The Manchester Unity Picnic New Year's Day in 1915 was to be the thirteenth annual picnic and sports gathering of the combined lodges of the
Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows in Broken Hill. For the previous twelve years, January 1 had become locally known as the day of the Manchester Unity Picnic, an annual public celebration held at
Penrose Park at
Silverton, north-west of Broken Hill. Each year a special train service was organised by the M.U.I.O.O.F. to convey their guests to the picnic ground. The line to Silverton was part of a
railway operated by the
Silverton Tramway Company. At 10 o'clock on Friday morning, 1 January 1915, a train consisting of two
brake vans and 40 ore trucks, modified with temporary bench seating, left the
Sulphide-street station with 1,200 picnickers on board, seated in the open ore trucks. The train made a brief stop at the Railway Town station before resuming the journey. The two men hiding in the trench, fifty yards from the railway tracks, were members of the local
Muslim community, living at the 'ghantown' encampment at North Broken Hill. As the picnic train began to pass their position, the intention of the men was to shoot as many of the passengers in the open ore trucks as they could. The two men were: •
Mulla Abdullah, aged about 60 years, a former
camel-driver and
halal butcher. • Gool Badsha Mahomed, aged about 40 years, a former cameleer and local ice-cream vendor.
Background to the attack In late October 1914, the Ottoman Empire had joined with Germany in the war against the Allied powers of Britain, France and Russia. In November 1914,
Ürgüplü Mustafa Hayri Efendi, the Ottoman
Sheikh al-Islam, spiritual advisor to the Turkish Sultan, proclaimed a
holy war on behalf of the pan-Islamic world. This "appeal to Moslem fanaticism" was viewed with immediate concern by Britain and her allies, particularly in regard to the large Muslim populations of Egypt and India. Mulla Abdullah and Gool Mahomed lived on the outskirts of the northern camel camp at Broken Hill. Gool Mahomed had purchased ammunition for his rifle in mid-December 1914, and the two men were known to have carried out
target practice in the weeks before the attack. Several days before the attack on the picnic train, Mulla Adbullah was convicted in the Police Court for slaughtering sheep on unlicensed premises, a breach of municipal regulations. He had been reported by the sanitary inspector, Mr. Brosnan, and it was not Adbullah's first offence. The two men transported their rifles and ammunition to the location of the attack in Gool Mahomed's ice-cream cart, which was a familiar sight in Broken Hill.
The attack on the picnic train The men waiting to attack the picnic train were both armed with
breech-loading rifles. Abdullah was armed with an older-style
Snider-Enfield rifle with cartridges in a home-made bandolier. He also had a revolver and cartridges and a knife in a sheath. Gool Mahomed was armed with a more modern
Martini-Henry rifle. The men had spread blankets on the ground within the trench, to lie on as they waited for the train to arrive. As the train passed, the two men started firing their weapons at the passengers. The wagons' low sides left the picnickers' upper bodies and heads completely exposed. The two assailants fired at the passengers as the train passed their position, firing an estimated 20 to 30 shots in all. A witness to the events from nearby Railway Town heard the people in the ore trucks shout "hooray" as the firing began, and then soon afterwards screams were heard. The men in the trench continued firing "until the train had passed a good distance from them". In order to assess the situation Coe, the railway guard, applied the brakes and the train stopped at the Picton siding, about 850 yards beyond the position of the two assailants. However, with the train stopped Mahomed and Abdullah resumed firing. Some of the passengers had gotten off the train, but Coe ordered them back and the train went on a further three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km) to the Silverton Tramway Company's reservoir. An assistant guard, William Elsegood, ran the half a mile to the pumping station and used the telephone there to "raise the alarm" in Broken Hill. Campbell's house was on a rise called Rocky Hill. A resident of nearby Wyman-street, whose house Mahomed and Abdullah walked past by after shooting Tom Campbell, theorised that "the Turks went to Campbell's little two-roomed house with the object of entrenching themselves there, and finding it occupied, simply shot Campbell out of blood lust". After shooting Campbell the two assailants continued in a north-easterly direction, skirting the township. About three-quarters of a mile from the West Camel Camp one of the motor cars carrying the pursuing policemen broke down. Gibson and Dimond and six other police then proceeded in the remaining car. As they approached the camp the policemen saw Gool Mahomed and Mulla Abdullah, dressed in turbans and khaki coats, heading off in a northerly direction. About 250 yards past the camp the two men were ascending a hill with a rocky outcrop; as the car drew closer the men turned, knelt down and fired shots at the approaching vehicle. The police then got out of the car and returned fire. Constable Mills was wounded twice during the exchange of fire. Turkish sources claim that the letter from the Ottoman Sultan was a forgery, and that the Turkish flag found with the perpetrators was planted. It is claimed that the incident was attributed to Turks in order to rally the Australian public for the war.
The German Club That night, a "
turbulent crowd", numbering several hundred, assembled in Argent Street. At about eight o'clock, the crowd, "mostly of young men and youths", were in the vicinity of the Police Station. Many in the crowd were of the opinion that "the Germans were the authors of the outrage", which led to the cry of "To the German Club, lads". The crowd then moved to the German Club premises in Delamore Street, where "the scene became riotous in the extreme". Stones were thrown against the walls and through the windows, while the crowd cheered and "sang snatches of patriotic songs", interspersed with "terrible
execrations" directed at "all foreigners, German, Turks, and Afghans in particular".
The North Camel Camp The North Camel Camp was a settlement of local Muslims at the extreme northern end of Williams Street in North Broken Hill. It consisted of "a few galvanised-iron buildings straggling irregularly around an area of two or three acres", the homes of camel drivers and other camp residents. The area included the business depot for the camel-based transportation of merchandise to surrounding stations and settlements. The most substantial building at the camp was a mosque, a single room twenty by fifteen feet in dimensions with an alcove in the wall and heavily carpeted, but otherwise having no furniture. After the angry crowd had attacked and set fire to the German Club, the authorities decided to send a contingent of police and military to protect the mosque at the North Camel Camp. An advance guard arrived in several cars at about nine-thirty that night and were greeted at the mosque by two "priests of Islam" dressed in turbans and robes. The policemen briefly entered the mosque and then explained to the two men that they were there to "preserve order", as they "feared a repetition of the proceedings that had taken place a little earlier in the evening at the German Club". Soon afterwards, "a crowd apparently numbering some hundreds was seen surging down the road". A detachment of military arrived at about the same time and managed to hold the agitated crowd at bay. After about half an hour, "the inaction of waiting in idleness had its effect", and the crowd began to drift away until "the military and police were left in sole possession of the ground". ==The following days==