INANAM

The Inanam valley is one of the most fertile valleys On the West Coast. It lies about seven miles

from Jesselton and is the nearest valley on that side. Agriculture thrives in Inanam because the soil is good and because the market at Jesselton is comparatively near. One of the best-coffee plantations in the. country lies alongside the main road near the village. Tea is growing in a plantation at the head: of the valley and the tea from this plantation finds a ready sale in Jesselton. It is the first tea to be grown on a commercial scale in the country. Padi, sago, rubber, coconuts and many kinds of native fruits all flourish well. In the bad old days Inanam was the stamping ground of defiant natives. It was a thorn in the side of the Government for a long time because its rulers did not surrender it until much later than most of the rest of the territory. The Sultans ceded the greater part of our territory in 1877 but it was not until 1898, more than 20 years later, that the Sultan of Brunei ceded Inanam together with the area which now comprises Jesselton, Inanam and Mengattal.

THE INANAM EXPEDITION.

In 1897 the rebel chief Mat Salleh made his quarters in Inanam and an expedition based on

Gaya Island advanced against him. Mr. Owen Rutter describes the expedition in his book on

British North Borneo. The party left the Government Station on Gaya Island in boats and landed

at Tanjong Aru amongst the casuarina trees on what is now the Jesselton bathing beach. They

marched across the area now served by the Penampang Road into the Putatan valley and there

collected some friendly natives, bringing their number to 78 men. They passed Penampang and crossed the hills from the Putatan into the Inanam valley, The Engineers have heard of this historic route and they are now asking questions about it. Mr. Hewett, the Resident of Labuan, who came over to take charge of the expedition laid his plans well. He stationed a launch at the mouth of the river Inanam to block it while he marched down from the ‘ulu’ .When his party descended, into the valley they found all the Dusun Villages crammed with the loot which the natives had taken as the prize of their successful raid upon the Government station at Gaya Island earlier in the year. On July 15th and 16th, 1897, the expedition carried two of the forts on the Inanam River and began an attack upon the main stronghold which consisted of a fort guarding

the Bajau villages on the banks of the lower reaches of the river. The expedition was successful but Mat Salleh escaped capture and fled -to his old haunts in the Sugut River.

THE TAMU GROUND.

At a later stage in its history Inanam tamu formed a picnic ground for the ladies of Jesselton. Picnic parties used to leave Jesselton in native boats and paddle round the coast of Jesselton harbour into the mouth of the Inanam River to visit the tamu. They would paddle up the river to the tamu ground, where Bajaus and Dusuns have gathered together from time immemorial for marketing their produce. Inanam tamu is perhaps the best known of all the local tamu. The Bajaus, happy rogues, spent much of their time in stealing the Dusuns' buffaloes but could meet the Dusuns on this common ground. The Bajaus brought fish to sell while the Dusuns traded in rice and tobacco. Up-country Dusuns used to come all the way from Tambunan to attend this tamu and their red white and blue clothing and their long tobacco baskets were objects of interest to visitors. Inanam tamu now-a-days is not as popular as it was. The District Officers have had occasion to shift the meeting ground once or twice and the tamu now meets just across the Inanam River bridge on the right hand side of the road, where the passing motorist will notice a collection of huts on the river bank. Inanam citizens appreciate the services of our engineers. They use the river bridge itself as their civic centre. This is a long timber bridge on concrete piers. It is built in Bornean style. It carries a roof of shingles which shelters the long double trusses of the bridge and its wooden decked road way. This ample roof protects the structure 

from the sun and rain and provides Inanam with its town hall. Village elders settle disputes upon the bridge while they thoughtfully chew tobacco quids or spit red betel-nut into the river below. Civic pride may manifest itself in different ways, but who shall say that Inanam bridge is not, to the patriarchs of Inanam, what London or Waterloo Bridge is to the fur-trimmed dignitaries of London.