A Wiradjuri child at Moreton Bay

Abstract

As a 10 year old, the Aboriginal boy, Ralph Barrow, witnessed a large scale Aboriginal attack on Forgiue Station on the upper Caboolture River to the north of Brisbane in October 1846. Although young Ralph survived the attack, he had the terrifying experience of observing the brutal killings of his employer and acting guardian, Andrew Gregor, and a female station worker, Margaret Shannon. From the very next day the young boy was called upon to relive the attack for the coronial inquiry held by the police magistrate at the station and over the next eight years the boy had the misfortune to be called upon to give testimony against five Indigenous men in numerous committal hearings and trials related to this mass attack. Ralph’s role in the criminal justice system is rare since children were not always regarded as competent witnesses and even more so because of his aboriginality. As the only witness familiar with many of the Indigenous men in the vicinity of the station and Brisbane, however, his testimony was invaluable for those whites demanding strenuous action against the Indigenous community. This paper seeks to reconstruct Ralph Barrow’s life story in order to fully understand his role in a number of criminal trials held in Brisbane in 1846-54 and the extensive political pressure brought to bear on this young witness which led to him being gaoled for a week in 1851 at the age of 15.