The Mission & The Healing Garden, Wybalenna, Flinders Island, Tasmania
The Wybalenna Petition, 17 February 1846
The humble petition of the free Aborigines Inhabitants of Van Dieman’s [sic] Land now living upon Flinders Island…That we are your free children that we were not taken prisoners but freely gave up our country to Colonel Arthur then the Governor after defending ourselves.
Your petitioners humbly state to your Majesty that Mr Robinson made for us and with Colonel Arthur an agreement which we have not lost from our minds since and we have made our part of it good.
Your petitioners humbly tell Your Majesty that when we left our own place we were plenty of people, we are now but a little one.
Your petitioners state they are a long time at Flinders Island and had plenty of superintendents and were always a quiet and free people and not put into gaol.
Your Majesty’s petitioners pray that you will not allow Dr Jeanneret to come again among us as our superintendent as we hear he is to be sent another time for when Dr Jeanneret was with us many moons he used to carry pistols in his pockets and threatened very often to shoot us and make us run away in a fright. Dr Jeanneret kept plenty of pigs in our village which used to run into our houses and eat up our bread from the fires and take away our flour bags in their mouths also to break into our gardens and destroy our potatoes and cabbage.
Our houses were let fall down and they were never cleaned but were covered with vermin and not white-washed. We were often without clothes except a very little one and Dr Jeanneret did not care to mind us when we were sick until we were very bad. Eleven of us died when he was here. He put many of us into jail for talking to him because we would not be his slaves. He kept from us our rations when he pleased and sometimes gave us bad rations of tea and tobacco. He shot some of our dogs before our eyes and sent all the other dogs of ours to an island and when we told him that they would starve he told us they might eat each other. He put arms into our hands and made us to assist his prisoners to go to fight the soldiers we did not want to fight the soldiers but he made us go to fight. We were never taught to read or write or to sing to God by the doctor. He taught us a little upon the Sundays and his prisoner servant also taught us and his prisoner servant also took us plenty of times to jail by his orders.
The Lord Bishop seen us in this bad way and we told him His Lordship plenty how Dr Jeanneret used us.
We humbly pray your Majesty the Queen will hear our prayer and not let Dr Jeanneret any more to come to Flinders Island.
According to the historian N. J. B. Plomley, this petition was drawn up with the help of Wybalenna preacher Robert Clark and signed by Walter G. Arthur (chief of the Ben Lomond tribe), John Allen, Davey Bruney, Neptune, King Alexander, Augustus, King Tippoo and Washington. This transcription comes from papers held by the Colonial Secretary’s Office; the original was probably sent to London.