Confronting Murderous Men, page 19
McColl, Tommy and Dick remained with the women, though their handcuffs were opened. That the handcuffs were ‘open’ seems to imply they were attached to the chain. The others of the party made their way into thick jungle and resorted to crawling on their hands and knees to try to get through it. When they came out on the eastern side of the island, they saw three men on a rocky point and another four in a canoe who were apparently called to join them on the shore. The party gave chase but lost the men. Mahony, who had been searching the foreshore, saw the others entering the jungle and went to assist them. He saw Aboriginal people and presumed they were their trackers, as they were partly hidden. One rose with a spear in his hand and threw it at Mahony, who sidestepped. Mahony fired high, but the man put another spear into his banban (woomera) and prepared to launch it. Mahony saw another man outflanking him, so moved into clearer ground. The spear was thrown and it pierced Mahony’s hat. Mahony fired and his pistol misfired three times. The third shot eventually discharged and narrowly missed his attacker. Mahony emptied his pistol and Morey, Hall, Lock and Paddy ran to his assistance. The attackers ran into the thick bush and disappeared.
As the light faded, the men worked their way back to the camp where they had left McColl. Tommy and Dick were asked where McColl was; they said they had not seen him after he followed the party into the jungle. The women were no longer at the camp.
It was now dark. McColl was left a note in case he returned to the camp, and the men continued to search for him until exhausted. They camped near the abandoned canoe and took turns as sentries. Early the following morning they continued the search and found McColl’s tracks leading into the jungle. They followed them with some difficulty until they left the thicket not far from where he had entered. It took two hours to emerge near a clearing, where they found McColl’s body. He had been speared through the heart. He was lying face down in a large area of dried blood with his left leg straight and the right drawn up with the knee pointing outwards. The left arm was alongside and almost parallel with his body. The right arm was outflung and a few inches from his hand was his revolver. It showed that two shots had been fired and one bullet had misfired. A short distance away a blood-stained shovel-nosed spear was found. Rigor mortis had set in, earth was in his mouth, and ants had already begun to eat at his face.14 The handcuffs used to secure the women were recovered at the camp.
Morey believed McColl had fired his shots at the same time as Mahony fired his, so that they were not heard distinctly or separately. He was unable to say if McColl fired before he was speared or after. Is it possible that he fired off two shots when threatened and then the misfire afforded his attacker the opportunity to strike?
* * *
A tomahawk was used to fashion digging sticks and the men dug a shallow grave into which they placed McColl’s body. He was clothed in khaki trousers, black singlet and sandshoes. He wore a revolver belt and his hat lay nearby. It was a police-type hat, possibly without a badge. McColl carried no spare ammunition. His hat was placed over his face and the grave filled. Logs were placed on top to prevent disturbance by animals and one of the men did his best to render part of the burial service.
Morey was apprehensive for the safety of Hope and his party hurried to it some miles off. To have lost it would have left them marooned on the island, but it was found intact, and they launched into rough seas while trying to tow a heavy canoe, which they had to abandon, and then anchored for the night. At daylight they headed for Roundhill, where they kept watch for three days for anyone leaving Woodah Island. At sunset on the last day, they saw canoes leaving the island and set out to follow them, but rain hindered their visibility in the darkness, making it dangerous to navigate the sandbars and reefs in the area. At sunrise they made for the mainland camp, finding it pillaged of supplies and their horses in weak condition. Hall was sent to Groote Eylandt for stores and to send messages informing Darwin of the death of McColl. He was expected to take seven or eight days to make the round trip. The land party made for Roper Bar to try to save the horses and arranged to meet Hope there. They arrived on 19 August, losing four of the weakened horses on the way.
Constable and Mrs Frank Sheridan, Roper Bar Police Station, 1933. University of Queensland, Series Ernestine Hill Collection UQFL18, Box 32, Folder 5, negative 18/2273
Hope arrived a day before the land party, but Hall remained on Groote Eylandt. Morey received orders to leave Mahony at Roper Bar and to return to Darwin.
* * *
A message Constable Hall tried to send to police headquarters at Darwin on 11 August was only partly successful, but Administrator Weddell sent a telegram advising the Department of the Interior of the information he had at hand. His message indicated the Yolŋgu were aggressively hostile and that further casualties were unknown. The ministry asked for details of McColl’s family and urged that there be no publicity of the event. From there the heat started to intensify. Weddell asked for a ship to assist in communicating with the police patrol and one was provided. Weddell was unsuccessful in making contact with the patrol, but telegraphed the ministry claiming that as the ‘natives’ had previously made threats to annihilate any police party and the mission he was sending five additional constables and six trackers by the vessel Maroubra. Later that day he was able to make contact with Hall and the arrangements were cancelled pending Morey’s return to Darwin.
On 14 August, Interior Minister Perkins announced the death of Constable McColl and the close call of Mahony. The calls for retribution were swift and indignant, inflaming the suggestion a punitive party was being planned. Weddell took up the mantle and telegraphed the minister, claiming that the numerous Caledon Bay Aboriginal people were of Japanese and Macassar descent and therefore of superior mentality and capable of planning stalking parties. This displayed a lack of understanding, not only of the situation but also the capabilities of the Yolŋgu people, honed long before the arrival of Japanese and Macassans. This went hand in hand with widespread ignorance of these people, particularly as the attackers on Woodah Island were not from Caledon Bay and if any ‘mixed-race’ people did exist they more than likely would have been ‘protected’ at Groote Eylandt.
By 27 August, Weddell again sent a message to the Minister. He had met with Morey and Superintendent Stretton and called for what he described a ‘demonstrative force’ that included 12 white special constables sworn in for the purpose and 12 Aboriginal men. It was planned to advance in late September and the demonstration was needed because the Aboriginal people were numerous, hostile and cunning. He complained that many murders committed by them over the previous 16 years had gone unpunished, and the offenders had appeared unimpressed with the government’s efforts. It seems, therefore, that the proposed force was intended to punish retrospectively as well as address the current killings, apart from those of Traynor and Fagan, which were still unknown to them. Weddell had no idea, either, of the number of Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land, let alone their makeup. Nobody did.
Weddell expressed the opinion that casualties were inevitable, but an experienced leader would be instructed to guard against any unnecessary killings. He obviously had Coniston in mind and was still prepared to take a chance. At this time, Fred Gray had resumed his trepanging at Caledon Bay and was in concord with the Yolŋgu there. They had certainly killed the five Japanese men but had nothing to do with the deaths of Fagan and Traynor or Constable McColl.
Permanent Head of the Department of the Interior, Herbert Charles Brown, and Chief Clerk Joseph Aloysius Carrodus had Weddell’s measure. Carrodus wrote to Brown stressing that he was not keen to see special constables appointed and that a police-only party would deplete numbers for normal police work. (By 1935 the newly styled Northern Territory Police Force numbered just 40 to serve an area of 1.42 million square kilometres.) He agreed that action had to be taken to avoid a repetition of the Woodah Island attack. Weddell had applied for a large amount of arms and ammunition and Brown advised his minister to provide the weapons, but to tell the administrator not to swear in special constables or to despatch a party until further notice. Minister Perkins asked Weddell to justify the expedition by stating it would gain evidence, which included identifying offenders. He warned that the wrong move would prove futile and risk further loss of life and bloodshed.15
Brown and Carrodus were very experienced public servants and were aware that local and international disquiet could erupt as it had five years earlier after the Coniston massacre. Weddell argued that sufficient evidence was already available and sought permission to start the expedition, but letters, telegrams and newspaper criticisms started to appear. The southern press began to claim the proposal for a punitive expedition was afoot. Weddell, and probably the police, wanted it, but there was no appetite for it in Canberra. Prime Minister Lyons had been advised by former Prime Minister Bruce, now in London, that protests were mounting there. Lyons replied that the government had made no statement proposing a punitive expedition and that it had been an invention of the press.
The upshot of this unease was that Lyons telephoned Professor Elkin, Head of Sydney University Anthropology Department, to seek his advice. Elkin proposed a peace party led by missionaries with experience of the people of the region, to try to make contact with the killers. Elkin had concerns about massacres by police and others in the Kimberley in 1926 and Coniston in 1928 and didn’t want a repeat of them. The Methodist mission leadership were opposed to doing ‘police work’ and declined to assist. The Anglican Church Missionary Society saw an opportunity to advance their presence in the region and agreed to assist. Reverend Warren and Reverend Dyer were nominated, and lay churchman Ronald Fowler would assist as wireless operator. Their experience of the area and the Yolŋgu was limited given their short time in the region.
Dyer was superintendent of the mission at Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) and Egan considered him an impetuous man eager to become a celebrity.16 He gave press interviews outlining his intentions and puzzled the police and administrator, who had not been told of the Commonwealth government’s intention to use missionaries as peace envoys to Arnhem Land. The Northern Territory had long vexed Canberra and they were wont to bypass Administrator Weddell, who was often left without clear guidance.
Warren met with Prime Minister Lyons and was given six months to befriend the Aboriginal people and investigate the killings. This must have been galling for the police, whose undoubted sworn duty it was to investigate the crimes. The administrator was powerless to intervene. Although he held the position of commissioner of police, he was not an experienced police officer and may not have even held sworn office. His appointment had breached the separation of powers and his positions had become a cleft stick to contend with. In fact, he was part of the problem. The police and the administrator had too many masters. The three churchmen, peace envoys, police officers – whatever their cloth – arranged to meet at Thursday Island from where they would take the Holly to Groote Eylandt.
Constable Hall was still on Groote Eylandt in September and had sent several messages to Darwin warning of impending attacks by the balamumu in the Roper River area. Others considered the fears to be inflated and the manager of the Roper River Station, Mr Rogers, wrote that the blacks [sic] were peaceful and inoffensive. He claimed exaggerated statements in the southern press incited missionaries and others to make capital out of them. Others differed in their views, but Rogers would prove to be on the mark. Despite this, the government in Canberra approved extra police for Groote Eylandt, but the police were not to resume investigation of the Japanese killings. Morey was again appointed to lead the patrol and was joined by Constable Clive Graham. They arrived at Roper Bar and met Mahony, then the trio travelled via Holly to join Hall at Groote Eylandt on 27 September. Hands tied, they were instructed to report weekly to Darwin whether anything happened or not. The police were welcomed by the long-term resident missionaries, Mr and Mrs Long, but the Reverend Wynne-Evans ridiculed the police presence, believing God would protect them. Wynne-Evans tripped and fell while carrying a shotgun and accidentally killed himself only days later.
Morey learned of the plan to send missionaries to contact the killers and gain evidence against them. He protested to the Minister for the Interior, Perkins, in a letter in early October. The letter showed his belief that the so-called balamumu tribe comprised all the Aboriginal people from the English Company Islands north-east of Arnhem Land to Blue Mud Bay and all adjacent islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria. He believed the missionaries would entice the Aboriginal people to surrender to them, fomenting a fear police would massacre them, thereby impugning their reputation, which would make their work untenable among the people. The lengthy letter essentially argued for the police to conduct their normal duties and responsibilities, which had been usurped by the decision to allow missionaries to intervene. Concern for all-out bloodshed was understandable, but emasculating the police in this way was unforgivable and, in all probability, unlawful. But the law in the early 20th century seemed quite malleable the further it reached into unknown territory.
Morey seems not to have received a reply to his concerns and as the peace party left to do God’s work and strengthen their grip on new ground for proselytism, the police swam and played cricket.
The peace party arrived at Caledon Bay on 6 December and were met by a sullen group of the Arrawiya clan, who thought they were police. When they recognised their Aboriginal companions, their mood brightened and they gave a more enthusiastic welcome, though the churchmen’s triumphant entry into Jericho was tempered somewhat by finding Fred Gray, another European, Andy Wright, and the Aboriginal Holtze brothers from Darwin, all in amiable repose with their Caledon Bay hosts.
Gray learned that the police considered the Arrawiya part of a larger tribe and therefore responsible for not only the Japanese killings but also the murders of McColl, and Traynor and Fagan about whom the missionaries would shortly learn. Gray had discussed with Wonggu the prospect of a punitive party coming for him and suggested that before the dry season when that party might come, he (Gray) should take the killers of the Japanese to Darwin for talks to justify their actions as part of their rom, which had been breached by the insult to Wonggu.
It was becoming clear to all that the killers of the Japanese were not those who had killed Traynor and Fagan, or McColl on Woodah Island – something that Gray already believed. Gray held to his proposal to take Mäw, Natjiyalma and Ngarkaya – Wonggu’s sons, to Darwin to explain their actions. This course was dangerously naïve, as any expectation of success was nonsensical. It also showed a lack of understanding of police duty to bring people suspected of serious crimes before the court. Their independent discretion would not enter into the equation, even had they been allowed to do their duty.
Warren and Dyer indicated they would go to Woodah Island to investigate the murders of McColl and Traynor and Fagan. They had not met Wonggu or the killers they sought, and they were pressed for time. They had to be back at Groote Eylandt in time for Christmas. On their way they met Clara Dilyera (Ganiwa), a malcontent Mara woman from the Roper River region who had been abducted and taken into the group years earlier. She was not backward in criticising the local people, whom she considered uncivilised, and told the missionaries that Dhaakiyarr was the man who speared Constable McColl. Dhaakiyarr Wirrpanda was an elder of the Dhayyi language group from Blue Mud Bay.
On Woodah Island, with the authority of Superintendent Stretton, Warren exhumed the remains of McColl. He photographed the grave before and after removing his remains. He removed the logs covering the shallow plot and found that only the skull and spine remained intact amongst loose and gnawed bones. No clothes were found in the grave. There had been speculation that the grave had been disturbed by the Yolŋgu to retrieve the clothing, but this they denied. It was apparent that animals had burrowed into the grave and feasted on the body. They may have also carried off the clothing. In the relaxed way of the times, Stretton had authorised the exhumation only if a witness to the burial was present to identify the grave and its contents, this despite the police being forbidden to leave Groote Eylandt. It was done anyway.
Warren put the remains into a kerosene tin and returned to Groote Eylandt, where he handed them over to Morey on 20 December 1933, almost five months after the constable’s death.
McColl’s body arrives in Darwin
When Weddell became aware of the deaths of Fagan and Traynor, he wrote to the Minister on 18 December, attempting to regain control of the investigation into McColl’s killing and the new case. He outlined his proposal for a new police party but warned that bloodshed was inevitable. This assessment would not have helped his cause and, as the minister was committed to having the missionaries undertake their task, his proposal was rebuffed on 18 January 1934.
After Christmas, the missionaries returned to Roper River on their way to Caledon Bay and to search for Traynor and Fagan’s boat. North of Blue Mud Bay they met Dhaakiyarr, who admitted killing Constable McColl because he had captured his women and held them for ‘two days’. He did not admit to killing Traynor and Fagan, but with others took the peace party to see the remains of their boat. When he returned to the Holly, Warren made an entry in his journal:17
Harold tells us after the men had left ship to go ashore police captured four women and tried to get information. McColl offered to mind them while others go to catch the men – Pat said if McColl was left alone he would not be seen again – three escape and McColl struggles with the other with handcuffs on.
Dark now and he is speared.
Harold was the captain of the Holly, a biracial man from the Roper River region and Groote Eylandt Mission who spoke several languages and was fluent in English. Though his remarks to Warren would amount to hearsay evidence they did tend to throw some light on the events leading to McColl’s death. The intriguing part was whether Pat (Big Pat, Paddy, Djupainma) had told Morey not to leave McColl alone with the women and was ignored. We will never know, but in an interview Egan had with Djaparri Wirrpanda in 1976 at Yirrkala18 he asked who had been killed first, the two white men or the policeman. She answered:
