Address at the PPPG General Meeting on 9 November 2024 by Dr Fred Cahir
When Dr. Fred Cahir, Professor of Australian History at the Federation University of Australia addressed the P.P.P.G. meeting, he talked about how thousands of colonists were rescued by Aboriginal people from life threatening events and his presentation paid tribute to the knowledge, mercy and heroic deeds which were freely offered by Indigenous Australians to the European settlers occupying their Country.
Fred spoke of Aboriginal people rescuing colonists and their livelihoods. One such example was during the Black Thursday bushfires of 6th February 1851 that burnt about a quarter of the Colony’s area. He described how Dja Dja Wurrung women saved the Egan children by taking them to a nearby creek and how an Aboriginal couple returned to save their house. He told us about Aboriginal’s educating colonists about fire behaviour and practices, and the utilisation of fire skills and land management.
Fred also spoke of Aboriginal heroism in rescuing shipwreck victims, like the Aboriginal man who tied a rope around his waist and swam out to tether a line to a ship to help rescue new arrivals whilst white colonialists stood by helplessly and watched on shore.
Another instance where Aboriginal knowledge was used was in the rescue of the three Duff children who were lost in the bush in 1864. When the frantic parents and searchers had almost given up hope of finding the children, Aboriginal trackers were called upon and it was they who located the children. Jane Duff became a national heroine, and the children became known as the ‘Babes in the Wood.’ During his research, Fred was able to identify the Victorian Aboriginal trackers as YANGGENDYINANYUK (also known as DICK-A-DICK), JERRY (or RED-CAP) and FRED. In 1935 a memorial to the children was erected near the place where they were found but it made no mention of the Aboriginal trackers who actually found them just like in contemporary reports and even the retold version as seen in the 1934 article where they are fleetingly referred to as black-trackers. (Fig 1).
Fred’s talk highlighted the debt Victorian colonists owed to Aboriginal people who had willingly rescued them from bushfires, shipwrecks, waterways and being lost in the bush by tracking or guiding them to safety.
Interestingly, in 2014, some of the descendants of the Duff family chose to acknowledge the part played by Aboriginal trackers in the rescue of the children by placing a second plaque on the original memorial. (Fig 2)
Contributed by: Dianne Wheeler PPPG Member No. 1505
Dr Fred Cahir holding his book They Rescued Us—Aboriginal Heroes on Country
Fig 1:
Fig 2:
