page_title: Jandamarra
section_title: Guerrilla war
hierarchical_section_title: Jandamarra / Guerrilla war
caption_attribution_description: English: Tunnel Creek, West Kimberley region, Western Australia
context_page_description: Jandamarra or Tjandamurra, known to European settlers as Pigeon, was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Bunuba people who led one of many organised armed insurrections against the British colonisation of Australia. Initially utilised as a tracker for the police, he became a fugitive when he was forced to capture his own people. He led a three-year campaign against police and European settlers, achieving legendary status for his hit and run tactics and his abilities to hide and disappear. Jandamarra was eventually killed by another tracker at Tunnel Creek on 1 April 1897. His body was buried by his family at the Napier Range, where it was placed inside a boab tree. Jandamarra's life has been the subject of two novels, Ion Idriess's Outlaws of the Leopold and Mudrooroo's Long Live Sandawarra, a non-fiction account based on oral tradition, Jandamurra and the Bunuba Resistance, and a stage play.
context_section_description: On 10 November 1894, Jandamarra and some followers, who by now had formed an armed gang, attacked five white men who were driving cattle to set up a large station in the heart of Bunuba land. Two of the men were killed, with their guns and ammunition captured. On 16 November 1894, the police and Jandamarra's band of 50 warriors faced each other in an eight-hour standoff at Windjana Gorge, a sacred location in Bunuba culture. Ellemarra died in the conflict, but Jandamarra escaped with non-lethal wounds. Consequently, Western Australia's first Premier, John Forrest, ordered the rebellion crushed. Police attacked camps around Fitzroy Crossing, killing some Aboriginal people purely on suspicion that they had ties to Jandamarra's band.
  For the next three years, Jandamarra led a guerrilla war against police and European settlers. His hit and run tactics and his vanishing tricks became almost mythical. In one famous incident, a police patrol followed him to his hideout at the entrance to Tunnel Creek in the Napier Range, only for Jandamarra to mysteriously disappear, through the system of tunnels in the mountains.
  Jandamarra was held in awe by other Aboriginal people who believed he was immortal, his body simply a physical manifestation of a spirit that resided in a water soak near Tunnel Creek. It was believed that only an Aboriginal person with similar mystical powers could kill him. Police chasing Jandamarra were also in awe at his ability to cross the rugged ranges with no effect on his bare feet, despite their boots being cut to shreds by the sharp rocks. In the next couple of years the gang raided the police and a white homestead.
  Micki, or Minko Mick, a remarkable Aboriginal tracker also reputed to possess magical powers, was not a Bunuba tribesman and did not fear Jandamarra. He tracked Jandamarra down and shot him dead at Tunnel Creek on 1 April 1897. The white troopers cut off Jandamarra's head as proof that he was dead and it was preserved and sent to a firearms company in England where it was used as an example of the effectiveness of the company's firearms. The head of another Bunuba man was labelled as Jandamarra and put on public display in Perth. His body was buried by his family at the Napier Range where it was placed inside a boab tree.
caption: Tunnel Creek, Jandamarra's refuge, showing the collapsed centre section, West Kimberley region, Western Australia
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