Bathurst Free Press & Mining Journal, Wednesday 10 October 1900
THE BREELONG BLACKS.
AN AMBUSH THAT FAILED. Wingham, Tuesday Afternoon,
As soon as word of the robbery of Hanney's house was brought toWingham, a party was made up to give the Bop[b]in people warning, and to arrange ambushes for the Governors in that quarter ...
Very little definite news could be obtained of the movements of the blacks, although there is enough to satisfy the townspeople that they are making towards the Hastings.
On Friday, it seems, they called at an aboriginals' camp, lying between the Little Dingo and Black Flat, and asked the half-caste Yarnold which was the nearest town, and asked how far it was to the Macleay. They got some bread at the camp and left.
The next news came of the sticking up of Mr. Pat Hanney's house at Little Dingo on Saturday morning. Mr. Hanney has supplied the follow ing particulars of the unwelcome visit to his place : — At about eight o'clock on Saturday morning, he was at a [place] tacking out skins, about thirty yards from the house.
His wife went up to him, saying ' What would you do if the Breelong blacks came along now?'
At that very moment, his little boy said, ' There they are now,' and, looking up, Hanney saw himself covered by two rifles.
One of the blacks was behind a tree about twenty-five yards away, with his rifle leaning against it.
The other was about a yard from the tree.
One of the outlaws, the shortest, cried, ' Surrender,' to which Hanney assented.
They asked how far it was to an empty house at the back.
Hanney asked them what they wanted, when he was told to take his family and ' get,' which he did, and never saw any more of them.
The nearest house to Hanney's was three hundred yards away, but he was sent in an opposite direction. The blacks took from the house a rifle, a pair of pants, and rations.
They spilt a lot of flour about the house, and walked in it, and ransacked the place.
Before they left Hanney they asked if he had a late paper, which he had not.
They went away in the direction they came.
Mr Hanney said both the men looked clean, and well fed and strong, and not untidily dressed.
They appeared to have a three weeks' growth of beard.
The tracks were run to the creek, and then lost on Monday.
... About 1 o'clock on Monday afternoon, Albert James and Charles Yarnold, with two other brothers, came into town post-haste for rifles, asserting that there were indications that the fugitives were making along the range running up Koilabakh Creek, towards the Lansdowne.
They gave very little information, but got rifles and ammunition, and galloped on again as quickly as possible.
As a verification of the probability that the blacks went this way, a report was brought into town that some children living at the head of Cedar Park Creok had seen them passing that way.
It is no distance through Gibson's Brush, or higher up the Dingo Creek, from Peter Pompey, aoross the Catabunda, and thence on to the range, upon which it is supposed the Yarnold brothers saw them.
In view of the reticence of the Yarnolds, nothing is as yet certain, but if they have broken off that way, the police are again many miles in their rear.
Later. — Young Yarnold was in town today, and reported that Yarnold brothers' party followed tracks, supposed to be those of the blacks, onto Thornton's Creek, Koilabakh.
Tracks of bare feet were seen in the mud at the creek, and the bushes were brokon about the spot.
The party followed the tracks till dark, and this morning early started off to head them in the direction indicated by the tracks.
[Source: NLA 63879700]
THE BREELONG BLACKS.
AN AMBUSH THAT FAILED. Wingham, Tuesday Afternoon,
As soon as word of the robbery of Hanney's house was brought toWingham, a party was made up to give the Bop[b]in people warning, and to arrange ambushes for the Governors in that quarter ...
Very little definite news could be obtained of the movements of the blacks, although there is enough to satisfy the townspeople that they are making towards the Hastings.
On Friday, it seems, they called at an aboriginals' camp, lying between the Little Dingo and Black Flat, and asked the half-caste Yarnold which was the nearest town, and asked how far it was to the Macleay. They got some bread at the camp and left.
The next news came of the sticking up of Mr. Pat Hanney's house at Little Dingo on Saturday morning. Mr. Hanney has supplied the follow ing particulars of the unwelcome visit to his place : — At about eight o'clock on Saturday morning, he was at a [place] tacking out skins, about thirty yards from the house.
His wife went up to him, saying ' What would you do if the Breelong blacks came along now?'
At that very moment, his little boy said, ' There they are now,' and, looking up, Hanney saw himself covered by two rifles.
One of the blacks was behind a tree about twenty-five yards away, with his rifle leaning against it.
The other was about a yard from the tree.
One of the outlaws, the shortest, cried, ' Surrender,' to which Hanney assented.
They asked how far it was to an empty house at the back.
Hanney asked them what they wanted, when he was told to take his family and ' get,' which he did, and never saw any more of them.
The nearest house to Hanney's was three hundred yards away, but he was sent in an opposite direction. The blacks took from the house a rifle, a pair of pants, and rations.
They spilt a lot of flour about the house, and walked in it, and ransacked the place.
Before they left Hanney they asked if he had a late paper, which he had not.
They went away in the direction they came.
Mr Hanney said both the men looked clean, and well fed and strong, and not untidily dressed.
They appeared to have a three weeks' growth of beard.
The tracks were run to the creek, and then lost on Monday.
... About 1 o'clock on Monday afternoon, Albert James and Charles Yarnold, with two other brothers, came into town post-haste for rifles, asserting that there were indications that the fugitives were making along the range running up Koilabakh Creek, towards the Lansdowne.
They gave very little information, but got rifles and ammunition, and galloped on again as quickly as possible.
As a verification of the probability that the blacks went this way, a report was brought into town that some children living at the head of Cedar Park Creok had seen them passing that way.
It is no distance through Gibson's Brush, or higher up the Dingo Creek, from Peter Pompey, aoross the Catabunda, and thence on to the range, upon which it is supposed the Yarnold brothers saw them.
In view of the reticence of the Yarnolds, nothing is as yet certain, but if they have broken off that way, the police are again many miles in their rear.
Later. — Young Yarnold was in town today, and reported that Yarnold brothers' party followed tracks, supposed to be those of the blacks, onto Thornton's Creek, Koilabakh.
Tracks of bare feet were seen in the mud at the creek, and the bushes were brokon about the spot.
The party followed the tracks till dark, and this morning early started off to head them in the direction indicated by the tracks.
[Source: NLA 63879700]
