Natives spearing the Overlanders cattle and Overlanders attacking the natives, 1846

George Hamilton

The Overlanders

In the era before railways, an ‘overlander’ drove cattle to market, often covering great distances. Owing to the lack of settled development, this could be a dangerous activity. George Hamilton (1812–1883) had himself overlanded cattle from Port Phillip to Adelaide in 1839. He wrote about this in Experiences of a colonist forty years ago, published in 1879, which records generally favourable accounts of Aboriginal people. He did not record any attacks by them or retaliation by the overlanders.

These drawings are, however, highly unusual images of the regular frontier conflict of the 1840s and illustrate events which were rarely publicly discussed. It is not known if they refer to actual events, or were meant more as generic illustrations of colonial life.
Display item Natives spearing the Overlanders cattle and Overlanders attacking the natives, 1846

 

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