Thomas Mitchell was 19 years old when he was made master of Mungabareena run, a large parcel of land that would eventually become Albury. (1) He was a teenager like Merriman and Harlequin so perhaps that is what brought them together.
Thomas Mitchell made friends with Indigenous people and allowed the gathering at Mungabareena to go ahead each year. His younger brother, JFH Mitchell estimated one thousand Aboriginal people attended the gathering. Thomas and JFH learned the Indigenous language and both made dictionaries of the meanings of words. (2)
Thomas Mitchell would have been under great pressure from family and neighbours to stop Indigenous people gathering at Mungabareena. The growing white population would not have approved of a large body of Indigenous people camped so close to them.
Merriman’s family all came to Tangambalanga in later years when Thomas Mitchell set himself up as a self-funded protectorate of Aboriginal people.
It was at Tangambalanga that Thomas witnessed Merriman survive a payback ritual and his wife Charlotte removed a spear point from Merriman’s wifes’ thigh. This was also the place where it was reported troopers came to arrest Merriman but Charlotte Mitchell secretly sent a message to Merriman who was camped among lagoons to stay hidden. It was at Tangambalanga that Hone.ne.ap alias King Billy died and was buried.
THE REFERENCES;
(1) AA Andrews, First Settlement of the Upper Murray
(2) JFH Mitchell papers, State Library, Melbourne.
