John 'Gilburri' Fahy

John Gilburri Fahy (1814–1885) was a runaway Irish convict who lived among the Dalla people and Kabi Kabi Wide Bay tribes for over twelve years during the Black War for South East Queensland of 1842 to 1854. While in jail Fahy was recruited by explorer Augustus Charles Gregory in 1855 for the first expedition to the Northern Territory.

John Fahy was born in Galway, Ireland, in 1814. His family were from County Clare. They were known as a local crime family. Many of his family had been transported to Australia.

John joined the Irish recruits of 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment of Foot in 1834, and his regiment set sail for Cape Town South Africa in 1836.

In 1837, John Fahy was charged with deserting his post when he and 18 of his fellow Irish soldier mates abandoned their post in a protest against their cruel English officers. They were all court martialed and sentenced to life.

John Fahy arrived in Sydney in 1838 under a sentence of a transportation for life. He was a soldier in the 27th Regiment serving in Cape Town South Africa.

Escape with the blackfellas

1842 April. John Fahy escapes from a road gang near Armidale. Fahy breaks the neck of his convict master and places him ontop a giant anthill. This horrible act impressed a clan of Kamilaroi aboriginal warriors who decided to take this white convict with them to the Bunya Mountains.

Adopted into the Dalla clan

1842 May. A huge gathering of traditional tribal landowners convened at the Bunya Mountains to discuss measures to be taken in response to the murders of relatives from 9 to 10 tribes at Kilcoy. John Fahy is introduced to thetribal chiefs at this meeting. He was indebted for having his life spared to the fact, that one of the oldest chiefs of the tribe imagined that he discovered in the features of the white stranger the likeness of his son, slain some time before in battle, and who, according to the chief's belief in the transmigration of souls (a belief common among the aboriginals), had returned to earth it the resemblance of a white man. This could possibly be Dallatribal chief Ubi Ubi who had recently lost a son in 1841.

The name Gilburri

This tribal name was given to Fahy at his initiation ceremony in Jan 1843. Gilburri comes from a Kabi word for thewhite-throated needletail.

• 1843 April 24. At about eight o’clock Dundalli, led by the older Cambayo, a Joondaburri man from Bribie Island, approached the out-station. As Vant bent to put another log on the coals, Cambayo's spear struck his left shoulder blade and penetrated diagonally through to his right hip. Dundalli immediately followed, throwing his spear at Vant. Vant claimed he was able to catch Dundalli's spear in his hand, although they were a mere eight feet [2.5 metres] apart. Perhaps Dundalli lost his nerve at the sight of Vant's gun leaning against the hut. The deed done, the two men hastily left for the coast. Injured, Vant could only wait for his mate to return and fetch help. Remarkably Cambayo's spear must have missed crucial internal organs. It took more than four hours for the shepherd to report the attack to the head station, just as the Archer brothers were sitting down to dinner with their guest Christopher Eipper. The clergyman headed out to the hut to dress Vant's wound and stay with him until he could be moved to the head station, where the Archers’ neighbour and magistrate, Evan Mackenzie, issued a warrant for Cambayo and Dundalli's arrest.

Wonnarua painting of Baiame, near Milbrodale, (south of Singleton, New South Wales). Note that his arms extend to the two trees either side.

• 1843 July. Dalla and Kabi Kabi men kill 4 shepherds at the Eales station established on their country on the Mary River.
• 1844 November. Another large intertribal pullen-pullen was celebrated on the Logan River near Brisbane and soon after a shepherd at Kilcoy was attacked.
• 1844 Early March. A large pullen-pullen was assembled in the vicinity of Brisbane.
• 1845 March. A week after the preceding, a lay pastor, John Hausmann, was wounded in an attempt on his life, at Redcliffe. The attack was carried out by a Ningy Ningy called Trimberri, with several other clansmen. Connors thinks that Dundalli may have enlisted these tribesmen to carry out a delayed ritual payback attack possibly linked to the Kilcoy massacre which had affected Ningy Ningy people.
• 1846 October, as Kabi, Dalla, Djindubari, Turrbal and perhaps Undanbi tribesmen returned from the pullen-pullen, a large number launched an attack on Gregor's homestead, established on the southernmost edge of the Gubbi-speaking territory. Mary Shannon and her employer Andrew Gregor were murdered though the blacks spared the Shannon's 3 children and a resident half-caste. The witnesses were Shannon's 5 year- old daughter Margaret and Ralph Barrow, a 10/11-year-old half-caste.
• 1846 November. White sawyers enticed into an ambush and then shot a Turrbal chief called Yillbong (Milbong Jemmy) in the head at Doboy Creek. He had been rumoured to be involved in the Gregor killings, and died on the dray as he was being transported back to Brisbane. This body was not returned to his kin, whose custom was to prepare and then conserve the bones of the deceased. Rather he was then beheaded so a cast could be made of his head. Aboriginal witnesses later connected him to the Gregor episode.
• 1846 December. Shortly after the Gregor attack, another large-scale pullen-pullen - attendance was estimated to range between 3 and 4 hundred people- was convened near Brisbane, at York's Hollow. Some men believed to be involved in the Gregor station killings participated. Connors conjectures its function may have been to cap the process of retaliation. The police, alerted to the presence there of one of the suspects, a certain Jacky Jacky, raided the camp and shot him several times in the back. A bystander was also shot three times in the leg. The aborigines, including the elderly and children, were put to flight, their possessions looted and the campsite burnt. This was taken to be a reprisal by whites. No evidence was forthcoming for Jacky Jacky's complicity, and the whites involved were never arraigned and, together with a further unofficial reprisal, led to the extension of the inter-racial hostilities for another eight years.
• 1854 December 25. Gilburri Fahy has been captured and is placed in the same cell as his tribal brother Dundalli.Gilburri informs his leader the name of the blackfella who betrayed him and also the white fella. W
• Dundalli says in court to Duramboi "I be with all your cockatoos in Sydney.. Davis! “. This was a joke that he will be having sex with Davis white lady friends in Sydney.
• Gilburri is sent to Cockatoo Island in Sydney on the steamship

John O'Connell Bligh

John O'Connell Bligh captured Fahy, who had been living with the local Dalla people for over twelve years. In order to arrest Gilburri, Bligh and his troopers handcuffed all the "station blacks" at Barambah pastoral station around a large gum tree to prevent him from receiving any information that the Native Police were nearby. Fahy was sent to Cockatoo Island prison but was soon assigned to be an interpreter on the exploratory journey of A.C. Gregory.

In early 1860, Bligh and his troopers, then stationed at Coopers Plain barracks just to the south-west of Maryborough, chased a number of Aboriginals into the town. In broad daylight and in front of the citizens of Maryborough, these Aboriginals were shot down. Several were killed and an unknown number were wounded. At one stage, Bligh requisitioned a boat in order to shoot two Aboriginals who had fled into the Mary River. Bligh was specifically trying to kill the ex-convict / Dalla man John "Gilburri" . The two had a long history of bad blood after Bligh had captured Fahy back in December 1854. Bligh wanted Fahy to be hung with his tribe mate Dundalli but he was sentenced to one-year hard Labour on Cockatoo Island.

The vast majority of people in Maryborough at the time supported his actions to the point where a meeting was held in the courthouse to collect money for a gift of appreciation to give to Bligh. At a ceremony later organised by the high-profile Maryborough people, Bligh was given a ceremonial sword as a reward for his actions.

• Connors, Libby (2005a). "Dundalli (1820–1855)". Australian Dictionary of Biography Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplement. Melbourne University Press.
• Connors, Libby (2005b). "Traditional law and Indigenous Resistance at Moreton Bay 1842-1855" (PDF). Australia and New Zealand Law and History E-Journal: 107–117.
• Connors, Libby (2006). "Traditional Law and Indigenous Resistance at Moreton Bay 1842-1855, Part II" (PDF). Australia and New Zealand Law and History E-Journal. University of Southern Queensland: 1–13.