And I had to explain
How his Commander Logan
Had died just this day
“He’d set out behind you
He was out hunting game
When he startled some natives
Took a spear through his brain”
Then the prisoner said “good”
I heard someone in boots
I turned around and that’s when
The Royal Marines came
– The Drones, Sixteen Straws
Logan was named after the brutal Captain Patrick Logan. On 31 May 1978, Local Government Minister Russ Hinze introduced the Local Government (Change of Boundaries) Bill to create the new Logan Shire. In 1981 Logan was renamed a city by the corrupt National Party government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen and Russ Hinze. Aboriginal people engaged in open warfare against the penal settlement in Meanjin (Brisbane) commanded by Captain Logan who arrived in March 1826 having fought against the French in the Peninsular Wars in 1811. English soldiers were brutalised in that war exacting cruel treatment against the civilian population.
Captain Logan fell victim to guerilla tactics employed by Yuggera, Dalla and Jinibara people near Esk in the Brisbane Valley. Bear in mind that the black wars in Van Diemans Land were in full swing in 1830 when Captain Logan was killed by aboriginal people resisting white settlement.
Kalkadoon warriors employed guerilla tactics at Battle Mountain in 1884. However guerilla* war was around long before Kalkadoon resistance drove back white settlerment. As the name implies guerilla war is conducted at the local level often under cover of night by popular resistance against a conventional army, sometimes to great effect. [*guerrilla is the Spanish diminutive form of guerra (war)]. As Mao pointed out guerrilla war is often employed by revolutionaries to bring about progressive change in society. Both Mao and Che Guervara wrote books on guerilla warfare. Both believed that success could only come if the guerilla war was part of a revolution in society. Sadly that never happened in Australia.
The term became popular during the early-19th century Peninsular War, when, after the defeat of their regular armies, the Spanish and Portuguese people successfully rose against the Napoleonic troops and defeated a highly superior army using guerrilla strategy.
Captain Patrick Logan, the brutal commandant at Moreton Bay Penal settlement in the 1820s, fell victim to guerrilla tactics by aboriginal warriors near Esk. This was doubly ironic as Captain Logan fought and was probably brutalised in the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon in 1811-13 albeit as part of British regular forces.
Neither payback nor guerrilla tactics should be confused with terrorism especially when the larger conventional army are often the real terrorists. For example pro-Israeli spin doctors are forever conflating Palestinian ‘intifada’ (uprising) with terrorism.
Lieutenant George Edwards wrote this account of Logan’s demise at the hands of aboriginal warriors near Esk in S-E Queensland:
“On Saturday, 9th of October, he left this place and reached the Limestone Station, the same night. The next day they all set out upon their journey, the party consisting of Capt. Logan, Private Collison, his servant, five prisoners (all good bushmen), with two pack bullocks … Two or three blacks were seen near the camp place at night …
On approaching the river bank at the fording place, the blacks assembled in great numbers, upwards of 200, and covered the hill close to where they had to pass, on the Limestone side of river, and at this place they began to show a hostile feeling by throwing and rolling large stones down on the party, but no spears were thrown. At the time, Capt. Logan was in advance, and finding he could not proceed on account of the natives, was obliged to fall back and await the coming up of the party … the party were in the act of fording the river, the blacks closed on them again and a further shot was fired. The natives appeared to know Logan for as soon as he had crossed, they repeatedly called out, ‘Commidy Water,’ intimating thereby, it is supposed, he should go back over the water. …
On the 12th and 13th no blacks were seen. … About 12 o’clock on the same day, 50 or 60 blacks made their appearance with spears, shields, and waddies. They hovered about the party shouting and getting behind trees, endeavouring to close upon the party undiscovered. No shots were fired. They continued their course, and an hour or two after the blacks went in the direction of Mt. Irwin, the same course as Capt. Logan had taken the previous evening.
Nothing more occurred and the party reached the same fording place as they had crossed the Monday before. … “It was at this place that the blacks must have surprised him, for his footmarks were very distinct, with long strides where he had rushed from his fire to his horse. A further search was then made to see if there were any signs of struggling or violence, but as nothing of the sort could be found, it was assumed that he must have jumped on his horse bareback and made his escape. … The blacks must have pursued him to this place, and the marks were those of a horse in full gallop. One broken spear only was found in the opposite bank, and at this spot the blacks must have certainly closed upon him.”
LIFE OF CAPTAIN PATRICK LOGAN by LOUIS R. CRANFIELD.
Logan City would best named after aboriginal resistance leader Dundalli who was publicly hanged in Brisbane’s post office Square after conducting a guerrilla war against white settlers.
A crowd gathered to witness the execution on 5 January 1855 and the town constabulary and a detachment of native police surrounded the gallows to prevent any attempt at escape or rescue. As Dundalli mounted the scaffold he called out to a large number of indigenous people, who were gathered in the brushes that lined the Wickham Terrace hill, overlooking the scene, to avenge his death. They let out a loud cry when his body dropped. Alexander Green, the executioner sent from Sydney, bungled the hanging. Dundalli’s feet fell upon his coffin, forcing Green to bend and drag on the hanged man’s long legs until he died. This was the last official public execution in Queensland.
Boe Spearim (Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance 5 Jan 2023
“Dundalli was a lore man. A Jinibara man (sic). A husband and likely a father. The Wonga Pigeon his name sake. He was known for his strength as a Freedom Fighter who restored balance and as an instrumental leader in the resistance against colonisation.
Luna Moon on Facebook.
Young Dundalli evaded capture for over 14 years while whites wrongfully held him responsible for every act of violence against colonisers. Dundalli was hunted down and eventually captured, imprisoned and sentenced to death. On the 5th of February 1855, on the footpath of Queen St, Brisbane, Post Office Square – people gathered to witness his hanging. Mob stood at the hill on Wickham Terrace – wailing as his body dropped. But he was not relieved by death. It is said that the executioner botched the hanging by allowing Dundalli’s feet to fall upon his coffin. His legs were then pulled down towards the ground until he was strangled to death. Many believe that this was intentional. This was the last official public execution in Queensland but it was not the last death of an Indigenous person at the hands of the colony. Remember Dundalli but to also remember or learn about all freedom fighters and frontier warriors throughout Australia’s history. These wars were right in our back yard and their fight has been imperative for the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.”
One hundred years ago, Queensland became the first place in both Australia and the British Commonwealth to abolish the death penalty on 31 July 1922 – but not before 94 people perished at the end of a hangman’s noose. Neil Frost described the racist basis for hanging in Queensland at the Dutton Park cemetery. Perhaps most chilling and reprehensible of the deaths recorded in the cemetery were the capital punishment burials of 41 men and one woman who were publicly hung at the nearby Boggo Road gaol. Those killed included thirteen (13) South Sea Islanders and six (6) first nations men. This disproportionate number of South Sea Islander and First Nations people indicate a criminalization of groups whose offences could be seen as acts of resistance. These were often public events where South Sea Islanders and Aboriginal people where brought in to witness the cruel hangings to act as a deterrent for often violent resistance for their land being stolen or being the victims of ‘blackbirding’.
Perhaps Logan city should be called Dundalli? Logan city ain’t it pretty?
Logan city what a pity
That we’re livin’ south of the freeway
– Kev Carmody ‘Living South of the Freeway‘
Ian Curr
8 Jan 2023
Learn more about Dundalli and the 40 year resistance in South East Queensland here on Spotify with Bogaine Spearim https://open.spotify.com/episode/7G1Kx1zgzhbhxE716s7HZt…
Photo from BJ Djinidjini Murphy courtesy of Munnimbah-Dja “Welcome Place” from George Diggles
References
Sixteen Straws by The Drones