Warangesda - The Camp of Mercy

Around 1880, the back-breaking labour of the heroic John Gribble carved ‘The Camp of Mercy’ out of the bush on the edge Murrumbidgee River near Darlington Point.  For several decades, Aboriginal people, fugitives from ill-treatment, fled to the camp he named Warangesda, a blending of the Wiradjuri word for ‘camp’ and the Hebrew word for ‘mercy.’ It’s been described as the only sanctuary available for them in NSW at the time.
 
Last weekend, former residents and friends gathered to mark the centenary of its closure. Among them was Reverend Cannon Shannon Smith, a sixth generation Wiradjuri and fifth generation Worimi descendant whose great-great-grandfather, James Murray, arrived with Reverend John Gribble. In an ABC interview she explained that a lot of the returning original Warangesda folk remained strong Christians. When once she was asked, ‘Who evangelised you?’ her unexpected reply was, ‘I was evangelised by the Rev J B Gribble in 1880, because he was the one who brought Christianity to my people … And here I am today, still going!’

 John Gribble was rescued by an old Aboriginal lady as a child when lost in the bush around Geelong. He developed a lifelong passion to fight on behalf of the people he witnessed suffering everywhere he went. He wrote ‘The feeling of pity for them has grown … year after year. I have been confronted with the terrible wrongs to which they have been subjected. And while I have life and strength, I trust my only ambition will be to befriend the black population of that land where I have spent thirty-five years of my life.’
 
His single-handed crusade to defend them grew to epic proportions, first in NSW and later in Western Australia. He was  a feisty, determined man who never took a backward step. When his health broke after four years, largely because of the bitter opposition of local settlers, his bishop sent him to England to recover. His love for the Wiradjuri people he left behind was evident in the fact that during the voyage he poured out the story of Warangesda with the dignified title, Black but Comely.  It was published in England with the help of no one less than Archbishop of Canterbury.

Shannon Smith currently serves as Priest in Charge of St Mark's Anglican Church in Bendigo and is dedicated to supporting Aboriginal communities across the Bendigo Diocese. A small plaque can be seen on the wall of the Anglican Church in Darlington Point. It reads simply, ‘REVEREND JOHN GRIBBLE THE BLACKFELLOWS’ FRIEND.’
 
 I think the fighting preacher would be pleased with that.