S3-E11 - The Mark's Murders - The Aftermath - The Mark Family

03/28/20 • 23 min

The fate of James Mark after his murderous spree on the McIntyre has never been investigated. We have found that he initially went to the Dawson River valley where he took up three runs which he subsequently sold at a good profit. He then bought Rosewood near Ipswich in Queensland and later moved to Emu Creek near Armidale in NSW. Along the way, he had three wives and more children. He was in court frequently and served a month in gaol for assault on one of his daughter-in-law’s family. Despite constant attendance at court, he was never arrested or tried for the murders in the McIntyre.

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S3-E10 - The Mark's Murders - The Aftermath

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After the murders by James Mark and the subsequent actions by the Native Police, the Bigambul people were never the same. Many of the warrior men had been killed and they were excluded from their traditional water sources and hunting grounds. Hunger and disease killed many. On the other hand, Jonathan and Margaret Young prospered. After a few more years on the McIntyre, they sold Umbercollie and lived the remainder of their lives in comfort in the Hunter. John Watts went from stockman to politician. He used the murder of Mark’s son partly as justification of the continuation of the Native Police in Queensland.

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S3-E12 - The Mark’s Murders – Telling the Story

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Over the past 170 years, the story of the Mark’s Murders has been told to Australians in greatly different ways, depending on the era. At the time, the murders were recorded in detail in official records. At that time, all Aboriginal people were known individually by name. Soon after the murders, a newspaper report falsely claimed that James Mark’s son was roasted alive and eaten by cannibals. This salacious report was perpetuated for the next 100-plus years during the period when ‘white triumphalism’ was taught in schools. In the last 40 years, ‘conflict studies’ have told the story from both sides but have been accused of exaggerating the number of Aboriginal deaths.