JAMES AINSWORTH FROM THE 1840s

Casino and Kyogle Courier and North Coast Advertiser (NSW : 1904 - 1932), Saturday 7 October 1922, page 3

 

In 1847 there were between 400 and 500 native blacks in the tribes belonging to East and West Ballina. At that time they had not yet become contaminated by the white approach. They lived in rigid accordance with their own primitive customs and were strangers alike to grog and to many of the other vices and diseases of the white civilisation. The men were destitute of clothing and the women wore loin cloths, mostly made from the wool of the opossum. Their principal food was fish and oysters and the varied products of the chase. They were a simple, good-hearted and friendly people who would generously give away any-thing they possessed to the "white feller." It is regrettable to have to record that in return they were often very badly treated by the settlers.

 

They were exceedingly expert hunters and fishermen, and in these pursuits brought to their aid many ingenious weapons and contrivances. In catching fish they used what they called a "tow-row" — that is, a finely meshed net attached to a stick of bamboo bent in the shape of a bow about eight feet across between the two ends. This gave a bag effect to the net, and with a tow-row in each hand the blacks would surround the fish schools in narrow and shallow waters and catch them by hundreds. The cordage of these nets, which were very strong and beautifully woven, was made from the inside fibre of the stinging tree and from the bark of the currajong. They used a similar net in hunting. This was made of the same fibre in long sections four feet in width. These sections when joined together for the purposes of the chase would extend some-times to a half-mile in length. Where game was plentiful in the forest or scrub the blacks would run the net after the manner of a fence in the shape of a semi-circle. Then the whole tribe with the dogs would beat up the neighborhood for a mile or two and drive all game - everything - towards the open end of the enveloping net. Here the scared paddy-melons, wallabies, bandicoots, iguanas, etc., would be suddenly arrested and, becoming hopelessly entangled, fall speedy victims to dogs and men. It was surprising the immense quantity of food they sometimes secured by these means.

 

Flying foxes were a prolific source of food supply, and as these huge bats clustered together in their camps in thousands they were easily brought down with the boomerang and paddy-melon stick. Yams were also a favourite delicacy, and some that were obtainable in the scrubs grew to two feet in length by an inch or two in diameter. A very appetising bread was made from a nut flour. These nuts grew on the coastal headlands, and in season, when ripe were ground up between heavy stones. The pulp was then placed in the running water for six weeks or so and the resultant paste when cooked made a really splendid bread. It resembled arrowroot in smell, and was eagerly sought after by the whites when rations ran short.

 

In that early period, too, the blacks in the month of September each year, flocked to the beaches for salmon fishing. This was a very fine eating fish, resembling a small "jewy" in shape, and while the brief season of a month lasted Binghi's larder was full to over-flowing. They came in huge shoals inside the surf, where the blacks could spear them in any number; then they would disappear from the coast as suddenly as they came. A singular circumstance in connection with these migratory salmon was that in the '57 season countless hundreds of them were washed ashore dead, so that the beaches north of the Richmond were literally strewn with their decomposing bodies. They were apparently ravaged by some disease. Certain it is - and this is the peculiar feature - they have never, to my knowledge, been seen on this coast since.

 

Tribal warfare was not infrequent. The Brunswick blacks, hostile to those of Ballina, would meet on the Seven Mile Beach as a battleground and there they would savagely fight out their differences. Generally the trouble had its origin among the women folk. A young buck from a neighbouring tribe would carry off a young lubra, or the latter would elect to steal away to another camp, and this was sufficient for a declaration of war. The original white settlers witnessed many of these tribal collisions. A battle would some-times last for two days, and would take place generally on the open beaches. The weapons were mostly spears, boomerangs and nullahs, and each warrior carried a shield, or bukkha, to protect the body from the flying missiles. The balance spear was a favourite weapon, and these the expert fighting men could hurl up to a couple of hundred yards with deadly precision. The tribes subscribed to the primitive principles of right and wrong, and believed in the existence of an evil spirit. As a consequence, they were possessed of many disconcerting fears. Without any apparent recognition of a good spirit they stood in mortal terror of an evil one, but generally they were fair in their dealings with one another in obedience to the rigid tribal codes.

 

They had many gruesome customs. On the death of a member of the tribe the women relatives would with sharp tomahawks while standing up hack their scalps clean of hair, after which they would collapse in heaps, presenting a sickening sight. The hairless, blood-smeared heads would then be treated with poultices of congevoi and in a few weeks the bruised and bare scalps would again be wonderfully healed. Another cruel custom was the initiation of a young buck to manhood. This, among other weird rites, involved the laceration and burning of the flesh on chest and shoulders, and the application of clay to heal the wounds. Huge weals remained, and these were the warrior's pride and the sign of his tried manhood.

 

The hunting ground of the Ballina tribes extended north to Broken Head and back from the beaches to the Big Scrub. The seasons were known to them by foliage and flowers, and the great book of nature undoubtedly revealed to them many of its secrets. They could tell by natural signs of flowers and fruits when the salmon and the mullet were due on the beaches and in the rivers, and also when certain game was bound to be in evidence in particular localities. The tribe usually camped in divisions at different places excepting during oyster season, when they assembled unitedly at Chickiaba, on North Creek, where the large oyster banks on the foreshores to this day mark the old feeding grounds. Naturally conversant with the ways of the bush and the scrubs, they were of incalculable assistance to the cedar getters. They also became fine axemen and expert at squaring the logs, rafting and bullock driving. It was never known that the whites had ever suffered injury at their hands, but on the contrary their help was in constant requisition in many ways.