| Narrative | According to Tim Bottoms, 'In 1914 a man named John McKenzie made an unauthorised attempt to settle on Bentinck Island' (Bottoms, 2013: 169). Dibirdibi (Roma Kelly), a Kaiadilt descendant from Bentinck, told linguist Nicholas Evans what her parents told her, which was that 'During his short time on Bentinck Island, McKenzie systematically tried to eliminate the Kaiadilt, riding across the island on horseback, and shooting down everyone but the girls he intended to rape' (Wright cited in Bottoms, 2013, p 169). From oral sources Norman Tindale compiled a detailed genealogy from which he estimates that in about 1918 eleven people were killed, which Evans identifies as 'about 10 percent of the Kaiadilt population' (Kelly & Evans, 1985, pp 44-45). |
