The Captive White Woman of Gippsland (1845-1849)

The possibility of a white woman being held captive by a group of Kurnai people in Gippsland was first raised by Scottish settler Angus McMillan. His written account of an expedition in November 1840, to find a route from the Gippsland interior to the coast, included the claim that he saw a white woman in the distance amongst a group of Aboriginal people. The account was first published in the Sydney Herald on 28 December 1840 and reappeared the following year in the Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser.

Rumours of sightings were still circulating in the settler society of the Port Phillip District at the beginning of 1846. These sightings were often vague and poorly documented, sometimes placing the white woman in a number of different locations. The common element was that a white woman had fallen into the hands of Aboriginal people and was being held captive by them. In early March 1846, Commandant of Native Police Henry EP Dana reported to Superintendent Charles La Trobe that troopers Quandite and Calcalo claimed to have seen a white woman among a group of Aborigines while guarding the pastoral run of Angus McMillan, Bushy Park, located on the Avon River in north central Gippsland. Dana reported that trooper Quandite 'saw or thought he saw' a white woman held by a group of Kurnai people in the nearby mountains. Dana reminded La Trobe that he and his troopers had recently conducted a search in the Wimmera hundreds of miles away for the same woman. In a sworn statement, trooper Quandite declared he had seen a woman with 'yellow' skin and light-coloured hair down to her shoulders who was wearing a possum-skin cloak. She dropped the cloak and ran away when she saw him looking at her. WH Walsh, one of the Native Police officers, swore in his statement that the troopers picked up the cloak the woman had been wearing and smelt it. They all confirmed that the cloak belonged to a white woman.

Image 21: This map shows the routes of a number of explorers who passed through Gippsland in the years leading up to and including 1840. (Link opens in new window.)
Exploration Map of Gippsland circa 1860, Historic Plan Collection, PROV, VPRS 8168/P1, unit 41, EXP 32.

Further information about the white woman came from an Aboriginal boy who had been captured at Lake King in Gippsland by a settler driving away a group spearing his cattle. The boy was taken to Lachlan Macalister's station where he was subsequently taught English. Several times he spoke about a white woman and two children of mixed background who were living with a group of Aboriginal people from the Gippsland lakes. Though he had never seen the woman himself, only heard about her, he claimed that the two children had been his playmates. According to the boy, named Tackawadden, the woman was one of the survivors of a shipwreck off the Gippsland coast.

Despite this and other proclaimed sightings, no conclusive evidence was ever produced to show whether this white woman existed or, if she did, whether she was held against her will. Indeed, the story seems to be little more than a fiction. Even as legend, however, the idea of the captive white woman had the power to stir up the anxieties of settler society to such an extent that it led to the formation of two search parties. It is worthwhile revisiting this story in the context of continuing attempts to achieve reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. The events and narratives that are revealed in the records serve as reminders about cultural obstacles, prejudices and misunderstandings that have shaped this relationship into the present.

Image 22: Genevieve Melrose, Children finding message to White Woman, in Fred Baxter, Snake for supper, 1868. La Trobe Collection, State Library of Victoria, reproduced with the permission of New Holland Publishers.

The pages that follow tell the story of the two separate expeditions to find the captive white woman. Both search parties were looking for the headman Bungaleena and his clan, who were believed to be holding her. One was a government expedition involving the Native Police together with members of the Border Police. The other was a private expedition funded by a group of concerned citizens in Melbourne who had grown impatient with the government's lack of success. This group was set up in September 1846 and led by the commanding officer of the first Native Police Corps Christian de Villiers. Doubts and criticisms were raised by officers of the Aboriginal Protectorate and some Gippsland squatters regarding the usefulness of the search. In addition, tensions arose between the two parties, including complaints from de Villiers about the use of excessive violence and cruelty by officers of the Native Police.