German Missionaries in Australia

 

 

 

The cross follows the sword to the Northern Territory

 

The 'world's largest Catholic diocese'¹ resulted from the first attempts to establish a British commercial and military presence in far north Australia (Fort Dundas 1824, Fort Wellington 1827, Port Essington 1838). The last of these three attempts to create a British outpost was located in what was optimistically named 'Raffles Bay' reflecting the hope that Port Essington would soon rival Singapore. Ludwig Leichhardt reached Port Essington with an overland exploration from Moreton Bay (Zion Hill mission) in 1844 and amidst much publicity returned south on the Heroine. The colony of North Australia was proclaimed in February 1846 and although this was revoked in April 1847, and Port Essington abandoned in 1849, the Propaganda Fide in Rome moved quickly to secure this new territory by declaring a Victoria diocese in the far north in 1848 (before a separate colony of the same name was formed in 1851) that included the whole of the Northern Territory and a large portion of what became Queensland in 1859. A multinational group of Catholic religious had already arrived in Perth in January 1846. Some of them established the Benedictine monastery of New Norcia, and another group was sent north but was shipwrecked on the Heroine in Torres Strait in July 1846. Fr. Angelo Confalonieri was among the few passengers who could be rescued. He was brought, without any possessions, to Port Essington on Cobourg Peninsula and established himself at a remove from the military station to live with Garig and Iwaidja people at Black Point. That these people had longstanding contact with Macassan trepang fishers was reflected in their language, which Confalonieri recorded and learned until his death in 1848.² Port Essington was disbanded the following year because it was too difficult to graft onto the Macassan trepang trade to make inroads into the Dutch sphere of influence. The dream of a northern gateway to Asia was dashed for the first, but not for the last time.

 

Another grandiose idea rekindled interest in the far north - to connect with the world's latest telecommunication technology in either Java or Ceylon. Melbourne and Adelaide were already connected to each other by telegraph but a link to Europe was a daring leap ahead. The Burke and Wills expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria sponsored by the Victorian government in 1860 ended in disaster, so the South Australian government sponsored another attempt in 1862. After Stuart's successful overland exploration from Adelaide, the Northern Territory was given over to South Australia in 1863 and massive communication construction works commenced that led to the discovery of gold, so the township of Darwin was officially proclaimed in 1870, and the first Chinese coolies were imported in 1875. The 3,200 km telegraph line, including an undersea cable to Java, was completed in 1872, and in 1878 construction began on a north-south railway line (which reached Alice Springs in 1929 and Darwin in 2003).

 

That year, 1878, Fr. Duncan McNab lobbied for Aboriginal missions in the north during visits in London and Rome, where a new Pope, Leo XIII, had been installed in February 1878. Not since the 1840s had the Catholics made a serious effort to establish Aboriginal missions in the emerging British antipodean colonies (Stradbroke Island 1843, New Norcia 1846), and only individual Catholic priests had made isolated attempts (Confalonieri at Port Essington 1846-48, McNab in Queensland 1875-1882). Meanwhile the massive northern 'Port Victoria' diocese, at first administered by Joseph Serra OSB and currently under the ecclesiastical authority of New Norcia’s Bishop Salvado OSB, had lain dormant for thirty years and was now becoming interesting again. Pope Leo XIII charged the Austrian Jesuits, who had formed a foundation in South Australia's Clare Valley at Sevenhill in 1848, with revitalising the northern diocese. After all, if a mission seems impossible it is always a job for the Jesuits.³

 

The Sevenhill Jesuits looking for mission fields

 

The General of the Society of Jesus had been refusing permission to form an Aboriginal mission in Australia since at least 1866. In that year, amidst much publicity, the South Australian Lutherans and Victorian Moravians competed to set up missions at Coopers Creek (Kilallpaninna, Kopperamanna) while in South Australia a local citizen initiative formed a mission at Yorke Peninsula (Point Pearce) and in Victoria the Church Mission Society opened Lake Condah. The Jesuits were already covering the whole area from Clare to Port Augusta with parish priests, so Point Pearce, staffed with a Moravian missionary, was practically located in their territory. Jesuits saw their primary task as education and mission, rather than parish work, which they preferred to devolve to lay priests. On the other hand the Austrians were handicapped in providing education in English, for which the Irish Jesuits were much better equipped. This pincer of expectations manoeuvered the Sevenhill Jesuits into pursuing Aboriginal mission. ⁴

 

1866 was a year of first baptisms, following the example of Anglican John Green at Corranderk, who claimed William Barak as the first Victorian convert in 1865 and followed up with two more in 1866. The Moravian Friedrich Hagenauer also claimed his first fruit at Ramahyuck in 1866, and the Jesuits at Sevenhill baptised several Aborigines in the same year. They embraced the idea of starting 'Reductions' and precipitously leased a plot of land 60 miles north of Sevenhill (possibly near Port Pirie township proclaimed in 1870). Fr. John Hinteroecker, a 'livewire naturalist' who arrived in 1866 claimed that his superiors had him 'destined for work among the Aborigines'. He proposed a mission much further north, at Oodnadatta.⁵ Another milestone in 1866 was the acceptance of the very first Australian recruit into Sevenhill (Thomas O'Brien, the brother of John O'Brien who later helped to found the Rapid Creek mission). However Jesuit General Superior Beckx wanted to wait until sufficient locals were recruited to staff native missions without sending priests from Europe, and disallowed all these initiatives.

 

The Sevenhill Jesuits kept lobbying on the basis of the Jesuit mission reputation. While the Lutherans were inexperienced newcomers to native mission, and the Moravians had more than a hundred years of mission experience, the Jesuits had built a reputation for missionising. In Paraguay they had since the 16th century conducted 'native reductions' (reducere means to draw in) that had involved massive relocations of indigenous people into designated townships where residents were allocated plots of land. Agricultural production, and the production of silver that was so important to the Spanish, could thereby be supervised and taxed. The scheme peaked in 1733 with 126,389 residents drawn in to small stations on their tribal territories, where languages were maintained, property was held in common and authority rested in one or two priests.

 

The Austrian General Superior perhaps did not understand the historic opportunities arising from the rapid development in the Australian colonies, so the Sevenhill Jesuits looked for other sources of support for their mission ambitions. The 1869 provincial synod in Melbourne endorsed the Jesuit proposal and the Australian Bishops wrote in their 1869 pastoral letter: 'what is wanting is not capacity in the aborigines but apostolic devotion in the followers of Christ'.⁶ Still nothing eventuated, while the Lutherans and Moravians were extending their mission involvements into the remote centre and ever further north. In August 1877 the General again instructed the Sevenhill superior not to concern himself with the 'islands subject to the King of Holland or the King of Portugal' - presumably in response to some proposed initiative regarding Timor (which was on the thriving trepang route).⁷

 

Strategic considerations in the choice of Darwin

 

It was not until Fr. McNab's personal visit to Rome in 1878, reporting on the rapidly unfolding settlement and development of the Northern Territory, that the South Australian Jesuits obtained Rome's support for a northern mission. Negotiations were complex since the secular administration of the Northern Territory was vested in Adelaide, while the ecclesiastical authority over the northern diocese rested in a Bishop in the west.

 

The European population of the Northern Territory was around 700, and labourers were urgently required to develop the natural resources of the promising north. Chinese coolies were imported for domestic and agricultural work and flooded to the Pine Creek gold fields, so in 1881 South Australia began negotiations in India and subsequently passed an Ordinance to introduce Indian coolie labour. This plan failed because the conditions placed by the Indian colonial government were forbidding: at least 40% of the hired migrants had to be women, and a Protector of Immigrants had to be engaged at around £1,000 per annum. ⁸ The government now promised a tenth of this sum⁹ to the Jesuits to turn the Larrakia (aka Larrakeyah) into useful labourers.

 

Darwin (aka Palmerston) seemed to recommend itself. According to a later account by Fr. Strele, Fr. Reschauer, the Superior at Sevenhill proposed Darwin 'since that was certainly going to be a place of great importance'. Fr. Reschauer hoped that eventually the Jesuits could also care for 'the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands who are much more numerous', and that 'we can extend into British New Guinea from there'. ¹⁰ Clearly the Darwin location was intended as a stepping stone. Indeed, just around the time of these deliberations, Fr. Duncan McNab was visiting Sevenhill 'led by divine providence' and also strongly recommended Darwin, which was at a good distance from his own efforts in Queensland, already administered by a separate vicariate, in which the Aboriginal population was about to dwindle in the face of railway extensions to the interior at Roma and the Gulf. Another advantage of the Darwin region was that 'the ministers of error' had not yet colonised the north, although one ought not to delay lest 'we may be forestalled by Protestant missionaries'.¹¹ Finally, having first ascertained that by 'the north' they meant Port Darwin (and nothing too close to New Norcia), Bishop Rosendo Salvado granted permission for a Jesuit mission in his 'Victoria' diocese in May 1881.

 

Fr. Strele was appointed as vicar general and superior of the northern mission and began to collect £1,200 for the new venture.¹² Initially he found opinions well disposed towards the venture, so that 'we have many benefactors'. Even in the north, 'without distinction of creed nearly everyone is in favour of us, and the Missionaries generally are well thought of'.¹³ It sounded too good to be true.

 

Jesuit administration of the northern diocese

 

The Jesuits established St Joseph's Mission at Rapid Creek in 1882, but when they asked for more land to form Reductions in 1885 they were told that the parcels at Bagot were too close to Darwin to be extended.¹⁴ They formed an outrigger at the Daly River in 1886, called Queen of the Holy Rosary Station (later referred to as Old Uniya) that catered mainly for Malak-Malak. Other groups were asking for similar attention, so in September 1889 the Jesuits established a third station at Serpentine Lagoon, called Sacred Heart Mission.

 

Strele's second fundraising tour in 1886 was less fruitful. He found that there was so much collecting going on in the colonies that there now were 'experts' offering advice, and he encountered some flat refusals for permission to collect. Cardinal Moran, 'the Prince of the Church', forestalled Strele's attempts at private collection by ordering an annual collection.¹⁵ This was so disappointing¹⁶ that Strele left for Europe and America in May 1887. His General tried to stop him from begging in America, but 'God arranged that the .... letter should not arrive', and so Strele left for San Francisco, where, alas 'they need everything for the immigrants' and had nothing to spare. Undeterred, he 'collected house to house' among the German and Polish migrant communities, and found a Tyrolean family who donated $1,000 on the condition that a church should be dedicated to the Holy Rosary. This indeed was already the name of the Daly River mission station, and with a camera donated by mission friends in Sydney, Strele was able to send a photo of Holy Rosary church at the Daly River to the American benefactors.¹⁷

 

During his European tour Fr. Strele was elevated to apostolic administrator of the Victoria-Palmerston diocese in August 1888. He returned to Darwin in February 1889 with the brief to develop the Catholic presence in the towns. He directed Fr. Marschner, Br. Pfalzer and Br. Hulka to apply for naturalisation¹⁸ and began to purchase properties to minister to the European and Asian Catholics – a church and residence in Darwin and along the Pine Creek railway line at Burrundie, Union Town and Playford. Br. Eberhard stayed with him while all other Jesuits withdrew from Darwin in 1891 to collapse their three mission stations into a new site at New Uniya. The three Daly River missions (Old Uniya, Serpentine Lagoon and New Uniya) are so closely interwoven that they are told here as a single narrative.

 

During official visitation by the South Australian Jesuit superior, Fr. Anthony Reschauer (June-August 1892), Fr. Marschner from Uniya and and Br. Eberhard and Fr. Strele from Darwin were recalled to Sevenhill for health reasons. Fr. O'Brien became superior of the residence at Palmerston, acting in locum tenens for the Apostolic Administrator, who was not stripped of his position. According to Dalton, Fr. O'Brien made only occasional visits to Darwin.¹⁹ This absence clearly rendered the Jesuit administration of the diocese rather tenuous. In mid-1897 the Provincial directed Fr. O'Brien, Fr. Conrath and Br. Kramar back to Darwin, but the diocese was lost to the Jesuits and was instead devolved to Geraldton Bishop William Bernard Kelly DD on 14 February 1898. The Jesuit interest in the northern mission was correspondingly decreased.

 

Fr. McKillop's public relations

 

The retreat from Rapid Creek meant the withdrawal of the government subsidy in 1892²⁰ and the Austrian subsidy also dried up in 1894, so the Jesuit missionaries increasingly needed to rely on Australian subscriptions. Fr. McKillop undertook a southern fundraising tour with two mission Aborigines from October 1893 to May 1894 (see Daly River missions). He particularly wanted to have Sisters sent to support the northern missions. His own sister Mary (1842-1909, now Saint Mary MacKillop) had founded the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1867, and Fr. O’Brien's sister had joined that Society. McKillop also began to think that a mission plot on the Tiwi Islands would be a better prospect.²¹

 

Fr. McKillop addressed the Royal Society of South Australia with anthropological observations of the Daly River people.²² To the press he explained how well the mission was aligned with the goals of the settler colony, after it had recently been announced that the plan to import Indian coolies had now been officially laid to rest, being far too expensive.²³ He resisted the impression that the Jesuit withdrawal from Darwin to the Daly River represented a misalignment between Jesuit and government policy. The Daly River people were 'more tractable' than Aborigines further south. The mission tried to train them to replace the Chinese 'coolie labour', and 'if properly fed blackfellows can work all year round'. The move to Uniya was an attempt to move out of reach of Chinese contact, and ‘a happy combination of open-air living with regular employment, and we are careful not to exact too much'. 'Religion is primary in our intention, but in a manner secondary in our practice … (we) ... must first civilize the blacks'. The adult labourers negotiated their daily workload with the missionary by asking him to draw a mark to show how much he expected them to do. Some of the young men were learning trades and the children, 'quite as bright as European children' attended five hours of school per day. The adults, the children, and also the land itself offered promise. Sunflowers were grown as chicken feed, and an attempt had been made to market alligator skins. ²⁴ The missionaries wanted to get angora goats, and a large granary to store products, and to start beekeeping like Sevenhill. What the mission urgently needed was between £200 and £300 for a modern steam launch. Like the settler entrepreneurs of the north, the Jesuit missionaries had many plans for future development.

 

Based on the Jesuits' Paraguay model the idea was to teach 'self-reliance' in a kind of socialist framework. McKillop explained that a tax was levied on earnings as a fund for health and education expenses. The mission sought to ‘induce industry, honesty, unselfishness, and working for the individual and general good’ so that 'each man works for himself, his family and the community'.²⁵ This quasi-collectivist bundle of mission aims may have dampened the generosity of southern Catholics. What was entirely missing was a statement of need. A mission collection in Sydney raised only 8 shillings from just three donors²⁶ and the modern steam launch remained a pipe dream. Moreover, the first large group of radical utopianists led by William Lane were just preparing to leave Australia for Paraguay to form the 'New Australia' commune, and no doubt many conservatives felt threatened by this widely-publicised socialist counter-migration. A socialist Paraguayan mission model possibly pressed some wrong buttons at this time.

 

Language policy

 

Their struggle with English hampered the Austrians from teaching in English, and Fr. Strele turned this into a strategic advantage. He claimed that at Rapid Creek 'the blacks do not speak English' and felt it was easier for one of the Fathers to learn the local language 'than to instruct a whole tribe' in English, which he 'cared little' to teach, 'and (much more important) the way is kept closed to the [Protestant] ministers'.²⁷ Fr. Conrath arrived in 1884 and devoted most of his time to studying one of the local languages, with the result that 'before the end of the year they were praying and being instructed in their own language'. In 1885 Strele brought back a printing press so that they could produce schoolbooks in the local language.²⁸ In May 1886 they printed the first Larrakia language books and hymns, which they had set to familiar tunes. Great was the wonder when

 

'some white men who came to the Station and were acquainted with the melodies joined in the singing and pronounced the Larakya words; then you might have seen all the Blacks get up and stand round the singers and marvel that these men already had their language, and cry out, 'they know, they know'.²⁹

 

Strele bemoaned the 'poverty of a language' that had no words for several of the Christian terms.³⁰ However Fr. Conrath, who studied the Malak-Malak language at Old Uniya, found it to be more sophisticated than the classical languages with a richness of verb forms and grammatical distinctions. In the course of his translations of the Ave Maria and Pater Noster he battled with the inclusive and exclusive forms of ‘we’, such as, ‘give us (exclusive we) this day our (inclusive we) daily bread’. He regretted his earlier errors, such as applying the inclusive ‘we’ for ‘we are sinners’ (not appropriate in an address to God). In 1890 Fr. Conrath and Fr. Kristen at Old Uniya were 'studying the language together', in August 1892 Fr. Conrath was 'composing prayers in the native tongue' and in 1895 Fr. Kristen submitted a paper to the plenary church council in Sydney.³¹

 

The aggregation of the three mission stations at New Uniya practically ended the attempt to cater for different language groups in separate locations, and throughout the 1890s the mission diary (DRM) suggests that the Brothers were urged to learn English. The first signal was set in February 1890 when the readings at table were occasionally in English. During his visitation in July 1892 Fr. Reschauer advised all the staff to learn English, and a resolution in November 1893 that Fr. Conrath would give cathechism to the Brothers in English, was reaffirmed in January 1895 with the resolution that 'Fr. Conrath will take evening recreation with the Brothers so that they may get more facility in the use of English'. In May 1895, urgently awaiting the arrival of Sisters, a consultation 'about the official language of the station' concluded that the school was to be taught in English, and a few days later 'the school children are prepared to read an elementary reading book in English.' The missionaries planned to invite more Maranunngu, Djerait and Ponga-Ponga people to the mission. In February and March 1896 Fr. Marschner was teaching the Brothers English for half an hour each day during recreation after dinner.³²

 

The mission diary was kept in Latin, but Fr. Fleury's letters show something of the struggle with the English language. Recently arrived from Europe, he was left in Darwin to uphold the Catholic ministry after the mission closed in 1899. Forced to deliver sermons in English he tried to commit them to memory but had to resort to reading them 'off the paper'. He resigned that neither the Christians nor the pagans 'care the least for instruction' and paid 'no heed' to his sermons.³³ Within two years of his arrival from Europe, this multilingual Swiss priest had lost his German without gaining proficiency in English:

 

I have lost the use of speacking German. I tried to speak German with Br. Melzer but every second word I spoke was English, yet I am far from speaking it well. I should rather say that I can not speak more any language fluently.³⁴

 

The Jesuit priests began their work in the north by calling members of their flock by German names that must have been meaningless and well-nigh unpronounceable to an indigenous tongue (Kunigunda³⁵, Walpurga, Burgina, Hildegard, Joachim, Dagobert, Waldemar) and labelled the landscape with references that only made sense to themselves (Felsen Billabong, Hungerberg). Gradually these place names were substituted with ones that connected people with them (Billy Billabong, Anthony Lagoon, Makrinabush, Pachomius Lake) and the German names became more Anglophile (Clara, Maria, Lucia, Teresa, Margarita, Martha, Minna, Helena, Veronica, Johanna, Flora, Peter, Leo, Gabriel, Tobias, William, Paul, Otto, Valentine, Rudolf, Hugo, Bruno, Adolf). English Christian names also appear (Millie, Anthony, Luke, Damian, Harry, Jackie, Matthew, Charlie, Edward, Paddie, Andrew, Ned, Tommy, Gregory) along with Anglicised versions of classical names (Petronilla, Bella, Paulina, Susanna, Thekla, Polycarp, Zachary, Amand, Columbanus). It would require recourse to the original Latin handwritten version of the diary to verify whether there was a gradual transition towards more English names, and cross-checking with the baptismal registers to determine whether they were bestowed by the Jesuits. (The Jesuits baptised 197 infants, 78 adults, and performed 78 deathbed baptisms in the mission.³⁶)

 

For marriage records the Jesuits took care to record and retain a tribal name along with the baptismal name, and eventually indigenous names predominate the references to indigenous people in the mission diary (Targorityet, Modyorit, Dugaiir, Tyetmanningtyet, Marawunger). Similarly the imposed place names give way to indigenous ones, although not with a consistent spelling (e.g. Komorkye, Gorondye, Gorondyo).³⁷ The old man Barramundi becomes more often referred to as Ngologorog, and Dummy gives way to Nabba to refer to a deaf-mute. Some mission residents went by names they must have earned elsewhere, like Captain, Pine Creek, Daly, Finiss, or the women Killingmi and Taitmiab.

 

Institutional discipline

 

Judging from their mission diary the Jesuits ranked principle above compassion in their interactions with Aboriginal people (see Daly River Missions), but also for themselves. The diary records hardships, hunger, want of basic materials, misinformation and misunderstanding, injuries and sickness, crocodile attacks and snake bites, floods and plagues. But if any small lamentation was entered, the Superior was sure to correct or dismiss it with an annotation such as

 

'There is no place here for useless anxiety: Divine Providence has provided and will provide, if we do our part with confidence in Divine Providence'.³⁸

 

The stern tone of the annotations of the visiting superior (Strele and later McKillop), who occasionally checked the diary entries and entered 'Vide' beneath the last entry, shows little compassion for the trials and hardships of the Jesuits on the mission.

 

The Fathers and Brothers lived in the daily rhythms of monastic discipline, rising at 4.30 am, or at least in time for first mass at 5.30 or 6.00, with slight adjustments for the wet and dry seasons. In 1898 their Order of Time shows three morning services - an early one for those who had to milk the cows, one for the Religious, and one for the community. Perhaps they enjoyed the mass all the more because it involved a little wine, and if there was no wine, no mass could be held. They observed daily periods of silence, silence at supper on Saturdays,³⁹ and silence during Lent. An occasional 'poculum' or social drink was had in the evening, but just as often the diary shows the long dry spells between the arrival of provisions.

 

The mission diary does not mention physical punishment of any of the Religious, and the records take great pains to preserve the dignity of staff members. They were required to make confessions of their faults, also a disciplinary measure used with mission residents. Physical punishment was reserved for young men (see Daly River Missions) and children. The missionaries realised that their ethics of punishment was very different from the indigenous ethics that tolerated injuring respected adults and beating women, but not beating children:

 

'Those of their children whom they permit to live (for superstition does not spare all of them) are treated with great affection, often with more indulgence than is right. The parents do little to correct their bad inclinations, and scarcely ever punish them; they greatly dislike our punishing the schoolchildren, but we have insisted on doing so, and we have so far overcome this difficulty that the parents will sometimes themselves punish law breakers at a Missionary's behest.'⁴⁰

 

If schoolchildren were punished for offences such as theft, causing a fracas, making noises at night, or going to the camp at night, they would almost invariably abscond from the mission, usually supported by a small group accompanying them.

 

30 April 1888: Fr. Kristen slapped the boy Andrew who had been making immoderate complaints about the food - he went away and took with him four other of the children: Peter, Anthony, August and Thekla.

[They were still missing on 7 March 1888]

 

7 May 1890: the boys were punished in school after admitting theft, only two went off

 

14 February 1891: Martha, who had been lightly punished for making noises and shouting at night, has left the Station with some older girls.

 

2 May 1892: Norbert and Gabriel ran away after light punishment, also Domitilla, Agnes, and Claudie, all relations of theirs. The boys returned in the evening, but not the girls.

 

8 May 1892: Adolf, scolded for bad behaviour, went off, taking with him Amand and Teresa.

 

The disciplinary terms are scolding, slapping, light punishment and punishment. A stick is mentioned only once, to punish young men for a gang rape. The references to physical punishment average to less than one per year, but are uneven. The punishment of school children disappears from view after 1892 - either the children learned not to run away, or the Jesuits learned not to strike them.

 

Certainly they learned to feed, against their stated principles of teaching self-reliance. In 1887 a bread oven was installed at Rapid Creek, and instead of giving out raw flour, they now handed out fresh made damper. 'It looks more, and helps to keep time' observed Fr. Strele.⁴¹ Where in mid-1888 the Jesuits had split the Old Uniya school into two grades, so that the children in each grade had time to get bush food and only needed feeding once a day⁴² they soon realised that this was counterproductive. After a disastrous wet season famine in 1892, the Jesuits at New Uniya abandoned their policy to give only tobacco and flour in payment of work, and began to give food to their workers.⁴³

 

The diarists were directed not to include names of any offenders so as not to shame the person involved. When a white baby was born to Margarita at the mission in January 1895 (see Daly River Missions - Daly River Stories - Margarita) several women, under intensive questioning, laid accusations against four Brothers. Various comments in the diary bespeak the burden of mistrust, suspicion and collective shame with which the missionaries were saddled as a result of this incident. 'Grief and pain keep us all very depressed.'⁴⁴ The diarist was in a quandary, since he did not feel at liberty to name the accused, but he also wanted to free those who had not been accused from any suspicion. He finally appealed to the ethics of the reader:

 

'We are commanded to write the Diary so that it may be a source for the history of the house. But I beg the well-meaning reader to take care not to tell ANY of Ours that he has read in the Diary many, or even any, of those accusations. For God has called us together in peace, and our victory and the Divine blessing come from the right observance of fraternal charity, which would be taken away and destroyed were anyone, speaking to Ours, to blurt out indiscretely what the Diary has to say about this matter.'⁴⁵

 

So forceful is this appeal that all Jesuit historians have heeded it. More than a century later the bundle of shame that the Daly River Jesuits felt so strongly, is flattened, because in the 21st century cross-racial intercourse, sex outside marriage, and children out of wedlock are no more objectionable than permed hair. Even the dictum of clerical celibacy is getting eroded with novel priesthood forms. The case of Margarita is not a case of child abuse, since she had already led an independent life off the mission with another man, but many Australian Catholic fraternities have experienced much the same pressure of corrosive mutual suspicion since 2013, during a Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse. There remains the ethics of workplace sexual harassment.

 

The Jesuit response to this scandal was far-reaching. Fr. McKillop as mission superior called the mission women individually to give evidence before a board of consultors.⁴⁶ One of the women was accused of lying, several women left the mission, and Br. Pfalzer's name was cleared. McKillop reported to the Provincial, who prohibited all unsupervised interactions of Brothers with the mission females.⁴⁷ Br. Sboril was repatriated to Europe without citing any mitigating circumstances, but by 'his own fault'.⁴⁸ Later in the year Br. Longa was sent for a period to Pine Creek.⁴⁹ Fr. McKillop disbanded the girls' dormitory and had the clausura fence extended to render the mission building a gated enclosure, locked from 6.30 pm to 6.30 am and during midday. McKillop was driven to claim that it was 'a sin' to leave the clausura without permission and chastised one of the Fathers who objected to such an exaggeration. McKillop reformulated his instructions by saying that he 'herefore forbids it in virtue of holy obedience'.⁵⁰ McKillop's response has been characterised as 'hysterical'.⁵¹ Cardinal Patrick Moran requested a history of the northern mission for the plenary council in Sydney in 1895, which Fr. Kristen was also invited to address, and the Jesuit Fathers feared the imminent end of their mission.

 

The Jesuits succeeded in keeping this matter out of the press and in shielding the Fathers from reproach. The administration followed up with two official visitations. The mission superior was retracted after a 'case of conscience' session in October 1896, which determined that his suspected kidney stones would certainly require an operation, which would need to be performed in Sydney (later it was announced that an operation was not, after all, necessary). ⁵² The clausura he had imposed 'under Holy Obedience' was rescinded in June 1897, after a 'case of conscience' consultation that also decided that Br. Hulka, suffering from constant fever, would be sent to South Australia.⁵³ (Three other 'case of conscience' sessions were held where the outcome of the deliberations cannot be glimpsed from the mission diary.⁵⁴)

 

Uncertain future

 

Perhaps the scandal was not the only reason for the two official visitations in 1896 and 1897. Fr. Timothy Kenny, superior of the Irish mission of the Jesuit Society in Australia, undertook an official visitation (20 May to 8 June 1896) because, as Dalton observes, the Irish and Austrian Jesuits in Australia were considering a merger (which did not take place until 1901).⁵⁵ Kenny found that there were only 15 children at school, the school building was inadequate and Fr. O’Brien was still only acting in locum tenens in Darwin. In effect the mission was struggling and the diocese was deserted.

 

Fr. Kenny retracted Fr. McKillop from the mission and his report to Rome instigated a visit (26 May to 19 June 1897) from Fr. Joseph Milz (1841-1915), the former Provincial of the Austrian Society of Jesus, now placed in charge of the Australian Austrian mission. Fr. Milz directed Fr. Conrath and Br. Kramar to Darwin to live with Fr. O’Brien. This left only Fr. Marschner with five Brothers on the mission (Scharmer, Pfalzer, Melzer, Longa, Haelbig) and represented a complete change of guard of the priests, since Fr. Marschner had only returned north in March 1895. Clearly the Jesuit administration was now more interested in cementing the diocese than in the precarious mission venture. The Jesuit staff in the north peaked at 13 (1889 to 1891) and gradually declined again.

 

The priests, too, were sapped of their enthusiasm. Fr. Kristen had left in 1895 with nervous exhaustion, Fr. McKillop had left in 1896 and Fr. O'Brien was stationed in Darwin as administrator since 1898. Neither Fr. Conrath nor Fr. Marschner were enthusiastic about the prospects of the mission. It would take several generations of Christianising before any lasting results could be achieved, and twenty years of intensive work had not produced commensurate results. The seasonal floods imperiled their economic efforts and risked their lives, and the influence of the elders pulled the children back into tribal society.⁵⁶ Fr. Milz received 'increasingly desparate letters' while the future of the mission was being considered.⁵⁷

 

Four more staff arrived in Adelaide from Europe in December 1898 and all were sent north. Fr. Augustus Fleury (age 44) and the carpenter Br. Joseph Girschik (age 32) reached Darwin on 2 January 1899, but the linguist Fr. John Pfeifer (age 39) and the cook Br. Rupert Haertl (age 41) arrived too late to reach the mission.

 

The diocese had been devolved to Geraldton Bishop William Bernard Kelly DD (14 February 1898), but for the time being three Jesuits were left in Darwin to administer the diocese (Fr. O’Brien, Fr. Fleury, Br. Melzer). Most of the properties acquired by Fr. Strele were also sold. Fr. O’Brien represented the Bishop while Kelly was still overseas, and stayed on for some time after the Bishop’s return to Geraldton. Some of the couples stayed on at Uniya and Fr. Fleury visited them and the Catholics settled along the railway line occasionally. Fr. O’Brien was farewelled by a delegation of Darwin citicens in April 1902 and the three finally left Darwin in September 1902 while Fr. Ryan from the Geraldton diocese spent two months in Darwin around October 1902. Thereafter Darwin’s still small Catholic community was serviced only by visiting priests travelling through, until Fr. Gsell MSC arrived as the new apostolic administrator in August 1906. Gsell occupied the former Jesuit residence commissioned by Fr. Strele in 1889 and referred to the Jesuit departure from the north as a 'strategic retreat'.⁵⁸ He invested his energies in the Tiwi mission on Bathurst Island that had already been suggested by the Jesuits as a more promising mission field.

 

Sinthern SJ (1924) suggests two salient reasons for the failure of the Daly River missions, other than pointing out the relative poverty of the Australian Catholic congregations. First, the northern conditions required a large group of lay-brothers. The Benedictines at New Norcia had 52 Brothers supporting six priests in 1900. (And the Pallottines in the Kimberley in 1904 had eight Brothers and one priest.) Secondly, the success of the Jesuit missions in South America and the Philippines was firmly built on the strong financial support of the Spanish crown, whereas the British Protestant government allocated land, usually poor land, doled out a few blankets and granted an annual subsidy of £50 or £100 that was 'hardly enough to keep ten children'.⁵⁹

 

 

 

Jesuit staff in the Northern Territory missions

 

Listed in chronological order of arrival in the northern mission (German-speakers in bold)

 

Fr. Anton Strele SJ (1825-1897)

Superior of the northern mission 1882-1892, see Strele Biography.

 

 

Fr. John O'Brien at Sevenhill 1912-1917 Source: David Strong SJ The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-1998, Archives of the Society of Jesus, 1999:267.

 Fr. John O’Brien SJ (1850-1925)

The true pioneer of the northern mission, the only Jesuit to remain from its beginning to its end. He was a member of the spearhead party arriving in 1882, and was at the forefront of each of the Daly River missions in 1886, 1889 and 1891. He became Administrator of the Diocese of Port Victoria and Palmerston after Fr. Strele, and remained in Darwin until 1902.

 

Born 4 October 1850 in Dublin, he was six when his pious family arrived at Sevenhill from Scotland in 1857. His father had interrupted study for the priesthood, and his sister joined the Sisters of St Joseph founded by Mary MacKillop. In February 1866 his brother Thomas became the first Australian novice received by the Society and was sent to Innsbruck in April 1866. John joined the Society in March 1868 and also studied at Innsbruck University (Austria) where he was ordained, and returned to Australia in June 1882.

 

Fr. O'Brien helped to set up missions at Rapid Creek (September 1882), (Old) Uniya (1886) and Serpentine Lagoon (1889). From 1898 to 1902 he was in Darwin acting as Apostolic Administrator at the invitation of Bishop Kelly while Kelly was overseas, assisted by Br. Kramar and first Fr. Conrath and later Fr. Fleury. In April 1902 the residents of Palmerston presented Fr. O’Brien with a travelling bag and breviary and an address of appreciation for his twenty years of service in the north. He returned south in September 1902 and became Superior of Sevenhill College (1902-1906, 1912-1919) with Fr. Fleury as chaplain. During these years visitors from the north included Captain Dunstan who had helped them to settle on the Daly River, and Frank Kelsey, the former Palmerston postmaster. Fr. O'Brien also taught at St. Aloysius College, Milsons Point (1908-1912) and, nearly blind, retired at Sevenhill where he died at age 75 in the same year as his brother Thomas and his sister.⁶⁰

 

 

Fr. John Evangelist Neubauer Source: David Strong SJ, The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-1998, Archives of the Society of Jesus, 1999:293.

 

  Fr. Johann Evangelist Neubauer SJ (1837-1910)

Was a pioneer member of the northern mission for its first half year. Born on 24 September 1837 in Südmähren, Austria, joined the Society at Tyrnau in September 1857, studied rhetoric (1860-1861) philosophy (1862 - 1864) and theology (1865-1866). Taught church history at Mariaschein, left for Australia via Trieste with Sigismund Karlinger and arrived in Adelaide in February 1873.⁶¹ Served at Crystalbrook and as first parish priest at Port Pirie in 1881⁶², and volnteered for the Jesuit spearhead group to Darwin on 24 September 1882. He was sent back in March 1883 because of poor health. Served at Port Pirie and Crystalbrook again, and returned to Europe on 9 November 1899 with Br. Longa. ⁶³ He continued to serve as spiritual father at Tyrnau and St. Andrä (Kärnten), where he died aged 73.⁶⁴

 

 

Br. Georg Eberhard SJ (1836-1912)

Was in the northern mission for its first ten years, 1882-1892. Born 19 April 1836 in Austria, joined the Society in October 1861, arrived from Austria on 1 February 1866 as cook and domestic, together with the natural scientist Fr. Johann Hinteröcker and was one of the first of the Austrian Jesuits to have the privilege of travelling to Australia on a steamship. He was a member of the Jesuit spearhead group arriving in Darwin on 24 September 1882 and became cook and infirmarian. When he fell sick the mission residents at Rapid Creek showed great distress and erupted in loud lamentations. In 1886 he assisted in the setting up of (Old) Uniya. He rode with the overland group as far as Elizabeth Creek and then returned to Rapid Creek to accompany the remaining supplies on the Zuleika. (But is listed as serving at Rapid Creek in 1891.) In June 1892 the South Australian superior ordered him and two other founding members (Strele, Marschner) to recuperate in the south. He spent seven years in the Austrian province, working in the in the refectory and infirmary at Sevenhill and at Georgetown, and then 11 years in the Irish mission at Riverview (1901-1905), Loyola Collage at Greenwich (1905-09) and St. Aloysius College (1909-12). He died at Milsons Point, Sydney, at age 74.⁶⁵

 

Fr. Adolf Kristen SJ (1866-1907)

In the northern mission from 1884 to 1894, see Kristen biography.

 

Fr. Joseph Conrath, SJ (1853-1932)

Participated in the northern mission from 1884 to 1899, see Conrath biography.

 

Br. Vinzenz (Vincent) Scharmer SJ (1858-1923)

Was in the northern mission from 1884 to 1899. Born 19 July 1858 in Tyrol, joined the Society at St. Andrä in August 1879 and arrived in Adelaide in December 1883. Went to Rapid Creek with Fr. Conrath in January 1884 and was sent as carpenter to Old Uniya with Fr. O' Brien and Fr. Kristen. He suffered from fever, which was treated with quinine (presumably malaria) and also applied basic medical treatments. He built the mission boat Uniya, which was used to remove to the new mission location at New Uniya. He was a skilled gunman and was sometimes sent with the Martini Henry rifle to settle fights in the camps. In April 1890 he and Br. Pfalzer with three young men from Old Uniya were sent to Serpentine Lagoon to defend it from attack by 'hostile natives at Fitzmaurice River'.⁶⁶ In May 1892 he shot an 11-foot crocodile that had killed a cow. After the 1899 flood he was sent back to South Australia where he spent 23 years in the Irish mission at Sevenhill (1899-1910) and Xavier College (1910-1923). He died in Melbourne at age 78.⁶⁷

 

Br. Joseph Sboril (aka Sborchil) SJ (1852- ?)

In the northern mission from 1884 to March 1895. Born 23 March 1852, joined the Society in September 1880 (age 28). He arrived at Rapid Creek in November 1884 with Fr. Kristen and was one of three Brothers at Rapid Creek in 1885 and 1886. Served at the Daly River missions (though listed as being at Rapid Creek in 1891) and was sent back to Europe in March 1895 due to 'his own fault'. Most likely fathered Margarita's child in 1895.

 

Fr. Donald McKillop, SJ (1853-1925)

In the northern mission from 1886 to 1896. Born Melbourne, 27 April 1853, one of eight children of a Scottish migrant to Australia, brother of Saint Mary MacKillop (agreed spellings). Studied at St. Aloysius College, Sevenhill 1867-1871, joined the Society in June 1872 as the third Australian-born member. Studied theology at Innsbruck and was ordained in 1885, held a tertianship at Roehampton, London.⁶⁸ Returned to Adelaide in October 1886 and arrived in the Northern Territory with Br. Aloysius Pfalzer and Br. Bernard Kunerth in November 1886. The three suffered shipwreck on route to Sydney, and while in quarantine at Darwin their ship was struck by lightning twice.⁶⁹ Spent three years at Rapid Creek and learned Larrakia, and was sent to supervise the second mission, Old Uniya on the Daly River. When Fr. Strele left for Europe in May 1887 Fr. McKillop became the Vice-Superior in Darwin. In June that year Fr. McKillop rode from Darwin to the Daly accompanied by two Aboriginal men to determine the site for another mission, at Serpentine Lagoon. In October 1889 Fr. McKillop and Fr. Marschner removed to Serpentine Lagoon to found the Sacred Heart Station at Hermit Hill. This had better land than (Old) Uniya but was also given up after two years when McKillop amalgamated the three mission stations to New Uniya. He introduced a sewing machine, irrigation pump, coconut plantation and vegetable gardens and learned Malak-Malak.⁷⁰ After a particularly desparate year in 1892, McKillop went on a fundraising tour in the southern states with two mission Aborigines from October 1893 to May 1894⁷¹ and brought back a 'magic lantern' and a pet monkey to the Daly River mission. In 1892 he published anthropological notes on the Daly River people.⁷² In mid-1896 he was sent to Sydney with suspected kidney stones, after which he did not return to the north, suffering from neuritis, which sometimes completely incapacitated him. He was known as a gifted man and an eloquent preacher and was placed in parish work for nearly thirty years, at Norwood (1897-1901), Hawthorn, Richmond and Sevenhill and finally due to impaired health acted as a consultor at Norwood (1914-1921), where he died aged 72, within months of the other two of the first Australian Jesuits, John O'Brien and Thomas O'Brien.⁷³

 

 

Br. Alois Pfalzer SJ (1848-1924)

Spent 12 years in the northern mission. Born 1 October 1848 in Lajen, Tyrol, joined the Society in August 1883 and arrived in Adelaide in 1886. Travelled to Darwin in November 1886 with Fr. McKillop and Br. Kunert and joined Serpentine Lagoon as assistant gardener and in charge of the cattle in 1889 with Br. Melzer and Fr. Marschner until the move to New Uniya in September 1891. Was able to clear his name from alleged misconduct in 1895. Returned to Austria in September 1899 and became housekeeper in Linz (1899-1907) and then in Innsbruck, where he died aged 75.

 

Br. Bernard Kunerth SJ (1840 - ?)

Born 18 December 1840, joined the Society in September 1866. Arrived in November 1886 and fell ill straightaway. Was sent back to

Sevenhill in 1888.

 

Fr. Stephen Marschner, SJ (1852-1910)

Spent nearly a decade in the northern mission between 1889-1899, see Marschner biography.

 

Br. Augustine Melzer SJ (1864-1911)

In the northern mission from 1889 to 1902. Born in Bohemia, 3 February 1854, joined the Society in May 1886 as a carpenter, went to Australia in 1888 and arrived in the northern mission on 2 November 1889. He worked as cook, carpenter and in the refectory, at first at Rapid Creek and then helped to set up Serpentine Lagoon, then at New Uniya 1891-1899 and evacuated to Darwin in July 1899 where he remained as cook and housekeeper for Fr. O'Brien and Fr. Fleury until 1902. He joined the Irish mission and was assigned to Norwood, then the Loyola novitiate at Greenwich (Sydney), and finally Xavier college, where he fell ill in 1909 and died at age 47. He was said to have an excellent command of English and was known as a skilled carpenter and machinist.⁷⁴

 

 

Br. Josef Hulka in Norwood, 1904 Source: David Strong SJ The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-1998, Archives of the Society of Jesus, 1999:283.

Br. József (Joseph) Hulka SJ (1857-1915)

Spent eight years in the northern mission. Born in Germany 18 February 1858, joined the Society in October 1883 as a builder, arrived in Darwin in 1889, was stationed at Serpentine Lagoon, then New Uniya, and returned to Sevenhill in 1897 with Fr. Milz on 19 June 1897. Worked at Norwood (1902-1908) and Sevenhill (1897-1901, 1909-1915) where he was cook, domestic and in charge of the Sevenhill cellars (1911-1915) and died at age 57. 'His life was, indeed, a humble and retiring one.'⁷⁵

 

  

Br. Jakob (James) Longa SJ (1856-1937)

Spent six years in the northern mission. Born 21 October 1856 at Maly (Slavkov), joined the Austrian Society in August 1881, arrived in the north in 1889. Was blacksmith at Holy Rosary Station in 1891 (though officially listed as being at Rapid Creek). Fr. Milz sent him back to South Australia in 1897. He 'spoke about the difficulty of evangelization among the Aborigines' and was set to perform electrical installations at St. Ignatius College, Riverview, working from 5am to 11pm and taking his meals in the engine room. After two months he requested for a change of work.⁷⁶ He left for Europe with Fr. Neubauer on 9 November 1899⁷⁷ and worked at the Travnik seminary in Bosnia (1900-1901), and at the Portuguese mission at Lufundza (1901) as captain of the San Salvadore 40-ton steamer supplying the mission stations in north-west Rhodesia (1901), also transporting a detachment of soldiers and the governor of Tete on one occasion. Purchased a new boat for the Divine Word Fathers in Dresden during a European visit (1912-1913) and took it from Naples to Kapoche (May 1913). In 1932 he joined the Polish Kasisi mission in North Rhodesia where he died aged 80. Spoke Hungarian, Slovak, German, Polish, Portuguese, English and several African dialects.⁷⁸

 

Br. Anton (Anthony) Haelbig SJ (1853-1927)

In the northern mission from 1889 to 1899. Born in Austria 15 October 1853, joined the Society in August 1883, came to Australia in February 1889. Served at old Uniya and New Uniya in the refectory and general duties, as assistant gardener and in charge of the goats. Took his final vows in February 1898 and when the mission was given up in 1899 returned to Austria via China. Died at Mariaschein at age 73.⁷⁹

 

Br. Johann Evangelist Kramar SJ (1843-1911)

Born in Nemojan, Austria, 13 January 1843, joined the Society in September 1863 in St. Andrä. Spoke Czech, Polish, German and learned English while serving in Nebraska 1890-1896 as school teacher, choir master and in the infirmary.⁸⁰ Spent a brief period at Pressburg, Hungary and arrived at Adelaide with Fr. Milz in 1897 and travelled with him via Melbourne, Sydney and Darwin to Uniya in 1897⁸¹, where he was appointed its schoolmaster on 3 June 1897. Was sent to Palmerston to assist Fr. O'Brien in August 1898 (but is listed as being at New Uniya during 1898 and 1899). Was sent to Europe when the mission was disbanded (with Conrath, Haelbig, Pfalzer, and Marschner). ⁸² Died Steyr, Austria 17 October 1911, age 68.

 

Fr. August Fleury in Darwin, 1901 Source: David Strong SJ The Australian Dictionary of Jesuit Biography 1848-1998, Archives of the Society of Jesus, 1999:109

Fr. Augustus Fleury (1855-1931)

In Darwin from 1899 to 1902. Born 11 January 1855 as the son of a medical doctor from Lausanne (Switzerland), joined the Society in October 1873, taught at the Jesuit Kalksburg college near Vienna. Arrived in South Australia in December 1898 at age 44 and in Darwin just at the onset of the floods in January 1899. Remained with Fr. O'Brien in Darwin until 1902 and visited the Daly after the mission was given up. He then performed parish work in Melbourne, where he was known for his impetuous motorcycling, and at Sevenhill. He was known for being very zealous and had a good singing voice and performed the Easter Proclamation (Exultet). In later years one of his legs had to be amputated. He died at Sevenhill at age 76.⁸³

 

  

Fr. Johannes Pfeifer (1860-1948)

Arrived too late to join the mission. Born 18 January 1860 in Trier (German), joined the Society in September 1880, taught French at Kalocsa (Hungary) completed theological studies at Innsbruck (1891-1894) and tertianship in Vienna. Served in Kalocsa (1895-1987) and Szatmar (1897-1898) in Hungary. Arrived in Adelaide 5 December 1898 at age 39 and was sent north, but too late to reach the Uniya mission, and was sent back to South Australia when the mission was given up in mid-1899. Taught at Xavier College and St. Aloysius College (1903-1923), served in Hawthorn parish (1923-1848) as minister and director of various sodalities. He spoke French, Hungarian and German and was known as a good linguist with command of the 'classical tongues'. He was 'the last survivor of the Austrian fathers' and died in Melbourne aged 88.⁸⁴

 

Br. Joseph Girschik (1867-1930)

Arrived in the last year of the northern mission. Born 2 March 1867 at Hohenstein, Bohemia, joined the Society in October 1891 at St. Andrä, Kärnten as a cabinet maker. Arrived from Europe in Adelaide 5 December 1898 at age 32 and was sent north, but reached just few days before the onset of the flood. Was sent back to South Australia when the mission was given up, and earned a reputation as an excellent cabinetmaker, producing vesting presses, church benches, and a cabinet enclosing the organ, but was a proud craftsman and worked slowly. ⁸⁵ Worked at Loyola College Greenwich (1899-1902, Xavier College (1902-1903), Riverview (1903-1919), and finally at St. Aloysius College, Milsons Point (1919-1930) where died at age 63.

 

 

Br. Rupert Haertl SJ (1858-1907)

Born 26 March 1858 in Austria, joined the Society July 1885 like other members of his family. Was at Kalksburg (Vienna) with Fr. Fleury,⁸⁶ and at the Klagenfurt seminary in Kaernten (1889-1892) and at St. Andrä, Laventtal (1892-1898). Arrived in Adelaide 5 December 1898 at age 41 and was sent north as cook together with Fr. Pfeifer⁸⁷, too late to reach the mission. Became cook in the Georgetown parish (1899-1900) and at Sevenhill (1900-1907) and transferred to the Irish mission in 1901. Died at Sevenhill aged 49.