George James MacDonald (12 May 1805 − 21 December 1851) was a
Commissioner of Crown Lands in the British colony of
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
where he founded both the city of
Armidale
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...
and the town of
Balranald
Balranald is a town within the local government area of Balranald Shire, in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia.
The town of Balranald is located where the Sturt Highway crosses the Murrumbidgee River in a remote, semi-desert ...
. He is mostly remembered for his role in leading a contingent of
Border Police troopers in a large
massacre of Indigenous Australians in the
Clarence River region. MacDonald was also considered a talented linguist and writer, producing several published works of poetry and prose reflecting on his experiences in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
Early life
MacDonald was born in
Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its roots ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
on 12 May 1805. He was the eldest son of Major James MacDonald of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and was educated at
Blundell's School
Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the t ...
in
Tiverton, Devon
Tiverton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Devon, England, and the commercial and administrative centre of the Mid Devon district. The population in 2019 was 20,587.
History Early history
The town's name is conjectured to derive from "Twy-fo ...
. In his early 20s, he emigrated to
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
, arriving in 1826. He lived at a property called ''Bernera'' near
Liverpool, New South Wales
Liverpool is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately south-west of the Sydney CBD. Liverpool is the administrative seat of the local government area of the City of Liverp ...
about 30 kilometres to the south-west of
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
.
Port Macquarie
In 1828, MacDonald was appointed to the position of clerk of stores with the
commissariat
A commissariat is a department or organization commanded by a commissary or by a corps of commissaries.
In many countries, commissary is a police rank. In those countries, a commissariat is a police station commanded by a commissary.
In some ar ...
at the penal colony of
Port Macquarie
Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Sea co ...
on the north coast of New South Wales, organising supplies to the British regiment stationed there. He was posted to the agricultural outpost of this settlement, a place known as
Rolland Plains. Here he became familiar with the local
Ngambaa people, learning both their language and customs. MacDonald was able to gain their trust through the fact that he had a deformity on his back similar to a recently deceased member of the clan known as Bangar. MacDonald was regarded as a type of reincarnation of this person. He had a relationship with a
Ngambaa woman named Maria who gave birth to a daughter named Georgina after MacDonald had left the settlement. The daughter died not long after being born.
Sydney
In 1830, Port Macquarie ceased to be a penal settlement and MacDonald was recalled to Sydney. Over the next few years he was appointed to various clerical positions including one at the
Parramatta Female Factory in 1833.
Punitive expedition to the Williams River
In the mid 1830s, the
Gringai
Gringai otherwise known as ''Guringay'', is the name for one of the Australian Aboriginal people who were recorded as inhabiting an area of the Hunter Valley in eastern New South Wales, north of Sydney. They were united by a common language, stron ...
people who lived in the valleys and hills around the
Williams River to the north of
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
, were at war with the British invaders. Land and women were being stolen from the male members of the clan and shepherds and stock of the British squatters in the area were being speared and killed. In one particular incident five shepherds of
Robert Mackenzie were killed by the Gringai. Although troopers of the
New South Wales Mounted Police
The New South Wales Mounted Police Unit is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force. Founded by Governor Thomas Brisbane, on 7 September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from a British military regiment stationed in NSW at th ...
and armed employees from the nearby landholdings of the
Australian Agricultural Company
The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...
were deployed to punish the tribespeople, it was deemed insufficient to crush their resistance. Therefore, in 1835
Richard Bourke
General Sir Richard Bourke, KCB (4 May 1777 – 12 August 1855), was an Irish-born British Army officer who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1831 to 1837. As a lifelong Whig (Liberal), he encouraged the emancipation of convicts and ...
,
Governor of New South Wales
The governor of New South Wales is the viceregal representative of the Australian monarch, King Charles III, in the state of New South Wales. In an analogous way to the governor-general of Australia at the national level, the governors of the ...
, authorised the deployment of 50 soldiers from the
17th Regiment of the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
based in Sydney to undertake a
punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavio ...
against the Gringai.
MacDonald, due to his previous experience at Port Macquarie, was appointed as chief commissariat and interpreter to the natives for this military operation which was commanded by Major William Croker. Although the directive to the soldiers was to vigorously suppress the resistance, it is unclear exactly what happened during the mission. Croker's men returned to Sydney after a month in the Williams River area but reports of the operation seem to not exist. Follow up raids by armed settlers led by James McIntyre of the
Australian Agricultural Company
The Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) () is a public-listed Australian company that, as at 2018, owned and operated feedlots and farms covering around of land in Queensland and the Northern Territory, roughly one percent of Australia's la ...
resulted in the capture of a
Gringai
Gringai otherwise known as ''Guringay'', is the name for one of the Australian Aboriginal people who were recorded as inhabiting an area of the Hunter Valley in eastern New South Wales, north of Sydney. They were united by a common language, stron ...
man named Charley who was later hanged at
Dungog
Dungog is a country town on the Williams River in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia. Located in the middle of dairy and timber country, it is the centre of the Dungog Shire local government area and at the 2016 census it had a po ...
for the murders of the five shepherds.
Commissioner of Crown Lands
In late 1837, MacDonald was appointed as a
Commissioner of Crown Lands. This position involved monitoring and policing the uptake of crown land by the
pastoralist squatters. In 1839, he was assigned to the
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
district and received an attachment of eight troopers of the
Border Police to aid in enforcing the dispossession of land from the Aboriginal population. Later that year, MacDonald set up his headquarters on a grassy plain which he called
Armidale
Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...
after the ancestral home of the MacDonald clan at
Armadale in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. The settlement at Armidale later became one of the biggest towns in the region. Soon after establishing his lodgings, MacDonald set out on a punitive expedition against a group of Aboriginal people led by a man labelled "Anti-Christ" but was unable to locate them. Local pastoralists expected MacDonald and his troopers to "drive these murderous savages from this quarter and...make an example of some of them."
The New England district at this time did not have a set northern boundary and MacDonald was often patrolling areas as far north as
Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...
. In 1841, MacDonald and his troopers were involved in a large massacre of Aboriginal people at the junction of the
Clarence River and the
Orara River
Orara River, a perennial stream of the Clarence River catchment, is located in the Northern Rivers district of New South Wales, Australia.
Course and features
Orara River rises on the eastern slopes of the Dorrigo Plateau, Great Dividing Range, ...
. In an early morning raid, an Aboriginal campsite near the riverbank was attacked by his Border Police resulting in many casualties, the bodies of some apparently floating downriver past "The Settlement", now known as
South Grafton. The massacre was inflicted as punishment for the theft of materials from
Dr John Dobie's Ramornie station.
Around this time, MacDonald's relationship with a woman named Sophia Docker, to whom he was engaged, fell apart. Docker had accepted the advances of Edward Darvall, a captain in the
Bengal Native Infantry
The regiments of Bengal Native Infantry, alongside the regiments of Bengal European Infantry, were the regular infantry components of the East India Company's Bengal Army from the raising of the first Native battalion in 1757 to the passing int ...
and ceased her engagement to MacDonald. MacDonald challenged Darvall to a duel on the
North Shore of Sydney in which they fired shots at each other but neither was hurt.
With MacDonald being absent from the New England district on a regular basis, the local squatters were often left to their own devices to arrange punitive missions against Aboriginal people. The squatters also resented the fact that MacDonald wasn't assigned a flogger to
scourge
A scourge is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type, used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification. It is usually made of leather.
Etymology
The word is most commonly considered to be derived from Old French ''escorgi ...
their convict servants as
summary punishment
A summary offence or petty offence is a violation in some common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded against summarily, without the right to a jury trial and/or indictment (required for an indictable offence).
Canada
In Canada, summary offen ...
for disobedience.
MacDonald continued as the Commissioner of Crown Lands in New England until 1848, when he was transferred to be the commissioner in the
Lower Darling district. In the winter of 1848, MacDonald made his way to his new district in the far southwest of the colony. He established his headquarters on the banks of the
Murrumbidgee River
The Murrumbidgee River () is a major tributary of the Murray River within the Murray–Darling basin and the second longest river in Australia. It flows through the Australian state of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, desce ...
about 30 kilometres downstream of its junction with the
Lachlan River
The Lachlan River is an intermittent river that is part of the Murrumbidgee catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, located in the Southern Tablelands, Central West, and Riverina regions of New South Wales, Australia.
The Lachlan River ...
. He named this place
Balranald
Balranald is a town within the local government area of Balranald Shire, in the Riverina district of New South Wales, Australia.
The town of Balranald is located where the Sturt Highway crosses the Murrumbidgee River in a remote, semi-desert ...
after another of the MacDonald clan's ancestral homes in northern
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. Balranald became an important township in the region.
Death
The Lower Darling district was an immense and arid area to patrol. MacDonald's health soon began to give way and in 1851 he found it necessary to travel to
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
for a period of convalescence. He journeyed as far as
Yungera were he died suddenly on 21 December 1851.
Poetry
MacDonald wrote several works of poetry and prose mostly during the 1820s and 1830s. They were published in newspapers and periodicals and were well received. The subject matter of his compositions included
Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
, nature, composers of
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
, and his own colonial experiences.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:MacDonald, George James
Public servants of New South Wales
1805 births
1851 deaths