?8,000 from their inheritance^ and sent them to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Glenelg, who wrote them a warm introduction to the Surveyor General of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Mitchell, indicating considerable interest in their venture.*

Following this copy book start, the Mackenzies nearly closed their options by taking out an order for land limited to the Port Phillip district. On 20 October, 1840, Captain Evan Mackenzie deposited J!320 with Mr. Barnard, Crown Agent for the colony, entitling him to select 320 acres of land in the abovementioned area.' As a purchaser of colonial land, he was entitled to name sixteen members of the labouring class certified as being of good moral character to receive free passages under the auspices of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commission.

Apparently Evan Mackenzie was given timely advice to play an open-ended game until he could accurately assess the options available to him within New South Wales. Records of his entry reveal that the Mackenzies and eight servants arrived in Sydney on the barque Berkshire ex Plymouth on 13 March, 1841. The Mackenzie brothers enjoyed a trouble-free voyage as cabin class passengers whilst their servants travelled in steerage under the bounty system.*

The probable reason for this change in tack is contained in the despatch of the Governor of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps, to Lord John Russell, dated 19 December, 1840:

A very large proportion of the land, which is in the district of Port Phillip is already in licensed occupation of the squatters of New South Wales. Persons will not be content to buy refuse lands, as they will be called after the best lots of any district have been culled out . . . and . . . Land Orders . . . will become a source of very profitable speculation.'

Hence, the Mackenzies would now have greater flexibility and freedom by the disposal of this land order in deciding the location of their station — on strategically located good quality land. Under the Port Philhp option they would have little control over their own destiny. Evaluation of Evan Mackenzie's decision making would indicate that blind investment was totally uncharacteristic of his modus operandi which featured firm action emanating from carefully formulated tactics.

THE LABOUR FACTOR

Because of the deleterious employment situation based on labour of convict origin, and the concerted effort to improve the moral tone of the colony, both New South Wales authorities and employers of

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labour had vested interests in the quality of the shepherds, artisans, and farm labourers entering its portals both before and after the cessation of transportation on 1 August, 1840. Following the agitation of native born citizens and newly arrived free colonists and championed by Rev. Dr. John Dunmore Lang, who described New South Wales as the "dunghill of the Empire", Governor Bourke's immigration measures of 1835 sought to overrun the "old hands" responsible for barbaric and unproductive behaviour by the transportation of larger numbers of rehable, obedient, moral and industrious free agricultural labourers.

The source of this respectable labour force was to be the redundant population of the United Kingdom. Those of Scottish nationality seeking relief from destitution and hoping to build themselves a secure future were especially sought. In addition to the efforts of agents sailing to Scotland to obtain directly such labour for the pastoralists, colonial employers such as James Macarthur arrived at the point of embarkation and distributed letters of introduction to ensure "passports to profitable employment".'"

Inverness and the Mackenzie country of Ross were viewed as fruitful sources for this valued commodity. The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the condition of the population of the islands and Highlands of Scotland and the practicability of affording these people relief by means of emigration paid particular attention to those areas whilst formulating its recommendations."

Since 1837 the Highlanders had responded enthusiastically to the recruiting campaigns of the emigration agents. Dr. Boyter and Lieutenant Forest R.N., to operationalise Bourke's scheme to provide a regular and sufficient supply of shepherds and agricultural labourers to ameliorate "the loss and inconvenience of settlers in N.S.W."'^. On 27 April 1840 at Kingussie,

. . . hundreds of fine looking fellows were arriving from different directions in parties, preceded by their favourite music, the bagpipe, and in a short time the place was thronged as on market day . . . and many of those who engaged with [Boyter] are the finest young men of the country, in behaviour as well as appearance. Indeed, a few more such days will affect this country in such a manner from which it will not recover for generations to come.''

Emigration to the colonies was now looked upon by many Highlanders as a better alternative to their former option, enlistment in a Highland regiment — much to the consternation of military authorities. The colonies offered such high hopes for a better future that on embarkation day many families arrived from considerable distance prepared for the long sea journey, ready to take the place of those whose resolve faltered at the final hour. The prospect of security, full employment, high wages, a plentiful supply of food and an optimistic future drew Scots to Austraha and Canada.'"

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Highly favourable reports of the new life initially filtered back to north-east Scotland to be reproduced in the Inverness Courier. Examples of frugal, hardworking men who resisted the temptations of the demon rum to become employers of labour themselves gained wide circulation. Inverness, the Highland capital, was compared less than favourably with Sydney, which was three times the size, possessing longer and broader streets, better shops, gas and water supplies, and sported more people riding in carriages in one day than witnessed in Inverness in six months.'^ Hence the tenantry of the Highlands would have been well aware of the satisfaction of those who had already "taken the plunge".

Such accounts no doubt influenced the motives of the leading actors at the second, more humble Black Isle festival occasion which was to celebrate the marriage of John Smith, farm labourer of Darroch Bog via Munlochy to Isabella Davidson — both of whom were to set up their future residence in New South Wales.'* The newly weds were to comprise part of the labour force of the Kilcoy Mackenzies.

The Smith patriach was John Smith, farmer and Chelsea Pensioner (formerly of the Seaforth Highlanders) who eked out a living on the Darroch Bog, two kilometres below Sir Colin Mackenzie's seat — Belmaduthy House. Because of the small scale of his farming enterprise. Smith's sons, John and Alexander, found it necessary to work as farm labourers on the Belmaduthy estate. Having experienced famine and poverty and being cognisant of the enclosure of small farms on other Highland estates, they eagerly grasped the chance to help the Mackenzies form a sheep station in the colonies.

Sir Colin Mackenzie was a kind, considerate and popular landlord who was literally loved by his tenants." Hence the sons and other relatives of the abovementioned respectable farmer, making up one half of the Mackenzie's emigrant farm servants expected and received the same consideration enjoyed by their parents. Evan Mackenzie related to the Select Committee on Immigration of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 1842, that he looked upon the Belmaduthy farm servants as friends, personally known to him, and they followed him willingly.'^ Furthermore, the Kilcoy's family history provides evidence that Evan cemented this bond of loyalty and friendship with his servants not only by sharing an uneventful 136-day voyage with them but also by mastering Gaelic under the willing, practical tutorship of these servants."

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An accomplished linguist,^" Evan Mackenzie would use his fluency in Gaehc to forge the total Belmaduthy party into an exclusive, interdependent team which would form a clearly definable social group within the community of his pastoral holding. Linked by common ethic, religious, cultural, linguistic, and historical ties, this body of people would need to be united to ensure the progress of the Mackenzie enterprise in the face of certain subversion and obstruction caused by the colonial workers who would be employed out of necessity.

The latter brand of workers according to C.H. Manning Clark, had seen through the paternalism exercised in Britain as mere "mumbo jumbo" and had substituted in the colonies fear as the nexus between master and man.^' On the contrary, the Mackenzies were to show that their brand of paternalism when transported to the colonies worked to the advantage of master and Scottish worker. In fact, it acted as a deterrent to the colonial workers to operationalise the negative colonial relationship based on violence and disobedience.

By the time the Mackenzie party was ready to embark, unfavourable accounts of immorality, drunkenness, debauchery and gross licentiousness of the convict workers had reached Inverness. Acting on reliable colonial intelligence, the Mackenzies had accurately assessed that the mutual welfare of the Scottish group demanded solidarity in the work situation. Fears about the stand-over tactics of the colonial labour force were well founded. The Inverness Courier printed a letter from a local emigrant who was disillusioned with the ethics of those shepherds whom he was required to work alongside:

It is the hazard of his life, should a superintendent act faithfully and conscientiously towards his employer, urging the convict to

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work and . . . as to shepherds of whom so much is said and sung at home, they are really to be pitied for having started for this 'land of Gosher'. They became slave and savages all at once. Think for a moment of a poor, honest, simple and credulous fellow, driven away some three or four hundred miles into the interior of this continent, thickly covered with brush, with no other society than that of a London pickpocket or a Dubhn cut-throat, tending his flocks from sunrise to sunset, Sunday and Saturday, wet or dry, sick or in health, without even a gun to shoot a snake, to frighten the blacks, or to defend himself with . . . 1 would make it known, through the public press, how these poor fellows are used.^^

It is little wonder that Sir Colin Mackenzie was to experience extreme difficulty in getting together a second band of workers for his sons' enterprise after the publication of such sentiments.

PREPARATIONS IN NEW SOUTH WALES For three months after their arrival in Sydney, the first Mackenzie

party moved to the Goulburn area where the workers mastered the art of shepherding whilst the brothers became acclimatised, familiarised themselves with the problems associated with founding a sheep station, made key contacts, and purchased supplies and stock.^' The main principle adhered to was to take time to become familiar with a totally new set of circumstances. J.A. Balfour advised:

The emigrant finds that he has plenty to learn, with not a little to unlearn, and he who spends some months in acquiring colonial knowledge, will find himself at the end of a few years in a very different position from those who believed themselves possessed of intuitive knowledge of colonial affairs and dashed headlong into them.^

After having been granted the services of three assigned convicts from 24 April 1841, Evan Mackenzie was probably advised by Sir Thomas Mitchell to head for the Moreton Bay District which was on the eve of being thrown open for free settlement. In such a new area the Mackenzies would have the freedom and flexibility to establish themselves and prosper on the quality of their decision making relative to the unique problems presented.

In reality this meant that the Mackenzies would be taking their loyal servants beyond the "hmits of location" — an area beyond the possibility of protection of the border police force and pragmatically out of the control of the Commissioner of Crown Lands in the New England District and the Commandant of the penal station at Moreton Bay. In these districts it was possible for squatters to take up land for a run without security of tenure by paying an annual licensing fee of ^10 per annum. In such isolation, the Mackenzies would foresee that their major problems would centre around dealing with reluctant colonial workers and the Aborigines whom they would

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have to dispossess in accordance with what J.D. Lang termed the "damnable doctrine of squatting".

By the time the Mackenzie party managed to get underway in May 1841, most of the Darling Downs area had been taken up by other squatters, many of whom had influential connections in the British and colonial power structure. As the areas beyond the limits of location were traditionally lawless districts characterised by European crime, debauchery and bloody conflict with the local Aborigines, it would have been with considerable relief that Governor Gipps approved with appropriate warnings the plans of these well-connected, respectable squatters with a labour force steadied by educated, industrious Presbyterians, to move their flocks behind Moreton Bay. It was a well documented fact that white aggression and atrocities were committed by uneducated, immoral persons who were mainly convict background.

DESTINATION — MORETON BAY

The Commissioner of the New England District, J. Macdonald, received instructions from Gipps to allow no stations to be formed within a fifty miles radius of Brisbane. (Thomas Archer facetiously ventured the opinion that this measure prevented the convicts being contaminated by contact with free settlers.) Hence, the Mackenzie group, if it followed the accepted course, would drive their sheep overland through the New England District, across the Darling Downs, over the Dividing Range via Hodgson's Gap, and take up a run adjacent to the one most lately occupied.

Armed with intelligence received in Sydney that it would be hopeless scrambling for land on the Darling Downs, but good prospects existed east of the Dividing Range, Evan Mackenzie demonstrated some intelligent, divergent thinking aimed at outmanoeuvering potential competitors. The party would divide. One group led by Colin Mackenzie, consisting of assigned convicts, ticket of leave labour, and workers hired in Sydney would proceed along the conventional route. The party under Evan Mackenzie would proceed to Brisbane by sea, arriving several months ahead of the overland group. Exercising the paternalism typical of his interaction with his Scottish workforce, Mackenzie spared his Kilcoy labourers the long and arduous land trek. His aim was to familiarise himself with the idiosyncracies of the area, gain the most reliable intelligence, and seek the best assistance to select a good run with easy access to Brisbane's port facilities.

Hence, on 6 May 1841, Evan Mackenzie was granted permission from Sir George Gipps to sail for Moreton Bay aboard the cutter John with eight servatns to land his luggage and stores preparatory to proceeding to his station at the prescribed distance from that

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settlement. Similarly, permission was also granted to his friend, John Balfour, and to the highly connected Frederick Bigge who had similar plans.

Governor Gipps, grasping the sense of urgency behind the application, instructed that Mackenzie be informed immediately of his decision.^^ However, as there appeared to be a rush towards Moreton Bay at that time, Mackenzie's well-laid plans were in danger of going astray. There was no room for his party aboard the John because it had been booked out. Not to be outdone, a fresh apphcation was made on the fohowing day for permission to land at Moreton Bay from a vessel which would be hired specifically for that purpose.^*

All then went according to plan. John Balfour's father was to record proudly in 1844 that his two eldest sons and the Mackenzies were amongst the first free settlers at Moreton Bay and "of course had the choice and took the pick of the district".^' With the aid of Andrew Petrie, Supervisor of Works, and John Kent, Commissariat Officer and supervisor of the Limestone convict station, a location was chosen which permitted direct access to North Brisbane in which the Commissariat stores were situated. This obviated the inconvenience suffered by Darhng Downs squatters who found it necessary to travel to South Brisbane via Limestone and thence across the Brisbane River by a primitive ferry to store their wool for export or take command of their supplies from Sydney. In early January 1842, the northern road of eighty khometres was blazed by the Mackenzies and their Durundur neighbours, the Archer brothers. Brisbane Valley squatters then had an efficient and effective means of road communication with North Brisbane.

FOUNDATION OF KILCOY

John Balfour, the Mackenzie's other neighbour at Colinton, reported to Lieutenant Gorman, the penal commandant, that he took possession of his station on 11 August 1841.̂ * Evan and Cohn Mackenzie would have officially claimed Kilcoy run on this date also — the occasion on which the flocks arrived at their destination. However, with the aid of the recollections of Thomas Archer, the youngest of the three brothers who took up nearby Durundur run a few days after Kilcoy was founded, it is possible to ascertain an approximate date on which the stations were first officially selected. Allowing that the Archers, following the bent grass tracks of the Mackenzie and Balfour flocks, crossed the Condamine River as late as mid August 1841, acting upon the advice of J.C. Pearce to avoid the Darling Downs and to send an advance party to the Brisbane River Valley where excellent land had recently been discovered, it can be calculated that Kilcoy was founded during late June or early July,

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Sir Evan Mackenzie.

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1841.^' The squatting licence was obtained by Colin Mackenzie in October 1841 when he travehed to Sydney to take possession of three assigned servants for shepherding duties. Officially, the Kilcoy licence was the second lease granted on the upper Brisbane River, the first being held by David McConnel of Cressbrook. The Kilcoy run was described in the New South Wales Government Gazette as compromising "two large and several small creeks, tributaries of the eastern Branch of the Brisbane River", and covering an area of 35,000 acres with an estimated grazing capacity of 12,000 sheep and 1,200 cattle.'"

Thus the role of the Scottish servants who travelled earlier by sea was obviously to prepare the run for the arrival of the overland party. David Archer has detailed the initial hard manual labour that would be required to be performed to get a run ready for the accommodation of personnel and stock. The huge gum trees on the site had to be felled, lopped, piled, and burned. Much energy would be expended on cross-cut sawing, digging post holes, splitting rails, slabs and posts, putting up fences and building huts."

In 1843, Rev. John Gregor described the Kilcoy head station as a tobacco filled hut occupied by five gentlemen besides himself. By 1845, the Mackenzies' cousin, Donald Cameron, was able to paint a more elaborate picture, the early pioneer work having been completed. The homestead was then described as:

a large one (containing) five rooms — one large sitting room — 20 feet by 20 feet, and four bedrooms 10 feet by 10 feet opening from the parlour — with a verandah in front. It (was) situated at the top of a pretty high hill — a most healthy situation tho' rather inconvenient for the unfortunate man who has to carry water up to it — apart from other buildings which range along the base of the hill except for the kitchen which is about 40 yards to the rear of the house. Fronting the store is an extensive and excellent garden . . . The other buildings were a loose box and stable containing another loose box and in the course of erection, a magnificent wool shed.'^

The Archer brothers' Durundur diary provides a vivid outline of the daily and seasonal activities on a nearby sheep station during this period. Until September, the monotonous round offending the sheep was carried out by shepherds and hutkeepers. Shearing took place between September and November, the last bales usually leaving the station for Brisbane by the beginning of December. The Mackenzies' drays habitually stayed overnight at Durundur on the journey to Brisbane from which centre their produce was shipped to the Sydney and overseas markets.

While the Archers were initially impressed with the background, education, and demeanour of their Kilcoy neighbours — a pleasant

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contrast to their former contacts beyond the limits of location — they were less than enthusiastic about the behaviour of some of the Mackenzie labour force, those colonials who abused the trust placed in them as soon as their supervisors were out of sight." Leichhardt has recorded his disgust at the behaviour and morals of the workers who manned sheep stations. They were predominantly of convict origin "without a vestige of moral principle or feeling".''*

The Mackenzies knew only too well that one of their most formidable tasks would be "the selection and management of a class of men about whom newcomers could know nothing"." Tom Petrie, youngest son of Brisbane's supervisor of works, relayed that the only way to gain the respect of such men was through physical confrontation. While Evan Mackenzie was quite able to handle himself well in such situations, his solution was to relegate the potential troublemakers to exile on the frontier outstations where they would have minimal opportunities to prevent the progress of the pastoral enterprise ensured by his Scottish compatriots. Moreover, such men would be the front-line buffers to Aboriginal harrassment. No doubt resentful at their isolation at the dangerous outposts and angry at the preferential treatment meted out to the Gaelic speaking in-group, these rejectees would hardly be committed to the success of the Mackenzie venture. Motivated by self gratification when the opportunity arose and self preservation, such men would be untroubled by the reflection of their actions upon the reputation of their masters.

Rev. John Gregor was deeply shocked at the immorality and irrehgion of the shepherds who occupied the furtherest outstations at Kilcoy, openly ignoring his prayers and sermon. One of these men was described as:

the most hardened creature in iniquity who has ever come under my observation. He [was] totally insensitive to every religious, virtue and good impression. He stated that he had quite made up his mind to go to hell provided he could accomplish his desires of this world's grossest pleasures.'^

Such attitudes and behaviour were unfavourably contrasted with those of the Presbyterians working at or about the head station by the reverend gentleman who expressed a desire to leave Kilcoy as quickly as possible.

RELATIONS WITH ABORIGINES

In the early months of 1842 such ruthless, immoral and desperate men bore the brunt of Aboriginal attacks on the Kilcoy outstations. It was reliably reported in the Sydney Gazette that the attacking Wide Bay clans were led by runaway convicts who provided the Aborigines with models of the worst side of European behaviour.'* Thus, in the

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case of Kilcoy, a proportion of the frontier skirmishes emanated predominantly from a clash between parties fortified by the basest of European motives and values. According to David Bracefell, one such escapee unearthed by the Petrie expedition of 1842, the aim of the early Wide Bay attacks on Kilcoy was to plunder in contrast to later, nobler motives of resistance." Probably being aware that Kilcoy was severely undermanned during the first weeks in January 1842, when the Mackenzies and Archers blazed the northern road, an offensive was mounted on the Mount Kilcoy outstation culminating in "one of those almost incredible crimes which disgrace our efforts at colonisation".'*"

Fearful for their lives, two terrified shepherds momentarily appeased hostile Aborigines with flour laced with arsenic thereby permitting their escape by horseback to the head station. This act of self preservation resulted in the deaths of over thirty Aborigines who consumed the deadly mixture.'*' Taking advantage of isolation to avoid detection, this horrendous act was a replication of a crime that had often been committed by that class of men who manned outstations in other parts of New South Wales. It was the first instance of this cowardly and inhumane method of defence at Moreton Bay.

Although the innocence of the Mackenzies and their Scottish servants can be demonstrated on this occasion by reference to Gregor's journal which detailed the deployment of labour at Kilcoy, and to the passenger lists of the Sydney Morning Herald, indicating that the pastoralists were in Sydney during this period, it must be acknowledged that racial relations had always been extremely poor at this station."^ Charles Archer contrasted unfavourably the insensitive, aggressive approach to dispossession adopted by the Mackenzies with his own family's successful policy of peaceful co­existence. Whereas Evan Mackenzie reported that he prevented the attempts of Aborigines to return to their spiritual and hunting grounds by gunfire,'*' the Archers adopted an approach based on the recognition of

the Black as the hereditary owner of the soil and that it [is] an act of injustice to drive him from his hunting grounds — at the same time punishing any case of sheep stealing or petty theft if the culprit can be got hold of. The result has been that the Blacks here appear to have some idea of rights of property, so far from doing any injury, are of the greatest assistance.

Ironically, the Archers adopted the same principle in their relationship with the Aborigines as the Mackenzies practised with their European labour force to ensure trouble free progress. They built up good relationships with those upon whom they could unfailingly rely and used them to overcome the expected subversion of the

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potential troublemakers. Dr. Stephen Simpson, Commissioner of Crown Lands, Moreton Bay District, reported in 1843 that the local clans in this area possessed potential for friendly co-operation whilst the "wild clans" east of the Bunya Mountains were oriented towards bloodshed and pillage.'*' Grasping this distinction early, the Archers cultivated friendly relations with the indigines whom they were gently dispossessing thereby preventing infiltration and attack by the north­eastern clans.

THE POISONING LEGACY

The massacre at Mount Kilcoy and the retaliatory murders of two Mackenzie shepherds during February 1842, dissipated any hopes of peaceful co-existence at Kilcoy and throughout the Moreton Bay District. Aboriginal resistance hardened and resulted in the unification of the majority of the squatters to deal with this "treacherous" obstruction to their progress. Unfortunately, feuding and retaliation were just as much a part of the Highlanders' psyche as the Aborigines'. Moreover, faced with the realisation that no Government assistance would be forthcoming, the district's future depended on the joint action of the squatters. Their ventures were facing ruin as they were unable to attract labour to serve on their stations and those workers already serving planned to head for the safety of Brisbane Town as soon as their contracts had been fulfilled. Thus the Mackenzies found it necessary to pay the districts highest wages to shephers enticed to Kilcoy.

Contemporary historian Wihiam Coote, who gathered much of his data through interview of eye witnesses, inferred that it was the Mackenzie's efforts in suppressing an inquiry into the poisonings and engineering a conspiracy of silence in the district and Brisbane Town that presented any hopes of short circuiting the revenge cycle:

But what every right-minded man must regret, is the determined opposition to any real inquiry by which every charge of the kind was met — the palliations offered on behalf of the accused, and the half-defiant and slighting manner in which the accusations were put by. From this sort of procedure the actual murderers derived encouragement. They concluded, that while their employers prohibited the crime, they had little anxiety to secure its detection, and less scruple in profiting by its commission.

Had the squatters of Moreton Bay in 1842 been wise in their generation, they would have insisted on an investigation, which would have rendered impossible the suspicions which were not infrequently and ungenerously directed against them from hostile quarters. It might have been troublesome but the convenient is one thing, the prudent and far-seeing another.'**

As a resuh of innuendo arising from the suppression of an inquiry, Kilcoy and Evan Mackenzie have not been treated kindly by successive

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generations of Australian historians. The genocide at the ill-fated station has been long portrayed as a symbol of the inhumanity arising from the squatting doctrine. As owner of this run, Evan Mackenzie's name has usually been juxtaposed with the account of this shameful massacre, sometimes just falhng short of inferring his guilt or complicity, but generally labelling him accurately as the exemplar of a single minded, ruthless squattocracy. In fact, so successfully has he been cast as Queensland's bete noire that his positive roles as leader of the development of the state's pastoral industry and in the foundation of nascent, free Brisbane have remained undiscovered for over one hundred and forty years.'*' Ironically, our historians have shown him the same prejudice and tunnel vision as he showed to the Aborigines in the 1840s. In reality, his image has suffered acutely from his extension of the now ridiculed "mumbo jumbo" doctrine to protect his colonial workers.

Evan Mackenzie has remained in text book purgatory for too long. It is time that researchers put to one side his association with a genocide for which he was not responsible and extended their efforts to obtain a balanced portrait of an underestimated pioneer.

NOTES

1. Inverness Courier, 10 August 1840. 2. J.A. Balfour, A Sketch of New South Wales (Lxindon, Smith, Elder, 1845)

p. 103. I. Balfour, J.A., p. 104. 4. The Times, 17 December 1883. 5. Codicil to the will of Sir Colin Mackenzie, 17 October 1840. 6. Lord Glenelg to Sir Thomas Mitchell, 19 September 1840. 7. Lx)rd Stanley to Sir George Gipps, 18 January 1843. 8. Entitlement Certificates, "Berkshire", 13 March 1841. 9. Sir George Gipps to Lord John Russell, 19 December 1840.

10. Inverness Courier, 11 October 1837. 11. Sydney Morning Herald, 10 December 1841. 12. Inverness Courier, 13 December 1837. 13. Inverness Courier, 2 May 1838. 14. Inverness Courier, 11 October 1837. 15. Inverness Courier, 2 December 1840. 16. Parochial Register, Marriages, Parish of Avoch, County of Ross, 3 September

1840. 17. Statement by Alex. Sinclair, Farmer, Ferintosh. Source unknown. 18. Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Immigration Committee, Votes and

Proceedings, Legislative Council, New South Wales, 1842, p. 46. 19. Wenonah I. Greig, Kilcoy. Typescript, Kilcoy castle archives, p. 6. 20. Conduct report, Evan Baron Mackenzie, Austrian Military Archives. 21. C.M.H. Clark, A History of Australia, Vol. Ill (Melbourne, Melbourne

University Press, 1973), p. 183. 22. Inverness Courier, 4 November 1840. 23. Evidence, Immigration Committee, 1842, p. 46. 24. Balfour, J.A. p. 104. 25. Evan Mackenzie to Colonial Secretary, 6 May 1841. 26. Evan Mackenzie to Colonial Secretary, 7 May 1841.

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27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.

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41. 42. 41. 44.. 4%.

47.

James Balfour to John Balfour, 28 March 1844. Thomas Archer, Recollections of a Rambling Life (Yokohama, 1897), p. 74. John Balfour to Lieutenant O. Gorman, 19 August 1841. Archer, Thomas, pp. 50-56. New South Wales Government Gazette, 1848, p. 513. Archer, Thomas, pp. 69-70. Donald Charles Cameron, Journal, typescript, 1850, pp. 4-5. Archer, Thomas, pp. 81-84. Ludwig Leichhardt to his mother, 27 August 1843. Balfour, J.A. p. 104. John Gregor, Extracts from Journals of Missionary Tours in the Moreton Bay District of New South Wales, 1843 (London, The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, 1846) p. 23. Sydney Gazette, 19 March 1842. H.S. Russell, The Genesis of Queensland (Sydney, Turner and Henderson, 1888) p. 279. William Coote, History of Queensland from 1770 to the close of the year 1881, Volume I (Brisbane, Thorne, 1882) p. 49. Stephen Simpson to Colonial Secretary, 30 May 1842. Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 1842 qnd 22 January 1842. Evidence, Immigration Committee, 1842, p. 6. Charles Archer to William Archer, 29 April 1845. Stephen Simpson, Annual report on the state of the Aborigines in the Moreton Bay District for the year ending December 1843. W. Coote, p. 49. John Greig Smith, Evan Mackenzie of Kilcoy and the foundation of Brisbane, 1841-45. Brisbane History Group Papers No. 6 (Brisbane, BHG, 1987), 19-27. John Greig Smith, The foundation of Kangaroo Point 1843-46, Brisbane History Group Papers No. 6, 87-103.

Hetherington displaying the new coal cutter at Blair Athol Na L (Courtesy Queensland Government Mining Journal).