Multuggerah was an Aboriginal Australian leader and resistance fighter of the Ugarapul [1] nation from the Lockyer Valley in Queensland. He was an important warrior and negotiator, bringing numerous Aboriginal clans together in an armed resistance against the 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot, squatters and the squatters' servants and other workers in the 1840s.
From 1841 over the course of decades, 1200 Aboriginal warriors in the Colony of New South Wales in the Lockyer Valley area (which became part of the Colony of Queensland from 1859), were opposed by, amongst others, the 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot. Intermittent conflict continued on into the 1850s and 1860s. [1] The line of settlement was held back by 15 years of armed conflict. [2] Multeggerah's tactics included road blocks made from felled trees, and setting an ambush site on a steep hill and in amongst bogs and heavy scrub. [3] Multeggerah was said by some to have lived to old age; but possibly died in 1846 [3] as part of the continuing conflict. [4]
The mass poisoning at Kilcoy Station instigated a strengthening of resistance activity. Multeggerah organised ambushes of the supply drays on their way up the escarpment from the coast; "He had sent word to the Europeans, warning them not to come through." [4]
In September 1843 an armed convoy of three drays with a crew of 18 was stopped and turned back. [3] A counter attack against the Aboriginal battle group by more than 30 squatters and their servants was also turned back from the high ground by the use of spears and thrown rocks. [1]
The 800-metre (2,600 ft) viaduct on the Warrego Highway section of the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing was named in honour of Multuggerah. [5]
The Lockyer Valley is an area of rich farmlands that lies to the west of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and east of Toowoomba. The Lockyer Valley is rated among the top ten most fertile farming areas in the world, and the intensively cultivated area grows the most diverse range of commercial fruit and vegetables of any area in Australia. The valley is referred to as "Australia's Salad Bowl" to describe the area as one of Australia's premium food bowls.
The Shire of Laidley was a local government area located in the Lockyer Valley region between the cities of Toowoomba and Ipswich, and about 70 kilometres (43 mi) west of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. The shire covered an area of 700.6 square kilometres (270.5 sq mi), and existed from 1888 until its merger with the Shire of Gatton to form the Lockyer Valley Region on 15 March 2008.
The Lockyer Valley Region is a local government area in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, between the cities of Ipswich and Toowoomba. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Gatton and the Shire of Laidley. It has an estimated operating budget of A$35m.
The Somerset Region is a local government area located in the West Moreton region of South East Queensland, Australia, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of Brisbane and centred on the town of Esk. It was created in 2008 from a merger of the Shire of Esk and the Shire of Kilcoy. It is commonly known as the Brisbane Valley, due to the Brisbane River which courses through the region, although significant parts of the region lie outside the hydrological Brisbane Valley itself.
Murphys Creek is a rural town and locality in the Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2016 census, the locality of Murphys Creek had a population of 629 people.
The Toowoomba Chronicle is a daily newspaper serving Toowoomba, the Lockyer Valley and Darling Downs regional areas in Queensland, Australia.
The Australian frontier wars were the violent conflicts between Indigenous Australians and primarily British settlers during the colonial period of Australia.
The Jagera people, also written Yagarr, Yaggera, Yuggera, and other variants, are the Australian First Nations people who speak the Yuggera language. The Yuggera language which encompasses a number of dialects was spoken by the traditional owners of the territories from Moreton Bay to the base of the Toowoomba ranges including the city of Brisbane.
Mount Rascal is a rural locality in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Mount Rascal had a population of 393 people.
Rangeville is a residential locality in Toowoomba in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Rangeville had a population of 8,668 people.
Wentworth D'Arcy Uhr was an officer in the paramilitary Native Police in the British colony of Queensland. After being demoted for poor conduct, he resigned from this force and became a drover, leading the first herds of cattle into the region now known as the Northern Territory. He later became, amongst other vocations, a gold prospector, butcher and hotelier. Throughout his life, Uhr actively engaged in multiple incidents of frontier violence including several massacres of Aboriginals. He was also the subject of numerous court cases defending charges which ranged from murder and assault to race-fixing and fraud. In later life he moved to Western Australia and became a business partner with Charles Kidman, brother of the famous pastoralist, Sidney Kidman.
The Battle of One Tree Hill was one of a series of conflicts that took place between European settlers and a group of men of the Jagera and other Aboriginal groups in the Darling Downs area in the colony of Queensland in the 1840s, as part of the Australian frontier wars. It was one in which the settlers were routed by a group of local Aboriginal men under the warrior Multuggerah, a rare event both in its form, as pitched battles between the two groups, and in its outcome.
Des V. McGovern was an Australian professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s and 1950s. A Queensland state and Australia national representative winger, he played his club football in Toowoomba, where he later become a successful coach and well-known radio match commentator.
Dundalli was an Aboriginal lawman who figured prominently in accounts of conflict between European settlers and indigenous aboriginal peoples in the area of Brisbane in South East Queensland. Traditionally described as a murderer, savage and terrorist, he is now thought variously to have been a guerilla leader or to have coordinated a decade-long resistance to white colonization the area. He was hanged publicly in Brisbane in 1855 by order of the Sheriff of New South Wales.
The Border Police of New South Wales was a frontier policing body introduced by the colonial government of New South Wales with the passing of the Crown Lands Unauthorised Occupation Act 1839.
Several recorded instances of mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians occurred during the British colonisation of Australia. Aboriginal resistance to colonisation led settlers to look for ways to kill or drive them off their land. While the settlers would typically attempt to eliminate Aboriginal resistance through massacres, occasionally they would attempt to secretly poison them as well. Typically, poisoned food and drink would be given to Aboriginal people or left out in the open where they could find it.
The War of Southern Queensland was a conflict fought between a coalition of Aboriginal tribes in South East Queensland, the "United Tribes", and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, from around 1843 to 1855. Following the Kilcoy massacre in 1842, a great meeting was held in the Bunya Scrub of tribes from across South East Queensland north to the Wide Bay-Burnett and Bundaberg regions, fuelled by decades of mistrust and misunderstanding with the British, they united into a loose confederation and issued a "declaration" to destroy the settlements on their lands.
The Laidley Pioneer Village and Museum is an historic open-air museum located in the town of Laidley, Lockyer Valley Region, Queensland, Australia, on the corner of Drayton Street and Pioneer Street. It portraits rural life in Queensland from the early 19th century.
Between 1841 and 1848, the Ugarapul headman 'Old Moppy,' his son Multuggerah and other headmen led many raids and sieges. Their allies – the 'Mountain tribes' – conducted similar resistance on the Darling Downs plateau and as far as Cunningham's Gap.
Such was the ferocity of the resistance that the British were forced to re-direct soldiers from the Maori wars in New Zealand, sending them to the Lockyer Valley. Part of Multuggerah's success lay in his ability to mobilise warriors from across language groups and his knowledge of the terrain. At one point his warriors feigned a retreat and led the soldiers and settles on a frantic chase through the forest. Without knowing, the whites walked into a trap and were pelted by stones and boulders from Multuggerah's men, positioned on the high country above them.
The nub of a long story is this: trouble began the moment whites moved down into the Lockyer Valley. But the 1842 poisoning of 50 or 60 people on Kilcoy Station provoked an uprising across this stretch of Queensland. One of its leaders was Multugerrah, a diplomat, strategist and warrior who gathered nearly all the mountain clans to deal with the invasion of their land.
About 1200 warriors waged war against a crack unit of British soldiers, the 99th regiment, who had been brought to the area specifically to battle the Aborigines.
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