| Narrative | Merlan (1978, p 87) wrote that 'When interviewed in 1957 George Conway mentioned that he had been hired to lead a hunting expedition into Arnhem Land in 1905 or 1906, and that his party had killed dozens of Aborigines.' Conway was an employee on Arafura Station owned by the Eastern & African Cold Storage Company. It was company policy to have teams of 10-14 men, led by a white man, roaming around on the station shooting Aboriginal people. Dewar (1995, p 9) corroborated this account: ‘A further attempt was made to develop a pastoral industry when Arafura Station was taken up by the African Cold Storage Supply Company in 1903 in central Arnhem Land. Arafura Station was not a commercial success (Bauer 1964, 157) and the company was liquidated in 1908. The station is remembered today for the extreme violence of its managers. Accounts have been collected from both Yolngu and non-Aboriginals who remember the massacres of Yolngu in the area (Bauer 1964, 157; Dreyfus & Dhulumburrk 1980, 19-20; Read and Read 1991, 19-24; Van der Heide 1985, 15, 16, 52, 53).’ |
