Merriman led an attempt to burn David Reid’s crop on the banks of the Ovens river in January 1839. The attack was thwarted when the stockman raised the alarm. On the day of the attack, David Reid had assembled his men ready to begin harvesting a crop of wheat growing on the banks of the Ovens river close to his hut.
When the alarm was raised David Reid raised his gun and shot at one of the retreating blacks and believing he had made a direct hit went in search of the body. He expected the fellow to have fallen into a creek but when he reached the bank he saw no sign of a body and assumed the man must lay beneath the water. Two years later Merriman sat with David Reid and showed him the scar in his thigh from a gunshot wound. Merriman said he had lain in the shadow of a log that lay across the water with just his nose showing so he could breathe.
(1) Ogier’s reminiscences of David Reid, http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52773898
