ledge is aptly summarized in Past and 
Present, a booklet published by the 
Donald Times in 1926, in which it is 
stated that: 
"At one time tribes of 'blacks' lived 
around the River Richardson . . . the 
natives caused but little trouble to the 
white man. Their bellicose steam they 
'let off' on one another, and the tribal 
fights were interesting rather than fear- 
inspiring. Gradually the 'blacks' moved 
away or died and left the country to the 
invading whites". 
However, we do know that before 
they "moved away or died", a number 
of aborigines were employed by the 
squatters, first in stripping bark from 
trees for hut-roofs, and later as shep- 
herds and stockmen. This fact is stated 
in several of the early records, in- 
cluding the very interesting diary kept 
by Thomas Guthrie the First, and now 
in the possession of his grandson, Mr. 
Oliver Guthrie, of Rich-Avon, who 
kindly drove me to several of these 
early "scarred trees", as well as to 
numerous oven mounds and to at 
least one "canoe tree", still extant on 
his ancestral Guthrie Estate, and all 
of which he has gone to great pains to 
preserve. 
Some of the aborigines who later 
became stockmen now repose in the 
little "aboriginal stockmen cemetery", 
unfenced and only marked by an up- 
right cement post, in one of Mr. Alec 
Russell's paddocks, quite close to 
Donald. Although little known, even to 
the local people, this cemetery should 
rank high amongst the few aboriginal 
antiquities left in this part of the State. 
The first white men to settle in the 
district are believed to have been the 
Creswick brothers. They arrived in 
February, 1844, and built their hut 
on the western side of the River Avon, 
where Gray's Bridge now is, a pic- 
turesque locality known to the abori- 
gines as Koruckubeal, "Where-the-red- 
gum-flowered". In 1846 (or 1847) the 
brothers having married, the run was 
divided into two, one brother, John, 
erecting his homestead close to a small 
reed-covered swamp, simply known to 
the natives as Murt, "waterhole", 
which they knew never ran dry. In 
1866 a bore was sunk to a depth of 
54 feet on this waterhole, and al- 
though now disused, its site is marked 
by an engraved cement post, the in- 
scription on which states that the 
bore did good service during the 
droughts of 1881, 1902, 1915-16, 
when it held the only available water 
for miles around. 
The other brother, Charles, built his 
home on a sand ridge close to the 
eastern bank of the river, in which, 
at this point, there was a deep water- 
hole. This was the York Plains home- 
stead, and the sand ridge it was built 
upon was the Koruckubeal native 
camp. The homestead has long since 
crumbled, but stone implements left 
behind by the aborigines can still be 
found there. 
Then in October, 1844, the brothers 
James and John Donald and Robert 
Macredie, guided by natives, reached 
Lake Buloke, thus at last discovering 
the "large lake". Mindie, the monster 
snake, had apparently discreetly re- 
tired, because it was not seen. Soon, 
claims were staked, and the entire 
land surrounding the lake was occu- 
pied by squatters. 
The "king" of the local aborigines 
appears to have been individual who 
became known as Johnny. Both he and 
his principal lubra, Mary, were pre- 
sented with "King plates" by William, 
the youngest of the Donalds, who had 
in the meantime joined his brothers 
at the lake. No doubt King Johnny 
presided over what is believed to have 
been the last gathering of the local 
tribes, which took place at Thos. 
Scott's Rich-Avon West Station in 
1866. The meeting lasted a week, and 
about 200 tribesmen from the Avoca, 
Richardson and Wimmera Rivers, are 
46 
Vict. Nat.— Vol. 86 
