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Linoy was a woman small in size, but big in heart. She was always willing to help others and like her mother,
taught many a young bride how to cook some of the Chinese specialities that she had learned in her youth. She had
a great knowledge of herbal medicine and of the uses of various roots and shrubs found around the Darwin area.
She would freely give her time to anyone who asked. She had a quick mind and a sharp wit and she would miss
not much.
Her later years, with the continuing support of her children were ones of comfort and tranquillity. She was
able to enjoy the company of her sisters and her grandchildren. Linoy died peacefully at her home surrounded by
her family on 6 September 1970. It was the passing of a great pioneering lady, a Territorian who had experienced
a lifetime of hard, tough years coupled with the fears and traumas of the cyclone of 1937, the war years with its
uncertainty, the family separations and losses but one who remained a stable focal point for her family.
Australian Archives, Canberra, CRS A1/1 33/8696; L Ah Toy, H Wong and W Wong, information to author.
GLENICE YEE, Vol 3.
WONG YUAN (JOE) (c1862–1921), printer, was born in Canton, China and came to the Northern Territory aged
about 17. About two years later, he was employed by the publishers of the Northern Territory Times and Gazette
as a member of the production team.
Forty years later, by then known as the ‘Chinese printer’, he was still in the employ of the newspaper. His health
had been poor for some time and he did not recover from a ‘seizure’ on 6 April 1921. The Times reported that he
was ‘a good humoured man, honorable in every sense, and extremely reliable. His place will, indeed, be very hard
to fill in this office’. The production of this particular issue of the Times, it must be said, was very poor indeed.
He was buried in the Chinese cemetery at Stuart Park.
Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 7 April 1921.
HELEN J WILSON, Vol 3.
WONGGU (WONGO, ONGOO, WONGU), Aboriginal elder. Nothing certain is known of either the birth or the
death of the man who became known as Wonggu, but he had an impact on the non–Aboriginal settlement in the
Northern Territory in the 1930s through his connection with the Aboriginal group from Caledon Bay.
Wonggu was a patriarch of the Aboriginal group, often but incorrectly referred to as the ‘Balamumu’, associated
with the Caledon Bay massacre of five Japanese trepang fishermen from the luggers Myrtle, Olga and Raff in
Arnhem Land in 1932. Wonggu and his large clan were assisting with trepang collection for the Japanese, and for
Fred Gray, who was also working there at that time.
On the morning of 17 September, Gray’s workers arrived at the Japanese camp at Caledon Bay to a scene of
mayhem, with the Aboriginal workers attacking the Japanese with spears and other weapons. Gray reported the
events to the administration in Darwin but throughout 1933 police attempts to apprehend the perpetrators were
unsuccessful. Further deaths in the Gulf were (erroneously) linked to the Caledon Bay killings and the incidents
became known as the ‘Black War’.
In 1934, a small party from the Church Missionary Society, the ‘Peace Expedition’, successfully brought the
alleged killers of the Japanese to Darwin where they stood trial before Justice Wells. On 31 July 1934 Mau (Mow),
Natchelma and Narkaia, were sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for the murder of Tanaka. These sentences were
remitted in June 1936 following extensive lobbying from Church and other concerned individuals, but particularly
Donald Thomson, who was given the task of repatriating them back to Arnhem Land in his 1936 season field
work.
Historians have looked at the motives for the massacre giving a variety of reasons for the killings of the
Japanese. These include protest at non-Aboriginal incursion into Arnhem Land, revenge for sexual exploitation
of Aboriginal women, insult and verbal abuse and exploitation of labour in the trepang industry. Ted Egan was
told by an informant, who had been present at the Caledon Bay massacre as a child, that the killings were caused
because Wonggu had been dumped headfirst in a cauldron of trepang offal. Evidence suggests that while this may
not have been a literal cause, it could well have been the metaphorical reason for the attack (that is, a refusal to
acknowledge Wonggu’s authority).
In 1937–1938, Wonggu and his family left the Caledon Bay area and settled at the Methodist community at
Yirrkala. This created some inter-groups tensions at Yirrkala and fighting was reported at the settlement at this
time. Constable Murray (of Coniston fame) was dispatched to Arnhem Land following the recommendations of
Reverend Taylor of the Groote Eylandt mission and he met with ‘King Wongo’ at Yirrkala. Murray apprehended
four alleged offenders but they escaped at Roper River. Administrator Abbott recommended that since the killings
were ‘entirely tribal’ that he was loath to recommend any further police action. Wonggu does not reappear in any
official records of the settlement after this time.
Immortalised in popular fiction, both Vic Hall and Ion Idriess used Wonggu as the evil genius in their accounts
of the Caledon Bay massacre. Little is known about Wonggu’s personal life. At the time of the massacre he
had several sons who were old enough to be accused of taking part: Natchelma (Watchelma) and Mau (Mow).
Natchelma’s wife Clara was a notorious figure in her own right. It was suggested that she had been kidnapped from
the Borroloola area and she had been named as linked to the Douglas Mawson ‘white women in Arnhem Land’
story.
The 1930s was a period of sensationalism in the reporting of Arnhem Land stories and Wonggu was central to
many of the events. Wonggu clearly occupied a significant role for the people of Caledon Bay and Blue Mud Bay
region, and he continued to do so after his groups shifted to Yirrkala settlement.