Patrick Mayne worked at the meatworks in Brisbane in the mid 1800′s. He was living at a hotel in Kangaroo Point called the Bush Inn. One night, a timber cutter named Cox was drinking at the bar, and after a few too many, started bragging about how he’d been cutting cedar up in the forest for a few years, was finished now and here with all of the cash he’d made, an grand total of £300 (which in 1848 was an enormous sum of money).

The next morning, a man crossing the Brisbane River on a barge spotted a pair of human legs on the riverbank, a few yards away was a human torso, expertly butchered with the ribs splayed open and all the innards gone. A few yards further away, the victim’s head stuffed into the nook of a tree.

It was the timber cutter, Cox.

An innocent man (later discovered to be gay) was tried, convicted and hung for the crime.

Mayne did it and took the money, though no-one knew at the time. He went on to use the money to begin a life of incredible wealth and power, buying up huge tracts of land and real estate , creating massive wealth for himself and his family. He even managed to buy his was into government. The man has many streets and a suburb named after him in Brisbane.

On his deathbed, he confessed to the murder.
On discovering that their fabulous wealth and power had been acquired from horrid and bloody and ruthless means, the family decided to set up a fund and donate most of the money to charity to try and make amends. In fact they donated the current site of the University Of Queensland at St. Lucia as well as a fund to provide the University with money (which is still active today), as well as various huge contributions to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, including massive stained-glass windows.

The family fell apart, with his children deciding that the insanity in the bloodline should stop with them, they all decided never to marry or have kids. Some of his children eventually succumbed to mental illness too.

What I’m saying is, that this family, when given the chance to try and make right something that they had absolutely nothing to do with, jumped at the chance. They could no longer live with the guilt that their lifestyle was built on the murder and destruction of an innocent man.

It is in this similar frame of mind that I ask you to consider the plight of the Indigenous Australians. Our entire way of life exists because those who came before us snuffed their way of life. We live the way that we do now, because years ago, people who had nothing to do with us did things that we would never do ourselves, though we enjoy the eventual results.

At least recognise that this is the case, that you live where you live because of what happened before and that simply by living here you are somewhat of a party to those events.

To be able to at the least recognise that these atrocities happened in our country, and try and offer some kind of reconciliation for this, I see is the only way forward for our country.

The indigenous situation in our country can not be ignored, it will not go away, and it is a blight on all Australians.

xx aa

I agree with the gist of your post. Bigotry is not cool and patriotism is a slippery slope to nationalism. But for how long do we have to beat ourselves up for what our forefathers did?

I’m not going to go into depth about indigenous issues here, but the one thing that I will say is – it does not matter what steps governments take to address those issues, they always get criticised heavily. We have developed this kind of culture of criticism, whilst no clear solutions are ever offered up by those who criticise. So those of us who actually want to see a solution get some kind of traction and work out, get a little frustrated.

Does the only place I can wave my flag proudly have to be in a foreign country, because they won’t think I’m about to start a riot?

No, No, No. INXS! No respect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZODWmn6xhM