Raids on Palmer and Wylde's stations, Kings Plains

Date: 20 Sep 1823
Place: Kings Plains
On 20 September, Charles Booth, a convict stockworker for George Palmer (although ‘under the direction’ of John Wylde’s overseer, Andrew Dunn), was ‘out with his cattle’ on Kings Plains, accompanied by ‘a black Native’ called ‘Scrammy’, when ‘a number of other natives took and drove his Cattle away from him’. According to Booth, ‘early the next Morning they killed a fat Cow out of the same Herd which they had driven away’. Then, ‘about 2 miles from the place where they had taken the cattle from him’, Booth and Scrammy ‘found the skin and head only left, the whole of the meat being carried away. On examining the hide there appeared a great number of Spear Holes, with pieces of Broken spears laying about’, as well as ‘another Cow killed belonging to the same Herd’. Soon after, another of Palmer’s stockworkers, Henry Alsop (also Fasbrook), reported to Dunn that ‘he was out looking after his Cattle … and saw Natives, and one of them came to him and said his name was “Jacky”’ and he ‘had a spear with him which was bloody at the end and splintered’. Alsop then went ‘a short distance’ and ‘found a young Steer belonging to the Judge Advocate killed, speared, with one shoulder taken off’. Alsop, in charge of Palmer’s ‘two Hundred and thirty Head of Cattle’, soon found the stock under his charge had also been scattered, spooked and speared. He could only muster one hundred, which ‘appeared to be very wild and run away from him’, and he spent several days tracking them. When he finally drove what cattle he could find home, he found ‘one Cow speared in the udder since which time, they have been obliged to take a dead Calf from her’. Another cow was missing, which he had ‘every reason to believe the natives have killed’.

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Sources

  • ‘Re cattle killed by natives’, SRNSW, NRS 897, 4/1798, 6065, pp. 340–42

Event mentions

  • Raids on Palmer and Wylde's stations, Kings Plains
    20 Sep 1823 — Kings Plains
    On 20 September, Charles Booth, a convict stockworker for George Palmer (although ‘under the direction’ of John Wylde’s overseer, Andrew Dunn), was ‘out with his cattle’ on Kings Plains, accompanied by ‘a black Native’ called ‘Scrammy’, when ‘a number of other natives took and drove his Cattle away from him’. According to Booth, ‘early the next Morning they killed a fat Cow out of the same Herd which they had driven away’. Then, ‘about 2 miles from the place where they had taken the cattle from him’, Booth and Scrammy ‘found the skin and head only left, the whole of the meat being carried away. On examining the hide there appeared a great number of Spear Holes, with pieces of Broken spears laying about’, as well as ‘another Cow killed belonging to the same Herd’. Soon after, another of Palmer’s stockworkers, Henry Alsop (also Fasbrook), reported to Dunn that ‘he was out looking after his Cattle … and saw Natives, and one of them came to him and said his name was “Jacky”’ and he ‘had a spear with him which was bloody at the end and splintered’. Alsop then went ‘a short distance’ and ‘found a young Steer belonging to the Judge Advocate killed, speared, with one shoulder taken off’. Alsop, in charge of Palmer’s ‘two Hundred and thirty Head of Cattle’, soon found the stock under his charge had also been scattered, spooked and speared. He could only muster one hundred, which ‘appeared to be very wild and run away from him’, and he spent several days tracking them. When he finally drove what cattle he could find home, he found ‘one Cow speared in the udder since which time, they have been obliged to take a dead Calf from her’. Another cow was missing, which he had ‘every reason to believe the natives have killed’.
    Source: ‘Re cattle killed by natives’, SRNSW, NRS 897, 4/1798, 6065, pp. 340–42