Barmera on Lake Bonney. Pepper tree and old chimney at the ruins of Nappers Bridge Hotel.
Image by denisbin
Napper Bridge and the Overlanders. Sturt passed Overland Corner on 31st January 1830.
By 1842 South Australia was nearly bankrupt and the colony was not growing and developing quickly enough. Sailing ships could bring only a few sheep or cattle each trip from Sydney (or Hobart) to Port Adelaide. Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney proved a viable alternative existed. Sheep and cattle had been driven down from western NSW to the new settlement at Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay in 1836. They began their great livestock drive to SA because of those drives to Melbourne. Hawdon met Charles Bonney with 1,200 sheep and up to 400 cattle on the Goulburn River in northern Victoria in late January 1838. In February the set off along the Murray River. Camps were made places like Swan Hill on 11th February. When Aboriginal men approached them they offered metal tomahawks which were highly prized by the Aboriginal men. Near Balranald where the Murrumbidgee enters the Murray River they saw about 150 Aboriginal men with spears watching them. Charles Bonney made some jokes and laughed to ease the tension which worked. Further along another group of Aboriginal men encouraged them to follow them to a lake where Hawdon and Bonney got ducks for eating. Towards Wentworth they saw “twenty poor looking” Aboriginal men and Hawdon gave them a killed kangaroo. Hawdon kept the tail for his kangaroo tail soup. By early March they had reached the Darling River which was difficult to ford. Here they met about 100 Aboriginal men plus 100 women and children. They were aggressive with their spears and a shot was fired by one of Hawdon’s men but it did not hit anyone but it subdued the Aborigines. An old senior man came forward with some men without spears and sought peace. Hawdon said “their chief was one of the most sensible men I ever met among the savages of New Holland”. Hawdon explained the use of their tools to the chief and how the wheels of the dray turned around. Hawdon then gave him a tomahawk. The chief then went with Hawdon to shoot ducks for food. When they left next day the chief sent two of his men with them to be ambassadors to the next tribe along the Murray River. Further on they found a lake which Hawdon named Lake Victoria near the Rufus River which Charles Sturt had named in 1830. Near Lake Victoria they camped and shot a rogue bull for their dinner. About 90 Aboriginal people watched in terror and delight seeing the angry beast felled by one shot. Near a lake which Hawdon called Lake Bonney about 90 Aboriginal people watched the overlanders for a day. The men then offered their women to the overlanders in return for goods. When the offer was refused the Aboriginal men then stole some iron items before they left. On another day when Hawdon was alone in the bush without his gun a group of four Aboriginal men with aggressive looks and raised spears startled him. To defuse the situation he did a funny little dance. The Aboriginal men and Hawdon all laughed and then accepted that Hawdon wanted peace. At their camp on Lake Bonney where there was 163 Aboriginals some were enticed to approach their tents. But only 30 were males did this as the rest were off fighting another Aboriginal tribe. Hawdon’s dog barked when the Aboriginal attempted to steel anything. If one then became angry and threatening with their spear the others would hold his arms down until he calmed down. Three of the men then used sign language to say they would alert the next Aboriginal tribe of Hawdon’s approach. This would have been around overland Corner before the river does a right hand bend.
Hawdon and Bonney’s successful overlanding of sheep and cattle began a flood of overlanders. Edward John Eyre and a party was the second to bring much needed livestock into Sth Australia. He found the Aboriginals menacing and difficult around the Rufus River area but threatened them with their guns but never fired any shots. One of Eyre’s men was speared but not seriously injured. Along the way Eyre met Hart and Pullen who were overlanding cattle from Portland. Eyre reached Adelaide in March 1839 with 600 cattle and 1,000 sheep. The third group to overland livestock was led by Captain Charles Sturt. He left from the Goulburn River in April 1838. This time, eight years after his initial trip along the Murray River, he found the Aboriginal people troublesome and one of the cattle was speared and a dog injured. Sturt kept the peace between his men and groups of Aborigines several times. Eyre in particular made a good profit from overlanding 1,000 sheep and 6000 cattle. Many more followed these pioneering three. Overlanding livestock lasted thirty years or so. In 1865 the Surveyor General George Goyder estimated that 350,000 sheep passed by the top of Lake Bonney each year on their overland trip. But as more livestock was overlanded the Riverland Aboriginals were more troubled by it especially around the Rufus River area which is in NSW. Governor Hindmarsh called for a report on violence in early 1840. In October 1839 overseer Thomas Young was killed. In retaliation the overlanders killed 11 Aboriginal people. The Police troopers were unable to locate the offenders and in the same district another overlanding party was attacked with injuries to both sides a month later. In April 1841 Henry Inman and Henry Field were attacked at the Rufus River. A police party was despatched by Governor Gawler but was recalled. A civilian party went out meeting 300 Aboriginal people where upon a fight ensued in which eight Aboriginal people were killed, but no Europeans. Major O’Halloran the Police Commissioner was then sent with a detachment of police. They met a group of 68 Aboriginal’s who had clashed with Charles Langhorne and his overlanding party in June. His party was attacked by a group of over 500 Aboriginal people resulting in the deaths of four of his men and five Aboriginal people. Before peace permanently settled on the region another attacked occurred. William Robinson’s party was attacked in August 1841 at the Rufus River. Fifteen Aboriginal people were killed but no overlanders were killed. The next day Matthew Moorhouse, the Protector of Aborigines, with Police Inspector Shaw and troopers met the attackers. In the fracas that followed, known as the “Rufus River massacre” between 30 and 40 Aborigines were killed and four taken prisoner (including two women and a boy). It was determined that the cause of the trouble was the Europeans engaging in sexual relations with the women without giving the food and clothing they had promised to give. The prisoners were released and no disciplinary action was taken against Moorhouse and Shaw as their response was considered justified.
William Napper a farm labourer from Guernsey arrived in SA on the Oriental in 1855 when he was 28 years old. With his friend William Parnell they tried working as timber cutters for the passing riverboat trade along the Murray. Their wives and families joined them. In 1859 William Parnell built the Lake Bonney Hotel to capitalise on the travellers passing to overland corner with their livestock. In 1863 Napper purchased 80 acres of land and the hotel buildings from Parnell. William’s first wife Ann died in 1869 and his second wife died in 1877 just after they had moved from Nappers Bridge to become the licensees of the Overland Corner Hotel. It is not clear but the Lake Bonney Hotel probably closed when Napper left it in 1877. The hotel had eleven rooms, some with magnificently built chimneys and a store hut nearer Lake Bonney. Napper’s private residence which still stands was located in front of the old store and cellars. William Napper returned to the deserted Lake Bonney Hotel in the 1880s to operate it as an accommodation place. He died here in 1907 and was buried nearby in the Overland Corner Hotel cemetery. Before the locks were completed along the Murray River in the 1920s the river was often a series of small channels and connected pools. One of the best narrow crossing points for the overlanders was at Overland Corner where they could move their livestock south of the river with another crossing to the east bank closer to Adelaide.
