John McPherson, a former journalist from northern New South Wales, has travelled more than 1,000 kilometres to stand at the gravesite of his ancestor Horatio Wills near Springsure, central Queensland. The 66-year-old, whose boots were caked with mud after trudging through a soggy paddock, described the location as having “a slightly eerie feel”. The site marks the beginning of the Cullin-la-ringo massacre, the largest killing of white settlers by Aboriginal people in Queensland.
Horatio Wills, a sheep farmer and politician, arrived in October 1861 with his son Tom Wills, the co-founder of Australian rules football, and about two dozen people. The massacre that followed unleashed a bloody war. Recent research has suggested that Tom Wills may have taken part in massacring Indigenous people, prompting investigations by the AFL and Cricket Australia, though no conclusions have been published.
The town of Springsure, home to about 1,000 people, features colonial monuments and sepia photographs of the 1860s, but less evident is the history of the Aboriginal people who lived there for millennia. Local Bidjara and Ghungalu man Darryl Black often tells tourists about the region’s Indigenous heritage, showing artefacts he has found in the mountains. “I’ll tell you the real story – the one that’s not in the history books,” he says.
McPherson, a descendant of the Wills family, noted a tree stump with an oval hollow in its trunk near the grave, a reminder that the place was once a gathering point for a vibrant people. “Sort of struggling land, and graves,” he said, reflecting on the dual loss: the lives ended and the ancient way of life forever altered.
