Kate Auty is a former magistrate who has played a role in establishing Aboriginal sentencing courts in consultation with Aboriginal people. Her investigation into the massacre of Oombulgurri people at Forrest River in 1926 incriminates many (including the police and those in government) but is a convincing case for the prosecution of one man in particular – Bernard O’Leary. Auty believes that O’Leary took a leading role in the murders.

The catalyst for the massacre was an attack by Frederick William Hay on an Indigenous man named Lumbia. Lumbia retaliated, and was sentenced to death. What follows is a shocking tale. The 1927 Royal Commission, conducted in the year after the massacre, was hamstrung from the outset. At the centre of the conspiracy is O’Leary who shared in a soldier-settler holding dubbed ‘the underworld’ in the East Kimberley. Dealings with Aboriginal people there were characterised by a disregard for the law.

O’Leary of the Underworld is a searing indictment of how white justice failed Aboriginal people. But it’s also a beautifully told, if not disturbing, journey into the mind of a sociopath. It’s all the more horrifying because it’s part of our history. Still, there’s something deeply satisfying in getting to the truth, as hard as it may be to reconcile.

Reviewed by Gregory Dobbs

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kate Auty is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne.

She was the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability in Victoria from 2009 to 2014. During that appointment her office audited the environmental management systems of government departments and agencies and reported on the state of the environment, climate change, biodiversity and private land, water sensitive urban design.

She has formerly held appointments as a magistrate in Victoria and in the goldfields and western desert of Western Australia, in both positions establishing Aboriginal sentencing courts in consultation with Aboriginal people.

Kate is a foundation member of the community action group Strathbogie Voices in north east Victoria which has organised an environmental discussion series this year, titled ‘On the Road to Paris, 2015’. She is chair of the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute Advisory Board, Chair of the National Electronic Collaborative Tools and Research Advisory Board, a Member of the Murray Darling Basin Authority Advisory Committee, and Member of the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network.

Kate continues as a barrister in Victoria.