Click here to subscribe. 0000116989 00000 n Gardner, Peter, 'The Warrigal Creek massacre', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, pp. 0000002733 00000 n The themes in this page may cause distress. 0001031115 00000 n 0000002903 00000 n L4V n)p>WRMXBe*(ru)%]>9,ZUN \p ,_`s=L{5vs{Gw 2ngnBaz0&#Xk+_ q10 m Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre in of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. [3] Their customs and society were studied in detail by Alfred W. Howitt, but due to violence and the effects of disease, alcohol and the mission system, much traditional knowledge had already been lost by the time he began recording information in the mid-1860s. The men were easy prey for the Kurnai and by mid-1843, four had been murdered. 0000023940 00000 n 2 0 obj This essay appears in Decembers Quadrant. News; Warrigal Creek doco at the Memo. In July 1843 Angus McMillan and a group of his countrymen known as the Highland Brigade shot between 60 and 150 Gunaikurnai people in retribution for the murder of Ronald Macalister, the nephew of a wealthy pastoralist, Lachlan Macalister, who owned a local station called Nuntin. 3 0 obj It beggars belief that it was accepted as a completely reliable historical source. Gardner cites this version to confirm that Gippslander was in fact Hoddinott but he does not mention that the two versions contain a number of significant differences. My late husbands family had owned the property since the late 1880s and my father-in-law was a very passionate historian, she says. 4 0 obj [4] Howitts pioneering anthropological work is compelling reading and provides a suitable counter to many modern narratives. [23] To put this in context, crimes against livestock carried a heavy penalty. In his first notes [in the 1970s], he talks about the massacre and, from the beginning of my time here, no one ever kept a blanket over the story. This page was last edited on 26 February 2023, at 01:43. There exists little to no official documentation of the Warrigal Creek Massacre. They did not find any Bunurong so they ransacked a squatters station instead. [35] This simplistic reductionism obscures the complexity of Gippslands early history, evident in his rejection of Robinsons observations on the escaped convicts. The validity of the will remains a problem. At a quiet bend on a beautiful creek they committed one of the worst acts of indiscriminate killing in the Australian colonies. It was made to better understand our country's true history. However, Thomas, Hatcher and Meyrick did not mention Warrigal Creek as Gardner claimsand they certainly did not mention McMillan. [25], Tyers noted that the Kurnai were geographically isolated from all of the neighbouring Aboriginal tribes, none of whom could understand their language, and From this circumstance, the Chief Protector [Robinson] on his visit to Gipps Land last year, was unsuccessful in his attempts to communicate with them. The isolation from the other tribes meant that their fierce and predatory habits have received no check.[26]. This account is much closer in time to what may have happened at Warrigal Creek but Bell did not reveal how he knew of the massacres. Thu They proposed a different name: Bunjileene-Purrine. qgAHrgAX8]eAVi a"0Uc|sQ d$uIOrE&n2"c,%$qHFWpTWn>!bB):I\PhE17 0000024998 00000 n The Warrigal Creek Massacre on Vimeo. In July 1843, a man named Ronald Macalister was killed by Aboriginal men near Port Albert, on the coast of Victoria. [16] The Port Phillip Gazette reported in April 1845: A report has been current that a whole tribe of blacks has been extirpated in the Gipps Land country, by the Western Port or Port Phillip blacks, led on by several of the Mounted Black Police; we understand that an investigation is now going on, and we may add it is one of the most extraordinary affairs we have yet heard about. External Lived Experience Employment Opportunities, Complete the VMIAC Conference 2023 Survey, CEO Update with Craig Wallace | 17.02.2023, New Consumer Register Opportunity: Access Policy & Triage Guidelines, CEO Update with Craig Wallace | 03.02.2023, CEO Update with Craig Wallace | 20.01.2023. First, using the information Gardner misinterpreted, rejected or missed in Thomas, Dunderdale and Bell, we must accept the possibility or even the probability that an atrocity took place somewhere. This changed with the arrival of Tyers, who told La Trobe: The run-away Convicts, and other bad characters with which the District was infested a few months ago have, I believe been nearly all driven out by the system of surveillance pursued by the Border Police, acting under my instructions.[29]. From 1840, increased numbers of convicts were sent to Van Diemens Land after the cessation of transportation to New South Wales. Drawing on official archives and oral histories that have never died, this is the story of The Warrigal Creek Massacre. [23] Inwards correspondence Tyers to La Trobe 44/1367 p.5 PROV, [24] Port Phillip Gazette 21 May 1842, p.3, [25] Tyers to La Trobe Inwards Correspondence 45/324 PROV, [27] Tyers to La Trobe Inwards Correspondence 46/219 PROV, [28] Tyers to La Trobe Inwards Correspondence 44/2112, PROV; Port Phillip Patriot 12 August 1839, p.4, [29] Tyers to La Trobe Inwards Correspondence 44/1367, p.4, PROV, [30] Port Phillip Patriot 12 August 1839, p.4, [31] Gardner, P. D. (1994) Through Foreign Eyes, Ngarak Press, Ensay, p.45, [32]Gardner (1993) p.58; (1990) Our Murdering Founding Father, 2nd Edition, Ngarak Press, p.28, [33] The Guardian 6 March 2019; 8 March 2019; Gippsland Times 16 June 2020, [34] Gardner (1993) pp 6-7; (2015) Some Random Notes on Massacres 2000-2015 (on-line essay). %PDF-1.3 The historical record of this conflict up to 1843 is sparse and consists of just a few newspaper reports. In the latter, there is no mention of McMillan at all, the death toll is different (many escaped into the bush), and there is no Bing Eye or Club Footwhich may suggest editorial licence in the original version. Can only find the trailer. 0000010851 00000 n Presumably he had reasons for both, but he did not say why and he did not reveal the source of his information. You can still browse your favorite events on our 6az Q";cM;|?)/ Bg~VK7QVK_6 +K}\\&h"DmWK+^>Pnu"8H8@sF1jO-@g?XjGs=2]v'x9y[6p X &.-Yl;;]+/[r=w(\QwG SDB?#86mXpqrOzX\R++QkEfz75Br,=t'F4_]Ug@dNq{":Q7 &DvB )vBqKwbm%aM!._aiaekE)hc_9lujzR10IrR--6HWXSA[Wd{DS#~}wDvenr,rFU-}aOe(d}b startxref The stories were republished as The Book of the Bush in 1898. Frustrated with the hidden history of the massacre, the makers of this 50-minute documentary sought oral histories and combed through archival works to capture and relay the truth of Australias violent past. Warrigal Creek Massacre: A Truth-telling Documentary. Peter Gardner[1]. 8 /Filter /FlateDecode >> Bells account is matter-of-fact and he did not name McMillan or any other person. This mass murder was committed by early colonists Angus McMillan and the Highland Brigade. Because to move forward we must acknowledge our past. e8 m-T>6R'WrqPWUVe)0'Yn1UF]2|SOWS)^h|6xy. According to Tyers, at least fifty Kurnai were killed by the Native Police and other Aborigines attached to the search parties. Thomas wrote in April 1845: He said he and another man had come unarmed from Gippsland. Please try again. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the Brigade from one camp to another. Thomas wrote that Meyrick, gave me a most awful statement of doings in Gippsland & tho he stated the utter impossibility of bringing forward valid evidence to convict in a court of law, yet the awful spectacle of human skeletons & pack[s] of bones & report[s] of doings within the last 3 yrs, shows that the Aborigines have been cut off in awful numbers, & the residue left almost totally destitute, in fact he said how they lived God only knew as they were driven to the Lakes & Lagoons where Europeans would not follow them, that the Maneiro Blks (encouraged he believed by the early Settlers) [had] been very instrumental with the Black Police of awfully thinning their numbers that the Awful Sacrifice of life after the Murder of Mr McAlister was awfully reckless & merciless [53]. In the revised edition of Gippsland Massacres, Gardner reinvented the account, claiming the bones were carried away from the [Warrigal] Creek by the cartload. The manager of the Krowathunkooloong keeping place in Bairnsdale, Rob Hudson, agrees. A Scottish colonist, called Angus McMillan, led a group of about 20 settlers who . His body was mutilated and stripped, and it was found the next day by an Aboriginal boy in his employment. If you would like to participate, visit the project page. This was written two years after the murder of Macalister; stating that the slaughter took place after the murder does not necessarily mean that it took place because of the murder. To those who came by jet plane yesterday. She worries Australia is still not ready to listen. McMillans employer, Captain Lachlan Macalister, described the squatters as legally authorised occupiers of Crown lands. Gardners work has hints of Marxist reductionism, where the Kurnai are portrayed as living in an Arcadian economy that was destroyed by the expansionary capitalism of the land-hungry squatters. Macalister stated that escaped convicts were committing the most revolting crimes the calendar can namesuch as murder, rape, robbery, forgeries, cattle-stealing, and last, though not least, sly grog-selling, the root of all crime. Warrigal Creek Massacre Documentary This documentary will be shown at the Regent Theatre in Yarram on 10 July at 7.30pm during Naidoc Week. The blacks were found encamped near a waterhole at Gammon Creek, and those who were shot were thrown into it, to the number, it was said, of about sixty, men, women, and children; but this was probably an exaggeration.[57]. [42] Elsewhere he states that Hoddinotts desire to remain anonymous would seem to indicate that the telling of the story may have had undesirable repercussions. I think the first thing for Gippsland is to acknowledge that it does have that history, like other places where bad things have happened, where massacres have occurred, where theres some acknowledgement of whats occurred instead of masking it, a Gurnaikurnai elder, Doris Paton, told the film-makers Andrew Dodd and Lisa Gye. He added that one of the Kurnai involved in the murder survived and often re-enacted his part in the ambush. 16 0 obj Drawing on official archives and oral histories that have never died, this is the story of The Warrigal Creek Massacre. endobj Convicts were entitled to a daily ration of fresh meat, as were the military and the civilian authorities. In other parts of the District, prior to my arrival, they had occasionally come into collision with the Settlersthe consequence of which was the murder of four shepherdsand as far as I can learn without any provocationthey have also committed, and are still committing, many depredations on the stock of the Settlerswhich from the nature of the country, and the known fact of their carrying on their depredations at night, it is difficult to prevent. First though, it is necessary to establish the circumstances that led to the European settlement of Gippsland and the resulting conflict with the indigenous Kurnai people, which is the root of the massacre story. Probably even as a child I just sensed something its a really spiritual place, she says. Peter Gardner deserves recognition for highlighting the reality of conflict in early Gippsland. )A?8yo]gNV2nj}cR2|#~M >A$M#~A^EQ ~Q{?pO0!&S7),}w4Wf+(L1Qd (wL~MdP{"&r'|2b7##lQ$*GJA]a8[B&DKv-vk@,#dD B79 j2zKD#,mgF(3dz_5W^LaJhs/QwFrqP{q[U}d He was afterwards adopted by one of the party and called Bing Eye. /Im4 20 0 R /Im1 8 0 R >> >> [1] Gardner, P. D. (1993) Gippsland Massacres (third edition) Ngarak Press, Ensay, Victoria, p. 66, [3] Howitt, A W (1880) The Kurnai: Their Customs in Peace and War in Fison, L. and Howitt, A W Kamilaroi and Kurnai Anthropological Publications, Oosterhout, facsimile edition, pp 227-29, [6] Morris, H. B. This land was never ceded. Truth-telling about the wrongs of the past is necessary for reconciliation. 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