NEW PLAY ABOUT JIMMY

Posts in the Paddock is a new play about Jimmy Governor which includes the Aboriginal perspective for the first time.
The idea came from a descendent of the O'Brien family, three members of which were murdered by Jimmy and Joe Governor at Merriwa in the Hunter Valley.
Three years in the making, it sounds like it will be a fabulous production and well worth seeing.
Posts in the Paddock will be staged at the Performance Space at Carriageworks (the old railway workshops near Newtown) from Wednesday 9-19 November.
Tickets are $30, concessions $20 and are available now.
For further information see http://www.mydarlingpatricia.com/2011/posts-in-the-paddock/

My old computer, a HP Compaq, died two months ago after seven years of faithful service.
It was like an extension of my brain which shut down too.
I seem to have lost several IQ points since.
Hopefully they will return once I start blogging again.
Lots of very interesting news to report.
Be back soon.

REVIEWS OF BOOKS ABOUT JIMMY GOVERNOR

I have now read all the major books written about Jimmy Governor, beginning with the one written by Frank Clune in 1959.

I will be reviewing each one here over the next couple of weeks.

This is the latest book about Jimmy Governor, published in 2009.
Each book that has been published about him since Jimmy Governor - the true story by Frank Clune in 1959 has revealed more information.

It is my view that there is still more to come out.
See other book titles about him under 'XTRAS' on this blog's sidebar.

GHOSTS

This poster of a ghostly Aboriginal figure is on the back of the door leading outside into the area where Jimmy Governor was hanged in January 1901. 

It depicts the Aboriginal painting technique of 'x-ray art' showing bones and joints, and the figure's head is painted white which is a sign of mourning.

When I saw it I was shocked, like there was something paranormal about it being there.

Had it been put there by someone who knew about Jimmy Governor as a tribute to him, or was it simply 'coincidence'?

For the last couple of months I have been haunted by the ghost of Jimmy Governor at home.

The first time he came he was angry about me putting pictures of the tombstones of all those he murdered on my blog for the world to see.

He also expressed remorse for what he had done to my ancestors, the four he had murdered at Breelong.

I smoked my house with eucalyptus leaves to try and remove his spirit, and this seemed to work for a while.

Then on the night after I took the photo of this Aboriginal figure, he came back.

He was angry like before.

There is definitely something 'karmic' happening between me and him.

Hopefully it is to do with healing.

THE PRODIGAL SON

Before Jimmy Governor went to the gallows at Darlinghurst Gaol, he was regularly visited by the resident Church of England chaplain, Retta Dixon.
The gaol's place of worship was a chapel located inside a round building in the centre of the radiating residential and service 'arms' of the prison.
Its centrepiece was three leadlight windows depicting the New Testament story of the prodigal son who after confessing his wrongdoings and repenting was forgiven by his loving father.

The words written on an open scroll at the top of each window are:

I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentence.

Above the three windows is a painted white dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, and the words:

Glory to God in the highest.

Prisoners at the gaol attended church services in this circular building.
It originally had an extra floor which was used to segregate the prisoners on the basis of gender. The female prisoners were seated on one level and their male counterparts on the other.

The Prodigal Son with his Heavenly Father

While incacerated in a condemned man's cell, Jimmy had angrily complained that the chaplain was trying to 'push' him instead of 'leading' him to his Heavenly Father.

But his wife Ethel must have liked the chaplain because she gave her daughter who was born about six weeks after Jimmy's death her name: Thelma Violet Hazel Reta Governor.

SEXUAL UNDERCURRENTS

While wading through stacks of newspaper articles about the Jimmy Governor story, I've come across points that have not been examined by other authors writing about this subject.

One that struck me was a statement Ethel Governor made in her evidence at the inquest into the deaths of Ellen Kerz and the three Mawbey children held at Gilgandra.

Ethel said:

Jimmy never accused me of being familiar with any of the Mawbey boys.

At the time I read this, about six months ago, I thought: Why would she say that?

She was obviously sexually precocious, judging from her under age pregnancy with Jimmy, and her competitive behaviour towards other girls who were interested in him.

Then yesterday I found a book I had d heard of but had not yet read: The Life of Jimmy Governor - The true story behind The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith by Brian Davies.

This author provides some information I have not come across before, that in view of Ethel's comment at the inquest, appears very relevant.

Davies reports that on the day of the murders at Breelong, Ethel had gone to the Mawbey home to ask for rations.

She arrived at the back door around midday, just at the Mawbeys were sitting down to lunch. Politely or provocatively one of the Mawbey boys suggested, to Ethel's astonishment, that she should join them. Sarah Mawbey rounded on the boy fiercely, outraged. [Source: The Life of Jimmy Governor by Brian Davies, Ure Smith (div. Paul Hamlyn), Dee Why West (Sydney), 1979, p55.]

Mrs Mawbey and the schoolteacher, Ellen Kerz, then turned on Ethel and she left the house empty-handed, without the flour and sugar so desperately needed back at the Governor camp.

An armed Jimmy equipped for murder and on the warpath went back to demand these rations again later that night.

So who was the boy who invited Ethel to lunch in the presence of his mother?

The Mawbey's eldest son, John, 20, was in Sydney and he was smitten with the schoolteacher who had been at Breelong before Miss Kerz, Mary Edwards.

The second eldest boy, Reginald, 18, was the same age as Ethel.

Percy, 14, was the next in line and he was the only boy in the family who was brutally murdered.

The boy who made the lunch invitation to Ethel may have simply felt sorry for her because she had no food.

Ethel may have mistakenly read sexual connotations into the invitation.

She claimed that her husband Jimmy had never accused her of flirting with any of the Mawbey boys, but this does not mean that she was not doing so.

Unfortunately Mr Davies does not provide the source of his information about what happened at the Mawbey house at lunchtime on the day of the murders.

But this aspect of the story is supported by another author.

Knowledge of this incident makes what happened later in the day more understandable.

It confirms that the Breelong murders did not just happen out of the blue - that Jimmy simply lost his head in a fit of rage on that fateful night - but were part of a sequence of related events.