In Search of the White Woman

Tackawadden, a nine-year-old Aboriginal boy, is at the heart of the story of the search for the captive white woman. His participation in the government's expedition to find her began on 7 May 1846. Tackawadden was the son of Bungaleena, who was believed to be holding the woman captive. Judging by the reports written by officers taking part in the search, it appears that this basic fact was not generally known.

In April 1846 Gippsland Commissioner of Crown Lands Charles Tyers instructed W H Walsh, one of the Native Police officers, to take the second division of the Native Police to Gippsland to form a search party that would be guided by Tackawadden. The young boy was initially too frightened to take part, apparently believing that Mr Walsh would shoot him. It was Sergeant Windridge, an officer of the Border Police and formerly of the Native Police, who eventually persuaded Tackawadden to assist. The aim of the search was to find and communicate with Bungaleena and the Lake Wellington group. A combined party of Border and Native Police then set off in a couple of boats on Lake Victoria in search of Tackawadden's clan.

There were four attempts between May and September 1846 to find and communicate with Bungaleena for the release of the white woman. On each occasion the search parties departed from Commissioner Tyers's headquarters at Eagle Point overlooking Lake King. During similar searches later in 1846 and early 1847 the search parties encountered groups of Kurnai people willing to talk to them and tell them they had seen Bungaleena with the white woman. On each occasion, however, they were told that Bungaleena and his clan had just moved on, up into the mountains, or around the other side of Lake Victoria, or up to the Snowy River. Reporting back to Superintendent Charles La Trobe, Tyers pointed out that this information might not be reliable because Aboriginal people often seemed to give answers they thought Europeans wanted. In addition, Tackawadden was young and had only recently begun learning English. Doubts were noted in the records regarding his reliability as an interpreter and guide.

The search for the captive white woman suffered a significant setback on 19 December 1846. On this day, a party of Native Police and Border Police under the command of Henry EP Dana's brother, William Dana, surprised (or 'rushed') a group of Kurnai people camped on the Snowy River. Senior government officials believed that William Dana and his men had unnecessarily provoked the situation. The incident earned Dana stern criticism and made relations with the Aboriginal people in the area more difficult.

The Commissioner eventually succeeded in meeting with Bungaleena on the shores of the Gippsland lakes in April 1847. Bungaleena confirmed that the white woman had come ashore from a shipwreck eight or nine years previously. He also told Tyers that a figure-head from the vessel could still be found in the scrub near the beach where it had been washed up. The headman stated that the white woman was in the care of his brothers at a camp in the mountains, and an arrangement was made immediately for two messengers to retrieve her. However, one of the messengers was soon seen near McCleod's Backwater, raising suspicions that he was not on his way to the mountains as had been promised.

Tyers believed the search party was being deceived and decided to take Bungaleena's two wives and two children as hostages. The headman, meanwhile, would be sent with Sergeant Windridge and the majority of the search party to recover the white woman from the mountains. Bungaleena was unhappy with this ultimatum. He managed to escape with his twenty-year-old son, but returned shortly afterwards in an attempt to rescue the rest of his family, claiming his son had drowned trying to swim to Raymond Island. However, Tyers observed that this was surely a lie because the tracks of Bungaleena and his son had been found on the island when they were being pursued.

Having held Bungaleena and his family hostage for three weeks in the hope that this would hasten the return of the white woman, Tyers then asked the headman to enter into an agreement. In exchange for his cooperation in leading the search party into the mountains to find the woman, Bungaleena was promised various rewards. As part of the agreement, however, his family was to stay behind as hostages. Sergeant Windridge, who led the search into the mountains, kept a detailed record of this journey. They failed to find the group believed to be holding the woman, and Bungaleena was again suspected of deception. Windridge was told by Tackawadden that Bungaleena's brother was to take the woman away to Buchan if Bungaleena was detained by the white men.

In June 1847, Tyers announced he was calling off the search. He claimed to have taken possession of the figure-head of the vessel from the shipwreck the woman had survived, but believed there was nothing more that could be done. Without any other means to detain Bungaleena and his family, he sent them to Melbourne to be kept in custody by Henry Dana at the Native Police headquarters at Nerre Nerre Warren. When questioned by Chief Protector George Augustus Robinson, Bungaleena and his family continued to say that the white woman existed, but they now said she was with Bungaleena's brother, and believed that they had gone to Buchan or Two Fold Bay.

Bungaleena was detained without charge for 17 months, confined to a cell. He died 21 November 1848 while still in Dana's custody at Nerre Nerre Warren. His young wife and his two sons were sent to the Merri Creek School run by Mr Edgar and his family. The school experimented with teaching Aboriginal youths and children. Bungaleena's wife Parley was renamed Kitty, and his sons became known as Tommy and Harry Bungaleena. Kitty departed, leaving her two sons in the care of the Edgars. By 1851 the school no longer had enough pupils to continue, and the Edgars decided to leave, but were unwilling to take the two boys with them. William Thomas then placed them under the care of John Hinkins who ran the Anglican school at the Pentridge village (now Coburg). Tommy became Thomas (after William Thomas) and Harry was renamed John (after Hinkins). Though troubled, they began to assimilate into the European world and learnt its culture. John's life, however, was cut short; he died aged eleven in 1856. Disturbed by his brother's death, Thomas became violent and angry. He was sent to the training ship SS Victoria in 1861 at age 14. Four years later he became a map tracer for the government but died soon after being appointed to this position from gastric fever, aged 18.