ABSTRACT
IN 1840 white settlers in the rugged Gippsland (called ‘Gipps Land’ at the time) region of eastern Victoria reputedly located items of European origin in a camp abruptly abandoned by local Kurnai people. A detailed inventory of these objects was printed in a letter written by Angus McMillan — Scottish immigrant, and one of the ‘founders’ of modern Gippsland — in the Sydney Herald. Upon entering the camp, McMillan and his companions ‘discovered’:
…several check-shirts, cord and moleskin trousers, all besmeared with human blood; one German frock; two pea-jackets, new brown Macintosh cloak also stained with blood, several pieces of women’s wearing apparel, namely, prints and merinos; a large lock of brown hair, evidently that of an European woman; one child’s white frock, with brown velvet band, five hand towels of which one was marked R. Jamieson No. 12, one blue silk purse, silver tassels and slides, containing seven shillings and sixpence British money, one women’s thimble, two large parcels of silk sewing thread, various colours, 10 new English blankets perfectly clean, shoe-makers’ awls, bees’ wax, blacksmith’s pincers and cold chisel, one bridle bit, which had been recently used, as the grass was quite fresh on it, the tube of a thermometer, broken looking glass, bottles of all descriptions, two of which had castor oil in them, one sealskin cap, one musket and some shot, one broad tomahawk, some London, Glasgow and Aberdeen newspapers, printed in 1837 and 1838. One pewter two-gallon measure, one ditto handbasin, one large tin camp kettle, two children’s copy books, one bible printed in Edinburgh, June 1838, one set of National Loan Fund regulations, respecting policies of life insurance, and blank forms of medical men’s certificate for effecting the same … 1
