George+Faithfull+Incident

Study the following edited account a settler (George Faithfull) wrote about an incident he experienced with aboriginals in north east Victoria near Wangaratta which he documented and was published for a 'white audience':

"....the hostility of the blacks.... became so unbearable .... [that] I and my men were kept for years in [a] perpetual state of alarm. We dared not move to supply our huts with wood or water without a gun, and many of my men absconded from my service....

At last, it so happened that I was the means of putting an end to this warfare.

Write your own account (fictitious) of what may have occured. Try to use (as much as possible) the events in George Faithfull's exaggerated story but give a more realistic account of this massacre.

Recount of Faithfull’s battle:
==== The Caucasians were alarmed that they were getting attacked by the aboriginals. The Caucasians did not dare to go and supply their food without having any weapons on them to protect them. One day, George Faithfull was riding with two of his stockmen and they came across to be surrounded by hundreds of warriors (the aboriginals). Their fight continued for six hours straight! From 10am to 4 in the afternoon.This story is fake because it is hard to believe that 3 men took on hundreds of aboriginals. The aboriginals had heaps of weapons to protect them. They threw spheres at the three men all at the same time. It isn’t possible to dodge all the hundreds of spheres. Also according to both of the pictures, it looks like the aboriginals were running away from the Caucasians and just trying to self-defend. ====

Julie-Anne
//The point of view of an Aboriginal warrior//, We had tracked this small group of white men, who not long ago had stolen the animals from the land; they paid no tributes for the taking of these animals which are our valuable food source. As we waited for the perfect opportunity, the group of three rode their horses into the clearing. We stopped them in their tracks, throwing many spears at the group, one of which hit a man in the leg, his horse dropping him into the dirt. The remaining two white men began firing at us with their ‘guns’ injuring many and killing even more. We launched another wave of spears, many hitting and killing one of the white men. The sounds of horses could be heard in the distance and many more white men began riding into the ravine, firing their rifles, killing near all of my people. We were forced into a retreat as we rushed back to our village, the smug face of one white man bellowing loudly, remaining in my mind.

-Mitch W

From George Faithfull’s view the Aboriginals are scared of him because he, himself with other two men won the massacre and he blamed the Aboriginals for the massacre incident. From my point of view I believed that, he went out of the camp for food, water in the morning when that time for the Aboriginal it was the time for them to hunt down food. George Faithfull went out with two other men to hunt down some food, he started killing animals to bring back but what he didn’t know was that he was on the Aboriginal’s land. The Aboriginals saw it and was furious but they didn’t do anything. Unfortunately, George Faithfull pulled out his guns and started shooting. He ran away from 5 to 10 Aboriginal men because they brought with them spears. He soon found himself in a path but got blocked by the Aboriginals. He fled back to the camp quickly and prepared for //the// night. He and other people sneaked near the camp fire and attacked the Aboriginals. He survived.

Hannah N,

//George Faithfull at Wangaratta incident, account of Aboriginal warrior (Daniel Nguy)// It was a fine day for our rebel group to stay at camp and be peaceful…the day was good, our families were running around and some of our warriors were training. It all changed when some white men strolled in with horses. A man who seemed to be leading looked horrified and as if he walked into the wrong place. I grabbed a spear ready to defend our camp knowing what white people are capable and would do. Around twenty of our men grabbed spears and stood ready; we all surrounded the several white men on horses which were holding dangerous weapons. The one that looked like a leader put his hands up, waving his weapon, “I come to research! Please spare us!” he said waving the dangerous weapon around showing no experience of the weapon. My gurda who spoke English angrily shouted out “Get down from horse!” to get them down. The enemy did but as the leader looking for did he sprayed bullets at my brother in a inhumane way. All of us were startled and angry; I was sad and full of anger. We all cried and charged for battle. The other men were also caught off guard and we killed a few of them, the leader and 2 men were left and we all closed in slowly. The white man was shooting aimlessly not showing any skill with the weapon and missing more than 50 shots. Our people were also taking wounds and dying but we closed in still, just when we got close enough to kill him he tripped and backed away cowardly showing the scared look in his face, “Sorry! Please it was an accident” he cried backing away. We were ready to kill when I heard some of our family screaming “Garla! Garla!” we all turned back and looked. Fire was flying everywhere, setting wirnda (trees) on fire and burning everyone. My jurdu (big sister) looked scared and crying. Many of ours were wounded and burnt; we treated them quickly and left the white men. When we had treated many people and taken care of the fire everyone was still not relieved. The men who were almost dead had fled when we checked where they were. We lost many but they got away. My gurda is gone, I miss him.

//__-Aboriginal warrior account__//

//George Faithfull's Account// George Faithfull was riding with 10 stockmen when they were ambushed by 50 Aboriginals with spears.­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ They were surrounded on all sides and within 5 minutes two of the stockmen had been killed by spears. Many shots were fired and many aboriginals died. He said he only had two stockmen with him because the rest of them had died and he didn’t want other people to know about his cowards and inferiority. By Craig J

Jeffrey Canning

//The View of a Witness - **Monique Jankulovska**// George Faithfull and his men invaded the land in which a group of Aboriginals were camping at. George and his men pulled out their weapons and triggered the Aboriginals to prepare for attack. The Aboriginals were in small numbers of about 15 and attacked George and his three men with spears. But spears were no match for his weapon, a gun. The fight wasn’t fair; George and his men killed or either wounded nearly all the Aboriginals that were in the area at the time. It was a horrible and unfair battle.

//An Opinion on Fairness// George Faithfull was unfair to put so much of the blame on the Aboriginals. It isn’t logic that 3 men could possibly have stayed alive after being attacked by hundreds of Aboriginals with a shower of spears. George and his men must have also had an army of men ready to attack.If George and his 3 men were really alone of course it would be their first and last impulse to retreat. They couldn’t have attacked; they would have been killed instantly. If not, they wouldn’t have lasted very long.If the 3 men were to try and escape or attack the Aboriginals it wouldn’t have been very terrifying, considering it was at ten o’clock in the morning. It isn’t like it was at midnight or any late times in the dark.
 * Hoda Alrihani**


 * George Faithfull in Wangaratta- The Reality.**

I was riding with George and his other fellow stockman. Of course we were riding horses and carried our guns for safety or attacks. I never thought it would really happen but we finally ran into some natives. It was my first ever encounter with the natives so I was nervous all over. Most of them were women and children gathering around a dead body, one of their kind. George stepped forward on his horse, the natives glared at him fiercely, the body was a clearly man and obviously dead by a gunshot. Us stockmen looked at each other, and then turned back that the horrid scene, we both thought George was crazy. He must have been, must’ve lost his mind in fear of the group of natives. He advanced on them, slowly; the gentle steps of the horse startled the natives making them frown even more. The women scowled viciously as George got off his horse. Has he lost his mind, I thought. I thought George was definitely a goner, or was this foolish guy going down to accept defeat, to surrender? The, out of nowhere, he fired. George shot at the natives. These women and children separated, all going their separate ways and ran for their lives. It lasted around one and a half hours trying to chase them, the other stockman and I, just sat there on our horses’, watching, as Faithfull, the maniac, ran around chasing the natives, going crazy for murder.
 * Judy Mai.**

The ‘Black Wars’ were continuing to grow more intense. Both sides were unwilling to give up easy, and as fights and loss of life was becoming more regular, more than pride was worth fighting for. George Faithfull was wondering the land on a fine morning looking for some appropriate places to plant crops. In these days you would never walk around without a fun, so the three of us were armed with guns. We were superior to the Aborigines; their society’s lack of development hurt them real bad during battles. Even though they attacked in groups in twenties and thirties, they were no match for our sub-machine guns. There spears couldn’t come close the power of the white man. We continued looking around the land until 10am before we were approached by some dark skinned men. There would have been about ten to twenty of them but we didn’t get time to count, they charged at us with spears! And when ‘hundreds’ of blacks are coming at you I say ‘shoot first, ask questions later”. It didn’t take much to wipe them out; they really need to work on their long range attacking strategy. We were drained out from the battle so afterwards we decided to head back to base to get a bight. Brandon 9D

* Stockman #2 at Wangaratta

3b) What is your opinion of Faithfull and his account of the massacre?

. . . I awoke from a shocking nightmare in a full sweat. . . I dreamt that one of the violent natives plunged a spear into my thigh. . . I was jostled back to reality and pulled out of bed onto the hard makeshift wooden floor. . . it was General Faithfull. ..

. . . I was still half asleep as I was bridling Don and tightening his harnesses alongside the wide-eyed stockman Johnny. . . from a canter, we charged at full speed towards the nearby waterhole with the icy wind biting at our cheeks and ankles. ..

. . . we reached the waterhole used by the Wangaratta clan. . . as I retraced my steps back to Don beside Johnny’s horse. . . then the bush before me started rustling unnaturally. . . I squeezed my replenished flasks back into their designated pockets hanging off the saddle. . . grabbing my pistol slowly. . . I fired into the dark sky once and immediately, a young black boy sprang out from behind the bush. . . before I could scare him away I watched as his knees buckled and his knees met the ground hard. ..

. . . I turned to where George was crouching. . . his gun smoking. . . Johnny’s eyes even wider. . . cries rang out and a bunch of blacks - perhaps 5 or 8,came running in our direction. . . I watched, my mouth making a perfect O, trembling from both the cold and swiftness of what had just transpired. . . I watched as our brazen General galloped off into the sunrise. . . swearing under my breath I clambered onto my horse and slapped Don’s hide with the strength I could muster. ..

. . . on my return to the settlement I only just felt the surge and sting of pain behind my thigh. . . after removing the spear I gritted my teeth as I bandaged my wound. . . inflicted by Faithfull’s utter cowardice. ..

. . . last time I saw Johnny he was hoisting himself on his horse and as I was; shooting rapidly at the figures while bolting in the dust I left behind. ..

. . . I knew it was a bad idea. . . especially amidst the circumstances at hand. ..

Leilani

The Wangaratta Incident George’s recount of the events concerning the aboriginal camps around Wangaratta are false, the account told by George faithful are false, George marched with 25 men and ambushed a camp of around 30 aboriginal men, women and children. He then had his men massacre the aboriginals while he led from the back. This can be determined as cowardly and unjust act. The whole account that George allegedly recounted true fully was wrong, George was just trying to better his image in the eyes of the people. The next time though when he was asked to lead a charge in an ambush he was fatally wounded, and was said to have complained about it until they were back.

Mitch.C