We often think that ghost stories are an exclusive anglophone Celtic thing. In truth the belief is universal in all cultures. Even in the one of the most oldest living cultures. Such as the earliest inhabitants of this nation. They have many stories and superstitions if only we care to listen to them.
The following story was passed down by the Kalkadoon tribal elders....
Kajabbi, in the rugged ranges of the Barkly Tablelands, is the heart of Kalkadoon country. Early settlers feared the Kalkadoons, a proud and courageous Aboriginal nation of disciplined fighters and masters of guerrilla tactics.
Small bands of warriors would swoop down on outlying farms, spear settlers and cattle, burn buildings and disappear back into the rocky hills as swiftly and silently as they came. After dozens of settlers were killed and a native police contingent ambushed, the authorities came to realise that the Kalkadoons were not going to give up their territory as easily as other tribes.
In September 1884, Police Sub-Inspector Urquhart, appointed to take charge of the district, assembled a large force of native police and squatters and set out on a punitive expedition to wipe out the Kalkadoons.
The Kalkadoon warriors took up a strong defensive position on a hill known to this day as Battle Mountain, and the largest pitched battle between black and white in Australia took place on this boulder-strewn hillside.
When they reached the foot of the hill the police and squatters were welcomed with a shower of spears and rocks hurled down from above. Urquhart fell from a blow to the head; when he regained consciousness he divided his forces to attack on two fronts.
When the battle turned against them the Kalkadoons made a fatal mistake. They formed ranks and charged down the hillside, straight into the blazing carbines of their enemies. Wave after wave of warriors was mowed down in a thick hail of bullets.
The descendants of white settlers in the area say that the sounds of that massacre can still be heard carried on the wind around Battle Mountain when the moon is full.
The ghosts of fallen and dying can be heard to this day for those willing to venture into the sacred land of battle mountain where one of saddest terrible events of our colonial history took place.
The picture below is off Battle mountain in day light.
Kanacki