Gellibrand’s Disappearance
The Search for Gellibrand & Hesse
Other than the native search by a cross-cultural Beruke,[1] or reluctant Buckley, several searches display cross-cultural idiocy and bush incompetence that is sourced in monochrome identity. Beruke went out of loyalty to Gellibrand[2] his cultural Skin-brother and ‘namesake'. Naylor[3] & Parsons[4] made the frontier worse and deaths ensued.[5] Robinson called McGeary a ‘worthless fellow and a coward.[6] These expeditions provide cross-cultural comparisons of more or less diminishing gains!
Gellibrand’s Disappearance and/or Death [7]
Rare observers saw the romance[8] in the unfolding scene, or in the important key aspects of the historic drama of cross cultural contact. One historian has denied that there was any drama other than the disappearance of Gellibrand and Hesse.[9] I expect the actual disappearance fascinated people then in a way the Hanging Rock picnic does now. In these unknowns, fact and fancy ease from our sense of belonging, like blue on mountains, or cool bushfire-smoke. The spirit of place merges somewhere between our being and longing, in horizons of romance, to mystic realms of becoming in the mind, linked to the most subtle of desires nuanced in divine mystery. Here, in this, our own place, we have a glimpse of heaven -out of our love for these landscapes - particular among all creation! added to and part of the sense of approaching the remotest things. ‘Gellibrand’s death was, on account of his abilities, especially regretted.’[10]
There is reliable evidence as to Gellibrand’s practice of Christianity, in an educated conscience about aboriginal rights, and especially in his bent for conciliation as showed by his reconciliation, before the altar of Christian Eucharist, with VDL Governor George Arthur who was long out of any league with him.[11] Gellibrand was, after all, the leading light back of the achievement of a peaceful settlement. His death seemed to leave many of them[12] like sheep without a decent shepherd. It allowed for the developing leadership of tougher and bloodier minded men. “It reminded colonists, if they needed such a warning, of the cruelties of nature.’[13] They put all romance aside, afterwards, most people became successful by uncompromising and ruthless attitudes. [14]
[1] Marie Fels, A Quasi -Policing Expedition. p 117 ‘In the Port Phillip District, in the early years of contact, Aboriginal activities included the following: Aboriginal men made a treaty which exchanged limited rights to the use of some land for material things,; they guided overlanders, exchanged names with English gentlemen, worked for Europeans in pastoral pursuits, led shooting parties, sold information to Europeans, minded Europeans, formed a boat crew for the Customs Department at Melbourne, placed their children in school in exchange for certain benefits, supplied the curiosity market with lyrebird feathers, possum skin rugs and artefacts, and the food market with eels. Aboriginal women worked for European men and formed liaisons with them. These are positive accommodations to the Europeans planting of himself on their land, responses which are not yet fully researched. The successive Native Police Force in Port Phillip provide another example of a co-operative strategy.’
[2] Fels, ibid. ‘In the second week of April, Berruke/Gellibrand, an Aboriginal man of the Warwarrong tribe, led an expedition out of the settlement of Melbourne. The purpose was described variously to different people, perhaps according to the presumed interest of the listener. To the missionary, they gave the impression that the excursion to the west was connected with the disappearance of two Europeans, J.T.Gellibrand and G. B.L Hesse,... who were believed murdered by Aborigines west of Birregurra.’
[3] In VDL the Rev. Naylor was known as a Beau Parson; more worried about appearance, ostentation, preferment’s, scheming about subscriptions, and being with aristocracy; supported not by the people, but by ‘involuntary’ emoluments, -of little comparison with the Apostles... a blot whose footsteps made scandal; allowing a mockery of the Gospel he professed to preach. The Tasmanian June 10 1836
[4] [Clyde Company Papers. Commentary: Vol 2 p 426] Parsons was Gellibrands relative, married to his cousin Maria Jennings. These families emigrated together to VDL & strove in active kinship. Another Gellibrand cousin, Joseph Gellibrand Jennings, a banker, was ‘a pious man, who preached the first sermon on the site of Melbourne in 1835 - to a congregation composed of Henry Batman, Buckley and five Sydney blacks. (Selby, Mem. Hist, Melb. p. 71)
[5] Cannon ~ Historical Records of Victoria
[6] Robinson Journals, Vol 1 Ian Clarke pp 104 “McGeary, a worthless fellow undertook to find their remains and after putting Mrs Gellibrand to £500 expenses and harassing her mind, after going a few miles into the bush, returned to VDL from whence he came. This fellow is a most useless and consummate cowardly fellow. It is said of him that he was dreadfully afraid of the natives.”
[7] De Serville - op cit - ‘Death carried off at least fifty colonists, a figure which does not include young children. The number is perhaps low in a primitive colony. Death may be said to have opened and to have closed the period.’
[8] De Serville, Paul, Port Phillip Gentlemen. ‘The gentlemen settlers Gellibrand and Hesse disappeared in the bush in 1837 and their bodies were never found. It exercised a fascination on writers and colonists and was one of the few dramatic incidents in the early history of the district.’ pp 158
[10] De Serville, Paul, Port Phillip Gentlemen and Society before the Gold Rushes, pp 158
[11] John West: ‘The manners of Arthur were formal; his tastes moral; his temper vindictive. He approved the right, and usually followed it; but his resolution once taken, he did not hesitate. He devoted all who opposed him: and those whom he could not conciliate, if possible, he bore down. The sentiments of religion, however, did sometimes triumph over his antipathies. His contest with Mr. Gellibrand, the barrister, continued many years; but they met at the sacrament shortly before their final separation. Arthur approached the seat where Gellibrand was sitting, and offered his hand. This being misunderstood, a prayer-book was tendered him: he then explained, that before joining the solemnity which had brought them there, her was anxious for reconciliation.’ pp 144 The History of Tasmania Hobart 1852.
It is interesting to note the likely misunderstanding (or misjudgement) even between rival leaders in one culture, and the need not to judge (or pre-judge) by cavalier dismissals out of doubtful, mean, petty or a cynical basis. West goes on: ‘Such only who know little of man, and of those conflicting passions which attain alternate ascendancy in the human breast, will survey with distrust a scene like this. In the presence of the Almighty the loftiest mind may bend without meanness, and recognise the moral grandeur of a forgiving spirit.’ Yes forgiveness, as also, this alternation of conflicting passions is appropriate to mention, as need is even more intensified in that electricity of the possibilities that are in the risk and romance of contact in a cross-cultural frontier.
[12] particularly Batman, Buckley, the ticket-of-leave-men and the aborigines
[13]DeServille op cit
[14] . ‘One Scottish settler, George Russell, was proof against any Romantic interpretations - their death, he believed was the fault of their own wilful and dogmatic ignorance. The shrewdness and vigour with which this judgement was expressed suggest reason both for the success of the Scots and for the reserve with which other people regarded such hard-headed men.’ pp 159 De Serville, Paul, Port Phillip Gentlemen and Society before the Gold Rushes, OUP Melbourne 1980
Other than the native search by a cross-cultural Beruke,[1] or reluctant Buckley, several searches display cross-cultural idiocy and bush incompetence that is sourced in monochrome identity. Beruke went out of loyalty to Gellibrand[2] his cultural Skin-brother and ‘namesake'. Naylor[3] & Parsons[4] made the frontier worse and deaths ensued.[5] Robinson called McGeary a ‘worthless fellow and a coward.[6] These expeditions provide cross-cultural comparisons of more or less diminishing gains!
Gellibrand’s Disappearance and/or Death [7]
Rare observers saw the romance[8] in the unfolding scene, or in the important key aspects of the historic drama of cross cultural contact. One historian has denied that there was any drama other than the disappearance of Gellibrand and Hesse.[9] I expect the actual disappearance fascinated people then in a way the Hanging Rock picnic does now. In these unknowns, fact and fancy ease from our sense of belonging, like blue on mountains, or cool bushfire-smoke. The spirit of place merges somewhere between our being and longing, in horizons of romance, to mystic realms of becoming in the mind, linked to the most subtle of desires nuanced in divine mystery. Here, in this, our own place, we have a glimpse of heaven -out of our love for these landscapes - particular among all creation! added to and part of the sense of approaching the remotest things. ‘Gellibrand’s death was, on account of his abilities, especially regretted.’[10]
There is reliable evidence as to Gellibrand’s practice of Christianity, in an educated conscience about aboriginal rights, and especially in his bent for conciliation as showed by his reconciliation, before the altar of Christian Eucharist, with VDL Governor George Arthur who was long out of any league with him.[11] Gellibrand was, after all, the leading light back of the achievement of a peaceful settlement. His death seemed to leave many of them[12] like sheep without a decent shepherd. It allowed for the developing leadership of tougher and bloodier minded men. “It reminded colonists, if they needed such a warning, of the cruelties of nature.’[13] They put all romance aside, afterwards, most people became successful by uncompromising and ruthless attitudes. [14]
[1] Marie Fels, A Quasi -Policing Expedition. p 117 ‘In the Port Phillip District, in the early years of contact, Aboriginal activities included the following: Aboriginal men made a treaty which exchanged limited rights to the use of some land for material things,; they guided overlanders, exchanged names with English gentlemen, worked for Europeans in pastoral pursuits, led shooting parties, sold information to Europeans, minded Europeans, formed a boat crew for the Customs Department at Melbourne, placed their children in school in exchange for certain benefits, supplied the curiosity market with lyrebird feathers, possum skin rugs and artefacts, and the food market with eels. Aboriginal women worked for European men and formed liaisons with them. These are positive accommodations to the Europeans planting of himself on their land, responses which are not yet fully researched. The successive Native Police Force in Port Phillip provide another example of a co-operative strategy.’
[2] Fels, ibid. ‘In the second week of April, Berruke/Gellibrand, an Aboriginal man of the Warwarrong tribe, led an expedition out of the settlement of Melbourne. The purpose was described variously to different people, perhaps according to the presumed interest of the listener. To the missionary, they gave the impression that the excursion to the west was connected with the disappearance of two Europeans, J.T.Gellibrand and G. B.L Hesse,... who were believed murdered by Aborigines west of Birregurra.’
[3] In VDL the Rev. Naylor was known as a Beau Parson; more worried about appearance, ostentation, preferment’s, scheming about subscriptions, and being with aristocracy; supported not by the people, but by ‘involuntary’ emoluments, -of little comparison with the Apostles... a blot whose footsteps made scandal; allowing a mockery of the Gospel he professed to preach. The Tasmanian June 10 1836
[4] [Clyde Company Papers. Commentary: Vol 2 p 426] Parsons was Gellibrands relative, married to his cousin Maria Jennings. These families emigrated together to VDL & strove in active kinship. Another Gellibrand cousin, Joseph Gellibrand Jennings, a banker, was ‘a pious man, who preached the first sermon on the site of Melbourne in 1835 - to a congregation composed of Henry Batman, Buckley and five Sydney blacks. (Selby, Mem. Hist, Melb. p. 71)
[5] Cannon ~ Historical Records of Victoria
[6] Robinson Journals, Vol 1 Ian Clarke pp 104 “McGeary, a worthless fellow undertook to find their remains and after putting Mrs Gellibrand to £500 expenses and harassing her mind, after going a few miles into the bush, returned to VDL from whence he came. This fellow is a most useless and consummate cowardly fellow. It is said of him that he was dreadfully afraid of the natives.”
[7] De Serville - op cit - ‘Death carried off at least fifty colonists, a figure which does not include young children. The number is perhaps low in a primitive colony. Death may be said to have opened and to have closed the period.’
[8] De Serville, Paul, Port Phillip Gentlemen. ‘The gentlemen settlers Gellibrand and Hesse disappeared in the bush in 1837 and their bodies were never found. It exercised a fascination on writers and colonists and was one of the few dramatic incidents in the early history of the district.’ pp 158
[10] De Serville, Paul, Port Phillip Gentlemen and Society before the Gold Rushes, pp 158
[11] John West: ‘The manners of Arthur were formal; his tastes moral; his temper vindictive. He approved the right, and usually followed it; but his resolution once taken, he did not hesitate. He devoted all who opposed him: and those whom he could not conciliate, if possible, he bore down. The sentiments of religion, however, did sometimes triumph over his antipathies. His contest with Mr. Gellibrand, the barrister, continued many years; but they met at the sacrament shortly before their final separation. Arthur approached the seat where Gellibrand was sitting, and offered his hand. This being misunderstood, a prayer-book was tendered him: he then explained, that before joining the solemnity which had brought them there, her was anxious for reconciliation.’ pp 144 The History of Tasmania Hobart 1852.
It is interesting to note the likely misunderstanding (or misjudgement) even between rival leaders in one culture, and the need not to judge (or pre-judge) by cavalier dismissals out of doubtful, mean, petty or a cynical basis. West goes on: ‘Such only who know little of man, and of those conflicting passions which attain alternate ascendancy in the human breast, will survey with distrust a scene like this. In the presence of the Almighty the loftiest mind may bend without meanness, and recognise the moral grandeur of a forgiving spirit.’ Yes forgiveness, as also, this alternation of conflicting passions is appropriate to mention, as need is even more intensified in that electricity of the possibilities that are in the risk and romance of contact in a cross-cultural frontier.
[12] particularly Batman, Buckley, the ticket-of-leave-men and the aborigines
[13]DeServille op cit
[14] . ‘One Scottish settler, George Russell, was proof against any Romantic interpretations - their death, he believed was the fault of their own wilful and dogmatic ignorance. The shrewdness and vigour with which this judgement was expressed suggest reason both for the success of the Scots and for the reserve with which other people regarded such hard-headed men.’ pp 159 De Serville, Paul, Port Phillip Gentlemen and Society before the Gold Rushes, OUP Melbourne 1980
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