Thread: OK short quiz.

Originally Posted by zulu Delta 534

Pretty sure that the one you are talking about would have to be Mapoon, Bob.
This was not necessarily the only mission station to where these mixed parentaged kids ended up as this was a reasonably widespread practice. Kids of mixed races were often shunned in their own communities (as often happens today in our community although today we often are not brave enough to admit our foibles!) and it was often with the best reason at hand that these kids were "taken".
When we research Missions and associated sorts of outposts today on Google or whatever (I checked up on Wikipedia) one is fed a clinical modern day politically corrected and slanted translation of what actually happened, but unfortunately a translation that glosses over a lot of truths and presents a case that is socially acceptable and politically correct in today's context, and which conveniently omits most of the legitimate reasons for such organisations and institutions actually existing.
Today we tend to portray the heart wrenching story of a sad and persecuted race who had their children and families literally torn from the heaving bosoms of their distraught mothers, and callously locked away in some horrendous workhouse, never to be seen again.
Sadly in one or two cases this may be actual fact, just as there are some families and children in this very day who are treated just as badly by so-called "welfare" groups, and Family Courts, but this is by far, not the general case.
I know of more than a couple of these children who were apparently "stolen" then put in torturous conditions (read fostered out), neglected, (Read educated at Colleges) and returned to their tribes fully educated, civilised (by our standards) as fully fledged school teachers and engineers.
In hindsight unfortunately, when these youngsters were returned to their tribal groups they inadvertently were the cause of the downfall of their own tribal structure and ways, in that suddenly some young Fella came back into the tribe with more "so called" wisdom to pass on to the young bucks than the tribal elders. This new fangled anomaly caused "loss of face" by the wise Elders, mayhem in the tribal structure and the result is what we are seeing today.
This rant is not directed at anyone in particular, but more at "US in general" for allowing ourselves to be lead by the short and curlies into the belief that all that has happened in the past was wrong, immoral, illegal and or unethical, and no reference at all to the real reasons for a lot of these actions ever being presented; and I might add that, this is happening right across a very broad spectrum, not only in the case of Aboriginal affairs.

Hopefully Bob, there may be one or perhaps two youngsters who may follow this thread, who may have the ability to see beyond the cold manipulated facts depicted on the electronic printed page! I really do hope so.
Regards
Glen

You make a lot of sense. I agree. The past should be studied, as a road to a better future. You are correct, and with a name like Mapoon, we would have to think it would have an interesting history. It does.


Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council

OK, how many people think they know about the Torres Strait people? Question, are they related to the mainland aboriginals, or do they originate elsewhere. Bob

One of the many fascinating stories out of the north, Torres Strait Islanders are said to originate from the Fly River , and coastal areas of PNG, as well as some islands are said to be settled by Pacific islanders, many years ago. For any one interested in the region, it is a great story, Bob


http://www.multiculturalaustralia.ed...res_strait.pdf






EDIT- I found this interesting...




Ngarupai


(Horn Island) was bombed by the Japanese in 1942 and most of the


European and Asian-descended population evacuated to the mainland. Over


800 Torres Strait Islanders, almost every able-bodied man from the outer


islands, served in the defence forces in some capacity on Thursday and Horn


Islands, their parents, wives and children being largely abandoned by the


Australian authorities to fend for themselves on their home islands. The


defence of Torres Strait and Dutch New Guinea, in which Islanders of the


Torres Strait Light Infantry Battalion (TSLI) played a significant part, was


vitally important in ensuring that northern Australia was not invaded.


Despite the contribution of the Islanders, the Army bowed to pressure from


the Queensland government, on advice from the Protector of Aboriginals, and


paid most Torres Strait soldiers only one-third the European rate and no


family allowance although they were entitled to full repatriation benefits. Nor


were Islanders at first permitted to advance beyond the rank of Corporal.


Encouraged by their successful strike in 1936 and by the encouragement of


their European mates, they staged sit-down strikes in 1943 and 1944 to


demand full pay and an end to discriminatory treatment. The Army finally


acceded to their demands and raised their pay to two-thirds the rate for other


soldiers but lowered repatriation benefits to two-thirds. The matter of


redressing the inequalities in pay and benefits was taken up by Islander exsoldiers


after the war but it was not until 1983 that the Federal Government


agreed to right the injustice of the underpayments. The first repayment was


made in March 1984 and the final repayment three years later.

Two brothers left Rockhampton on 1May 1864, headed north to Somerset , Cape York, with 42 horses & 250 Cattle. They reached Somerset 2nd March1865 with 12 horses & 50 cattle, after a running fight with aboriginal tribes, over 1200 miles thru jungle & wild rivers. One of the brothers ended up marrying Sana Solia, niece of the King of Samoa. Who was he? Bob

Francis Lascelles [ frank] Jardine, a legend in his time. His battles with the local natives, & Torres strait islanders, has been written about in a book called " too many spears". Recommended reading , by Peter Pinney & Estelle Runcie. A ripper of a yarn, stranger than fiction, but a true story.





From jacket: " ...This is the true story of [Police Magistrate Frank ] Jardine; Nellie Blue-Eyes, refugee from a slaughtered island; missionaries; men of fortune; the shadowy Wy-mirra and powerful Mamoose Kebisu, the terrible white renegade called Wini ... and of the beautiful Samoan girl, princess turned missionary, Sana... "



Jardine, Francis Lascelles (Frank) (1841–1919)

by Clem Lack
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, (MUP), 1972
Francis Lascelles (Frank) Jardine is a minor entry in this article
John Jardine (1807-1874), pastoralist and magistrate, was born on 5 March 1807 at Spedlins Tower, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, the fourth son of Sir Alexander Jardine and his wife Jane, née Maule. He joined the 1st Regiment of Dragoons in 1835, married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain W. H. Craig, R.N., sold his commission as captain on 10 May 1839 and sailed with his wife for Sydney. They arrived in the Dryade on 3 January 1840 and settled on the Coralgie run near Wellington. In financial difficulties by 1848 he was appointed commissioner for crown lands in the Bligh district. Ten years later government retrenchment left him with ten dependants and no occupation. He moved to Queensland and in 1861 was appointed police magistrate and gold commissioner at Rockhampton. When the new settlement of Somerset was established at Cape York in 1863, he became police magistrate and with his third son, John, erected the first buildings. He served as magistrate until December 1865 when he returned to his old office at Rockhampton. He died there on 27 February 1874, survived by his wife, five sons and two daughters.

His eldest son, Francis Lascelles, was born on 28 August 1841 at Orange and educated at The King's School. When his father was posted to Somerset, Frank and his brother Alexander overlanded the stock. Accompanied by four Europeans and four Aboriginals they left Rockhampton on 14 May 1864 with 42 horses and 250 cattle. On the ten months' trek of 1200 miles (1931 km) they were constantly harassed by Aboriginals, forced their way through jungles, scrub and swamps and crossed at least six large rivers. At the Mitchell River on 13 December they withstood a major Aboriginal attack. Clad in tatters, wearing hats of emu skin and living on turkey eggs, they reached Somerset on 2 March 1865 with 12 horses and 50 cattle. Both brothers were elected fellows of the Royal Geographical Society and received the Murchison grant. In 1866 Frank settled on a station near Somerset and was appointed police magistrate in 1868. Confusion between his government and personal activities led to frequent complaints and in 1875 he was superseded by Henry Chester.

On 10 October 1873 at Somerset Jardine married the seventeen-year-old Sana Solia, niece of the King of Samoa; they had two sons and two daughters. In 1884-86 he was in charge of transport for the construction of the Cape York telegraph line and in 1890 was prominent in searching for survivors from the wreck of the steamer Quetta. After the government station was moved to Thursday Island in 1877, Jardine's home at Somerset was the centre of civilization on Cape York. Elaborate dinners for visiting dignitaries were served on silver plate made from Spanish dollars found by Jardine on a reef in 1890. He died of leprosy at Somerset on 18 March 1919 and was buried near the beach at Somerset. He was survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters.

A brother, Alexander William, was born on 9 October 1843 near Sydney, shared in the Cape York expedition, served on many government works in Queensland, became chief engineer for harbours and rivers and died in London on 20 March 1920.

Who was the man, in the early days of the Indian Navy, who was involved in suppressing piracy & slave running, and was political agent for Oman & Muscat, who became the police Magistrate of Somerset, Cape York. Virtually run out of Cairns, he made a name for himself at Clermont Qld. Bob

Another character from North Qld, Bob



Chester, Henry Marjoribanks (1832–1914)

by G. C. Bolton
This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 3, (MUP), 1969
Henry Marjoribanks Chester (1832-1914), public servant, was born on 30 December 1832 in London, son of William Chester, curate of Cripplegate Parish Church. After education at Christ's Hospital, the London School in Newgate Street and the Royal Mathematical School, he entered the service of the Indian navy in 1849, and remained an officer in it until its abolition in 1862. During this period he saw service in the Persian Gulf, took part in the suppression of piracy and slave-running, and was for a time political agent at the court of Oman and Muscat. Despite the experience gained in this adventurous career, he saw no future for himself in India as a civilian or as a family man. At St Luke's Church, Chelsea, on 4 December 1860 he had married a widow, Egbertha Emily Wardell, née Lucas.

In 1862 Chester decided to migrate to Queensland. After working in the Brisbane branch of the Union Bank of Australia, he entered the public service in January 1866. At first in the Lands Department he was responsible for surveying the town sites of Charleville and Cunnamulla, and then became government land agent at Gladstone in 1867 and Gympie in 1868. In January 1869 he was appointed police magistrate at Somerset, on the northern tip of Cape York Peninsula, but resigned in August 1870 and quitted the civil service for five years.

From 1875 to 1903 Chester served continually as a police magistrate. With his previous experience in outposts of empire, he was often appointed to remote and difficult communities in north Queensland. Decisive and hard-working, he had a good conceit of his office which at times verged on the pompous and autocratic, particularly in later life when his manner provoked the irreverence of village radicals. He returned to Somerset in succession to George Dalrymple in September 1875. It was a decaying settlement frequented by a rough assortment of pearlers, blackbirders, and bêche-de-mer fishers, and on Chester's advice the Queensland government transferred his headquarters in 1877 to a more central position at Thursday Island. There he ruled for eight years, establishing a relatively orderly if polyglot community with a thriving pearling industry whose annual exports were valued at £87,000 in 1885. His moment of glory came late in March 1883. Sir Thomas McIlwraith, disturbed by Britain's reluctance to annex a promising field for investment in Papua, sent orders to Chester to go immediately to the infant settlement of Port Moresby and take possession of the unoccupied eastern half of New Guinea.


Sailing north in the Pearl, Chester planted the Union Jack at Port Moresby on 4 April 1883 and, as befitted an old naval officer, took the opportunity of shelling a warlike party of Motu who were thought to threaten the security of the port. This act of occupation was later disowned by the British government, who delayed claiming any part of New Guinea until after German annexation of the north-east in 1884. Chester visited New Guinea again in the Victoria in 1885, but this time with the less glamorous mission of repatriating natives illegally recruited for sugar growing.
In April 1885 Chester was transferred to Cairns, where he promoted the formation of a Volunteer Defence Corps, one of several formed then in Queensland through fear of Russian designs, and served as lieutenant.


But he was not popular with the easy-going townspeople and was lampooned by a local editor as the subject of the notorious 'Cairns prayer'. In June 1887 the Griffith government was moved to transfer him to Cloncurry. Rather than accept demotion to such a remote post, Chester tendered his resignation, and in November the government appointed him police magistrate at the new Croydon goldfield. There he gave satisfaction and was transferred in 1891 to Cooktown and in 1898 to Clermont. This town struck him as filthy and insanitary, and he instigated a cleaning-up campaign which met opposition from a complacent mayor who wanted to keep rates low, and from Vincent Lesina, the local Labor M.L.A. who, on the strength of Chester's past history at Cairns, was prepared to bait him as a reactionary. This time the Queensland government was not prepared to entertain complaints against Chester and he remained at Clermont until transferred in 1902 to Gladstone. He retired in 1903 and died in Brisbane on 3 October 1914, survived by two of his three sons.

[QUOTE=zulu Delta 534;2159574



Hopefully Bob, there may be one or perhaps two youngsters who may follow this thread, who may have the ability to see beyond the cold manipulated facts depicted on the electronic printed page! I really do hope so.
Regards
Glen[/QUOTE]


I have genuinely tried to keep politics out of this thread, I really want it to be an educational thread for all those who do " THE CAPE " and go up and back, with no thought about the history of the area. There is more to "THE CAPE " than what is advertised in 4WD magazines. However, your point about young people understanding about the stolen generation? A point which I now think was not really necessary, because that was not the point of my post, must be answered. Bob


Blind Eye: Documentary on Stolen Generation - YouTube