Battle of One Tree Hill

The Battle of One Tree Hill was the best known of a series of conflicts that took place between European settlers and aboriginal inhabitants of the Darling Downs in Australia in the 1840s.

Battle of One Tree Hill
Part of War of Southern Queensland
Date12 September 1843
Location
Tabletop Mountain (then known as "One Tree Hill"), Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia.
Result Jagera victory
Belligerents
British colonists Jagera people
Commanders and leaders
Commissioner Simpson Multuggerah
Strength
18 over 100

In September 1843, after a mass poisoning at Kilcoy Homestead,[1] aboriginal leader Multuggerah led an ambush on squatters taking supplies across from Moreton Bay, at One Tree Hill (now known as Tabletop Mountain), near Toowoomba.[2]

The squatters organised a revenge party and the aborigines retreated up the mountain. They escaped into the Lockyer Valley but were later tracked down and killed by the military.[3][4]

A monument recording the battle was established in 2005.[5] An indigenous land use agreement has been signed over the site.[6]

In 2010, the National Library of Australia acquired a sketch by local Thomas John Domville Taylor for $120,000 which is believed to be an eyewitness account of the aftermath of the battle. This made it one of less than ten visual eyewitness accounts of attacks by European settlers on indigenous people.[7][8]

References
  1. Nolan, Michael (15 September 2019). "Multuggerah's military genius revealed in new book". The Chronicle. Toowoomba Newspapers Pty Ltd. Retrieved 6 December 2019. Such was the ferocity of the resistance that the British were forced to re-direct soldiers from the Maori wars in New Zealand, sending them to the Lockyer Valley. Part of Multuggerah's success lay in his ability to mobilise warriors from across language groups and his knowledge of the terrain. At one point his warriors feigned a retreat and led the soldiers and settles on a frantic chase through the forest. Without knowing, the whites walked into a trap and were pelted by stones and boulders from Multuggerah's men, positioned on the high country above them.
  2. "Table Top Mountain", Big Ideas - National accessed 23 February 2014
  3. "A Picture Asks a Thousand Questions", National Library of Australia, 11 June 2011 accessed 19 February 2014
  4. Louise O'Keefe, "Darling Downs History on Display", The Chronicle, 23 October 2010 accessed 19 February 2014
  5. Multuggerah at Monument Australia accessed 23 Feb 2014
  6. "Indigenous land use agreement signed in Toowoomba" 27 Feb 2008 Archived February 11, 2014, at the Wayback Machine accessed 23 Feb 2014
  7. "Library acquires indigenous attack account", Sydney Morning Herald, 22 October 2010 accessed 23 February 2014
  8. Sarah Elks, "Image of frontier battle comes to life", The Australian 23 October 2010 accessed 23 February 2014
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.