Site NameJurlakkula (Nero Yard)
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place NameJurlakkula
Language Group, Nation or PeopleNgarinman, Bilinara
Present State/TerritoryNT
Colony/State/Territory at the timeNT
Police DistrictTimber Creek
Latitude-17.657
Longitude130.75
DateBetween 10 Dec 1919 and 28 Feb 1920
Attack TimeDay
VictimsAboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
Victim DescriptionsAboriginal
Victims Killed30
Victims Killed Notes
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsPolice
Attackers Killed1
Attackers Killed Notes
TransportHorse
MotiveReprisal
Weapons UsedFirearm(s)
NarrativeRonnie Wavehill Wirrpngayarri (cited in Charola & Meakins, p 45) recounts it in these terms: 'Yet another one was an ambush up at Nero Yard… This is where kartiya ambushed some ngumpin. And what for? Maybe for stealing cattle; that's how they told it to me...They had a big battle there. Spears were aimed and missed... they hooked up the short spears and sent them straight down – couldn't miss! The first one aimed and hit a kartiya right in the belly as soon as he came out from his hiding place. One down! As soon as the other kartiya saw him get speared, they all went running away. Towards here, to the east is where they buried him. At Jurlakkula it happened the same way as at Warluk. They just massacred a whole lot of Aboriginal people. Is it right that kartiya come from another place and wipe out people on their own country? That kind of thing can't be right!'.
While this massacre is clearly different to the other massacres in the region, estimating a date is difficult. The year 1901 and number killed is a speculation from the following conjecture. This may be a massacre that Paddy Cahill was involved in at Wave Hill.
In his narrative Ronnie Wavehill Wirrpngayarri says that ngumpin [Aboriginal people] helped the kartiya [colonists] during the killing at Jurlakkula, saying they were from 'maybe Queensland or maybe from somewhere up here' (Charola & Meakins, p 45). While it was common for colonists to have Aboriginal workers, Paddy Cahill was from Queensland and was well known for working with a very close Aboriginal assistant named 'Quilp' and other Aboriginal people (The Register, 3 Mar 1919, p 6; The Register 6 Feb 1923, p 7).
Read & Japaljarri (1978, p 147) say that 'A white informant [Dr Stephen Harris] stated that Paddy Cahill, the manager of Oenpelli Station, had been called over in about 1924 to deal with cattle killers. He shot over 30 bush people'. However, Paddy Cahill moved to Oenpelli Station, further north, with his wife in 1906 and, after struggling for flu, died on 4 Feb 1923 in Sydney (NTDB, Vol 1, p 84). The estimated year '1924' must be wrong as he was dead, and while Paddy was famed for riding hundreds of kilometres in a short amount of time, it's less likely he was 'called over' during this more settled phase of his life.
Paddy's brother, Tommy Cahill, was the manager of Wave Hill Station from 1895 to 1905. Tom Cahill said that, 'At first the natives were very wild and used to give us a lot of trouble, killing our cattle' (SMH, February 19, 1921).
The Wave Hill station, and more broadly Victoria River District, were violent areas from at least from 1889 when 'Mr. T. Cahill, the station manager, and several of the station men (principally blackboys) were out one day in the locality where "Paddy the Lasher" was murdered a couple of years ago.' (Northern Territory Times and Gazette 20 Jan 1899) and continued at least until 1924 when 'the last massacre' (Ward, 2016, p 24) is estimated to have taken place. There were numerous killings and reprisals between these dates, and Paddy was involved in another massacre further north at Willeroo in 1892 (Arndt, 1965, p245) and was attacked at the Gregory Creek/Victoria River junction some time prior to 1900 (The Register 18 Dec 1905, p 6).
Following an intensification of resistance to colonists around Wave Hill in the 1890s, Paddy wrote a letter complaining that Aboriginal people had not been punished for murders in the Victoria River District, and that in the previous 6 months there had been repeated attacks on travellers and spearing of cattle and horses. He recommended, 'place police enough in the Victoria River district to cope with the blacks... and let us have the evildoers brought to justice' and warned that 'Unless something like this is done a wholesale murder will take place at some of the stations in the Victoria River district' (South Australian Register, 29 Jan 1901, p 5). Throughout the history of massacres it was common for colonists to complain that Aboriginal people were getting away without being punished for theft and murder and that the Government was not doing anything, or were inneffectual, as a justification for taking matters into their own hands.
For these reasons the best estimate is that this was a massacre that Paddy Cahill was involved in and that it occurred around 1901 as a reprisal for ongoing violent acts of Aboriginal resistance in the area.
SourcesCharola & Meakins, 2016, p 45; Northern Territory Times and Gazette 20 Jan 1899) https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4219064; Ward, 2016, A Handful of Sand: The Gurindji Struggle, After the Walk-off Monash University Publishing, p 24; Arndt, 1965 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40329542; The Register 18 Dec 1905, p 6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55652556; The Register 3 Mar 1919, p 6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/60904518/4540090; The Register 6 Feb 1923, p 7 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63834371; South Australian Register 20 Jan 1901, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/54557111; Read & Japaljarri, 1978, p 147 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24054573; Lewis, 2018, pp 257-258 https://hdl.handle.net/10070/305617; SMH February 19, 1921 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15959341; SMH, February 19 1921 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15959341; NTDB, Vol 1, p 84 https://dcarment.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/ntdictionaryofbiography.pdf (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating**