Hone.ne.ap or King Billy of the Barwidgee

Hone.ne.ap was a Pallanganmiddang man belonging to a subsection of the Waywurru or Waveroo people. He was also recognised as a man of importance by the white settlers and given a brass plaque engraved with King Billy of the Barwidgee.

The white people called him Billy Elengeist (a German word meaning bright spirit) It is unknown who gave him this title but Charles Hotson Ebden was educated in Germany and named his Carlsruhe station in the Macedon Ranges after his old school in Karlsruhe. Ebden was one of the first white people Hone.ne.ap would have met as Ebden took up Mungabareena and Bonegilla in 1835/36.

Hone.ne.ap’s first sighting of white people could have happened as early as November 1824 when Hamilton Hume crossed the Hume (Murray) river.
Hume’s entry for Monday 22nd November 1824 says he noticed trees with the marks of iron tomahawks.
Hume and Hovell were the first white men to cross The Murray river with Major Mitchell crossing in 1835, almost 11 years later. How did the iron tomahawk come to Waveroo country in 1824?
GA Robinson notes that Hone.ne.ap’s wife was named Boeng.gen.er or Jenny and wrote she was from Mt Mitta Mitta. Robinson also wrote that Boengener means Mitta Mitta.
Hone.ne.ap was a caring husband who was recorded carrying his wives over streams and difficult terrain on a journey into the mountains towards Tumut in the mid 1800s.

On one journey to the high country when Hone.ne.ap was digging for a wombat he heard a noise from behind and turned and managed to ward off a killer blow to his head by a Tumut Black. The blow glanced his forehead and resulted in the large wren or ganglion cyst that we see in the photo.

This wren would have given much discomfort as ganglion cysts ache and throb as they grow.

It is recorded that Hone.ne.ap was trying to improve his looks when he tried to remove the wren from his forehead. He used a piece of broken glass to cut the lump away but must have cut too deep as he died from blood loss a short time later.

There is large artery located near the temple so it likely Hone.ne.ap inadvertently cut this vein.

Hone.ne.ap passed away and was buried at Thomas Mitchell’s Tangambalanga property where land on the banks of the Kiewa (sweet water) river was set aside as an aboriginal reserve.

Thomas Mitchell took up Tangambalanga run in 1852 and many aboriginal people used it as a safe place to camp.

In 1869, the photographer, Thomas Jetson Washbourne took a series of staged portraits of Hone.ne.ap and his family at a studio in Yackandandah.

Hone.ne.ap would have been about 70 years of age and images show a proud man with a fine muscular physique.

What did Hone.ne.ap make of seeing his image in Washbourne’s photos? It must have been an extraordinary event for Hone.ne.ap to see his image so clearly and perhaps it contributed to his decision to cut away the wren.

Hone.ne.ap’s king plate is housed in the Koorie Family Historical Trust’s collection in Melbourne. There is a photo of him wearing the plate which was taken in 1869 by Thomas Jetson Washborne at Yackanadandah. This photo can be viewed online among the State Library Melbourne’s collection.

GA Robinson journal pg 256 Monday 8th Feb 1841 last entry for that day – 15 mile creek is Hone.ne.ap’s country.

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