This is the latest article in a series written by Nicole Jenkins, on behalf of the Deniliquin Historical Society. Each will cover stories from our town’s history, and those born in our town who have interesting stories of their own. Today’s article is part one a two part contribution on Archie Murphy. This article refers to Aboriginal deceased persons, and also contains derogatory terms not seen as acceptable today.
Archie Murphy is featured in a family photo of the Bayliss family at their home ‘Krookery’ off Darhwilly Lane.
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My grandmother gave me some information on Archie that she inscribed on the back of the photo, and I added the photo to my online family tree.
I was contacted by Matilda Slaked who co-wrote a book with Olga Collis-McAnespie about Archie in 2019.
I was also contacted by researchers from the Strate Library of Queensland who were doing stories on Queensland Aboriginal men who served in the war.
The family photo was added to their research.
These contacts gave me more insight into Archie, to enable me to piece a story together on his life.
Archie Murphy was born in Wyandra, near Cunnamulla in Queensland, on April 24, 1888.
His World War I record states he was born on April 26, 1886, but all other records point to 1888.
There doesn’t seem to be a formal record of his birth, however from his marriage record we know that his father was Harry Murphy, who was a station hand at Charleville.
Archie states that his father was deceased when he married in 1917, but other family tree records state Harry died on July 1, 1919 at Nee Nee Creek near Moree.
His mother was recorded as Clara Anderson, who was born in 1860 in Australia.
In Olga Collis-McAnespie’s book, she said her father spoke to Archie in an indigenous language and that Archie spoke several Aboriginal dialects.
People of the Cunnamulla area spoke at least four languages.
It is plausible to conclude that with Archie Murphy being born in Wyandra, he would have been able to speak at least one, if not all, four languages of this area.
At the age of 13 was taken in and raised by the Bayliss family of Wanganella, after leaving Queensland as part of a team droving cattle into NSW.
When working at the Bayliss’, Archie was asked if he could help the police identify footprints connected to a robbery at a remote farm.
That was how Archie got started in his tracking job.
Using his traditional skills, Murphy was employed as a tracker with the NSW Police in Deniliquin and Hay commencing in 1910.
Evidence of Archie working as a tracker was featured in the Hay Riverine Grazier on March 24, 1914:
“Archie Murphy, a tracker attached to the New South Wales police force, gave evidence of accompanying Sergeant Byrne on a search for tracks on the public road and wheat paddock,” the article read.
“The footprints were similar to those made by accused.
“The toes were turned out to great extent, and the man walked heavily on his heels.
“The tracks about the wheat bags were exactly the same as those made by accused’s boots.”
It appeared that the jury returned a verdict of ‘not guilty’.
Years later, when recollecting this story with the young Olga, Archie said “I reckon the man was guilty”.
“The tracks don’t lie and I can tell you by looking at a footprint how big the shoe is, how heavy the person is and what he did while he was there,” Archie is reported as saying.
“And it’s not just footprints. At times the direction where the twig in a bush is broken can tell me if a person was coming or going in the direction of the tracks. Easy.
“To track well you need plenty of experience, a good nose, heaps of dogged determination and a native instinct.”
In the 1913/1914 Deniliquin Police files, Archie was described as a half-caste with his usual address at Moonacullah Reserve, but working in Deniliquin.
In May 1917 there was a change in the Defence Force Act, where if an Aboriginal had at least one non-Aboriginal parent or grandparent they could enlist in the defence forces.
There was also another clause for enlistment officers.
If they were satisfied that the person enlisting had grown up with and/or worked with predominately white people, they could be accepted.
Archie enlisted on May 30, 1917, as soon as he was allowed to.
He enlisted in Hay NSW at the age of 31, as part of the Riverina Light Horse contingent.
Due to his stockman background, he certainly fitted the bill with his horse riding skills.
Particulars stated he was 5’6“ inches tall and his religion was Church of England.
His next of kin (a friend) was Lilly Briggs of Deniliquin. Briggs is a well known Aboriginal name in Deniliquin.
This record was later altered to state his next of kin as his wife Daisy Martha Lewis, who he married in Narrandera in 1917. Daisy was listed as living at ‘Colinrubie', Narrandera.
Archie was allotted to the 34th Reinforcements for the 6th Light Horse.
In the Hay Riverine Grazier on June 1, 1917, it states:
“Mr Archie Murphy, who has been connected with the local police, as tracker, for some time, has enlisted, and leaves Hay for camp tomorrow morning.”
He attended the Light Horse training camp at Menangle Park, Sydney.
His training had not been without incident. He fractured his hand in October 1917 and had been admitted to hospital with measles and bronchitis in the November.
He was punished for two instances whilst in the training camp in Sydney, one for assault and for which he got 14 days, and one for language for which he got detention.
He embarked from Sydney for overseas service on board RMS Ormonde on March 2, 1918 and arrived in the Suez on April 4.
He marched out to Moascar the same day and spent four weeks with the 2nd Light Horse Training Regiment.
Moascar was the name given to the military camp near the town of Ismailia in North Eastern Egypt.
On June 10, 1918 he joined his Regiment at Solomon's Pools, south west of Bethlehem, a Palestinian town south of Jerusalem in Israel.
The Light Horse Regiments took part in extended patrols throughout the Jordan Valley in 1918 before the surrender of the Ottoman Empire in the October.
He was then sent to Wadi Hanien, in Palestine, on October 28, 1919, and on November 25 he was recorded as sustaining slight injuries from a fall on his horse.
He was competing in an ‘authorised’ Regimental Sports Meeting in the ‘Best section of Light Horsemen over Hurdles’ event, and unsuccessfully tried to jump a hurdle.
He had “contusions (cuts) on back of the neck and left scapula (shoulder blade) region”.
In Olga’s book, Tracker Murphy, Archie recalled the war.
One day Archie went to stand up with Olga and he got a sudden pain in his leg that made him groan.
He slapped it hard a couple of times, closing his eyes, before attempting to stand up again.
Olga, then just as a girl, offered her hand and helped pull him up.
He explained it was shrapnel as a grenade exploded close to him and bits stayed inside his leg.
Archie explained to Olga that it happened early in 1918 in the Middle East at Beersheba at the Pool of Solomon (this would have been the 1st and 3rd Battle of Beersheba).
He told her that they put him in hospital in Egypt, but he didn’t stay long as they needed to go back into battle in Jerusalem.
On December 23, 1918, Archie contracted malaria and stayed in hospital for one month.
The men of the 6th Light Horse remained in Egypt during the first half of 1919, assisting with security during the Egyptian uprising against British Rule.
His military record shows he sailed from Kantara, Egypt to Australia on June 28, 1919 on the ‘Madras’.
He was noted a champion boxer on this ship, but he also suffered from a second bout of malaria.
Archie arrived in Australia on August 3, 1919 and was discharged on September 11, 1919 with disability due to the bouts of malaria.
Unfortunately, the recognition, camaraderie and equality experienced in their battalions in the war did not continue once Aboriginal soldiers returned to Australia.
The RSL (Returned Serviceman’s League) refused to acknowledge Aboriginal soldiers.
The official war history book by CEW Bean only recognises one Aboriginal soldier.
None of the estimated 1200-1500 soldiers of Aboriginal descent were acknowledged.
• Part two of Archie’s story, to appear in an upcoming edition of the Pastoral Times, will outline his life after the war.