(Redirected from List of massacres of indigenous Australians)This is a 'list of massacres of indigenous Australians'. For discussion of the historical arguments around these conflicts see the articles on the
History Wars and the
Black armband view of history, plus the section on
impact of European settlement in the article on
Indigenous Australians .
1800s
★ The
Black War refers to a period of intermittent conflict between the
British colonists and
Aborigines in
Van Diemen's Land (now
Tasmania) in the early years of the
1800s. The conflict has been described as a
genocide resulting in the decimation of the full-blood Tasmanian Aboriginal population, though there are presently many thousands of individuals with degrees of Tasmanian Aboriginal background. The culmination of this period was the forcible removal of the survivors, in the 1830s, to
Flinders Island in
Bass Strait. The specially built settlement was not suitable, with terrible living conditions and many died from disease introduced by Europeans. Later they were moved to a settlement at
Oyster Cove south of Hobart. Some of the descendants of the Tasmanian Aborigines still live on Flinders Island and nearby
Cape Barren Island.
[1]
1820s
★ '1824'
Bathurst massacre: Following the killing of seven Europeans by Aboriginal people around
Bathurst, New South Wales, martial law was declared and around 100 Aboriginal people killed.
[2] [3]
1830s
★ '1830'
Fremantle, Western Australia,: The first official 'punishment raid' on Aboriginal people in Western Australia, led by Captain Irwin took place in May 1830. A detachment of soldiers led by Irwin attacked an Aboriginal encampment north of Fremantle in the belief that it contained men who had 'broken into and plundered the house of a man called Paton' and killed some poultry. Paton had called together a number of settlers who, armed with muskets, set after the Aborigines and came upon them not far from the home. 'The tall savage who appeared the Chief showed unequivocal gestures of defiance and contempt' and was accordingly shot. Irwin stated, ''"This daring and hostile conduct of the natives induced me to seize the opportunity to make them sensible to our superiority, by showing how severely we could retaliate their aggression."'' In actions that followed over the next few days, more Aborigines were killed and wounded.
[4] [5]
★ '1833-34'
Convincing Ground massacre (Gunditjmara): On the shore near
Portland, Victoria was one of the largest recorded massacres in Victoria. Whalers and the local Kilcarer Gunditjmara people disputed rights to a beached whale carcass.
[6]
★ '1834':
Battle of Pinjarra,
Western Australia: Official records state 14 Aboriginal people killed, but other accounts put the figure much higher
[1] [8]
★ '1838'
Myall Creek massacre -
10th June: 28 people killed at Myall Creek near
Inverell, New South Wales. This was the first Aboriginal massacre for which European settlers were tried. Eleven men were charged with murder but acquitted. A new trial was held and the seven men charged with the murder of one Aboriginal child. They were found guilty and hanged.
★ '1838'
Waterloo Creek massacre: A
Sydney mounted police detachment attacked an encampment of
Kamilaroi people at a place called Waterloo Creek in remote bushland.
[9]
★ '1838'
Benalla (
Benalta run -
musk duck):
Grantville Stapylton named the river 'Broken'. In April of that year a party of some 18 men, in the employ of
George Faithful and
William Faithfull, were searching out new land to the south of
Wangaratta. Then, in the vicinity of, or possibly on, the present townsite of Benalla, it is alleged that a large number of
Aborigines attacked the party's camp. At least one
Koori and somewhere between eight and thirteen
Europeans died in what became known as the
Faithfull Massacre. Local reprisals lasted a number of years, resulting in the deaths of up to 100 Aborigines. The reason for the attack is unclear although some sources claim that the men took shots at local Aborigines and generally
provoked them. It also seems they were
camping on a
hunting ground
:This "hunting ground" would have been a ceremonial ground probably called a 'Kangaroo ground'. Hunting grounds were all over so not something that would instigate an attack. The colonial government decided to "open up" the lands south of Yass after the Faithful Massacre and bring them under British rule. This was as much to try and protect the Aboriginal people from reprisals as to open up new lands for the colonists. The Aboriginal people were (supposedly) protected under British law.
★ '1830s' - '1840s'
Wiradjuri Wars: Clashes between European settlers and
Wiradjuri were very violent, particularly around the
Murrumbidgee. The loss of fishing grounds and significant sites and the killing of Aboriginal people was retaliated through attacks with spears on cattle and stockmen. In the 1850s there were still corroborees around Mudgee but there were fewer clashes. Known cermeony continued at the Murrumbidgee into the 1890s. European settlement had taken hold and the Aboriginal population was in temporary decline.
1840s
★ '1840-1850'
Gippsland massacres of the
Gunai people in
East Gippsland,
Victoria,
Australia in response to their resistance to European settlement on their land. The real death toll is unclear as few records exist or were made at the time, from available evidence (letters and diaries), it appears
[10]:
:1840 - Nuntin- unknown number killed by
Angus McMillan's men
:1840 - Boney Point - "
Angus McMillan and his men took a heavy toll of Aboriginal lives"
:1841 - Butchers Creek - 30-35 shot by
Angus McMillan's men
:1841 -
Maffra - unknown number shot by
Angus McMillan's men
:1842 -
Skull Creek - unknown number killed
:1842 -
Bruthen Creek - "hundreds killed"
:1843 -
Warrigal Creek - between 60 and 180 shot by
Angus McMillan and his men
:1844 -
Maffra - unknown number killed
:1846 - South
Gippsland - 14 killed
:1846 -
Snowy River - 8 killed by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police
:1846-47 - Central
Gippsland - 50 or more shot by armed party hunting for
a white woman supposedly held by Aborigines; no such woman was ever found.
:1850 - East
Gippsland - 15-20 killed
:1850 -
Murrindal - 16 poisoned
★ '1841'
Wonnerup Massacre: George Layman was speared by a Wardandi (from Wardan = Ocean) man, Gaywer, at Wonnerup House, Capel,
Western Australia when he refused to release an Aboriginal woman held at the house. This led to the Wonnerup Massacre where white settlers rode abreast through the tuart forest killing over 250 people on their tribal land. The dead are reputed to be buried at Ludlow Forest, currently being mined for mineral sands by Cable Sands.
[11]
★ '1841'
Rufus River Massacre - August: 35
Maraura people killed in a two-day conflict with a number of police and volunteers from
Adelaide after sheep and cattle were stolen and several months of violent tension.
★ '1842'
Deen Maar -
Eumerella Wars took place over 20 years in the mid-1800s. The remains of people involved in the conflict are at Deen Maar.
★ '1846'
Blanket Bay,
Cape Otway,
Victoria - July: Rape and killing of numerous local
Katabanut (
king parrot) people during an expedition of
Native Police dispatched by
Captain Foster Fyans.
1850s-1890s
★ '1864'
Richmond River massacre - January: 100 people killed at
Richmond River,
New South Wales.
★ '1865' The
La Grange expedition was a search expedition carried out in the vicinity of La Grange Bay in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia led by
Maitland Brown that led to the death of up to 20 Aboriginal people. The expedition has been celebrated with the
Explorers' Monument in
Fremantle, Western Australia.
★ '1868' Flying Foam massacre,
Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia. Following the killing of two police and two settlers by local
Yaburara people, two parties of settlers from the
Roebourne area, led by prominent
pastoralists Alexander McRae and
John Withnell, killed an unknown number of Yaburara. Estimates of the number of dead range from 20 to 150.
[12]
★ '1874'
Barrow Creek Massacre - February (
NT): Mounted Constable Samuel Gason arrived at Barrow Creek and a police station was opened. Eight days later a group of
Kaytetye men attacked the station, either in retaltiation for treatment of Kaytetye women, the closing off of their only water source, or both. Two white men were killed and one wounded. Samuel Gason mounted a large police hunt against the Kaytetye resulting in the killing of many Aboriginal men, women and children - some say up to 90.
[13] Skull Creek takes its name from the bleached bones found there long after
[14].
★ '1880s-90s'
Arnhem Land: Series of skirmishes and "wars" between
Yolngu and whites. Several massacres at Florida Station
[1]. Richard Trudgen
[2] also writes of several massacres in this area, including an incident where Yolngu were fed poisoned horsemeat after they killed and ate some cattle (under their law, it was their land and they had an inalienable right to eat animals on their land). Many people died as a result of that incident. Trudgen also talks of a massacre ten years later after some Yolngu took a small amount of barbed wire from a huge roll to build fishing spears. Men, women and children were chased by
mounted police and men from the Eastern and African Cold Storage Company and shot.
★ '1884' Battle Mountain: 200
Kalkadoon people killed near
Mount Isa, Queensland after a Chinese shepherd had been murdered.
★ '1887'
Halls Creek Western Australia.
Mary Durack suggests there was a conspiracy of silence about the massacres of Djara, Konejandi and Walmadjari peoples about attacks on Aborigines by white gold-miners, Aboriginal reprisals and consequent massacres at this time.
John Durack was speared, which led to a local massacre in the Kimberley.
★ '1890' Speewah Massacre, Qld: Early settler, John Atherton, took revenge on the
Djabugay by sending in native troopers to avenge the killing of a
bullock. Other unconfirmed reports of similar atrocities occurred locally.
[15]
★ '1890-1920'
Kimberley region - The Killing Times - East Kimberleys: About half of the Kimberley Aboriginal people massacred as a result of a number of reprisals for cattle spearing, and payback killings of European settlers.
1900s
★
Kimberley region - The Killing Times - 1890-1920: The massacres listed below have been depicted in modern
Australian Aboriginal art from the Warmun/Turkey Creek community who were members of the tribes affected. Oral history of the massacres were passed down and artists such as the late
Rover Thomas have depicted the massacres.
★ '1906-7'
Canning Stock Route: an unrecorded number of Aboriginal men and women were raped and massacred when
Mardu people were captured and tortured to serve as 'guides' and reveal the sources of water in the area after being 'run down' by men on horseback, restrained by heavy chains 24 hours a day, and tied to trees at night. In retaliation for this treatment, plus the party's interference with traditional wells, and the theft of cultural artefacts, Aborigines destroyed some of Canning's wells, and stole from and occasionally killed white travellers. A
Royal Commission in 1908, exonerated Canning, after an appearance by
Kimberley Explorer and Lord Mayor of
Perth,
Alexander Forrest claimed that all explorers had acted in such a fashion.
[16]
★ '1920s'
Mistake Creek: Seven
Kija people were alleged to have been killed by men under the control of a Constable Rhatigan, at Mistake Creek, East Kimberley. The massacre was as a reprisal for allegedly killing Rhadigan's cow, however, the cow was found alive after the massacre had already taken place. Rhatigan was arrested for wilful murder, but the charges were dropped, for lack of evidence.
[17] The historian
Keith Windschuttle disputes the version put forward by former
Governor-General of Australia,
William Deane, in November 2002. Windschuttle found the massacre took place on March 30, 1915, not in the 1930s, and was not a reprisal attack by whites over a cow, but "an internal feud between Aboriginal station hands" over a woman. "No Europeans were responsible. There was no dispute over a stolen cow, and it had nothing to do with theories about terra nullius or of Aborigines being subhuman."
[18]. However, members of the Gija tribe, from the Warmun (Turkey Creek) community have depicted the massacre in their artworks (see
Warmun Art.
1920s
★ '1924'
Bedford Downs massacre: a group of
Kija or
Gija men were jailed for spearing a bullock. On release from jail they had to walk the 200 kilometers back to
Bedford Downs, where they were set to work to cut the wood that was later used to burn their bodies. Once the work was finished they were fed
Strychnine, and the bodies were burned.
[19] This massacre has been depicted in artworks by members of the Gija tribe.
★ '1926'
Forrest River massacre in the
East Kimberleys): in May 1926, Fred Hay, a pastoralist, was speared and killed by an Aboriginal man, Lumbia. A police patrol led by Constables James St Jack and Denis Regan left
Wyndham on June 1, to hunt for the killer, and in the first week of July, Lumbia, the accused man, was brought into Wyndham. In the months that followed rumours circulated of a massacre by the police party. The Rev.
Ernest Gribble of
Forrest River Mission (later Oombulgurri) alleged that 30 people had been killed by the police party. A Royal Commission, conducted by G. T. Wood sent an evidence-gathering party and heard evidence regarding Gribble's allegations. The Royal Commission found that 11 people had been massacred and the bodies burned. In May 1927, St Jack and Regan were charged with the murder of Boondung, one of the 11. However, at a preliminary hearing, Magistrate Kidson found there was insufficient evidence to proceed to trial. Subsequent attacks on the credibility of Gribble led to his departure from the region.
[20] In 1999, journalist Rod Moran, published a book ''Massacre Myth'' which reviewed the evidence and found that the massacre was a fabrication by Gribble. No eyewitnesses or survivors were ever found. Gribble had a history of making false claims about mistreatment of Aborigines and was known to have had a history of mental illness. The evidence-gathering party found no graves. All of the bones found either could not be identified as human or were animal bones. Of the people listed as missing by Gribble, Moran was able to account for all but one as not being killed in the massacre, from mission and police records. One woman had been killed by her husband before the Hay killing and another was listed twice.
★ '1928'
Coniston massacre: A WW1 veteran shot 32 Aborigines at
Coniston in the
Northern Territory after a white dingo trapper and station owner were attacked by Aborigines. A survivor of the massacre,
Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, later became part of the first generation of
Papunya painting men. Billy Stockman was saved by his mother who put him in a
coolamon [see 'The Tjulkurra': Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, ISBN 1-876622-37-7] A court of inquiry said the European action was ‘justified'.
[21] [22]
After 1930
★ '1932-34 '
Caledon Bay crisis: In 1932, five Japanese poachers, two white men, and a policeman were killed by
Yolngu people in retaliation for rapes. A "punitive expedition" from Darwin was proposed, just as had happened at the
Coniston massacre four years earlier, but this was averted, and the matter was settled in the courts. This event is marked as a significant turning point in the history of the treatment of Aboriginal people.
References
1. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website
2. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website
3. National Trust account of the 1824 Bathurst war
4. Study guide to "My Place" by Sally Morgan
5. Tom Stannage, (1979), The People of Perth: a social history of Western Australia’s Capital City, p. 27
6. Convincing Ground Clark, Ian D.
7. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website
8. Fairfax Walkabout Australian travel guide on the Pinjarra
9. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Frontier Education history website
10. Gardner, P.D. (2001), ''Gippsland massacres: the destruction of the Kurnai tribes, 1800-1860''. Ngarak Press, Ensay, Victoria ISBN 1-875254-31-5
11. Indigenous history at Save the Tuarts
12. http://pals.dia.wa.gov.au/timelines.aspx
13. http://www.clc.org.au/media/publications/landalive/barrow.asp
14. http://www.connectingthecontinent.com/ctcwebsite/stories/story5.htm
15. http://www.kuranda.org/?p=53
16. Remote Area Tours - History
17. Decrying the memories of Mistake Creek is yet further injustice
18. Truce, and truth, in history wars
19. ABC 7:30 report
20. Quadrant Magazine
21. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website
22. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Frontier Education history website
External links
★
History Wars Special in the
Sydney Morning Herald
★
Who plays Stalin in our History Wars? Stuart Macintyre
See also
★
Gippsland massacres
★
Cullin-La-Ringo massacre
★
Skull Creek
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
