‘MAKING PEOPLE QUIET’ IN THE PASTORAL NORTH: REMINISCENCES OF ELSEY STATION* Francesca Merlan
In 1903 Elsey, Hodgson Downs and Wollogorang Stations were purchased by the newly-incorporated Eastern and African Cold Storage Co. Ltd. The precursor of this company had in 1899 leased nearly twenty thousand square miles with coastal frontage in the Blue Mud Bay region of Arnhem Land. The Company’s intention was to stock this holding by transferring cattle from the Elsey-Hodgson area to what was thought to be rich pasturage along the northern coastal rivers, despite the fact that some holdings on the Goyder River had proven failures in the late 1880s and had been abandoned. This venture soon proved a failure also, because, as F.H. Bauer summarises: ‘The cattle found the coarse native grasses entirely unpalatable and, worried by ticks and mosquitoes, speared by blacks, and eaten by crocodiles, it is small wonder that the remainder went wild’.
In 1908 the stock that could be mustered was returned to Hodgson Downs by contract musterers such as George Conway, and in 1909 a Notice of Special Resolution was issued which wound up the company.
In the six years of its operation the ‘Eastern and African’ engaged in what was apparently the most systematic extermination of Aborigines ever carried out on the Roper and in the company’s Arnhem Land holdings: It is commonly said that the blacks “hunted the cattle out”. This was probably one of the few authenticated instances in which the aborigines were systematically hunted. For a time the company employed 2 gangs of 10 to 14 blacks headed by a white man or half caste to hunt and shoot the wild blacks on sight.
When interviewed in 1957s George Conway mentioned that he had been hired to lead a hunting expedition into Arnhem Land in 1905 or 1906, and that his party had killed dozens of Aborigines. There are ………
Drinking in the Cemetery 