Gilburri

John Fahy (28 March 1814 - 23 December 1902), also known as Gilburri, was an escaped Irish convict who lived with the Wakka people of the South Burnett in Queensland, Australia.

[1] In Australia, he worked as part of the New England road-gang building Major's Line, a road from Port Macquarie to the wool-producing Walcha region.

[6] "'We may be fairly sure that the first white man who ever stood on Mowbullam and saw the Bunya feasts, the fights and Corroborees, was John Fahy, a life sentence prisoner.

"[7] There is another explanation to the meaning of the name Gilburri from linguist, Des Crump at Queensland State Library.

He looked at the Warwick/Gidhabal wordlists, and made the assessment that gil/kil was the shortened for to die or be dead, while buri means to come back.

[8] As an outsider, the Aboriginal people would be suspicious of John Fahy, but his life was spared by one of the oldest chiefs of that Clan.

[9] Fahy said he lived in the lands from Wide Bay to Dalby, from the Bunya scrub and as far up as Port Curtis.

These unmistakable Bora marks on his breast and left shoulder, clear proof that he bad been through that ceremony, called Boorool in the Bunya country, and he referred to it in the most respectful and flattering terms.

[15] Henry Stuart Russell was leading an exploration team through Wide Bay in 1844 using a map and information he received from Duramboi (James Davies).

Henry Russells team were deep in the Bunya scrub Wide Bay, when they came across a mob of about 50–60 strong.

Russel writes in his diary that Fahy was from the South and had committed some depredations, he was afraid of being shot; the tribe he was with had never seen white men before, though they had heard of them.

[17] On 25 December 1852, a report appeared in the Moreton Bay Courier stating that Mr Robinson, the person who was actively engaged in the search for the missing seamen of the wrecked ship Thomas King, ascertained from some Aboriginal people belonging to the north coast that a white man, whom they called Gilvery, was with the tribes further to the northward; Through his Aboriginal informants, Mr Robinson urged Gilburri to come into Brisbane, telling him that if he did not the Native Police would be sent after him.

Gilburri replied that "he would not come, and did not care for the Native Police"; indicating that he and the Aboriginal people could easily avoid them by going into the Bunya Scrub.

Walker later reported he had discovered that the real reason was to prevent the police from observing a runaway convict named Gilberry.

[25] "During my last journey to inspect runs, in a distant and unoccupied part of the District a white man, known as Gilburri, who for the last fifteen years has been living among the Aborigines, and who is said to have instigated them to commit depredations was fortunately captured by Lieutenant Bligh and his Native Police who were with me.

It may be remembered that this man was for a long time living in a state of barbarism with the aboriginal blacks, in the neighbourhood of the Bunya Mountains, and that he was captured by Lieutenant BLIGH, of the Native Police.