Page:Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland.djvu/25

TOM PETRIE'S REMINISCENCES.

PART I.

CHAPTER I.

Tom Petrie—Andrew Petrie—Moreton Bay in the Thirties—Petrie's Bight—First Steamer in the River—"Tom's" Childhood—"Kabon-Tom"—Brisbane or Turrbal Tribe—North Pine Forty-five years ago—Alone with the Blacks —Their Trustworthiness and Consideration—Arsenic in Flour—Black Police—Shooting the Blacks—Inhuman Cruelty—St. Helena Murder—Bribie Island Murder.

PERHAPS no one now living knows more from personal experience of the ways and habits of the Queensland aborigines than does my father—Tom Petrie. His experiences amongst these fast-dying-out people are unique, and the reminiscences of his early life in this colony should be recorded; therefore I take up my pen with the wish to do the little I can in that way. My father has spent his life in Queensland, being but three months old when leaving his native land. He was born at Edinburgh, and came out here with his parents in the Stirling Castle in 1831. He is now the only surviving son of the late Andrew Petrie, a civil engineer, who, as every one interested knows, had much to do with Queensland's young days.

The Petrie family landed first in New South Wales, but in 1837 (about twelve years after foundation of Brisbane) came on to Queensland in the James Watt, "the first steamer which ever entered what are now Queensland waters." The late John Petrie, the eldest son, was a boy at the time, and "Tom", of course, but a child. Their father, the founder of the family, was attached to the Royal Engineers in Sydney,