Yeeman

The Yiman also referred to as Yeeman/Eoman orJiman were an Indigenous Australian tribe living in the Upper Dawson River region around Taroom of eastern Central Queensland.

Almost nothing is known directly about Yiman since the tribe was wiped out before any words could be recorded.

Little is also known about the Yiman social structure, to the point that it has not been established with certainty whether the term refers to one distinct tribal identity in the Upper Dawson area. In a settler crusade to hunt them down, in late 1857, many of the aboriginals killed were examined to see if they bore on their chests the distinct boomerang design typical of the Yiman thought responsible for the Fraser family massacre.

Records of the Yiman mainly concern the Hornet Bank massacre which took place on the 27 October 1857. The incident took at a site known as "Goongarry" which had been squatted by the Scottish immigrant Andrew Scott who had applied for a tender over this area of Yiman traditional land in late 1853. It has been assumed, on the basis of settler practice, that Scott had occupied this stretch of territory at least a year before that date.

Though Scott’s tender was approved four years later, he leaded the property to a shipwright John Fraser in March 1854. Fraser died later that year of pneumonia, and the lease was continued by his wife, 5 sons and 4 daughters, who, disregarding Scott’s advice not to allow blacks anywhere near the holding, befriended the local Yiman, since they had experience earlier of friendly aboriginal hands on various stations on the Darling Downs. The family also employed a tutor Mr. Neagle. According to the account of the sole survivor Sylvester Fraser who managed to hide after being skulled by a nulla nulla, they had been attacked either at dawn or according to other accounts just as the full moon rose, by roughly 100 tribesmen. The 3 oldest girls were raped before being killed. One other of the Frazer family survived: William who was away in Ipswich. Judging from one report, it is possible some Mandandanji also joined in the attack. It may well be that the Yiman, according to Gordon Reid, were just one of a confederation of tribes involved, and not the only perpetrators.

The day after Walter Powell, and his native police tracked down and ambushed one of about 10 bands believed to be responsible, the only one thought to have moved westwards, killing 5 and wounding several others. In a second incident, Powell and his troops, joined by William Fraser, killed 3 men and 3 woman near Carrabah station, on 27 November. Some days later, they, now joined by Second-Lieutenant Robert Walker killed another 7 natives at Jundah station, though the Jundah station manager maintained they hadn't been involved. Then the group murdered 11 other Aborigines to the east, in the vicinity of Cockatoo station. Tracking suspected participants hailing from the Baking Board district, west of Chinchilla, they came across a band of Aborigines at Redbank, rounded them up and killed them over the protests of the local Ross family. Settlers noticed aboriginals shifting their grounds, seeking security in the Auburn and Burnet districts. Settlers from the Upper Dawson and these areas organized a settler vigilante 'crusade in December, which lasted 6 weeks, during which an estimated 80 more Aborigines were killed in several camps.

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Wikipedia