THE SINKING OF THE RODNEY
Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2023 7:19 pm
THE SINKING OF THE RODNEY
© Jeffrey Thorpe 27 June 2023
Squatter Ben Chaffey owned Tolarno Station
four hundred thousand hectares in western New South Wales,
took over in 1894 from Reids, long -time owners
when Union Bank’s collapse plucked the wind from their sails.
Tolarno carried three thirty thousand sheep
shearing at one hundred stands continued all year round,
wool prices were low, this echoed in shearer’s wages
strikes through the 1890s saw neither side give ground.
To keep his woolshed running, Chaffey hired non-union shearers,
fifty of these “scabs” coming on PS Rodney to the station.
Unionists however, were determined to block the voyage
and on August 27 1894, their action shocked the nation.
Rodney was anchored in the Darling, 45K from its destination
when in the early hours 300 masked men boarded the boat,
forcing the strike breakers ashore, they set fire to the vessel
burning it to the waterline and in the words of song voiced gloat.
“After we burnt the Rodney, we danced on the river bank,
there we played an old tune, until the Rodney sank,
many a heart was happy, if you could only see,
we had a bloody good bonfire
the night we burnt the Rodney.”
The only inland act of piracy ever recorded in Australia,
and although two unionists were shot by police
and large reward offered, no one was ever convicted,
a volatile event that brokered scant industry peace.
Rodney’s boiler and engine were ultimately salvaged
though the useless hull was dragged to the river bank
where it lies to this day, listed on the NSW Heritage Register,
tribute to the affairs of the time when she sank.
© Jeffrey Thorpe 27 June 2023
Squatter Ben Chaffey owned Tolarno Station
four hundred thousand hectares in western New South Wales,
took over in 1894 from Reids, long -time owners
when Union Bank’s collapse plucked the wind from their sails.
Tolarno carried three thirty thousand sheep
shearing at one hundred stands continued all year round,
wool prices were low, this echoed in shearer’s wages
strikes through the 1890s saw neither side give ground.
To keep his woolshed running, Chaffey hired non-union shearers,
fifty of these “scabs” coming on PS Rodney to the station.
Unionists however, were determined to block the voyage
and on August 27 1894, their action shocked the nation.
Rodney was anchored in the Darling, 45K from its destination
when in the early hours 300 masked men boarded the boat,
forcing the strike breakers ashore, they set fire to the vessel
burning it to the waterline and in the words of song voiced gloat.
“After we burnt the Rodney, we danced on the river bank,
there we played an old tune, until the Rodney sank,
many a heart was happy, if you could only see,
we had a bloody good bonfire
the night we burnt the Rodney.”
The only inland act of piracy ever recorded in Australia,
and although two unionists were shot by police
and large reward offered, no one was ever convicted,
a volatile event that brokered scant industry peace.
Rodney’s boiler and engine were ultimately salvaged
though the useless hull was dragged to the river bank
where it lies to this day, listed on the NSW Heritage Register,
tribute to the affairs of the time when she sank.