How Gilburri and his Kabi family remember Goerge Furber.
First of all in Furbers original statement says the attack occured 13th October 1847. in the court case five years later he says attack occured on the 20th October 1847. Furbers original statement and Wickham's warrent from 1847 never mention Durrugguree yet.
As a descendant of Gilburri I remember George Furber as an invader, liar, cheat and murderer. Furber was given a great opportunity by the Kabi people when they allowed him to set up a woolshed and store on the south bank of the Mary River, Tinana in late 1847.T1847. They saw this as an opportunity to establish an easy source of flour, tobacco and tomahawks. The Kabi even allocated seven of their young fullahs to help Furber get established. These Kabi men stripped bark and helped build fences. This was the first squatter the Kabi allowed on their sacred river. They were willing to give Furber a chance. In less than a month Fuber begins to cheat his Kabi workers. The flour promised is undercut.
Even worse Furber gives them alcohol instead of tobacco and flour. In 1847 the Mary River Kabi have had limited exposure to "firewater". Furber and his friend "Barren" use alcohol to subdue Kabi women and take advantage of them. Furber gets drunk and fires shots into the Kabi workers camp.
Report from the Select Committee on the Native Police Force. 2 December 1856, '
question 108. Do you know anything of the circumstances under which that murder took place?
Marshall: Only by report. I am told that Mr. Furber had been making use of firearms in the camp. I believe it is well known that such was the fact; but one hears these things, and cannot get any evidence of them.
question 109. Is it probable he had given them any cause for making the attack?
Marshall: I am told he had fired into the camp.
question 110. Do you think it is likely that the collision that took place with him was with the Wide Bay blacks?
Marshall; Either the Wide Bay or Frazer's Island blacks.' All of these factors justify the attack on Furber. The 1847 attack was not designed to kill him, rather scare him off country because he had proven himself to be poison. By 1855 Furber had killed two Kabi people (that we know of). The 1855 murder of Furber was tribal payback for the execution of Kabi Mob and the sawmilling of sacred Kabi trees. This man was corrupted and evil…by no means a "pioneering hero". The surviving Mary River Kabi descendants of today request that the public dedication to George Furber be resigned to "Minni Minni Picnic Ground" in honour of the Kabi woman he killed in 1855.
