This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the project's quality scale. Gardner omitted a part of the quote that indicates Hatcher travelled to Gippsland with a man named Bennett. Runaways from the settlers, and others have located themselves in some vacated huts on the Tara River, rendering it dangerous for passengers to approach this neighbourhood Your Excellency cannot for the sake of humanity, good government, well-being, and the safety of this district, much longer withhold from us the protection of those laws which we have a right to demand at your Excellencys hands [21]. Gardners evidence for Angus McMillans involvement in the Warrigal Creek massacre consists of a story written for The Gap school magazine in 1925 by William Hoddinott under the pseudonym of Gippslander. His reports correlate with the newspaper accounts in describing the violent state of Gippsland. [58] Apart from the perverse logic of this claim, it is factually incorrect. 0000116911 00000 n The Balderstones house is just steps from a humble waterway where up to 150 Gunaikurnai people were mowed down, turning the water red with blood, A massacre map of the frontier wars interactive. This mass murder was committed by early colonists Angus McMillan and the Highland Brigade. News; Warrigal Creek doco at the Memo. 'Conspiracy of silence': how sabotaged inquiries fed massacre denials, Telling the truth about Australia's past will be painful but it will be liberating | Karen Mundine and Richard Weston, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Perhaps the most revealing example of Gardners influence is Cal Flynns Thicker Than Water, in which McMillan is denounced by his own descendant. 0000015443 00000 n 2 0 obj Buntines Bruthen Creek run was several miles and several squatting runs to the west of Warrigal Creek. [2], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}374014S 1463957E / 37.67056S 146.66583E / -37.67056; 146.66583, Last edited on 26 February 2023, at 01:43, List of massacres of Indigenous Australians, "Victoria's Deadly & Proud campaign remembers Indigenous victims of Warrigal Creek massacre in South Gippsland", "Living on a massacre site: home truths and trauma at Warrigal Creek", "Victoria to introduce Australia's first truth-telling process to address Indigenous injustices", "Victoria to establish truth and justice process as part of Aboriginal treaty process", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Warrigal_Creek_Massacre&oldid=1141638012, "The Settling of Gippsland - A Regional History", by Patrick Morgan, published by Gippsland Municipalities Association, Traralgon, 1997. Production and research by Danielle Bowen, Jonathan Boadle, Jakeb Fair, Alex Owsianka, Don Sheil and Ben Winnell. Robinsons comments are significant in that he was revealing that escaped convicts were responsible for mistreating the Kurnai. Gardners method in telling the story is to first present the massacre and McMillans involvement as matters of fact. 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. In July 1843, a man named Ronald Macalister was killed by Aboriginal men near Port Albert, on the coast of Victoria. endobj 0000016727 00000 n Historian Peter Gardner, in a review of all accounts of the massacre, wrote that MacMillan and the Highland Brigade aimed to wipe out all the Aboriginal people in the area. Peter Gardner has written three books in which he asserts that Angus McMillan, The Butcher of Gippsland, was responsible for several massacres of Kurnai people. He has attached his own assertions to his source material without distinguishing between them, and these assertions are made without proof or explanation. 0001064309 00000 n /TT4 13 0 R /TT6 15 0 R /TT1 10 0 R >> /XObject << /Im2 16 0 R /Im3 18 0 R [56] These accounts nonetheless provide evidence of the otherwise unrecorded conflict between the Europeans and the Kurnai at places such as Bruthen Creek. Gardner claimed in June 2020 that Meyrick gave a death toll of about 150 for Warrigal Creek, which he did not. A European convicted of cattle stealing in the Port Phillip District faced the penalty of transportation for fifteen years; in Van Diemens Land, it was for life.[24]. 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]. The Warrigal Creek Massacre on Vimeo. 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. The Commissariat let annual tenders for the supply of fresh meat and other staples. In October that year, ninety-seven Kurnai warriors made a revenge raid into Bunurong territory. [2] His work has indeed permeated academic and public discourse, but it contains many unproven assertions that undermine his main premise, that McMillan was responsible for the massacre. If you would like to participate, visit the project page. Food and drink refreshments will be offered (meat, vegetarian and gluten free options available). 2151 Gary Foley's Koori History Website http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/indexb.html Kevin Gilbert, Because a . The murder of Ranald Macalister may have been the pretext for an attack on the Kurnai at Warrigal Creek or Gammon Creek but this is not borne out by the contemporary historical record. Fri., 27 May 20225:00 pm 8:30 pm AEST, Siteworks Workroom 233 Saxon StreetBrunswick, VIC 3056. GLaWAC has been given permission to screen the Warrigal Creek Massacre film at our office at Forestec. The next day, while on horseback, he was speared through the neck from behind. [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. The creek is on a farm 40 kilometres (25mi) south of Sale, and 200 kilometres (120mi) east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland area of Victoria, Australia. He wrote a number of reports on the state of Gippsland to his superior, Charles La Trobe, the Superintendent of the Port Phillip District. [48] Thomas (right) recorded a conversation with a man named Hatcher who Gardner believes was the brother-in-law of a Gippsland squatter named Buntine. [32] Gardners work has been influential and generally unquestioned. Gardner is dismissive, claiming that Some parts of this account are definitely wrong on the basis that Dunderdale referred to Macalister of Nuntin. According to Tyers, at least fifty Kurnai were killed by the Native Police and other Aborigines attached to the search parties. LGMedia. This announcement is all that I know, for a screening at Stratford,. He calls them The McMillan Massacres. They murdered, according to Gippslander, 150 at Warrigal Creek, which would make it one of the largest known massacres of Aborigines in Australian history.[36]. To date, there is nothing to suggest that it will include Angus McMillan leading the Charge of the Highland Brigade. To those who came by jet plane yesterday. Gardner claimsincorrectlythat Thomas was aware of the circumstances of the Warrigal Creek massacre, as he had recorded the details of it on two separate occasions. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging. [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. true /ColorSpace 25 0 R /Intent /Perceptual /SMask 26 0 R /BitsPerComponent 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. 91 0 obj <> endobj Thomas wrote in April 1845: He said he and another man had come unarmed from Gippsland. There exists little to no official documentation of the Warrigal Creek Massacre. The quote from Robinson is from Gardners book, Through Foreign Eyes; he says Robinson was incorrect to blame the convicts, because The hostile collisions that occurred following the murder of Macalister and others in Gippsland were carried out by the squatters and their employees.[31] This correction suggests that Gardner entirely overlooked the substance and significance of Robinsons observations. Shepherds worked in pairs, armed, as if in an enemys country, to resist them; and it was 1843 that ended by wholesale destruction, the massacres at Warrigal Creek and Bundalaguah Swamp, where only one aboriginal was left to tell the story of how they died and the history of his race.[61]. Please note and use or adapt the following words. [30] Escapees living outside the law would therefore have posed a dire threat to the Kurnai. When Angus McMillian and the Highland Brigade rode through Gippsland in 1843, they aimed to murder as many Gunai Kurnai children, women and men as they could. I ill not believe anything about aboriginal history that does not have the Indigenous Seal of Approval by the Bruce Pascoe Ministry of Truth. At a quiet bend on a beautiful creek they committed one of the worst acts of indiscriminate killing in the Australian colonies. Historical. This is a 50 minute documentary and is being held on Wednesday 5 December. [33] His work was cited widely in a motion to remove monuments to McMillan put before the Wellington Shire Council in June 2020. [60] Dunderdales geography was correct and it is just possible he knew who he was referring to, given that he arrived in the district just twenty-six years after the event he describedwell within living memory. Bell stated: The historic pen of Victorian settlement would paint with truth the horrors of many a scene of Gipps Land life; it was in 1843 that the aggressions of the blacks were so frequent. The other was a little older; he made his escape up the creek by swimming and diving. 2020, Cnr. 0 0000010708 00000 n While the murder was well documented in contemporary newspaper accounts, the reports also indicate that by mid-1843, Gippsland was in a state of disarray. Your email address will not be published. a federal electorate was renamed that year. The historical record of this conflict up to 1843 is sparse and consists of just a few newspaper reports. Events.com Browse is curated for you to find and attend events you love. 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]. endobj The validity of the will remains a problem. 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. 0000030698 00000 n 0000117321 00000 n [38], I knew two blacks who, though wounded, came out of that hole alive. E lizabeth Balderstone leads a lifestyle that many city dwellers fantasise about, on a farm in Victoria's Gippsland, surrounded by friendly sheep, with a humble little creek just 60 metres from. It also suggests that the squatters were unprepared for the resistance they faced. 8 /Filter /FlateDecode >> 0000002096 00000 n Their territory extended along the coast from Cape Liptrap in the west to Point Hicks in the east, and inland to the Great Dividing Range in the north. Gardner claims it is a secondary source but it is, at best, folk history that he has embroidered with his own fiction about McMillan. But that creek, Warrigal, has seen unimaginable horrors. At the end of 1845, Tyers wrote a follow-up report stating: since the return of the Native Police to Head Quarters the depredations of the Aborigines of the District on the property of the Settlers, including horses as well as horned stock, have increased to an alarming extentand that I cannot at present suggest any other means of prevention, than the continuing service of the Native Police.[27]. One man was killed with thirteen spears, his body was mutilated, and his arms and legs were removedthe Kurnai were cannibals. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the brigade from one camp to another. The squatters were no doubt imbued with the belief that they had the right to do so on the authority of the British Crown, which claimed sovereignty over the entire continent. On the 13th ultimo, Mr. Ronald McAlister was removing his sheep station about two miles from the settlement, when he was attacked by the blacks and murdered; his body was found the following day by a native in his employ. This land was never ceded. This documentary captures a story from Victoria, however there were similar stories as the waves of colonisation swept across the country. 2023 Vimeo.com, Inc. All rights reserved. They were feared by their tribal enemies for their ability to attack at nighta skill the Europeans were to encounter.[5]. "qd]^vc'OontVsl 2, pp.20-21, [9] Cox, Kenneth (1973) Angus McMillan: Pathfinder, Published by the author. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the 'brigade' from one camp to another.". 0000017382 00000 n [11] The violent response from the Kurnai was the same as that meted out to their tribal enemies when defending their territory. 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. The official reports from Tyers to La Trobe from 1844 to 1845 thus describe the situation in Gippsland where the settlers were being attacked by the Kurnai and their stock was being killed. 3 0 obj We wish to pay respect to Elders past, present and emerging. HLWKf_e|~JD,@K&HSU}t?nO?7OWO?zW_/Vew}V53VfyKwVh{OM5{=+JUwPfQ}-nXY34lMXGz+{? [17], This story was repeated in several of the colonial newspapers but there does not seem to have been any follow-up reports. An important part of Australian history, necessary for reconciliation. [15]. 4 0 obj McMillan is mentioned once by Gippslander, where he is supposed to have caught Macalisters horse on the road to Sale (which did not exist then). [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]. I knew two blacks, who though wounded came out of the hole alive. 0000007199 00000 n 0001003043 00000 n 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 He was afterwards adopted by one of the party and called Bing Eye. This 50-minute documentary directed by Lisa Gye and Andrew Dodd examines a day in 1843 when 150 Indigenous men, women and children were slaughtered on the banks of what is now Warrigal Creek in Gippsland. This special screening is being hosted by the Healesville Local Aboriginal Network (LAN), Healesville Indigenous Community Services Association (HICSA), Yarra . 12 >> /ExtGState << /Gs2 23 0 R /Gs1 24 0 R >> /Font << /TT2 11 0 R /TT3 12 0 R [10], When the squatters began occupying Kurnai territory with their herds of sheep and cattle, conflict soon followed. 6 0 obj [4][1], Despite the widespread belief that MacMillan led several massacres, as of 2021[update] there are over 12 monuments in the Gippsland region dedicated to him. 0001000963 00000 n The theme for Reconciliation Week 2018 is 'Don't keep history a mystery' Learn - Share - Grow. Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre in of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. 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