The Scottish Explorer John McDouall Stuart in 1860 was the first white man to lay eyes on the devils Marbles. Years later thee overland telegraph line was being routed past the Devils Marbles. There is a story from that time that claimed natives attacked and killed the superintendent and a linesman? Was that true?
In the Kapunda Herald (SA : 1878 - 1951), Friday 26 July 1901, page 3 reported the following .....
Near Barron Creek there was a remarkable granite country. Immense boulders, like huge marbles, rested upon one another as on pillions. The tops of some of these boulders could only be reached with a 17ft. ladder. In some of them were large hollows, or basins, in which good water was to be got.
The line of these boulders was east and west, by about three-quarters of a mile in width, and the sight was very strange. Mr. Masters' company named the rocks the " Devil's Marbles.'' In places the rosks were split, apparently by lightning, and falling apart revealed beautiful granite/ whilst on the outside the boulders were worn perfectly smooth by the weather.
The weight of some of them must run into hundreds of tons. Some of the ironstone in these parts looked almost like pure iron, and the surveyors had considerable difficulty in keeping their compasses correct. The blacks were treacherous if they were given a chance, that only once had he any trouble with them, when two or three of the party bad to stand their ground against a number of the natives. Where murder had been committed it was largely due, he thought, to freedom about the camp being given to the blacks.
Was that a reference to an alleged murder at the devils marbles?
Researching deeper into the story the murder of the telegraph men was at Barrow Creek on the 27th of February 1874. Barrow creek is about 110 km from the Devils marbles. So the story of linesmen being murdered at the Devils marbles is incorrect.
It was also claimed not long before parties went out to claim a price for the murders. Aboriginal tribes and populations in the area were either round up or ambushed being shot, some tribes almost completely annihilated. Was natives murdered at the devils marbles in retribution for the murders at Barrow Creek telegraph station?
No one knows for sure......
Are wailing wraiths at night the ghostly sounds of natives that had been massacred there? Or is there some more natural explanation?
Or perhaps something more deeper and mystical from the dream time?
Kanacki