Did Multuggerah guide Gorman to the Darling Downs?

John Larkin has recently written to the Toowoomba Chronicle supporting Multuggerah Way.  He questions the claim that Multuggerah may have guided Gorman to the Downs.  You can read his letter here.   You will find my response below with a link to the JK Jarrott article at the conclusion.  The more that we have these conversations the greater our understanding will be of our shared history.

I welcome John Larkin’s support for the Toowoomba Second Range Crossing to be named “Multuggerah Way” (TC 2/11) in honour of the local warrior and leader of a brave resistance campaign in the 1840s.  Mr Larkin questions my claim that Multuggerah may have guided Lieutenant Owen Gorman across the Range to the Darling Downs.  Of course history is not a precise science and I cannot be 100 percent sure that this is true – but here is why I make the claim.  On the 1^st November 1840 Lt Gorman wrote to the Colonial Secretary reporting an expedition from Brisbane to the Darling Downs which took place in October of that year.      Gorman wrote, “We met with Chief Moppy and part of his tribe on the 12^th.  He sent two of his sons and two Blacks belonging to Peel’s Plains to accompany us over the Dividing range”. Multuggerah was one of Chief Moppy’s sons.  We also know that Moppy had three sons.  So whilst this is not conclusive it is safe to say it is more than possible that Multuggerah showed Gorman the way.       Gorman reported that the route that he was guided through was superior to Cunningham’s Gap as a way onto the Downs.  It is rarely acknowledged that the real reason that Gorman set off on this expedition was not to discover a new way onto the Downs but instead to investigate reports of local Aboriginal people being shot by newly arrived settlers.  The story of Gorman’s expedition including handwritten copies of his report can be read in JK Jarrott’s article in the periodical Queensland Heritage (1976).  The story of Gorman’s expedition to the Downs highlights the initial efforts that Multuggerah and his people made to accommodate and befriend the new white settlers.  You can access Jarrott’s article here 

Gorman's Gap by J.K. Jarrott FCA.