Bluff’s Bluff

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Wed, 23/10/2019 - 06:32

In Tenterfield Shire, New South Wales, is an imposing cliff face called Bluff Rock. It is a rather splendid natural feature, but alas, a horrible story is attached to its rugged grandeur. It is said that in the early 1840s, Aboriginal tribesmen had killed a white shepherd; a posse of white settlers chased them to Bluff’s summit from which they were hurled. The story is disputed, so no-one today truly knows what happened.

The rock is aptly named, for a bluff is a deception, a subterfuge, a pretence and a sham. Were any actually hurled off the cliff? Aboriginal folk knew well their ancestral land. Running up a steep hill with a sheer drop to evade pursuers doesn’t seem very smart. On the other hand, might the shepherd’s murder have been a convenient lie with which to mask and justify a local genocide? No-one knows. The Lord Jesus said

For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light. (Luke 8:17)

The Judge of the Earth will do right- both at Bluff Rock and elsewhere. There are still 3000 unsolved murders committed in Ulster during the Troubles; one online list of unsolved British murders begins in 1536 and ends in 2016. Sadly, more are likely to be added to that list. Yet the Judge of the Earth will still do right; unsolved crimes will be punished, mysteries solved, justice dispensed.