German Missionaries in Australia

 

 

 

Introduction

Johann Christian Simon Handt and Jakob Wilhelm Günther of Wellington Valley were the first and second ordained German missionaries respectively to work among the Aborigines of Australia.¹ This is rarely remembered today because both were employed by the Church Missionary Society of London (CMS)² and so are identified in Australia more with the Anglicanism they adopted than with the German denominations in which they grew up, and because the Wellington Valley Mission made no converts in its eleven-year history (1832-43) apart from a handful of deathbed penitents. Battling government indifference, settler resentment and prolonged drought, the missionaries bickered amongst themselves and frequently despaired of success. With little effective guidance from far away Sydney, or even more distant London, the missionaries increasingly acted independently of each other, with acrimonious results.

 

Wellington Valley employed both British and German missionaries, and this appears to have contributed to the spirit of disunity. The first two couples to serve there were William and Ann Watson from Yorkshire, and Johann and Mary Handt. Handt, who was Prussian, married Mary Crook, the eldest daughter of the Congregationalist minister and Pacific missionary William Crook, in Sydney just before leaving for Wellington Valley. The couple who replaced the Handts – Jakob (James) Günther, born in Württemberg, Germany, and his English wife, Lydia Paris – were married a few weeks before leaving London. A single man from Derbyshire, William Porter, also worked on the station for a short period as an agriculturalist.

 

The story of the Wellington Valley Mission is marked by valiant effort, but also by internal disharmony and ultimate despair.

 

Westward Settlement in New South Wales and Pangs of Conscience in London

In 1813 Gregory Blaxland, William Charles Wentworth and William Lawson crossed the Blue Mountains, opening up the interior of New South Wales to settlement. By about 1817, only four years later, cattle were running in the Wellington Valley,³ a name John Oxley had given to land in the vicinity of the Bell River immediately south of its junction with the Macquarie,⁴ about 400 kilometres from Sydney. The valley was on the northern end of Wiradjuri country.⁵

 

The rush to capitalise on the new opportunities soon resulted in clashes with the local people, particularly in the Bathurst area, and after seven shepherds were killed Governor Brisbane declared martial law in 1824 for all land west of Mount York. The subsequent 'dispersal' of indigenous people by soldiers and settlers resulted in many deaths.⁶

 

Meanwhile calls were mounting for renewed efforts to 'civilise and Christianise' those whose lands were being rapidly expropriated. Since early ventures such as Governor Macquarie's Native Institution at Parramatta and Blacktown had had very limited success, it was felt that a new mission or missions should be founded as far as possible from settled areas.⁷ In particular, two Wesleyan missionaries, William Walker and John Harper suggested Wellington Valley as a possible site, because of its relative isolation⁸ at the limits of legal settlement. Harper, in fact, travelled to Wellington Valley in 1824 and stayed there for almost two years while he waited for the government to make the Wesleyans a land grant of 10000 acres (40 square kilometres) for a mission.⁹ He based himself at the local agricultural station, which operated from 1823-1831¹⁰ to trial crops such as wheat, maize and tobacco in the newly discovered western soils, with convicts providing the labour.¹¹ While in the district Harper divided his time between preaching at the agricultural station and searching for a suitable mission site, but after eight months he informed the Wesleyans in Sydney that in addition to these tasks he had mastered the local Wiradjuri language and had translated the first chapter of Genesis into it. The Attorney General and others challenged this claim and Harper was ordered to report back to Parramatta in June 1826 to be examined.¹² Despite being exonerated he did not return to Wellington Valley, but was sent to investigate the Twofold Bay area instead.¹³

 

This might have been the end of the proposed Wellington Valley Mission had not renewed impetus for its creation come from an entirely different quarter - from James Stephen Jr., a counsel in the British Colonial Office in London, but also a Christian humanitarian¹⁴ and member of the CMS.¹⁵ Convinced of the need for a mission but irked by the reluctance of the established Church to work among the Aborigines, he recommended in 1828 that someone other than the CMS and the Anglicans should be approached to do it, and proposed a small government grant of up to £500 per annum as an inducement. His proposal was endorsed by the then British Secretary of State, Sir George Murray, with the slight change that Anglican missionaries should be engaged if possible. Unaware of Stephen's doubts about Anglican commitment to mission work, but all too aware of the threat of a government subsidy being granted to a rival, the CMS was galvanised into action, and agreed to staff an Aboriginal mission 'somewhere near the fringe of settlement' in what was then New Holland.¹⁶

 

The men the CMS initially proposed for the mission in 1830 were William Watson and Joseph Matthews, but Johann Handt, who had recently returned from CMS labours in Sierra Leone due to ill health, was appointed at the eleventh hour instead of Matthews, who was re-directed to New Zealand. Watson does not seem to have been particularly pleased with this change, writing in 1832:

 

Mr Matthews is already at New Zealand. I should have been extremely happy in having him as a fellow labourer with me on this station (as well as Br Handt) we expected it all the time we were at the Institution together & we fostered the idea which increased our attachment.¹⁷

 

Handt was not an Anglican but a graduate of the Basel Mission seminary in Switzerland, an institution that had close ties with the CMS in this period. As an ordained minister of the united Reformed and Lutheran churches¹⁸ he had a somewhat doubtful status within an Anglican organisation, a point which was to cause him great difficulties later on.¹⁹

  

William Broughton, later Bishop of Australia

Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an7978975 Portrait of the late Right Rev. W. Broughton, Bishop of Sydney &c.' Part of The Australian picture pleasure book : illustrating the scenery, architecture, historical events, natural history, public characters &c., of Australia, Sydney, J.R. Clarke, 1857.

Meanwhile in June 1831 Archdeacon Broughton, at that time the highest member of the Anglican hierarchy in Australia, had approached Governor Darling about the use of the now abandoned convict station in the Wellington Valley as a mission. The advantages Broughton saw for Wellington Valley included the existence of buildings, land that had already been under cultivation, and its being close to the edge of settlement, where the Aborigines would, he believed, be less contaminated with white vices.²⁰ The proposed site overlooked the Bell River about three kilometres from its junction with the Macquarie.²¹ Negotiations continued although the CMS had already chosen its first missionaries to Australia quite independently of Broughton's proposals. Handt landed in Sydney in June 1831²² and William and Ann Watson arrived almost a year later in May 1832, Watson having opted to gain some elementary medical experience before commencing work. As a result, for some months Handt found himself in a somewhat uncomfortable position with little to do. He had brought no instructions with him, which would place him under the supervision of Broughton, and the colonial administration had not heard officially from London that they could make the £500 grant and thus initiate the Mission.²³ Moreover, Broughton was highly offended that he had been ignored, and eventually refused to speak to Handt,²⁴ who occupied himself attempting to learn Wiradjuri from some local informants, occasionally preaching in the gaols, and surveying the country around Sydney. His instructions finally came with the Watsons, and, the government having received official confirmation from London, Governor Bourke gave the CMS the use of the ex-convict station at Wellington Valley in August 1832.²⁵ 

 

 

 

The Mission Commences

Rev. Samuel Marsden Source: State Library of NSW. www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=167774

Five weeks after Johann and Mary Handt had been married by Rev. Samuel Marsden,²⁶ the two missionary couples left Sydney for Wellington Valley, accompanied by an indigenous boy named Billy Black.²⁷ They first stayed with the Marsdens in Parramatta²⁸ before proceeding over the Blue Mountains in a bullock dray and cart. Progress was slow both because the bullocks were allowed to roam free during the night and could often not be found in the morning, and because the missionaries refused to travel on Sundays.²⁹ These factors, coupled with the poor state of the roads, bad weather and a need to be alert for bushrangers, resulted in their averaging only four miles a day during the first three weeks.³⁰ Once over the ranges they fared rather better despite the need to traverse extensive swampland between Bathurst and Wellington Valley. More distressing than the physical trials for Watson, however, were the death of Billy Black at O'Connell's Plains, and an encounter with indigenous men who said they had been told the coming missionaries would imprison their children, and put their men put into yokes.³¹ This latter tale was attributed to unsympathetic settlers, who frequently told the missionaries to their faces that their mission was doomed to failure.³² Even at this early stage Watson and Handt responded differently to such opposition, according to the journals they kept. Watson, the senior missionary, reacted vigorously, preaching loudly, for example, so that those nearby who had declined to come to his services could not help hearing him. Handt on the other hand appeared more diffident and less concerned, on several occasions refusing to preach when the opportunity was offered to him.³³

 

After 46 days the party finally reached Wellington Valley on 3 October 1832.³⁴ They moved into the abandoned agricultural station headquarters known as 'Government House', supported by a detachment of six married soldiers who had been instructed to remain nearby to provide them with protection from hostile Wiradjuri and from runaway convicts.³⁵ Their first concern was to plant crops, as they were well aware that their limited funding meant that they needed to be self-sufficient as soon as possible. Since it was too late in the year to plant wheat, they planted Indian corn and tobacco – the latter failing completely – and vegetables, of which only a few survived.³⁶

 

They soon commenced other tasks, however, which would become characteristic of the Mission – enticing the Aborigines to settle down with presents of food, tobacco, blankets, fish hooks and pipes, and attempting to learn the local language, Wiradjuri. A school was opened at the beginning of 1833.³⁷ Although it was always intended that indigenous labour would be harnessed to tend the crops and stock, this never happened. Instead, the missionaries had to grow food themselves, with the aid of paid servants and assigned convicts – and intermittent and unreliable help from the local Wiradjuri in return for handouts. Watson was most active in planting crops and breeding sheep and cattle, whereas Handt mostly confined himself to the vegetable garden. In the month after they arrived Samuel Marsden paid the mission a visit, the only one ever made by a serving member of the supervisory CMS committee in Sydney, which was known as the Corresponding Committee.³⁸

  

Augustus Earle’s painting, Wellington Valley, New South Wales, Looking East from Government House(1826?). (In fact, the view is to the southwest.) 'Government House' and 'The Mission House' were names given to the main Mission building, which had a commanding view.	Earle's view as it appears today. The bright green Bell River flats can be seen in the distance.
Source: Augustus Earle, Wellington Valley, New South Wales, View from Government House Looking East. (1826?). Watercolour. 20 x 37.5 cm. Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK12/24. http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2818294	Source: Laurie Allen, 5 January 2011

 

The Early Years: Struggle and Setbacks

After settling in, the Watsons and Handts turned their attention to the central purpose of their mission which was preaching and teaching. Watson was also in demand for his medical knowledge, as the nearest doctor was 100 miles away.³⁹ The missionaries placed great store in learning Wiradjuri, as they believed fluency in that language would enable them to better understand the local people as well as to preach and teach more effectively.⁴⁰ Unfortunately, access to the years of linguistic work previously undertaken by the missionary Lancelot Threlkeld at Lake Macquarie proved to be of little value, since there was very little overlap between the languages of the two areas.⁴¹Watson, however, set to with a will, and by April 1835 had begun preaching in Wiradjuri.⁴²He also completed translations of numerous short passages from the Bible, and worked on a grammar and dictionary.⁴³ Handt, on the other hand, was more desultory in his language acquisition, finding indigenous assistance hard to obtain, and simply copying parts of Watson's work for himself.⁴⁴There is only one record in his diary of his having read aloud in Wiradjuri.⁴⁵

 

As a former schoolmaster, Watson was also at the forefront of the teaching work. His pupils included children and young men and women, whom he taught to read and write, while Ann Watson assisted by teaching the children to say prayers and the girls to sew and read.⁴⁶ For a time Watson hoped to teach regularly in Wiradjuri rather than in English, but this dream was thwarted when the Corresponding Committee in Sydney baulked at the expense of printing Wiradjuri primers. From then onwards he reverted to English.⁴⁷In 1834 Watson complained that Handt was taking no part in teaching the children. Handt then offered to take over the care of the young men, but after he had done so he confessed to numerous problems maintaining any kind of discipline or consistency during his lessons.⁴⁸ Mary Handt is recorded as assisting her husband in this task by cooking for the boys and occasionally castigating them.⁴⁹

 

The missionaries naturally experienced many difficulties in their work. At the end of his first official report for the years 1832 and 1833 Watson made a list of these as follows:

 

1. The prevalence of Wiradjuri women living with European men. Watson commented that women in this situation were kept away from the influence of the mission, and their minds were 'poisoned and prejudiced against the motives, persons and labours of Christian missionaries'. He also believed that their unwanted children were often murdered, although proof was hard to obtain.

2. The Wiradjuri's 'avoidance rules' such as the refusal of young indigenous men to be in the same room as an indigenous woman. This added to the difficulties of conducting church services and a school.

3. The Wiradjuri's unwillingness to settle down in one place.

4. The Wiradjuri's 'remarkable aversion to labour'.

5. The cost of purchasing provisions, and the difficulty of growing crops.

6. The Wiradjuri's ongoing prejudice against missionaries, for which Watson blamed the settlers' tales mentioned previously.⁵⁰

Handt also noted within the first month that 'snakes and adders begin now to be more numerous as the heat is increasing'.⁵¹

 

While Watson's list concentrates on the perceived defects of the Wiradjuri, a number of more general factors also militated against the mission's success. One of these was the variability of the rainfall in inland Australia, something perhaps not yet fully appreciated by the new European settlers. Severe droughts occurred in western NSW in 1834-6 and 1837-8,⁵² and the Bell River was dry from about 1838 to December 1842.⁵³ The alternation of good and bad seasons resulted in optimistic planting with little or no returns, and a resultant strain on the mission's finances. During a drought, too, much labour was needed just to fetch food and water so that the real task of the mission was neglected. Jakob Günther wrote later in 1840, for example:

 

The number of our Young men being very small, at present, and always a good deal of work for them do, there is little opportunity to instruct them [...]. The fetching of wood & water employs two almost constantly; the latter being so far to be fetched. There has been no sufficiency of rain to fill any of the empty water holes of the Bell river; we may go for miles to see a water hole containing water.⁵⁴

 

Another difficulty faced by the Mission was the need to hire outside labour. At various times soldiers, convicts and free men and their wives were employed, but few proved satisfactory. Assigned convicts and servants could not be trusted with the native women or allowed to enter the mission store, and two of the men were actually handed over to the authorities for sexual offences. Others who were more trustworthy do not seem to have remained long.⁵⁵ Again, it was always hoped that the Wiradjuri would become convinced of the benefits of settled farming and take over the servants' role, but this did not occur.

 

A third problem repeatedly encountered by the missionaries was trespassing. The mission was never granted full ownership of its land, permission only being given to farm within a two mile radius of Government House.⁵⁶ Later, this vague ruling was modified by proclaiming the boundaries of the area to which the mission had exclusive access.⁵⁷ At least one neighbouring settler, however, grazed his animals on land close to the mission headquarters, which he no doubt considered under-utilised, and his servant became abusive when ordered to leave.⁵⁸

 

Two issues underlay each of the problems outlined above. One was the shortage of finance. The CMS was very concerned that the missionaries not exceed their annual parliamentary grant of £500, and so deplete CMS resources. The Corresponding Committee's insistence that Wellington Valley must remain a completely government funded exercise⁵⁹ hints at lingering resentments that the London Colonial Office had initiated the mission, rather than the CMS or the Anglican church. This meant that Watson's requests for items such as improved fencing, increased numbers of stock, additional manpower or Wiradjuri primers were met with silence or strictures on economy from Sydney.⁶⁰ Watson saw that financial investment had to be made if the mission was to reach its goal of self-sufficiency, but the Corresponding Committee saw such efforts as distractions from the central purpose of the mission - evangelism. They may also have hesitated to invest in a property that they did not own, and that could be taken away from them at short notice if the Government judged that the mission had failed. The other underlying issue was Watson and Handt's method of administration. Concerned that the Wiradjuri would only remain on the station if they were well fed, the missionaries failed to demand a realistic work-for-food policy, and instead opted for a system of handouts.⁶¹ This meant that Wellington Valley consistently operated beyond its means. The Watsons worked long hours to compensate for the shortfall, but Ann Watson, in particular, suffered as a result. Cooking at times for thirty or more people per day⁶² as well as teaching and nursing without any servants to help, she became broken in health, and by 1835 Watson wrote to Sydney that she was often confined to her bed for at least one day a week.⁶³

 

 

Rising Tensions: the Rift between the Watsons and the Handts

Like many other missions, Wellington Valley also battled with internal discord. Almost from its inception it was the scene of interpersonal conflict and before long its missionaries were being called to account for the lack of harmony. Watson and Handt found it extremely difficult to work together, rarely meeting together 'in committee' unless forced to do so.⁶⁴ In 1834 in response to a request from the CMS Corresponding Committee in Sydney for suggestions as to how the mission might operate in the future, both men suggested that they should work independently, and by August 1835 the Committee Secretary had received letters from both Watson and Handt, each complaining of their incompatibility with the other. Handt complained that Watson would not let him share in the secular tasks of the mission and was duplicitous; Watson’s letter is not on record, but he had earlier hinted that Handt was ineffectual.⁶⁵

Two Quakers, James Backhouse and George Washington Walker, who were on an extended tour of Australian missions and planning to visit Wellington Valley, were asked to mediate in the situation.⁶⁶ They attempted to do so, ultimately unsuccessfully, and reported back to Sydney that while

 

the two parties appear to be of very different general dispositions and of different measures of religious attainments, [...] we cannot however divest ourselves of the impression that much of this lamentable difference arises from indiscretion on the part of William Watson in the exercise of the superior powers with which he had been invested by the Society.⁶⁷

  

Rev. Richard Hill passed these comments on to the Committee in England, adding that while 'Watson had perhaps acted as though he were sole director and left Handt too much in the background in the general business of the establishment […] he was inclined to think the more important cause of conflict was Handt's 'extreme jealousy' in being placed under Watson although first in the field'.⁶⁸ Handt had, after all, several years' missionary experience before coming to New Holland, whereas Watson had none.

 

As time went on, the rift between the Watsons and Handts only widened. They refused to work together on their translation projects, and submitted separate Mission reports for the year 1835. The issue climaxed in February 1836, when Mary Handt had great difficulties in childbirth. She became mentally deranged and was convinced she would die, as Handt later wrote back to Basel:

 

On the 3^rd of February 1836, my wife was safely delivered of a son, but afterwards she caught cold, and became very ill, so that three times on three separate occasions she took her leave of me and our two children, believing her end was near. This illness later turned into complete delirium.⁶⁹

 

Watson was quite outspoken in his criticism of Handt on this occasion, saying that the latter had refused the help of three midwives in the area, and so needlessly endangered his wife's health.⁷⁰ Whatever the truth of this, the Handts abruptly left for Sydney in the following month, telling the Committee that they could not return to Wellington Valley, and pleading Mary’s health as their excuse. She had become seriously mentally ill, Handt claimed, partly because of her distress at the antagonism between himself and Watson.⁷¹ Handt made only two more brief visits to Wellington Valley before quitting it permanently on 7 July 1836, and eventually being posted to Moreton Bay, in close proximity to the Zion Hill Mission.⁷²

 

Historical research has tended to follow the verdict of the Sydney Committee in laying the blame for the conflict between the Handts and Watsons on the male missionaries' incompatible temperaments.⁷³ However, other factors were also at play. Watson and Handt had quite different theological and cultural backgrounds; Watson had been a Wesleyan before joining the Church of England, whereas Handt had been ordained in the united Reformed and Lutheran church. The fellowship which Watson experienced, for example, when visiting a pious Wesleyan couple from Devonshire while on the way to Wellington Valley,⁷⁴ is never even hinted at in his relationship with the Handts, despite the common bond of their missionary calling. The nature of the relationship between the two wives has also rarely been considered, since mission documents are practically silent on this matter. Missionary wives might be expected to have looked to each other for support,⁷⁵ and Ann Watson did look after the Handts' daughter for three months when Mary was ill.⁷⁶ However, it is also reasonable to suppose that the childless Ann, ill from keeping house for at times dozens of people, may have struggled to bond with the delicate Mary, who – pregnant for more than half of the time she was at Wellington Valley, and later caring for her own children as well as struggling with mental health issues – seems to have taken much less of a role in the general work of the mission.⁷⁷

 

 

Reorganisation: The Günthers replace the Handts

While the Corresponding Committee in Sydney was deciding how the Handts should be deployed, the CMS Committee in London directed another missionary couple, Jakob and Lydia Günther, to travel to the 'New Holland Mission'. This was not because the Handts had left, but because hopes of an increased government grant suggested that three missionaries could be employed there.⁷⁸ In fact, for some time, the Sydney Committee hoped the Handts could be persuaded to return to Wellington Valley. By the time it became clear that this was not an option, however, the Committee could at least comfort itself that another suitable missionary couple was on its way to Australia to replace them.

 

After arriving in New South Wales the Günthers spent several months in Sydney and Liverpool, during which time they became good friends with the Handts, who were now waiting to travel north to Moreton Bay.⁷⁹ The new arrivals received damaging reports of Wellington Valley in general – and Watson in particular – from the Handts, and were apparently urged not to go there. In the end, however, according to Lydia, Günther’s sense of duty prevailed⁸⁰ and they set off for their new home, arriving on 8 August 1837.⁸¹

 

Günter recorded in his diary that the journey into the Wellington Valley was very beautiful and that the Watsons, who had now been carrying on the work of the mission alone for more than sixteen months, welcomed the new arrivals 'very kindly'.⁸² However Watson recalled in later years that Lydia Günter (who had arrived at the mission an hour before her husband⁸³) declared herself far from pleased with her new home, exclaiming when she saw Government House: 'These rooms! They are stables - barns - they are worse - many barns and stables are much more comfortable. O that I should ever be brought to such a place! What would my poor mother say if she saw these rooms!' She then sat down and wept.⁸⁴ When Watson unwisely remarked that he thought the house a 'palace' compared to the bare earth he had expected when he first arrived in the Valley, Lydia despairingly called it 'a palace for horses and bullocks'.'⁸⁵ Even if Watson's recollections of this event are somewhat coloured, such an exchange was an unfortunate omen of the increasing volatility the two couples would experience as they tried to work together. To be fair to the Günthers and to Lydia in particular, their new home had been 'abandoned' six years before and had received little maintenance during the mission era.⁸⁶

 

In the first few months there were periods of harmony. Günther records that both wives worked at making 'gowns' out of blankets for the indigenous women as well as 'cloaks' for the men, to cover their nudity.⁸⁷ On another occasion, both women kept watch over an indigenous woman, fearing that she might murder her new baby if it was the child of a European – although in the event it was not.⁸⁸ Lydia performed tasks such as cutting the young men's hair and teaching them to read, which had previously been the preserve of the Watsons.⁸⁹ Within their first twelve months Günther also recorded that he and Watson had spent time congenially together:

 

It was curious Mr W. & myself, accompanied by a Native boy, had also something of a hunting expedition. We took a ride together, a recreation which we have not enjoyed for a long time. A wild Native dog came in our way, an animal very destructive to sheep & we fortunately had some good dogs of ours with us, which we sent after it & they succeeded in overtaking & killing it.⁹⁰

 

But old problems as well as new ones threatened the fragile peace. A continuing shortage of servants brought repeated complaints from Lydia, which led Günther in turn to bemoan the time spent helping his wife in household tasks and the consequent neglect of his missionary duties.⁹¹ Various configurations of hired help were tried, but none was satisfactory to the Günthers.⁹² Günther himself blamed Watson for the problem, claiming he had convinced the Sydney Committee that the number of servants on the mission was adequate by allowing Mrs Watson to do all her work unaided.⁹³ Eventually – perhaps in desperation – the Watsons 'lent' the Günthers several indigenous girls whom Ann Watson had trained in domestic work – Nanny, Jane and Maria – but this resulted in two of the girls returning in tears to the Watsons' house, vowing they would not return.⁹⁴ This problem was not solved during the remainder of the Günthers' period of service, and was the context of many of the angry accusations and counter-accusations that would later surface.

 

Meanwhile, the indigenous people continued to come to the mission for food, but few showed any inclination either to settle there or to work. A typical entry from Günther's diary reads:

 

We had again a number, about 22, of Natives at morning prayers; and during the whole of the day, considerable numbers were about the Mission House, so that we were sufficiently engaged by talking to them & attending to their wants. When they come to prayers they think they have full right to be fed.⁹⁵

 

A number of the surrounding settlers, too, continued to undermine the mission, for instance by attempting to seduce the mission girls and to trespass on mission land.⁹⁶ A new development here, however, was the willingness of the mission adolescents to directly question the behaviour of the supposed Christians around them. For instance, the local magistrate was asked by a Wiradjuri boy why he had not attended church that morning. When he replied that it was not his duty, the boy continued 'What is your duty then? I believe your duty flogging.'⁹⁷ The missionaries, too, came under fire for having double standards. A young Wiradjuri woman whom Watson had been lecturing on the sinfulness of consorting with white men tellingly replied, 'Why don’t you talk that way to White fellas?'⁹⁸

 

Two new problems which emerged during the Günther era were the establishment of a police station in some of the unused buildings of the former agricultural station and, later, proposals for a new township to be called Wellington. Despite vehement opposition from both Watson and Günther – acting in concert on this issue – the police began occupying the mission precinct from May 1838 onwards.⁹⁹ The new post included a lockup for convicts and at least one flogging had already occurred by the time the police arrived permanently.¹⁰⁰ The mission's policy of trying to isolate young Wiradjuri from the influence of white settlers, particularly convicts, was in tatters – at least one of the constables was a convict with a ticket of leave himself.¹⁰¹ To make matters worse, the new Police Magistrate, Mr Gisborne, quickly showed himself to be contemptuous of the mission and missionaries,¹⁰² and within two days of his arrival wrote to the Colonial Secretary recommending the mission's land as the best site for a new township.¹⁰³ It now seemed unavoidable that the mission would face increasing pressure from white settlement. The police station remained on the site until 1842, and the township itself was established soon after the mission closed.¹⁰⁴

 

 

Renewed Strife: Disagreements over the Children

After the arrival of the police, it became necessary for the missionaries to choose which of the old agricultural station buildings they required, with the police requisitioning the remainder. After some hesitation, Watson chose one to be a building about 750 metres away and closer to the river, which had been a gaol, and was known as the Prisoners' Barracks. The Watsons moved to this on 29 August 1838¹⁰⁵ after they had fenced it in such a way as to make it more secure, both to keep marauders out and to confine the children in their care within its yard.¹⁰⁶ Initially Ann Watson had hoped that the two families would live in two adjoining buildings, but surprisingly, given their repeated complaints about the state of Government House, the Günthers elected to stay where they were, taking over both halves of the accommodation.¹⁰⁷ This had the effect of splitting the mission into two camps, with the younger children and girls confined with the Watsons, and the young men more loosely associated with the Günthers. It occasionally led to a rather ludicrous situation in which Watson and Günther communicated by means of furious notes, transmitted back and forth by a runner.¹⁰⁸

 

By this time a new single agriculturalist, William Porter, had arrived at the station. The CMS had recruited him in hopes that his managing the farm would free the ordained missionaries to teach and preach, but also that his presence would ease the tensions between the two families. Unfortunately, the results were disappointing. By the time of his arrival in July 1838 Wellington Valley was in the grip of a long drought and there was little farming work to do and few Wiradjuri willing to do it¹⁰⁹ although good rain fell later in April 1839. Regarding his supposed role as a peacemaker, Porter found himself torn between the two 'camps'. Although he could be expected to look to Watson for orders as the senior missionary and most competent farmer, he was apparently offended by Watson's violent language and temper and instead allied himself more with the Günthers, and began supporting them in their protests to the CMS about Watson's behaviour.¹¹⁰ For instance, after six months at Wellington Valley, he wrote back to England:

 

I cannot forbear to express my feeling somewhat strongly against the Rev W. Watson yet I grieve over it while I write it. I can never join in any other Mission of which he is one of the members. His unhappy temper makes every other fellow labourer miserable. All is division & disunion. No brotherly Love:, that blessed grace, so highly valued by our Lord & Master. Unless there is a great alteration, I cannot stay, should the Mission continue some considerable time longer.¹¹¹

 

One bone of contention was Watson's running his private cattle on the mission land. The Sydney Committee had apparently not been officially informed of this circumstance, so Porter was asked to investigate.¹¹² Before long Porter reported back in detail, estimating the number of cattle at 'nearly 200'. (A muster later showed there were about 80).¹¹³ When Watson was ordered to rid himself of this stock – which he said he ran at his own expense to augment the mission's food supply¹¹⁴ – his resentment against his fellow-missionaries could only have deepened.¹¹⁵

 

Another area of disagreement was Watson's over-eagerness (in Günther's opinion) to baptise children. An example is the case of Nanny.
 

Nanny, whose native name was Geanil, appears to have come to the mission as an orphan in early 1833 at the age of nine.¹¹⁶ Not long after her arrival, she was badly burnt when her clothes caught alight, and Ann Watson’s selfless action in extinguishing the flames with her bare hands probably saved Nanny’s life.¹¹⁷ Thereafter, Nanny seems to have been very close to the Watsons, acting as interpreter and evangelist for them when they journeyed into the bush.¹¹⁸ The missionary eventually wrote to the Corresponding Committee in June 1835 that Nanny was 'under serious religious concern. She weeps and prays and expresses an anxious desire to be baptised'.¹¹⁹

 

A few months later, in August, Watson believed the time had come for Nanny’s desire to be granted. The young girl, now eleven, had become very sick, and after reading, studying and praying for her recovery, Watson wrote:

 

Have thought much to day [sic] respecting Nanny's Baptism. [...] I have determined (if we are spared) to devote the ensuing week to giving her special instruction on that subject, and if Mr Handt on examination thinks her a proper candidate, and she desires it then I will publicly admit her into the church by the Sacrament of Baptism.¹²⁰

 

On the day after this journal entry was made, however, the Watsons discovered to their horror that Nanny was suffering from venereal disease, apparently through relations with a white servant.¹²¹ All thoughts of baptism were immediately shelved and Nanny was forbidden to attend church.¹²² Apparently chastened by this experience, Nanny returned to her lessons and former piety.¹²³

 

In 1837 Günther arrived at Wellington Valley and began to record another view of Nanny; he accused her of stealing and other crimes.¹²⁴ Despite this, in 1839 when Günther felt he was particularly in need of domestic help, he asked Watson if Nanny could assist him. After about a fortnight in the Günthers’ service, the young teenager again became sick and she was sent back to the Watsons for proper care. On the day after her departure, Watson sent word that Nanny was dead, but that she had repented and been baptised before passing away. In his journal Günther made it clear that he was frankly suspicious of Nanny’s deathbed conversion and wondered why he had not been sent for while she was still alive 'to witness the change, which I am sure, would have been a matter of joy to me'.¹²⁵ Dismissive of such doubts, Watson wrote to the CMS that 'in the presence of respectable witnesses [Nanny] testified that she had not in vain been instructed in the truths of Christianity',¹²⁶ and also declared in several sermons that she had been 'truly converted' and 'saved'.¹²⁷

 

The event which brought matters to a head between Watson and Günther, however, concerned a much younger girl named Betsy. In this case, the issue was the removal of children by the mission against their parents' will.

 

An indigenous family camping outside a European settler's farmhouse, possibly in the Wellington area of NSW.	View of Wellington Valley by Conrad Martens, 1840. The Prisoners' Barracks, where the Watsons lived at that time, are visible in the middle distance among a line of buildings.
Source: Water colour by Augustus Earle, c.1826-7,17.5 x 25.7 cm. Inscription: '45. A Native Family of New South Wales sitting down on an English Settler's Farm'. Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK12/45, National Library of Australia.  http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2818442.	Source: SRNSW, Mitchell Coll. SRF. This image taken from Tracy Ireland, Ingereth Macfarlane, Aedeen Cremin, Linda Young and Neal Urwin, Maynggu Ganai Historic Site. Wellington Valley 1823-1844, Draft Conservation Management Plan, Manuka ACT, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, 2004: 3-39, available at http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/parkmanagement /MayngguGanaiHSMgmtplanDraft.htm.

  

Betsy was the two-year-old child of a white man and a Wiradjuri woman, Poll Plunkett.¹²⁸ The supposed father owed Watson £40 but could not pay, so he proposed passing over the care of his illegitimate daughter to the mission instead. Watson accepted the offer, but could not overcome spirited resistance to her removal by her mother and some bystanders. Watson then went to the police for assistance, while Betsy and Poll were rushed to the Günthers' house to take refuge. When Watson returned with two policemen and demanded the child be given up, Günther remonstrated with him, but yielded when Watson reputedly threatened to come and take the child from the mother's camp by night if necessary. Watson then charged into the Günthers' bedroom and tore Betsy from her screaming mother's breast.

 

After this episode Günther reported that indigenous women were hiding their children or telling them to run away when they heard that a parson was coming.¹²⁹ In February 1840 both he and Porter again wrote to Sydney saying they could no longer work with Watson.¹³⁰

 

 

The Committee Acts: The Watsons' Departure

Having received repeated refusals by both Günter and Porter to tolerate Watson's behaviour any further, and aware that prolonged conflict could only further damage the mission's reputation both with the Government and with the surrounding settlers, the Corresponding Committee in Sydney saw the need to act. However, only the parent Committee in London could make the decision to dismiss Watson. This was done in January 1840, although the resultant letter did not reach Wellington Valley until July.¹³¹ Watson was told that the reason for his dismissal was his inability to get on with his fellow-missionaries, who all 'had much to suffer from your unwillingness or inability (or both combined) to co-operate harmoniously with them'.¹³² No accusation of actual wrongdoing was included,¹³³so that Watson would have been justified in believing he had been condemned on purely subjective grounds.

  

William and Ann did not leave the Mission immediately. They ignored an offer by the CMS to pay their passage back to England, yet they had nowhere else to go. For some months they remained, hoping for a review of their case by an impartial mediator, but at the same time attempting to find alternative accommodation not only for themselves but the numerous Wiradjuri whom they believed would follow them.¹³⁴Eventually, a neighbouring settler, William Raymond, whom both Günther and Porter had previously offended, offered to lease the Watsons a portion of one of his properties.¹³⁵ In September 1840 Günther and Porter wrote again to Sydney demanding that the Watsons be evicted, and in October the police received orders to see them off the mission land.¹³⁶ Over several days at the end of that month, the Watsons packed their things and left, but only after Watson had destroyed much of his garden and fences and the improvements he had made to the interior of his house to prevent their use by Günther.¹³⁷ When they had finally gone, it was realised that they had taken all the mission children in their care with them, as Watson had stated he would.

 

After a period of living under the stars the Watsons – with 26 indigenous children and young people – were able to take up 730 acres on Raymond's station, which they conducted as a private mission named Apsley until 1848.¹³⁸ They were then granted a new site, 'Blake’s (or Black’s) Fall',¹³⁹ where they continued to live and work.

 

In his later years Watson became the minister in charge of Wellington parish and then of the Ophir goldfields, and one of his Aboriginal charges was confirmed in the Montefiores (North Wellington) church in 1849.¹⁴⁰ He retired from the ministry in 1857 and died in 1866.¹⁴¹ His last letter to the English CMS in 1842 contained the following lines regarding German missionaries:

 

The Society may prefer German Lutherans to English Episcopalians - and all their labourers may eventually be from Basle [sic]: Yet while other missionary societies can find a sufficiency of English candidates, it argues something faulty in the Church Missionary Society that more than half its labourers are foreigners who consider it hard that they must submit to episcopal ordination. As soon as I can leave my mission in the hands of persons who are devoted to the cause we shall proceed to England in order to plead the cause of these Aborigines - and I shall have a tale to tell.¹⁴²

  This last threat was never carried out.

 

 

The Final Years

After the Watsons left, the Corresponding Committee requested the Handts to return from their post in Moreton Bay to assist the Günthers. However, at the last moment this directive was countermanded, as the Government required Handt's further services as a chaplain in the north. The Handts were undisguisedly relieved,¹⁴³ but the Günthers and Porter were then forced to carry on alone.

 

Sir George Gipps, Governor of NSW 1837-46	Native of New South Wales from Wellington Valley
Source: State Library of NSW. http://www.acmssearch.sl.nsw.gov.au/search/itemDetailPaged.cgi?itemID=166349.	Source: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an2818346 Augustus Earle (1793-1838), watercolour c.1826-7. Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK12/24, National Library of Australia.

 

 

In 1840 the mission received a visit from the Governor, Sir George Gipps, and his wife. ¹⁴⁴ Gipps spent some time inspecting both the mission and its ten remaining indigenous charges, as well as Watson's Apsley establishment.¹⁴⁵ He concluded that the Wellington Valley mission was in a lamentable state, but 'must be continued',¹⁴⁶ and at Günther's suggestion later made available £50 per annum for prizes to be awarded to those on the mission who worked hard and exhibited good conduct.¹⁴⁷ Gipps later went on a tour of inspection of Moreton Bay and the Zion Hill mission in 1842.¹⁴⁸

   

In May 1841 William Broughton, now Bishop of Australia, also visited Wellington Valley. Unlike Gipps, he pronounced the Mission to be a 'total failure' although he was impressed with the attainments of one young man, Cochrane. Broughton urged Cochrane to accompany him to Parramatta for further schooling and Cochrane did start out on the journey, but after two days turned back to Wellington, probably at the boundary of Wiradjuri land.¹⁴⁹

 

From this point on the mission, now devoid of its most capable and industrious workers, lurched from crisis to crisis. A 'wrong way' marriage (i.e. one which broke Wiradjuri kinship rules) which Günther had performed against advice in 1840 caused great disruption when the husband tried to return his wife to her promised partner at Watson's mission, and Watson refused to take her.¹⁵⁰ In the latter half of 1841 the mission's financial standing deteriorated to the point that its commercial agents in Sydney began ignoring orders sent to them.¹⁵¹ Then in June 1842 Porter, who had long railed against the unbridled lust of the surrounding settlers, had to be dismissed because he had had 'improper relations' with at least one Wiradjuri woman.¹⁵² The Günthers were now left completely alone. Finally, convinced that Wellington Valley was a failure, the Colonial Government terminated its £500 per annum grant in mid-1843, and the station was wound up. Günther departed to become the parish priest in Mudgee and later an Anglican Archdeacon, and by 1845 all the mission’s assets had been sold.¹⁵³

 

The Maynggu Ganai Historic Site

Source: NSW Department of Environment and Heritage. http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/heritageapp/HeritageItemImage.aspx?ID=5051556#ad-image-4. Image by Louise Thom, Copyright NSW Heritage Branch

 

   

In 2001, much of the land on which the mission buildings had stood was bought up by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and renamed the Maynggu Ganai Historic Site. This new reserve straddles the Mitchell Highway, about 2.3km south of the present township of Wellington.¹⁵⁴ In 2010 the site still remained an 'undistinguished weedy paddock' on which no 'substantive' archaeological excavation had been undertaken,¹⁵⁵ but more recently walking trails have been laid out and an information pergola erected.¹⁵⁶

 

 

Wellington Valley: A Failed Anglo-German Experiment

The Wellington Valley Mission has generally been judged to be a failure because it did not achieve its own goals. Rather than convincing the Wiradjuri to settle on the land and grow crops, the mission inadvertently inculcated a dependence on handouts for minimal work. More importantly, the very few converts it made may be characterised as deathbed penitents, so that it failed to create a community of first generation Christians who could form the nucleus of an indigenous church.

 

But it was a failure in another way, too. English missionary societies formed at the time of the Evangelical Awakening in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century – of which the CMS was one – clung to the idea that English and Continental missionaries should be able to work harmoniously side by side in the field,¹⁵⁷ and no doubt many did so.¹⁵⁸ But in the case of Wellington Valley, the two German missionaries, Handt and Günther, united to form a firm bond before the latter had even set foot in Wellington Valley, and remained in contact even after Handt re-located to Moreton Bay¹⁵⁹ on the basis of their mutual antipathy towards the Watsons. Just as Watson had been disappointed that he could not work with Joseph Matthews, Günther, was disappointed when Handt was not permitted to return to Wellington Valley in 1841.¹⁶⁰ Watson, on the other hand, remained aloof from his fellow-labourers and wrote contemptuously in later years that he 'had from observation not much reason to admire Missionary Zeal in any German with whom [he] was acquainted'.¹⁶¹ His 1842 letter to the CMS in England quoted previously strikes a similar note – in this case a disdain for those who ' foreigners who consider it hard that they must submit to episcopal ordination'. This foundational disunity in work ethic and theological background between Watson and his German co-workers, which is discernible from the inception of the mission, led to stilted and limited communications, which finally resulted in separated accommodation, communication by courier, fights over the custody of children, and ultimately open rupture. Such a situation could only weaken the mission in its battle against external pressures. As Günther wrote to the Corresponding Committee in October 1838, quoting Mark 3:25, 'a house divided against itself cannot stand'.¹⁶²