Extract of letter from George Faithfull to Governor La Trobe
8th of September 1853

While it is the clear intent of the study design to focus in this dot point on modern conflicts over uses of natural environments, it is worth considering that such conflicts have taken place at least since the arrival of early Europeans in this country.

Riding with two of my stockmen one day along the banks of the (Broken) river (in 1838), we passed between the anabranch of the river itself by a narrow block of land, and, after proceeding about half a mile, we were all at once met by some hundreds of painted warriors with the most dreadful yells I had ever heard. Had they sprung from the regions below we could have hardly been taken more by surprise. Our horses bounded and neighed with fear - old brutes, which in other respects required an immense deal of persuasion in the way of spurs to make them go along.

Our first impulse was to retreat, but we found the narrow way blocked up by natives two and three deep, and we were at once saluted with a shower of spears. My horse bound and fell into an immense hole. A spear just then passed over the pummel of my saddle. This was the signal for a general onset. The natives rushed on us like furies, with shouts and savage yells; it was no time for delay. I ordered my men to take deliberate aim, and fire only with certainty of destruction to the individual aimed at.

Unfortunately, the first shot from one of my men’s carbines did not take an effect; in a moment we were surrounded on all sides by the savages boldly coming up to us. It was my time now to endeavour to repel them. I fired my double-barrel right and left, and two of the most forward fell; this stopped the impetuosity of their career. I had time to reload, and the war thus begun continued from about ten o’clock in the morning until four in the afternoon. We were slow to fire, which prolonged the battle, and 60 rounds were fired, and I trust and believe that many of the bravest of the savage warriors bit the dust.

It was remarkable that the children, and many of the women likewise, had so little fear that they boldly ran forward, even under our horses’ legs, picked up the spears, and carried them back to the warrior men. We at last beat them off the field, and found that they had a fine fat bullock - some of it roasting, some cut up ready for the spit, and more cattle dead ready to portion out. The fight I have described gave them a notion of what sort of stuff the white man was made, and my name was a terror to them ever after.

I picked up a boy from under a log, took him home and tamed him, and he became very useful to me, and I think was the means of deterring his tribe from committing further wanton depredation upon my property; my neighbours, however, suffered much long after this.

quoted from Bride, T.F. Letters from Victorian pioneers, Heinemann, Melbourne (1969)

Discussion questions

1. Why did conflicts of this type take place? Were they inevitable? Could traditional aboriginal land practices and early European land practices have co-existed peacefully?
2. What does "the impetuosity of their career" mean? What does this description tell us about traditional aboriginal connection with the land?
3. The squatter, George Faithfull, regarded the aborigines as inferior, but in what way/s did he have a grudging respect for them?
4. Have community attitudes changed towards a) others who are different, and b) ways of resolving conflict in the last 150 years?

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