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Battle of Broken Hill

Coordinates: 31°57′24″S 141°28′04″E / 31.95667°S 141.46778°E / -31.95667; 141.46778
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Battle of Broken Hill
Part of the First World War
Battle of Broken Hill is located in New South Wales
Broken Hill
Broken Hill
Broken Hill is located in Australia
Broken Hill
Broken Hill
LocationBroken Hill, New South Wales, Australia
DateJanuary 1, 1915; 110 years ago (1915-01-01)
TargetAustralian civilians
Attack type
Ambush, spree shooting
Deaths6 (including both perpetrators)
Injured7
PerpetratorBadsha Mahommed Gool
Mullah Abdullah
MotiveOttoman nationalism, Islamic extremism, personal vendetta

The Battle of Broken Hill, also known as Broken Hill massacre, was an incident that took place near the Australian town of Broken Hill, New South Wales, on 1 January 1915. Two Muslim former camel drivers from colonial India—Badsha Mahommed Gool and Mullah Abdullah—shot dead four people and wounded seven others before being killed by the police and local vigilantes. Although the attacks were politically and religiously motivated, the men were not members of any sanctioned armed force. Three days after the attack, the pair's suicide notes were discovered by a miner. Mullah Abdullah's note suggested he was motivated primarily by personal grievances against a local food safety inspector.

The incident has been described as Australia's first terrorist attack. In 1995, Australia's Turkish community announced plans to create a memorial in honour of Gool and Abdullah and the Turkish embassy in Canberra requested that the assailants' remains be handed over to the Turkish government for burial in that country. In 2014, the mayor of Broken Hill requested that the Australian government help finance a ceremony marking the one-hundredth anniversary of the incident. The request was rejected by the government, but the ceremony was held regardless. The attack has been dramatised in film, literature and art.

Background

Arrival of the Afghan camel drivers

An Afghan camel caravan in Australia, 1900

During the second half of the 19th century, as many as 4,000 Afghans were brought to Australia as camel drivers.[1] The Afghan presence in Australia can be traced back to 1860, when the Government of Victoria imported 24 camels from Afghanistan for use in the Burke and Wills expedition. Early European explorers faced great difficulties traversing the outback. Horses and bullocks, which had proven reliable on earlier expeditions in the bush, were rendered unusable by water scarcity and extremely high temperatures. Camels, which can travel for days without water and make excellent desert transport, were selected for such expeditions instead.[2] "Without the Afghans," journalist Bilal Cleland writes, "the exploration of central Australia would have been impeded, the establishment of the inland telegraph would have been delayed and many of the inland mining towns would not have survived."[3]

Upon arriving in Australia, the camel drivers established a series of informal settlements, colloquially known as "ghantowns".[4] In the 1860s, the Afghans built Australia's first mosque in Broken Hill.[1] By the 1890s, most of the Afghans living in the country were camel drivers, and they exercised virtually unlimited control over the camel driving business in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and Central Australia. Most settled in Marree, Broken Hill, Alice Springs, Adelaide and Perth; all were men.[2] Since they were not intended as permanent settlers, they came to Australia without their families. Some went on to marry Aboriginal or socially disadvantaged and marginalized women.[1]

From the 1890s onward, attempts were made to prevent Afghans from working in certain industries. Efforts to remove them from the goldfields in particular led to much inter-communal resentment.[5] Tensions flared on 13 October 1894, when a White Australian bullock driver shot two Afghans performing ritual ablution at a watering hole, killing one and wounding the other.[6] The introduction of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901, which formed the basis of the White Australia Policy,[note 1] reduced the number of Afghan camel drivers from several thousand to several hundred within a few years.[7] Historian Abdullah Saeed attributes their flight to the hostile atmosphere created by the policy. The sudden departure of many Afghans made it difficult for those who remained to retain their identity and resist assimilation into the dominant White Australian culture. Those who stayed behind were denied citizenship and experienced discrimination.[5] The advent of the automobile around the turn of the century further contributed to the decline and eventual demise of the camel driving business.[8]

The assailants

Part of the rocky outcrop where the final battle took place

The attackers were former camel-drivers working at Broken Hill. They were Badsha Mahommed Gool (born c. 1874),[9] an ice-cream vendor, and Mullah Abdullah (born c. 1854),[10] at one point a halal butcher and often reported as a local imam, though this is open to dispute.[11]

Gool's ice-cream cart was well known in town and was used to transport the men to the attack site.[12][13] They also fashioned a home-made Ottoman flag which they flew. They appear to have made little effort to hide their identities.

Abdullah had arrived in Broken Hill about 1898 and worked as a camel driver. Several days before the killings he was convicted by Police Court for slaughtering sheep in unsanitary premises not licensed for slaughter. It was not his first offence.[13]

Attack

Each New Year's Day the local lodge of the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows held a picnic at Silverton.[14] The train from Broken Hill to Silverton was crowded with 1200 picnickers in 40 open ore trucks. Three kilometres out of town, Gool and Abdullah positioned themselves on an embankment about 30 metres from the tracks. As the train passed, they opened fire with two rifles, discharging 20 to 30 shots.

The picnickers initially thought that the shots were being discharged in honour of the train's passing, as a sham fight, or as target practice.[15] Alma Cowie, aged 17 died instantly. William John Shaw, a foreman in the Sanitary Department, was killed on the train and his daughter Lucy Shaw was injured. Six other people on the train were injured: Mary Kavanagh, George Stokes, Thomas Campbell, Alma Crocker, Rose Crabb and Constable Robert Mills.[16]

The conductor of the train was "Tiger" Dick (Eric Edward) Nyholm,[note 2] also of Broken Hill. He was a renowned marksman and proved instrumental in protecting the train's passengers from further injury.

Police response

Gool and Abdullah made their way from the train towards the West Camel Camp, where they lived. On the way they killed Alfred E. Millard, who had taken shelter in his hut. By this time the train had reached a siding where the police were telephoned. The police contacted Lieutenant Resch at the local army unit, who despatched his men. When police encountered Gool and Abdullah near the Cable Hotel, the pair shot and wounded Constable Mills. Gool and Abdullah then took shelter within a white quartz outcrop that provided good cover. A 90-minute gun battle followed, during which armed members of the public arrived to join the police and military. In support of the police, military, and local militia, the Cameleers assist against the perpetrators, in some instances walking into the line of fire to remove members of the wider community when they were injured or allowing the police to utilise their dwellings for shelter during the gun battle.[11] By the end of the battle very little shooting came from the pair and most of it was off target, leading Constable Ward to conclude that Abdullah was already dead and Gool was wounded. An eyewitness later stated that Gool had stood with a white rag tied to his rifle but was cut down by gunfire. He was found with 16 wounds. The mob would not allow Abdullah's body to be taken away in the ambulance. Later that day the police secretly disposed of both bodies.

James Craig, a 69-year-old occupant of a house behind the Cable Hotel, resisted his daughter's warning about chopping wood during the gun battle and was hit by a stray bullet and killed. He was the fourth to die.

Aftermath

Immediate events

The attackers left notes connecting their actions to the hostilities between the Ottoman and British Empires, which had been officially declared in October 1914. Believing he would be killed, Gool Mahomed left a letter in his waist-belt which stated that he was a subject of the Ottoman Sultan and that, "I must kill you and give my life for my faith, Allāhu Akbar." Abdullah said in his last letter that he was dying for his faith and in obedience to the order of the Sultan, "but owing to my grudge against Chief Sanitary Inspector Brosnan it was my intention to kill him first."[18] Turkish sources claim that the letter from the Ottoman Sultan was a forgery, and that the Turkish flag found with the perpetrators was planted. It is claimed that the incident was attributed to Turks in order to rally the Australian public for the war.[19]

The actions were seen as representative of enemy aliens and Germans in the area were the focus of violence, as it was believed that the Germans had agitated the assailants to attack. On the evening of Friday 1 January an angry mob burnt the local German Club to the ground, cutting the hoses of the firemen who came to fight the flames.[18][20] Afterwards, the mob marched over to a nearby camp used by Afghan camel drivers, but were prevented from attacking the settlement by the police and military.[15] There was no further violence against the Afghan community. Following the deaths of the perpetrators, the Cameleers were offered the bodies so they could be buried according to Islamic burial rites. However, the local Cameleers refused to accept them as they stated they were angry at the actions of the perpetrators and refused to wash the bodies according to Islamic practice nor have them buried within the "Mohammedan" section of the cemetery.[11]

The next day the mines of Broken Hill fired all employees deemed enemy aliens under the 1914 Commonwealth War Precautions Act. Six Austrians, four Germans and one Turk were ordered out of town by the public. Shortly afterwards, all enemy aliens in Australia were interned for the duration of the war.[20]

On Sunday 3 January thousands of people assembled in Broken Hill to witness the funerals of the four victims.[21]

The Silverton Tramway Company refunded in full the fares for the picnic train, and the money was used to launch a public relief fund.

German propaganda

The Sydney journal The Bulletin published a burlesque of the incident in the style of German propaganda, suggesting the Germans lauded the attack as a victorious military battle between Turkish forces and recruits on a troop train. Supposedly the Turkish attackers killed 40 and wounded 70 (ten times the real figures) for the loss of only two dead. The parody was, for some reason, taken seriously by other newspapers, which published it almost verbatim as a genuine example of German propaganda. The story was picked up by international papers in the US, the UK and NZ. When clippings from the foreign papers filtered back to Australia in serving soldiers' letters to home, it only reinforced the belief that the story in the Bulletin was true. Australian newspapers revived the story as an example of German mendacity during the Second World War, and even as late as 1951 in Broken Hill's own Barrier Daily Truth paper.[22]

Publishing of the event

In the late 1970s, Ayten Kuyululu intended to turn the story into a film, The Battle of Broken Hill. Initially she planned to direct the film herself but found backers unwilling to fund an unknown female Turkish director, so Donald Crombie took over as intended director. Her efforts were however unsuccessful.[23][24][25]

Nicholas Shakespeare wrote the novella Oddfellows (2015) based on this event.[14]

The battle is the subject of the song "Battle of Broken Hill" by the Sydney-based Celtic-punk band Handsome Young Strangers, found on their 2016 EP of the same name.[citation needed]

In 2014 the Greek Australian genocides scholar Panayiotis Diamadis noted that the attack occurred only a few weeks after the declaration of jihad (holy war) on 14 November 1914 by Sultan Mehmed V and Shaykh al-Islām (primary religious leader) Essad Effendi of the Ottoman Empire against Great Britain and the Allies.[26][27]

The Australian government refused requests to fund a commemoration of the event for its 100th anniversary.[28] A ceremony marking the centenary of the event was held at Broken Hill railway station on 1 January 2015.[29]

A 2019 Turkish film by Can Ulkay [tr], Türk Isi Dondurma [tr] (Turkish Ice Cream) presented a highly fictionalised version of the story.[30]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ The policy's stated objective was the prohibition of individuals who were not of Anglo-Saxon descent from immigrating to Australia in an attempt to keep the country "racially pure".[5]
  2. ^ One of Mr Nyholm's six children became Sir Ronald Nyholm, a chemist who was a leading figure in inorganic chemistry in the 1950s and 1960s.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c Saeed (2006), p. 73.
  2. ^ a b Fazal (2001), p. 164.
  3. ^ Cleland (2001), p. 12.
  4. ^ Stevens (2002), p. 239.
  5. ^ a b c Saeed (2006), p. 74.
  6. ^ Kabir (2013), p. 52—53.
  7. ^ Kabir (2013), p. 57—58.
  8. ^ Stevens (2002), p. 264—266.
  9. ^ "Badsha Gool Death Certificate". Archived from the original on 5 October 2007. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
  10. ^ "Mullah Abdullah Death Certificate". Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 16 November 2006.
  11. ^ a b c Sirajuddin Cook, Abu Bakr (22 March 2023). "Mullah Abdullah, A Mullah? A Reassessment of the Assertions and the Evidence". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs: 1–12. doi:10.1080/13602004.2023.2191910. ISSN 1360-2004. S2CID 257702312.
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference ict was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ a b The Argus, 2 January 1915[not specific enough to verify]
  14. ^ a b Shakespeare, Nicholas (2015). Oddfellows. Vintage Australia/Random House. ISBN 9780857987181.
  15. ^ a b "'For Revenge'". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, SA). 4 January 1915. p. 6.
  16. ^ The Barrier Miner, 2 January 1915.[full citation needed]
  17. ^ Stanley E. Livingstone (2000). "Nyholm, Sir Ronald Sydney (1917–1971)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943.
  18. ^ a b Stevens, Christine. Tin Mosques and Ghantowns; A History of Afghan Cameldrivers in Australia. Oxford University Press. Melbourne 1989, p. 163 ISBN 0-19-554976-7
  19. ^ Özdil, Yilmaz (3 January 2013). "Sayın Apo Anzak oldu!". Hürriyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 3 January 2013.
  20. ^ a b Jones, Mary Lucille. "The Years of Decline: Australian Muslims 1900–1940", in Mary Lucille Jones (ed) An Australian pilgrimage: Muslims in Australia from the Seventeenth Century to the Present. Victoria Press in association with the Museum of Victoria. p. 64 ISBN 0-7241-8450-3
  21. ^ "The New Year's Day Tragedy. Funerals of the Victims". The Barrier Miner. Broken Hill, New South Wales. p. 2.
  22. ^ Whyte, Brendan. "Propaganda eats itself: The Bulletin and the battle of Broken Hill". Sabretache, Vol. 57, No. 3, September 2016: 48–57.
  23. ^ Stratton, David (30 January 2021). "The Forgotten Pioneer of Australian Cinema". The Australian. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  24. ^ David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival, Angus & Robertson 1980, p. 281
  25. ^ "Production Survey", Cinema Papers, January 1978, p. 251
  26. ^ Panayiotis Diamadis, "History repeating: from the Battle of Broken Hill to the sands of Syria", The Conversation, 3 October 2014. Retrieved 13 February 2018.
  27. ^ Daniel Allen Butler (2011). Shadow of the Sultan's Realm. Potomac Books. p. 135. ISBN 9781597974967.
  28. ^ "Battle of Broken Hill an act of war or terrorism won't be commemorated" by Damien Murphy, The Sydney Morning Herald, 31 October 2014
  29. ^ Breen, Jacqueline. "Broken Hill remembers victims of 1915 attack by gunmen brandishing Turkish flag". ABC News. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  30. ^ Türk Isi Dondurma at IMDb

Works cited

31°57′24″S 141°28′04″E / 31.95667°S 141.46778°E / -31.95667; 141.46778

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