The Lettsom Raid
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The following was directly transcribed from a series of interviews with Wurundjeri Elder, Ian Hunter, recorded in 2004-5.
The Lettsom Raid
In 1840 it was witnessed by a fella by the name of [Major Samuel] Lettsom that all the clans and Aboriginal people seemed to be on the move all going to one point. I think this one point was going to be out near where Warrandyte is today.
And Lettsom, [...] he was I think a former officer in the Indian Army. So therefore he was of the opinion that natives were natives and they should be well and truly controlled and if you couldn't control them you'd shoot 'em.
Word came to Lettsom that the natives were on the move in 1840. So therefore Lettsom put out word that the natives were not allowed to go across particular people's country. And Lettsom went out to try to stop some of the natives [...] and was spoken abruptly to by some of the old people.
Well he seen fit to put some of the old people, who were having harsh words with him, in chains. [...] This became known as the "Lettsom Raid". He brought some of those old people to Melbourne and they didn't know what was going on. And he had to take them from one side of the Yarra [River] to the other in chains.
And apparently some of the old people were quite apprehensive about what was going on and they jumped overboard off the barge and they all drowned. [...] This particular officer Lettsom made excuses and no one was ever charged.
If it was found that some Aboriginal people were troublesome they would get Aboriginal people from another area, put them in what they called the Native Police Force and use those people to go and quell the problems of a natural enemy, that was an enemy prior to European settlement.
That happened all over the world. The natives of the Americas were used exactly the same way by the colonials.
The chains around the neck were still being used in the mid fifties in Western Australia, because it was documented by some well known anthropologist that natives of the Australian continent, their wrists and their ankles were not sufficient [...] because they were so thin. So therefore he stated that it would be more "humane" to manacle people around the neck.
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