Indigenous Australia

Cootachah (c. 1829–?), Joshuing (c. 1829–?), and Neramberein (c. 1827–?) were foundlings, stock trackers, companions, and explorers, all born in the late 1820s. Cootachah and Joshuing were most likely born on either Wiradjuri or Yorta Yorta Country, and Neramberein was born on Wiradjuri Country. Their parents’ names were not recorded. Cootachah’s and Joshuing’s parents were known to camp at Oolong (meaning a place where the brolga rests) near Howlong on the Murray River. These extensive flats were edged by broad lagoons containing abundant game that could sustain large groups, and a river ford that enabled safe crossing and communication for Wiradjuri and Yorta Yorta peoples. Neramberein’s parents likely belonged to Wiradjuri Country, which extended from the Murray River to the Macquarie River, and from the Great Dividing Range to the western plains in New South Wales.

In June 1837 Cootachah and Joshuing, both about eight years old and from the same clan, were taken by a settler from the Murray River region south to the Goulburn River in the Port Phillip District. They had probably not been with him long as he had not clothed them and had abandoned them to cross the fast-moving river by himself. Edward Eyre, overlanding livestock from Sydney to Melbourne, took the boys as they appeared ‘very hardy as well as full of life and spirits’ (Eyre 1983, 105).

Cootachah, whom Eyre called Yarry, and Joshuing were soon clothed in Eyre’s garments and put to work tracking lost sheep and cattle; at night they were allowed to share Eyre’s tent but often preferred to sleep outside by the fire. The boys travelled the last seventy miles (113 km) to Melbourne with Eyre to arrange the stock sale, staying at Fawkner’s Hotel where they ate with the hosts. After rejoining the team, one of the boys was bitten on the back of the thigh by a large dingo, leaving him lame for a long time.

In September 1837 Cootachah and Joshuing accompanied Eyre to Launceston, Van Diemen’s Land, on the Domain, visiting local sights such as Cataract Gorge. The boys themselves were often regarded as spectacles; Eyre believed this was because the Palawa ‘had been hunted down some years before’ (Eyre 1983, 115). Cootachah, Joshuing, and Eyre travelled by mail coach to Hobart where Eyre took them to see a play at the Theatre Royal, which they found uninteresting, and to watch the troops parade, which they enjoyed, particularly the band. This suggests that Cootachah and Joshuing had probably not witnessed military aggression against their kin. (War did not escalate around the southern rivers in Wiradjuri Country until 1838.)

Cootachah and Joshuing travelled with Eyre to Sydney on the Marion Watson in October 1837. Eyre immediately made plans for an overlanding expedition to Adelaide, which left the Limestone Plains in late December with three hundred cattle. The team comprised Cootachah and Joshuing, a new guide from Gundaroo named Unmallie, likely Ngunnawal (Ngunawal) or Ngarigo, and six white labourers prone to drink and ill temper. Early in the journey the cattle were free to roam, and the boys assisted in the daily headcount. As they approached the Murray River tensions grew; the labourers feared encountering Aboriginal people but Eyre refused their requests for weapons. In mid-January 1838 they reached the Murray and planned to cross at Oolong. Here they found a large group of Aboriginal people that included both Cootachah’s and Joshuing’s parents, who were overjoyed to see their sons. Eyre noted that one of the boys’ fathers showed ‘a great deal of feeling and tenderness’ (Eyre 1983, 124). The group camped with the overlanders and followed them across the river, shadowing them for a few days. Fearing that the parents wanted Cootachah and Joshuing back, Eyre handed out presents until they eventually acquiesced to him keeping the boys.

A few days later Cootachah accompanied Eyre to Melbourne for supplies. Upon their return, they discovered that Joshuing had been taken by five absconding labourers. He subsequently disappeared from history too, as there is no further record of him in the archives. While Eyre seemed indifferent to the boy’s kidnapping, Cootachah must have been distressed at losing his companion.

The expedition arrived in Adelaide in July 1838, and Eyre achieved a profit from the sale of his livestock, spurring him to plan a second expedition to Adelaide, which departed Sydney in early December. Three weeks into the journey, Eyre found a Wiradjuri boy named Neramberein, perhaps eleven years of age, near Charles Thompson’s head station, located on the Murrumbidgee River between Gundagai and Wagga Wagga. Only a few years older than Cootachah, Neramberein (also known as Joey) proved to be a useful guide and translator.

Cootachah and Neramberein seemed to form a close relationship with Eyre. That Christmas, spent at Berembed station near Narrandera, Eyre organised a feast for the labourers but he preferred to dine on fish with the boys and a Wiradjuri stranger. Two weeks later, beyond the spread of pastoral stations, Neramberein and Eyre came across a large Wiradjuri group who appeared nervous. Neramberein, as translator, discovered that stockmen had recently shot at them. Frontier tensions were also evident beyond Wiradjuri Country: one of the labourers, an African named Berry, was speared, causing the others to want revenge. Eyre kept their tempers in check but could do nothing about their sloppy work practices; Cootachah and Neramberein spent many evenings recovering stock let loose by careless labourers.

The twenty-one-week overlanding expedition ended in March 1839 and made enough of a profit for Eyre to build a weatherboard cottage in Adelaide for himself, Cootachah, and Neramberein. The boys joined Eyre on two explorative journeys in South Australia in 1840. That year Eyre embarked on a third overlanding expedition, this time in Western Australia, taking sheep from Albany to Perth. On his departure, he met Wylie, a local Mineng youth aged around sixteen, who helped drive the stock to Perth and accompanied Eyre back to Adelaide. Eyre spent much time with Cootachah, Neramberein, and Wylie in Adelaide, as the four took most of their meals together.

That winter, Eyre embarked on an expedition into the South Australian interior to find an overland route to Western Australia, and his team included Neramberein and Cootachah. The journey was difficult, as the expedition had to keep circling great salt lakes, and struggled with the drays and finding water and food. At Fowler’s Bay they met the supply boat and Wylie joined the expedition. Eyre changed the plans, releasing most of the team due to the inevitable danger, except for Cootachah, Neramberein, and Wylie, because they ‘would be better able to put up with the fatigues and privations we should have to go through, than Europeans’ (Eyre 1845, 1:298–99). John Baxter, Eyre’s long-serving overseer, elected to stay. The boys performed a range of onerous tasks—recovering lost horses and livestock, hunting game, and digging wells—as they trudged through the desert.

By April 1841 there was little food except for scant flour rations, the odd slaughtered horse, and the game, mostly stingray, caught by Cootachah, Neramberein, and Wylie. Eyre imposed strict rations and surveillance and accused the boys of stealing meat. Cootachah asserted his innocence while the indignant Neramberein threatened to leave, which he and Wylie soon did. Cootachah tried to follow but Eyre physically detained him. After a few days the older boys returned. While Wylie was apologetic, Neramberein remained obstinately silent. It is likely they felt guilty about leaving Cootachah behind, but they had not given up on plans to escape the failing expedition.

On the evening of 29 April, while Eyre was keeping watch of the horses and Baxter was asleep, Neramberein, Cootachah, and perhaps Wylie gathered provisions—damper, tea, sugar, tobacco, and water—two shotguns and ammunition. Baxter woke and was shot and killed by one of the boys, whether accidentally or intentionally is unknown. Cootachah and Neramberein fled the camp, hiding in the nearby dunes. The next day, they tried to get Wylie to join them, but he alerted Eyre who decided to try to ‘shoot the elder of the two. Painful as this would be’ (Eyre 1845, 2:10). As he closed in on the boys, he saw that they had their guns trained on him and so lowered his weapon. Cootachah and Neramberein called out for Wylie, shouting to Eyre, ‘Oh massa, we dont want you, we want Wylie’ (Eyre 1845, 2:11). When Eyre hurried Wylie away the boys let out a mournful cry. They followed from a distance, all the while calling for Wylie to join them, before eventually disappearing into the desert.

It is not known what happened to Cootachah and Neramberein after this. Eyre felt sure they would have starved to death, but nonetheless enquired after them for many years. In 1882 Aboriginal people brought Baxter’s remains to William Graham, the station master at the repeater station known as Eyre’s Sand Patch on the Western Australian telegraph line, and reported that the boys had reached Eucla and then travelled to South Australia. However, in 1912 local Mirning (Mirniny) told Daisy Bates that Cootachah and Neramberein had been killed by the Mirning.

In many ways Cootachah’s, Joshuing’s, and Neramberein’s lives were just as mysterious as their possible ends; all are known through Eyre’s journals and he mostly referred to them as ‘the boys.’ Further, Cootachah and Neramberein have been misrepresented in histories as Aboriginal men, obscuring the fact they were just boys, found and exploited in the maelstrom of the early frontier.

Shino Konishi is a Yawuru woman and wrote this article on Whadjuk Noongar boodjar.