The Rampage of Jimmy Governor

A chant of insanity?

Jimmy Governor was a mass murderer who spent a number of months in the newly federated Australia killing people and taunting the police trying to catch him. He was caught on the 27th of October 1900 and hung on the 18th January 1901.

Perhaps Jimmy's memory would have faded into history had he not been part-Aborigine. His mixed-blood status inspired a sense of intrigue and sympathy that was not usually extended to mass murderers. People wanted to know why he did what he did. Some just saw him as a mass murderer. Some explained his actions as stemming from his Aboriginal heritage. Others explained his actions as stemming from cultural confusion regarding his mixed-blood status.

The cultural confusion interpretation was popularised in Thomas Keneally's 1972 novel The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. In Keneally's novel, Jimmy Blacksmith (Governor) was a mixed-raced individual trying to become more white. Such was his desire to breed out his blackness, he learnt the trades of whites, and married a white woman. Ironically, his wife gave birth to a completely white child, which indicated her infidelity. Heartbroken, Jimmy Blacksmith roamed the countryside murdering white women with axes in order to extract his revenge on the white society that would never accept him. The white women were symbols of everything that he had wanted, but had been denied due to racism.

Although Keneally's book was an interpretation of Jimmy's life, there were a number of differences between the book and the reality. Firstly, the catalyst for Jimmy's murderous rampage was not seeing his wife give birth to a white child. There was no evidence that her child was not Jimmy's. Secondly, it was not anger at his wife that drove Jimmy to seek revenge upon the white race. To the contrary, Jimmy alleged that the first swings of his axe were motivated by protecting her honour. Jimmy alleged that his wife had been insulted by a white women named Mrs Mawbey. To extract an apology, on the 20th July 1900, Jimmy and a mate named Jacky Underwood visited the Mawbey homestead armed with tomahawks and nulla nullas. At the homestead, they found Mrs Mawbey, her sister Elsie Clarke, a friend named Helen Kerz, and Mrs Mawbey's children. Rather than give Jimmy the apology he demanded, allegedly Helen Kerze said:

"Pooh, you black rubbish, you want shooting for marrying a white woman."

The two men then attacked the women and children with their tomahawks and nulla nullas. Mrs Grace Mawbey, and Helen Kerz were killed, along with Mawbey's children Grace (16), Percival (14) and Hilda (11). Elsie Clarke was seriously injured. A boy named Bert managed to escape. He fled to his father's camp site and raised the alarm.

Jacky Underwood was soon caught. Jimmy was joined by his brother Joe Governor and the two became self-styled "bushrangers." The two brothers went on a fourteen-week, 3219 km murdering rampage. A feature of the rampage was that no able-bodied man was ever targeted. Instead, the Governors' victims were old men, children, infants, pregnant women, teenage girls, middle-aged women and elderly women. It was believed that all the victims were all in some way related to people that the Governors held a grievance with.

As well as targeting those least able to defend themselves, the Governors taunted police. They gave the police clues about their whereabouts so that the Governors could publicly outwit them. It seems as though they had been inspired by other bushrangers that took delight in making the police look like idiots.

On the 13th of October, Jimmy was shot in the mouth by a hunter. In a weakened condition, he was caught on the 27th of October. At his trial, he was given a lawyer and the chance to state his defence. He was found guilty. He appealed his conviction but his appeal was dismissed. He was hung on the 18th of January 1901.

When Thomas Kenneally wrote The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith in the 1970s, he took the approach that Jimmy must have been insane to do what he did. Kenneally used racism to explain Jimmy's insanity.

While it is comforting to believe that someone who violently kills others is insane, for most of human history a similar kind of inhumanity has been part of respectable society and a feature of people considered "normal". For example, in France, people used to gather with their lunch to watch criminals being beheaded. Likewise, in Australia's colonial era, men were tied up and flogged until their backbones were exposed through mangled flesh. Aboriginal cultures also had quite brutal ways of delivering justice. In a Complete Account of Settlement, Watkin Tench records an Aborigine named Bennelong asking the colonists to accompany him as he set out to chop the head off an Aboriginal woman. The woman in question was the daughter of a man that had affronted Bennelong on the battlefield, and in Bennelong's mind, cutting off her head was a form of justice. For Bennelong, his feelings were so normal that he wanted an audience as he delivered his justice. (See below.)

One of the dangers of the Kenneally approach is that it excuses the Governors' actions and so increases the probability of the same kind of actions occuring again. In the wars of the 20th century, and in psychological experinments such as Milgrim's Obedience Studies (1974) and the Stanford Prison Experinment (1971), humans have shown that it takes very little to erode the psychological barriers of restraint that prevent them treating each other inhumanely. All they need is an excuse, and those excuses can very quickly become justifications. Their inhumanity is not a mark of their insanity, rather, it is a mark of their socially constructed morality being eroded by excuses. In Aboriginal communities today, women and children are still being attacked with axes and excuses are still being made for the attacks. Consequently, the attacks continue. Ironically, even Kenneally's book showed how easy it is to dehumanise. While Jimmy was humanised with a sympathetic portrayal, the victims that met his axe were dehumanised as were their families that lost mothers, wives, fathers, sisters, brothers and children. Kenneally's portrayal created a feeling that they deserved what they got. By saying that a grudge justifies dehumanisation, Kenneally is indirectly responsible for thousands of ruined lives in Aboriginal communities over the last 40 years.

Another danger of the Kenneally approach is that it builds a stereotype that anyone with mixed heritage should be suffering mental problems, or should be having trouble adapting to life where there is a diversity of cultures. It is quite a negative stereotype to apply to people, and one that is inaccurate for most mixed heritage people of the world. For example, at the time of federation, there were plenty of mixed-raced Australians that tried to be British, but were rejected by the British due to their convict or mixed ancestry. The rejects did not go insane. Today, there are still plenty of mixed raced individuals trying to be accepted by the culture of one of their parents. Lack of familiarity with cultural values, or their mixed race status, has resulted in them being rejected and looked down upon. They do not go insane. The only way they would go insane would be if the Kenneally stereotype created a sentiment that they should be insane, or that it would be justified to lose control.

Rather than be the actions of a man driven insane by his mixed heritage, Jimmy Governor's  actions were more likely to be the actions of a man fusing two cultures in a way that gave him a sense of status. At the time, a large section of colonial society celebrated bushrangers. The bushrangers were seen as courageous, intelligent and patriots that defied the English. Jimmy and his brother probably wanted to share that fame. Their targeting of women and children may have been their way of evoking the maximum outrage that would in turn result in the most fame. There is little doubt that they would have been pleased to know that a reward of £1000 each had been placed on their heads, and that 200 police as well as 2,000 civilians were hunting for them. Taunting police may have been an additional way to push the reward even higher.  

The status of being a bushranger was fused with Aboriginal concepts of justice that allowed retribution to be inflicted on a relative of a foe rather than the foe themselves. In the Governors' eyes, when they sunk their tomahawks into the heads of women and babies, they were delivering justice in traditional style. 

In a way, Jimmy Governor achieved all that he hoped for. He gained fame. He struck fear into the hearts of anyone who had ever looked down upon him, and he gained immortality. Some people today feel that his story deserves consideration with sympathetic and compassionate eyes. Other people feel he deserves as much comparison as the Bali bombers who murdered people because they believed their religion had been offended, the Port Arthur gunman who massacred tourists because he wanted to become famous, or the school children who dealt with rejection by shooting their former classmates and teachers.

Views on Jimmy Governor

"Without condoning the horrific response of Jimmy Governor when he struck out at his tormentors, one can only feel compassion for the years of unjust treatment experienced by him and his family...Despite it being one hundred years since the execution of Jimmy Governor, it is abundantly clear from an Aboriginal perspective that racism, prejudice, oppression, contempt and ignorance remain deeply ingrained in the psyche of this country. If we are to reach a point of maturity where both black and white people can walk together to a shared future of equality, opportunity and prosperity then recognition and acceptance of the past is imperative." John Maynard - Research Academic Lecturer at the Umulliko Indigenous Research Centre at the University of Newcastle.

The Ballad of Jimmy Governor
Les Murray

You can send for my breakfast now, Governor.
The colt from Black Velvet's awake
and the ladies all down from the country
are gathered outside for my sake.

Soon be all finished, the running.
No tracks of mine lead out of here.
Today, I take that big step
on the bottom rung of the air
and be in heaven for dinner.
Might be the first jimbera there.

The Old People don't go to heaven,
good thing. My mother might meet
that stockman feller my father
and him cut her dead in the street.
Mother today I'll be dancing
your way and his way on numb feet.

But a man's not a rag to wipe snot on,
I got that much into their heads,
them hard white sunbonnet ladies
that turned up their short lips and said
my wide had a slut's eye for colour.
I got that into their head

and the cow-cockies kids plant up chimneys
they got horse soldiers out with the Law
after Joe and lame Jack and tan Jimmy -
but who taught us how to make war
on women, old men, babies?
It ain't all one way any more.

The papers, they call us bushrangers:
that would be our style, I daresay,
bushrangers on foot with our axes.
It sweetens the truth, anyway.
They don't like us killing their women.
Their women kill us every day.

And the squatters are peeing their moleskins,
there's more than a calf in the wheat,
it's Jimmy the fencer, running
along the top rail in the night,
it's the Breelong mob crossing the ranges
with rabbit skins soft on their feet.

But now Jack in his Empire brickyard
has already give back his shoes
and entered the cleanliness kingdom,
the Commonwealth drums through the walls
and I'm weary of news.

I'm sorry, old Jack, I discharged you,
you might have enjoyed running free
of plonk and wet cornbags and colour
with us pair of outlaws. But see,
you can't trust even half a whitefeller,
You died of White Lady through me.

They tried me once running, once standing:
one time ought to do for the drop.
It's more trial than you got, I hear, Joe,
your tommyhawk's chipped her last chop.
I hope you don't mind I got lazy
when the leaks in my back made me stop.

If any gin stands in my print
I'll give her womb sorrow and dread,
if a buck finds our shape in the tussocks
I'll whiten the hair in his head,
but a man's not a rag to wipe boots on
and I got that wrote up, bright red,

where even fine ladies can read it
who never look at the ground
for a man that ain't fit to breed from
may make a terrible bound
before the knacker's knife gets him.
Good night to you, father. Sleep sound.

Fetch in my breakfast, Governor,
I have my journey to make
and the ladies all down from the country
are howling outside for my sake.

The vengeance of Bennelong (Baneelon) - From Watkin Tench "A Complete Account of Settlement."

"One day the natives were observed to assemble in more than an ordinary number
at their house on the point, and to be full of bustle and agitation,
repeatedly calling on the name of Baneelon, and that of 'deein' (a woman).
Between twelve and one o'clock Baneelon, unattended, came to the governor
at his house, and told him that he was going to put to death a woman
immediately, whom he had brought from Botany Bay. Having communicated
his intention, he was preparing to go away, seeming not to wish that
the governor should be present at the performance of the ceremony.
But His Excellency was so struck with the fierce gestures, and wild demeanour
of the other, who held in his hand one of our hatchets and frequently tried
the sharpness of it, that he determined to accompany him, taking with him
Mr. Collins and his orderly sergeant. On the road, Baneelon continued
to talk wildly and incoherently of what he would do, and manifested
such extravagant marks of fury and revenge, that his hatchet was taken away
from him, and a walking-stick substituted for it.

When they reached the house, they found several natives, of both sexes
lying promiscuously before the fire, and among them a young woman, not more
than sixteen years old, who at sight of Baneelon, started, and raised
herself half up. He no sooner saw her than, snatching a sword of the country,
he ran at her, and gave her two severe wounds on the head and one on
the shoulder, before interference in behalf of the poor wretch could be made.
Our people now rushed in and seized him; but the other Indians continued
quiet spectators of what was passing, either awed by Baneelon's superiority
or deeming it a common case, unworthy of notice and interposition.
In vain did the governor by turns soothe and threaten him. In vain
did the sergeant point his musquet at him. He seemed dead to every passion
but revenge; forgot his affection to his old friends and, instead of complying
with the request they made, furiously brandished his sword at the governor,
and called aloud for his hatchet to dispatch the unhappy victim of his
barbarity. Matters now wore a serious aspect. The other Indians appeared
under the control of Baneelon and had begun to arm and prepare their spears,
as if determined to support him in his violence.

Farther delay might have been attended with danger. The 'Supply' was therefore
immediately hailed, and an armed boat ordered to be sent on shore.
Luckily, those on board the ship had already observed the commotion
and a boat was ready, into which captain Ball, with several of his people
stepped, armed with musquets, and put off. It was reasonable to believe
that so powerful a reinforcement would restore tranquillity, but Baneelon
stood unintimidated at disparity of numbers and boldly demanded his prisoner,
whose life, he told the governor, he was determined to sacrifice,
and afterwards to cut off her head. Everyone was eager to know what could be
the cause of such inveterate inhumanity. Undaunted, he replied that her father
was his enemy, from whom he had received the wound in his forehead
beforementioned; and that when he was down in battle, and under the lance
of his antagonist, this woman had contributed to assail him. "She is now,"
added he, "my property: I have ravished her by force from her tribe:
and I will part with her to no person whatever, until my vengeance
shall be glutted."

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