The setting: The homestead of a remote cattle station(US – Ranch in Western Queensland, 1876.
The homestead consisted of a long dwelling and, at a right angle to it, forming an L-shaped complex, a 2 storey stone storehouse with loopholed loft (a scale model of one which exists in the Northern Territory).
Although some of the station's workers were out with the herds, present at the station was the manager, cook and three other men. All except the cook had snider carbines, the latter having his outdated but trusty double barrelled muzzleloading shotgun.
Although constantly on the guard for hostile Aborigines who had been targetting the men and stock for months, no one had any real idea when or if an attack might be made on the homestead. Thus, although armed, the men at the homeatead were scattered around the yards and buildings doing their various jobs.
Suddenly, out of the dense trees and scrub opposite the store emerged a war party of some 30 Aboriginal warriors, replete in war paint and brandishing their weapons.
The warriors advanced boldly straight towards the door of the storehouse but stopped a short distance from the building and started making demands for tucker and baccy (food and tobacco). The manager, who knew many of the warriors as well as their leader personally, bravely placed himself between the warrior mob and the door to the store and began trying to placate the warriors and dissuade them from doing anything that would lead to bloodshed, all the time making sure his carbine was loaded and ready however.
While the manager was thus distracted, a small group of warriors dashed past the manager and began trying to break into the store's door. However, there just happened to be a worker in the loft who immediately fired through one of the loopholed down into the warriors at the door, killing one, which temporarily stopped the door assault.
Once the first shot had been fired all hope of a peaceful ending was dashed as the main Aboriginal mob launched a hail of missiles at the manager. Maybe it was the white man's stronger magic, but all of them missed! The manager responded by firiing into the mob and found his mark, but he was in too vulnerable a position and the next volley of spears, boomerangs and throwing sticks killed him immediately. The warriors renewed their assault on the door but were being shot down like fish in a barrel by the gunman in the loft. By now the cook had appeared at the corner of the store and fired both barrels into the warrior mob, also killing one or two.
Sooner or later the gunman had to miss and he did, which allowed some warriors to break into the store's door and gain access to the ground floor. To thier disappointment however, there was no plunder to be had there. In the meantime the other two workers who had run to the sound of gunfire arrived to support the cook and commenced firing at any Aborigines they could see.
Inside the store a brave warrior climbed the ladder leading to the loft and managed to incapacitate the gunman there who had moved from the loophole to defend the loft hatch. This allowed the Aborigines to get up to the loft where they found a large store of all kinds of food and supplies, more than the half a dozen warriors inside the building could even carry! They all picked up as much plunder as they could carry and, three leaving by each of the store's two doors, made for the safety of the scrub as fast as they could. meanwhile, the main warrior mob had retired to a fold in the ground where the man firing at them could not get a clear line of site.
The cook, although with an unloaded gun!, took off in hot pursuit of one of the groups of three warriors witht he plunder while the two other workers took off after the other small group. Luckily for the escaping warriors, the two men with the breechloaders kept missing the warriors, which allowed them to get to cover and away from danger
Although the Aborigines has lost several men, the homestead had its manager killed, one of its workers severly wounded and the Aborigines had managed to capture a significant amount of plunder. The Aborigines won in what was overall a very dramatic incident and one which would go down in the folk lore of the frontier and be told in many Aboriginal corrobories throughout the land.
Rules used were 'Boomerang' (unpublished). Figures were 15mm.
Nic
looks at some new terrain products, which use space age technology!
