Battle of One Tree Hill

Battle of One Tree Hill
Date 12 September 1843 Location Tabletop Mountain (then known as "One Tree Hill"), Darling Downs, Queensland Result Jagera victory
Belligerents
British colonists	Jagera people
Commanders and leaders
Commissioner Simpson	Multuggera
Strength
18	over 100

The Battle of One Tree Hill was the best known of a series of conflicts that took place between European settlers and aboriginal inhabitants of the Darling Downs in the 1840s.

In September 1843 aboriginal leader Multuggera led an ambush of squatters taking supplies across from Moreton Bay, at One Tree Hill (now known as Tabletop Mountain), near Toowoomba. ^[1]

The squatters organised a revenge party and the aborigines retreated up the mountain. They escaped into the Lockyer Valley but were later tracked down and killed by the military.^[2][3]

A monument recording the battle was established in 2005.^[4] An indigenous land use agreement has been signed over the site.^[5]

In 2010 the National Library of Australia acquired a sketch by local Thomas John Domville Taylor for $120,000 which is believed to be an eyewitness account of the aftermath of the battle. This made it one of less than ten visual eyewitness accounts of attacks by European settlers on indigenous people.^[6][7]

References

1. "Table Top Mountain", Big Ideas - National accessed 23 February 2014
2. "A Picture Asks a Thousand Questions", National Library of Australia, 11 June 2011 accessed 19 February 2014
3. Louise O'Keefe, "Darling Downs History on Display", The Chronicle, 23 October 2010 accessed 19 February 2014
4. Multuggerah at Monument Australia accessed 23 Feb 2014
5. "Indigenous land use agreement signed in Toowoomba" 27 Feb 2008 Archived February 11, 2014, at the Wayback Machine. accessed 23 Feb 2014
6. "Library acquires indigenous attack account", Sydney Morning Herald, 22 October 2010 accessed 23 February 2014
7. Sarah Elks, "Image of frontier battle comes to life", The Australian 23 October 2010 accessed 23 February 2014