Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Aborigines and roast pork

Periodically, the Western Australian Agricultural Protection Board issues a warning to hikers about feral pigs on the Bibbulmun Trail. The southwest forests through which it meanders have numerous swamps, a plentiful supply of pig-type food and few predators – perfect conditions to allow the razorbacks to multiply.

This is a far cry from the first days of colonisation in 1829 when Aborigines discovered that one of the few good things about Captain Stirling and his invading group of land grabbing settlers was that they had brought pigs with them.

The initial absence of proper enclosures enabled many animals to wander off, and using their natural ability it was inevitable that they soon got to work on digging up Aboriginal yam, or warran patches. When the incursions were noticed by the traditional owners, the rapid conversion of the porkers into a bush-gourmet dinner was inevitable.

Aborigines thought the newly introduced sheep and cattle were okay too, but it was the succulent aroma of roasted pork wafting through the forest which really caught their olfactory senses. Any little piggy which trotted too far from home was quite likely to roast that night in an Aboriginal campfire.

The settlers soon deduced what was happening and hastened to build proper enclosures, but it was a case of closing the stable door after the pig had bolted. The Aborigines, particularly of the Swan River region, in almost no time at all acquired something of an insatiable craving. They began plotting how to catch and eat all the remaining pigs before the whitefellas. In any case, the settlers appeared not to be doing anything with them. Instead, they shot and ate the native game at every opportunity.

From the Aboriginal point of view, the pigs were a fair exchange - reciprocity - the traditional Aboriginal way of doing business. While the settlers understood this, they didn’t accept it.

Captain Fremantle RN who had been involved in the initial establishment of the colony at Swan River returned in 1832, wrote how the situation between settlers and Aborigines was rapidly deteriorating:

....there was a very bad understanding with the Natives, who were most troublesome & did much damage, spearing the sheep, pigs, &c. in great abundance. Many deaths have also been occasioned by them & in return many of them have been killed. I am induced to believe that amongst the lower Classes it has almost amounted to a war of extermination & they (Aborigines) are shot whenever they are fallen in with;...It is to be hoped in time that a better understanding may be established with them, and that means may be taken to remove them to some Island or distant part of the Country not settled, where they may be allowed to hunt & if necessary be supported. There is not much to be said & allowed for the poor Savages. We take possession of their Country, occupy the most fertile parts, where they are in the habit of resorting to for nourishment, destroy their fishing & Kangaroo, & almost drive them to starvation, & they naturally consider themselves entitled to our Sheep & Stock whenever they can get hold of them... (Fremantle, 1832; in Cottesloe, 1928. pp. 91-92)

His ominous talk of moving Swan River Aborigines to an island was echoing sentiment about treatment of Aborigines in Van Diemans Land, (Tasmania) where nine months previously in January 1832 the British had commenced their “final solution” of rounding them up and transporting them to Flinders Island. Less than a decade later, Rottnest Island off Fremantle became a prison for Aboriginal tribesmen who had harried settlers.

The indigenous Swan River hunters were oblivious to the impending threat. Pigs remained their number one target. “Mmmmm! Roast pork!” they droolingly murmured in their native language. No spears missed their mark when the opportunity presented.

One settler, George Fletcher Moore wrote of his frustration at the loss of yet another prized porker. He was, “...preparing to watch and attack the natives, and kill, burn, blow up, or otherwise destroy the enemy, as may be most practicable.” But he didn’t. He also lamented the true cause of the problem. “...but after all, perhaps these uninformed creatures think that they have as good a right to our swine as we have to their kangaroos.” (Moore. p.120)

Moore also reported that the Governor Stirling’s pigs had been speared, and that the total number lost by settlers would have been enough to have supported the entire colony over the winter months. Despite his annoyance about the loss of pigs and the unfailing Aboriginal interest in them he managed to see humour in the situation and wrote the following at Upper Swan on 27th April 1833:

I had sent James to borrow a seed riddle, and was on the lookout for some pigs that were trying to circumvent the garden, when I heard a jabbering, and lo! ten natives were in the act of admiring them at the river-side. As I thought they might carry their admiration to the inconvenient extent of carrying them off, I slipped into the house and got my guns in readiness, and in a convenient situation for instant use. I then went out and engaged the unwelcome visitors in most edifying conversation, walking them up through the gate, and past the house, on to the high plain above; and sending Johnny for bread, which I cut and distributed amongst them in due proportion, praying (sic) proper regard to old Yello-gonga, their chief. ( Moore. p.181)

He evidently enjoyed a reasonably-happy long-term relationship with Aborigines in spite of his threats and the justifiable fears for his pigs, but this should not disguise the fact that there are a number of recorded occasions when other Europeans set out on mounted expeditions to extract murderous and indiscriminate revenge for the loss of livestock.

There is a certain irony that the animal which once became the favoured target of the long-gone southwest indigenous tribesmen has now taken over their forests – and the trail which was named after them.

Sources
Cottesloe, Lord C.B. (Ed.). (1928). Diary and letters of Admiral Sir C.H. Fremantle, G.C.B. Relating to the founding of the colony of Western Australia. (1985 facsimile edition.). Fremantle: Fremantle Arts Centre Press.

Moore, George Fletcher, B.L. (1884). Diary of ten years eventful life of an early settler in Western Australia. (1978 facsimile edition.). Nedlands: University of Western Australia Press.

© MMIV Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out the index of my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days.

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