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Clip description
As the diggers walked the trails towards the Palmer River near Cooktown at Cape York, the local Aboriginal people were determined to preserve their country from the intruders. The diggers were just as determined to kill anyone who might get in their way. A terrible massacre of Indigenous Australians was the outcome.
Curator’s notes
This quiet recounting of a terrible massacre at Battle Camp, set down in the diary of one of the white diggers, stands as a bleak reminder that the opening up of Australia came with a terrible cost, most of which was born by the original inhabitants. The diggers were set upon and then revenged themselves by killing the whole group of around 40 Aboriginal people.
The research and filming of this sequence makes for gripping television, with excellent narration and occasional pieces to camera by the program’s presenter, Bill Peach.
