Caption 1
⬅
Wyndam Police Station, East Kimberley, Western Australia 1905 - Click images for enlarged and expanded view
Prisoners of an undeclared war: Aborigines in shackles early last century.
Bringing prisoners to Wyndham for spearing cattle, 1930. Photo Courtesy State Library of Western Australia, The Battye Library
Prisoners in chains at Marble Bar, Pilbara, Western Australia in 1898
1906
An Aboriginal chain gang, about 1900, going to work at Wyndham, Western Australia. The guard is on the extreme right - visable when enlarged
With the eyes of the law often several days' ride away the settlers had little to fear. Gangs of stockmen went on what was known as 'the Big Bushwhack' or simply 'the Drive': a hunt for Aboriginal people which lasted several months [2]. They thought there was nothing wrong with shooting Aboriginal people or raping Aboriginal women.
Aboriginals taked to court - Sydney
Roebourne Jail in the 19th century
Chain ring in Roebourne gaol. The band on the floor goes around the prisoner’s neck.
'Arrival of blacks with flags of truce' This engraving depicts the traditionally mythologised reception the Aboriginal people showed the British colonisers; a genial and peaceful welcome -- a depiction and its implications now questioned by Australian history researchers
A Native Police Force (1842) These forces were established in Port Phillip in 1842 in New South Wales and 1859 in Queensland. The force was built up of young Aboriginal men who were sent to kill Aboriginal people of different language groups. This was a vital contribution to the defeat of the Aboriginal resistance. Some researchers now believe that the Native Policemen were recruited through blackmail.
Captive and chained Aboriginals early 1900s. Click image to expand it.
No more details known - requires research
Paul Foelsche, Studio portrait if Aboriginal man, hand chained at right c.1875, Northern Territory
Bringing prisoners to Wyndham for spearing cattle, 1930. Photo Courtesy State Library of Western Australia, The Battye Library
Four First Nations men - accused of murder circa 1900
Roebourne Prison inmates - for crimes like 'absconding' from ‘blackbirding’ - slavery
Details unknown
Details unknown
Roebourne Prison pictured. In 1889, Samuel McLeod wrote, “On arriving at Roebourne we saw gangs of unfortunate Aborigines chained to wheelbarrows with bullock chains… The effect of the chains can be imagined in a climate where the stones get so hot they cannot be handled. The sight was too painful for most of us from a free land.” (Photo – Battye Library, WA)
From West Australian Sunday Times 21 June 1901 - complete copy and transcript - www.trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/32719352
Trooper with a First Nation prisoner in shackles
Click image to see widescreen image
No more details known - requires research
ca. 1890-1900 - Prisoners probably gathered for work detail. Some European men and Chinese men at back. Battye Library, WA
The unspeakable savagery the British and their Anglo-Celtic Australian spawn unleashed upon Aboriginal Australia included the 'sport' of burying Aboriginal babies and children up to their necks and then kicking the heads until decapitation.
‘Black Velvet’ was revealed by Fairfax publication, People magazine in 1956.The article by Walkley award-winning journalist Harry Cox has a picture with men in chains
Aboriginal people were kidnapped from the West Kimberley region in the late 19th century. The kidnappers known as 'blackbirders' captured workers for the pearling boats. Captives were sometimes locked in hollow Boab Trees while they waited for a boat.
Willaberta Jack was wrongly accused of protecting an escapee. He alluded search parties for several months before giving himself up to the police. He was arrested and taken to Darwin in chains for trial. A CAAMA book for sale online
In 1908 some Aborinal men were rounded up after a doctor was killed by mistake. In the confusion regarding the languages with Roeburne trackers during the hunt, a number of the wrong men were shot and four were taken as prisoners. After they were hung it was established that at least three of the men were innocent.
Aboriginal men in chains on Ord River Station, 1900s. (Battye 004648d)
23 June 1906, Alice Springs - Ten aboriginal prisoners at gaol, Heavitree Gap police camp, charged with stealing beef from James Cummings, sentenced to 6 months each in Port Augusta gaol.- Bradshaw Collection.
The LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR has directed, that a Reward of FIVE POUNDS shall be given for every adult Aboriginal Native, and TWO POUNDS for every Child, who shall be captured and delivered alive at any one of the Police Stations.
Aboriginal prisoners on Rottnest, 1920s. Courtesy State Library of Western Australia, The Battye Library 007180
'Four Aboriginal men accused of murder chained together by the Queensland police (c1900)
‘Chain Gang Western Australia’, photographer Alexander Morton, 1897; prepared by J. W. Beattie. Source: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Q1986.8.138.
Details unknown
Aboriginal prisoners in neck chains aboard the vessel RMS N2, probably being transported to Wajemup (Rottnest Island). (State Library of Western Australia)
Native prisoners on RMS 'N2' WA State Steamshop Service
Kimberley or Pilbara WA - no details known
The only known information on this image is 'Captured for execution' Probably Kimberley or Pilbara WA
Kimberley Prisoners chained for long distance march to prison
Men were captured as slaves and the women, known as 'Black Velvet', were used for sex in the Pearling Industry in the Pilbara and Kimberley Regions of Western Australia
Cape York Peninsula Native Police patrol, c1900
Lumbia (left) following his arrest in 1926. From ‘Natives Under Sentence of Death and Two Black Trackers’
Aboriginal prisoners in the courtyard of the Rottnest Island Prison ca. 1883 (State Library of Western Australia, 6968B)
Aboriginal prisoners in the courtyard of the Rottnest Island Prison
Aboriginal prisoners in chains (State Library of Western Australia 4497B/1)
National Library of Australia picture an7149195. Native [Indigenous Australian] police in 1865
Aboriginal prisoners in chains in a railway wagon, Derby, 1897 (State Library WA)
Aboriginal prisoners in chains in a railway wagon, Derby, 1897
Chain Gang Western Australia', photographer Alexander Morton, 1897 (Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery)
Unknown details - but could be from the Broome region, WA, captured by 'Blackbirders' to work in the Pearling Industry as they have Pearl Shells covering their bits
This image shows a boy in chains on the right. This image cropped without the boy may have been by accident or design, but arresting young boys was standard colonial practice. When Royal Commissioner Walter Roth asked why young boys of 14 where being imprisoned he was told by a police officer 'They are able to chuck a spear as well as any older man.'
'Chez Les Cannibales, 1889' (Queensland Historical Atlas)
Prisoners in Chains - Derby railway West Kimberley WA 1897
Chained aboriginal prisoners on Australia's wharf rail line circa 1920
These prisoners were clapped in chains after allegedly being caught killing a farm animal near Wyndham, Australia, circa 1930
Neck chains were not phased out until the 1940s and continued to be used informally until the 1960s
Aboriginal prisoners shackled by the wrists in transit in Point Samson, Australia, circa 1902
Aboriginal prisoners in neck chains with a white man holding the end of the chain, near Wyndham, Australia, circa 1930
Chained aboriginal prisoners posed with a policeman and Aboriginal trackers, circa 1890
This picture is from around 1930
1910 WA
Aboriginals in chains, jetty railway ballast laying in Derby, West Kimberley WA, ca. 1897
Captured for allegedly killing a farm animal near Wyndham, WA
(Sate Library of Western Australia)
Captured for allegedly stealing a farm animal - Wyndham, East Kimberley WA (State Library of WA)
‘Chain Gang Western Australia’, photographer Alexander Morton, 1897; prepared by J. W. Beattie. Source: Courtesy of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Q1986.8.138. ‘Chain Gang Western Australia’, photographer Alexander Morton, 1897
Queensland
‘Aboriginal bathing gang in Wyndham’, The photo which is a ‘lantern slide’ has subsequently been colourised (and reversed) and is held, for reasons unknown, in the State Library of Victoria.
(State Library of WA)
Group of Aboriginal prisoners at Alice Springs (State Library of South Australia)
Queensland Australia 1956. Aboriginal people chained by the neck and being sent to Palm Island (then a penal settlement just north of Townsville). Aboriginal people were sent there from all over Australia throughout much of the 20th Century
1901. Prisoners captured by police at 2/6 per head. Line of Aboriginal men chained together at the neck. (State Library of WA)
Aboriginal Prisoners in chains WA - From 'The Weekly Times' 27 July 107
Prisoners of the North West were kept at Roebourne, usually on their way to Wadjemup (Rottnest Island Prison) Photo c1900 unknown details
Photo c1900 unknown details
WA Aboriginal prisoners on steamship, either being taken to Roebourne or Rottnest Island Prisons
Beileived to be 'Five Aboriginal police trackers', Kimberley, Western Australia, ca. 1900
Two men sentenced to death and two black trackers - Wyndham WA. The man on the left is Lumbia, sentenced for the murder of pastoralist Fred Hay, which led to the 1926 'Forrest River Massacre' of Oombulgurri people
Convicted of murder and being transported to Broome - Wyndham jetty 1936
1909. Chained Native Prisoners in Nor'West Church.
Native prisoners who work in chains near Carnarvon. Published 1939 "The First 10 years of the United Aborigines Mission 'UAM"
North Western Australia
Wyndham, Kimberley WA 1947. Mirriwong men taken by police as they were suspected of suffering from Leprosy (Hansen’s disease)
Halls Creek slavery c1817-1923
Western Australia 1895 - (State Library of WA)
Chained Aboriginals returning to Cossack Jail, Australia, c1902 - (State Library of WA)
Six Aboriginal men in chains with tools in front of a Halls Creek Hospital (Photo: M.E. McCombe 'nursing days')
➡
Prisoners of undeclared wars, captured slaves and prisoners of the bush courts
Many of these photographs were taken in Western Australia and the Northern Territory and other regions that settled much later than the Eastern states, One can only imagine what frightening images could have been captured if the camera was in common use during the early settlement years of Tasmania, News South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
Early settlers letters that have since surfaced in Great Britain often tell of outrageous racism and horrific abuse and slaughtering of the First Nations people the settlers encountered.
First Nations people were victims of undisputable bias and prejudice in courts, which were anxious to uphold white dominance and did not acknowledge First Nations peoples title to the land. This left First Nations people confused and very fearful.
In legal proceedings First Nations people were at a considerable disadvantage. Because they were regarded as incapable of understanding the oath in European courts, their evidence was not accepted. When this situation was later corrected, they were still greatly disadvantaged:
... tried and convicted in courts, and because of their perceived 'pagan' nature, they couldn't swear on a bible and thus give evidence.
- No First Nations person appeared as prosecutor, juror or judge.
- Court procedures and the legal code were European, and bewildering.
- Translation of First Nations languages caused problems in court.
- Customs and law were not taken into account, except in the negative;
- There is a tendency for First Nations people to look for, and give, the answer required by the prosecution.
Some of these issues are still relevant today
In 1889, Samuel McLeod wrote, "On arriving at Roebourne we saw gangs of unfortunate Aborigines chained to wheelbarrows with bullock chains... The effect of the chains can be imagined in a climate where the stones get so hot they cannot be handled. The sight was too painful for most of us from a free land."
SEE: THE ROTH REPORT - 1905 Charges against the Police
The Roth report details the treatment of Aboriginals within the hands of the police, colononers and court systems at great length.
The Roth report details the treatment of Aboriginals within the hands of the police, colononers and court systems at great length.
Some of the images are of bona fide prisoners of the undeclared wars, however, in the outback, prisoners were usually kept alive and healthy to be used for slave labour by the troopers, settlers, pearling masters, whalers and sealing etc.
The practice of kidnapping and forced labour (slavery) of First Nations people was known as ‘Blackbirding’ and was a profitable business for some of the early settlers who would 'round them up' at gunpoint, when extra hands were required. Many would never see their families again.
"I didn't have time to write by last mail as I was very busy getting my darkies together for pearling. I've got a good crowd this season, nearly 40. Jack has been out after darkies and is expected daily now," Duncan MacRae, pearler & pastoralist, 1881.
Roebourne jail Western Australia
In the nineteenth century each black prisoner carried an iron chain around his neck (weighing approximately 5 pounds) in the open where temperatures usually ranged beween 35 and 45 degrees. It was secured by a padlock and individual prisoners were then chained to another man.
Chains of prisoners had as many as nine or ten men attached to each other.
In 1905 the Roebourne jail housed 69 prisoners and had only four warders so chaining was seen to be a security risk against Aboriginal uprising in the town where they were used on working chain gangs.
Eventually a new method of chaining Aboriginal prisoners was decided upon. They were to be chained from the ankles, the chain was to pass inside the leg of the prisoners trousers and supported by a heavy belt around the waist. Prisoners could then be chained in pairs and 'allowed' to work outside the prison walls.
There were iron rings bolted to the walls of some jail cells where prisoners were believed to be chained for chained for prison discipline.
Sir John Forrest, the great uncle of mining billionaire Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest, went to great lengths to justify the chain gangs in Roebourne at the time, as documented here:-
[ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32719352 ],
[ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/112568628 ].
In the nineteenth century each black prisoner carried an iron chain around his neck (weighing approximately 5 pounds) in the open where temperatures usually ranged beween 35 and 45 degrees. It was secured by a padlock and individual prisoners were then chained to another man.
Chains of prisoners had as many as nine or ten men attached to each other.
In 1905 the Roebourne jail housed 69 prisoners and had only four warders so chaining was seen to be a security risk against Aboriginal uprising in the town where they were used on working chain gangs.
Eventually a new method of chaining Aboriginal prisoners was decided upon. They were to be chained from the ankles, the chain was to pass inside the leg of the prisoners trousers and supported by a heavy belt around the waist. Prisoners could then be chained in pairs and 'allowed' to work outside the prison walls.
There were iron rings bolted to the walls of some jail cells where prisoners were believed to be chained for chained for prison discipline.
Sir John Forrest, the great uncle of mining billionaire Andrew (Twiggy) Forrest, went to great lengths to justify the chain gangs in Roebourne at the time, as documented here:-
[ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/32719352 ],
[ http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/112568628 ].