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Summary of the Relationship between Europeans and Aborigines in the Northern Territory and the Impact of the Overland Telegraph

Summary and exerts from;
Overview of A Picnic with the Natives
By Gordon Reid, 1990

The Northern Territory was part of South Australia until 1911. The Colony of South Australia was established with different ideals to other British colonies. Its foundation was based on the ideals of systematic, centrally-controlled colonisation that advised 'conciliation with the Aborigines and aquainting them with the advantages of British civilisation, morality and religion in order to avoid the evils seen elsewhere'. Humanitarianism sweeping the British empire had recently resulted in the abolition of slavery in England in 1772, the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 and the emancipation of slaves in the colonies in 1833. This humanitarianism was reflected in the plans for the colony.

The high ideals of the government floundered almost as soon as the ink dried. A cycle of distrust and violence became the reality as was occurring in every other Australian colony. Some advances were made in Aboriginal relations in South Australia. These included Lord Glenelg's victory of having Aboriginal and white people treated, at least in theory, as equals under British law. However, in a practical sense this was of little use to Aboriginal people. The courts were made up entirely of white people, courts were conducted mainly in English langauge and the Aborigines knew little of white law and how it worked.

In the first few years of the colony there were a number of isolated incidences of murder of both races, but things took a turn for the worse in the early 1840s. In one incident a ship, the Maria, was wrecked and 15 survivors were murdered by Aborigines. Governor Gawler sent out a investigation party and two Aborigines were accused on the basis of scant evidence and were summarily hanged on the spot. Two were shot for trying to escape. This set a precedent for the hanging of Aborigines at the scene of the crime with no trial and this practice continued for many years in both the South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Colonisation of the Northern Territory began in earnest with the building of the Overland Telegraph in the 1870s. Despite deep intrusion into their lands, Aboriginal people were not immediately hostile to the explorers, workers and operators associated with the Overland Telegraph. 'To April 1871, small parties travelling southwards had no difficulties with the local peoples, no attacks having been made,' Reid notes. This period of peace did not last long. Once again murders of both races began and reprisals by colonists and troops were unrestrained. Sentiment of the times is expressed in the Northern Territory Times on 4th October 1884, "Sickly sentiment and Exeter Hall humanitarianism should be valued at there true worth. Our European settlers must be allowed to till the soil, and extract the wealth from the land which they have made their home, free from the murderous raids of these savages. Backward tribes must move before the tide of civilisation, or, if they will not give peaceably ... so must the hand of every man be raised against a tribe of inhuman monsters, whose cowardly and murderous nature renders them unfit to live ... "

A less extreme view was expressed by Harriet Daly, the daughter of Douglas Daly (and who consequently turned the first sod for the Overland Telegraph in Darwin), " Much has been written and much has been said about the proper treatment of natives. My experience teaches me that there is only one rule that holds good - firmness accompanied by kindness, fair play, and honest payment for work done. And, above all, to keep the Aboriginal in his proper place - stand no insolence, or disobedience; for when a native shows signs of sulkiness and defiance, it is perfectly certain that trouble is brewing. And with natives, above all others - to be for warned is to be forearmed."

After the attack on the Overland Telegraph Repeater Station at Barrow Creek, serious reprisals were made against the local Aboriginal people. This was done without investigation, collection of evidence or fair trial. There was little outcry about the reprisals, and this acceptance of summary punishment set the scene for management of conflict between settlers and Aborigines over the next fifty years.

In Connecting the Continent, a contemporary commemoration of the role of the Overland Telegraph, it is fitting that we acknowledge that European views of Australia's history are not the only perspectives and are certainly not the only valid views. It is our attention to present all known views of the history of the Overland Telegraph.