We include hear a shameful account by one of my ancestors Edward M Curr of a visit to Moira by police from Melbourne to abduct a proud Yorta Yorta man, Warri, from his country. This pompous chapter was relied upon in part by the courts to justify the biggest land grab in history, that of the Great South Land of so- called Australia. In Recollections of Squatting in Victoria Edward Curr refers to the Yorta Yorta country as the Bangerang. My ancestor quite comfortably parodies the views of a visiting officer of colonial military forces from Port Phillip to his sheep run on Yorta Yorta country and expropriation of the land as a member of the English gentry (like Lord Balfour, if he were alive today) might describe the sacking of Gaza by the Israelis:
“In addition, it was charming also to notice, even on a short acquaintance, not only that the estimate in which this warrior (long since, poor fellow, a pilgrim to the happy hunting grounds) held civilians was, in the main, a low one; but also that—unknown to himself, probably—he regarded them as a very unimportant portion of the community, whose raison d’être might have been the erection of towns in which the military, in times of peace, might enjoy the usual agréments of society—of which the daughters of civilians to flirt with formed a prominent feature. Whilst, of course, in times of war, such places would be put to their proper purposes, and be defended, battered, and sacked in the orthodox way, as we always read in history.“
Washing away the ‘tide of history’
It beggars belief that the Mr Justice Olney’s ruling privileged glib records like Curr’s, even when they conflicted with oral testimonies Yorta Yorta elders, concluding that the “tide of history” had washed away the “foundation of native title”. We include the chapter by my ancestor Edward M Curr entitled A Visit to the Moira in Company with the Police from his book, “Recollections of squatting in Victoria.” – Ian Curr, Editor, WBT.
As early as 1860 members of the Yorta Yorta demanded compensation from the Victorian authorities for the destruction of their natural fishing areas by paddle steamers. The demand was for a tax of 10 pounds ($20) to be imposed on each steamer passing up and down the river to be expended in supplying food to the natives in lieu of the fish which had been driven away (Victorian Aborigines Protection Board, 1861:19). These demands were obviously unsuccessful, but it does illustrate that as early as 1860 the Yorta Yorta ancestors were well aware of their inherent rights and were quick to exercise them.
Between 1860 and 1994 there were approximately 18 separate attempts to claim land and compensation by the Yorta Yorta community. The only land that has been returned is 1,200 acres of the former Cummeragunja Reserve, which was originally 2,965 acres. This land was granted to the Yorta Yorta by the New South Wales Government under its Land Rights Act, 1983. The land was granted as inalienable freehold title, but when measured against the traditional Yorta Yorta territories, it amounts to a tenth of 1 percent of the traditional lands of some 20,000 square kilometres.
The Yorta Yorta continued to assert their inherent rights and have shown through oral, documentary, and material evidence, that their social, spiritual, economic and cultural links with the area have never been broken. No Tide of History as it was used to deny the Yorta Yorta their native title claim will ever wash away the long and continued connections that the Yorta continue to hold with their ancestral lands (Yorta Yorta Land Claim, 1984:1).
Dr Wayne Atkinson
Yorta Yorta Elder
A Visit to the Moira in Company
with the Police
AFTER THE RETURN of my brother and myself from the Moira, we set to work to make preparations for occupying a block of country in that locality. Whilst so engaged, however, the solitude of Tongala was broken in upon by the arrival of several troopers, headed by the officer in charge of the native mounted police.
The detachment, rather a larger one than Usual, consisted, besides the officer, of four blacks and four white troopers. Such a visitation from the outer world, as a matter of course, somewhat fluttered us Volscians in Corioli. The station hands all turned out to gaze on the strange men and horses, as if such a sight had never met their eyes before, and bestowed on the removal of cloaks unslinging of carbines, watering of chargers, &c., their undivided attention; whilst the uniformity practised in such matters by the troopers, and their systematic clockwork-like mode of managing matters which Civilians are apt to look on as trifles, did not fail to elicit, sotto voce, uncomplimentary remarks from some of my men, to whom such methodical ways brought back unpleasant reminiscences of prison days.
The officer, who accompanied me to my hut after he had seen his men disposed of, carelessly unbuckled his sabre and pitched it and his foraging cap on to the sofa, and taking a chair, amused me a good deal as he rattled out, in the most dégagé manner, that he had received instructions “to put himself at the head of his present force, apprehend all troublesome Blacks, and restore quiet to the disaffected district; that a reinforcement m the person of Corporal Rolfe, a non-commissioned officer in whom he placed the greatest confidence, was momentarily expected; that his fellows were all of the night sort, specially trained indeed by himself; and that the service was thoroughly.
A visit to Moira .., from “Recollections of squatting in Victoria” by Edward M Curr
… read more at A visit to Moira with police
Reference