- The Battle of Broken Hill
The Battle of Broken Hill was a mass killing which took place near
Broken Hill, New South Wales ,Australia onJanuary 1 ,1915 . Two men shot dead four people and wounded seven more, before being killed by police and military officers. While the attack was politically inspired (as declared by themselves in notes) the men were not members of any sanctioned armed force. Since, at that time, Australia was preparing to attack theOttoman Empire , they were first speculated to be Turkish, but later identified as being from British colony ofIndia (modern dayPakistan ). [cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/history/Transcripts/s1051016.htm|title=Battle of Broken Hill: Ron visits this Outback area of New South Wales|accessdate=2008-07-25] [cite web |url=http://www.travelintelligence.com/travel-writing/1000030/Australasia/Australia/New-South-Wales/Broken-Hill/Of-Art-and-War-on-Broken-Hill.html|title=Of Art and War on Broken Hill
accessdate=2008-07-25]The Assailants
The attackers were both former camel-drivers working at Broken Hill. They were Badsha Mahommed Gool (born 1874 approx cite web | title="Badsha GOOL Death Certificate | url=http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/IndexSearch?form=IndexingSearch&cgiurl=%2Fcgi-bin%2FIndex%2FIndexingBirth.cgi&sname=gool&gname=&fname=&mname=&event=deaths&frange=1915&trange=&| accessdate=2006-11-16] ), an ice-cream vendor and Mullah Abdullah (born 1854 approx cite web | title="Mullah ABDULLAH Death Certificate | url=http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/IndexSearch?form=IndexingSearch&cgiurl=%2Fcgi-bin%2FIndex%2FIndexingBirth.cgi&sname=mulla&gname=&fname=&mname=&event=deaths&frange=1915&trange=&| accessdate=2006-11-16] ), a local imam and halal butcher.
Gool's ice-cream cart was well-known in town and was used to transport the men to the attack site. They also fashioned a home-made, Ottoman flag which they flew. There appears to have been little effort at hiding their identities.
Abdullah had arrived in Broken Hill around 1898 and worked as a camel driver, before becoming a mullah and slaughtering animals according to Islamic rites (
halal ). Several days before the killings Adbullah was convicted by Chief Sanitary Inspector Brosnan for slaughtering sheep on premises not licensed for slaughtering. It was not the first charge. [Argus 2 January 1915] Considering the slaughter-house unions at that time had racially discriminatory policies, there was little scope for Abdullah to legally prepare halal meats for the Muslim community. In addition, he had ceased wearing his turban years beforehand "since the day some larrikin threw stones at me, and I did not like it" [The Argus. 6 January 1915]Gool Mohamed lived next door to Mullah Adbullah. Gool was a member of the Afridi, a Pashtun clan, from Afghanistan. He claimed he had been in the Turkish Army several times and was believed to regularly smoke gungha (strong marijauna) [ [http://www.abc.net.au/brokenhill/stories/s1513582.htm The German Club and the picnic train attack :: ABC Broken Hill ] ] . Police Constable Mills later conjectured that Gool had used Abdullah's concerns over the fine as leverage to convince him to take part in the killings.
The Picnic Train
Each New Year's Day the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows (a local lodge) held a picnic at Silverton. The train from Broken Hill to Silverton was crowded with 1200 picnickers on 40 open trucks. Three kilometres out of town, Gool and Abdullah positioned themselves on an embankment about 30 metres from the tracks. As the train passed they opened fire with two rifles, discharging 20-30 shots.
The crowd originally thought the shots were in honour of the train passing, but once people started falling the reality sank in. Alma Cowie, aged 17 cite web | title="Alma COWIE Death Certificate | url=http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/IndexSearch?form=IndexingSearch&cgiurl=%2Fcgi-bin%2FIndex%2FIndexingBirth.cgi&sname=cowie&gname=alma&fname=&mname=&event=deaths&frange=1915&trange=&| accessdate=2006-11-16] who was on a date with boyfriend Clarry O’Brien, died instantly. William John Shaw, who was a foreman in the Sanitary Department, was also killed on the train.
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