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‘Worse than Murder’? Colonial Queensland's Response to the Rape of European Women by Aboriginal Men
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2012
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During the second half of the nineteenth century, Queensland courts tried, convicted and hanged sixteen men for the crime of rape. Of these, one was Caucasian, three were Pacific Islanders and twelve were Aboriginal. The Indigenous total would have been fourteen but for the fact that two other men convicted and sentenced for this offence evaded the gallows: one died in custody, the other was shot dead while attempting to escape. In each case of execution, the victims were European women or girls.
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References
Endnotes
1 See, in particular, the case of Regina v Georgie, 5 June 1862, CCT/2/1 Queensland State Archives (QSA), and case of Regina v Jackie Whitton, cited in The Queenslander, 5 February 1870 and Darling Downs Gazette, 9 March 1870.
2 C. Harris, ‘The terror of the law as applied to black rapists in colonial Queensland’, Hecate 3 (1982): 6–21. See also Reynolds, H., Frontier (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1987), p. 81Google Scholar. Reynolds claims that rape was an unusual accompaniment to Aboriginal attacks. See I. Lincoln, ‘The punishment of crime in colonial Queensland’, unpublished BA (Hons) thesis, University of Queensland (1966), p. 20 Also see The Courier, 1 September 1860.
3 Harris, ‘The terror of the law’.
4 See Report from The Select Committee on the Native Police Force (Brisbane: Fairfax & Belbridge, 1861), p 34; Moreton Bay Courier, 8 December 1860.
5 Under current legal definitions, almost all of these men would have been found guilty of rape.
6 Justice Sheppard to the Executive, Re Regina v Aboriginals Jacky-Jacky & Paddy, in Exe, 2. Queensland State Archives (QSA).
7 In questioning the frequency of this crime, one must fully acknowledge that the reverse of the coin, the rape of Aboriginal women by white men, was widespread. However, a discussion of the rape of Aboriginal women by white men is outside the scope of this article.
8 The legal age of consent was twelve; it remained so until 1891.
9 Moreton Bay Courier, 8 December 1860.
10 The Brisbane Courier, 7 June 1889.
11 Rape ceased to be a capital offence in the United Kingdom in 1841.
12 Moreton Bay Courier, 1 September 1860.
13 Moreton Bay Courier, 1 September 1860.
14 Queensland Parliamentary Debates (QPD) 1865, p. 394.
15 QPD 1865, p. 395.
16 QPD 1865, p. 393.
17 Harris, ‘The terror of the law’, p. 25.
18 Native Police Report, p. 99.
19 Native Police Report, p. 32.
20 Harris, ‘Terror of the law’, p. 27.
21 Police estimate figures. There was no census prior to 1871.
22 Queensland Census, 1871.
23 R v Georgie, 1861, I, 1862 and R v George 1888.
24 Wilson, P., ‘Victims of rape’, in Chappell, D. & Wilson, P. (eds), The Australian criminal justice system (Sydney: Butterworths, 1997), p. 446Google Scholar.
25 Moreton Bay Courier, 13 June 1887.
26 Brownmiller, S., Against our will: Men, women and rape (Ringwood: Penguin, 1991), pp. 146, 148Google Scholar.
27 Australian Law Reform Commission, Family violence – A national legal response (ALRC Report 114), 11 November 2010, p. 24.
28 Bowen to Newcastle, 16 December 1861, Gov/23 QSA.
29 See, for example, deposit of William Miles, cited in North Australian, 8 December 1857.
30 Moreton Bay Courier, 1 June 1859.
31 With regard to the unwillingness of juries to convict white men in rape trials, see SCT/CC 43 QSA. Between 1883 and 1887 there were thirteen acquittals in Queensland.
32 Moreton Bay Courier, 1 June 1859.
33 Letterbook of the Brisbane Sheriff, Prisons Dept, 59101, QSA.
34 Regina v Jemmy, 1865, CCT, 2/1 QSA.
35 Regina v Jemmy, 1865, CCT, 2/1 QSA.
36 Regina v Jemmy, 1865, CCT, 2/1 QSA.
37 Regina v Georgie (an Aborigine) 22 November 1861, 2727 Col, A/21 (QSA). Regina v Kipper Billy, 5 June 1862 CCT/2/1 QSA.
38 The Queenslander, 5 February 1870.
39 Rockhampton Bulletin, 7 January 1871.
40 Rockhampton Bulletin, 28 March 1871.
41 Rockhampton Bulletin, 30 March 1871.
42 Rockhampton Bulletin, 28 March 1871.
43 Rockhampton Bulletin, 28 March 1871.
44 The Queenslander, 9 September 1876. See also ‘Record of death sentences’ in PRI/18 QSA. This document records Gillie-Gillie Jack as being tried for murder. This is probably incorrect, as all other documents show him as being tried and convicted of rape. It may be that the murder was sheeted home to Peter who, as stated above, died in custody without coming to trial.
45 The Queenslander, 9 September 1876.
46 Police Gazette, 23, 11 September 1882.
47 Loyau, G., A history of Maryborough and Wide Bay and Burnett districts from the year 1850 to 1859 (Brisbane: n.p., 1897), p. 82Google Scholar.
48 Grimshaw, P., Lake, M., McGrath, A. and Quartly, M., Creating a nation: A dramatic new history that challenges the conventional view of Australia's past as a creation of white men of British descent (Ringwood: Penguin, 1994), p. 96Google Scholar.
49 Grimshaw et al., Creating a Nation, p. 4.
50 Johnson, M. and Saunders, K., Wild heart bountiful land: An historical overview of the Mary River Valley (Runcorn: Queensland State Archives, 2007), p. 8Google Scholar.
51 Loyau, A history, p. 103.
52 Loyau, A history, p. 103.
53 Loyau, A history, p. 67.
54 The Telegraph, 17 August 1880. See also Brisbane Courier, 17 August 1880.
55 Harris, ‘Terror of the law’, p. 44.
56 The last execution in Queensland was of Ernest Austin on 22 September 1913 for the rape and murder of twelve-year-old Ivy Mitchell.