We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work. [40] Gippslander (1925) Experiences with Gippsland blacks, The Gap, Education Department, Bairnsdale Inspectorate, Omeo, pp 5-6. [23] To put this in context, crimes against livestock carried a heavy penalty. Don't miss the first Melbourne screening of an important new film, The Warrigal Creek Massacre, by former @Swinburne staff Andrew Dodd and Lisa Gye and assisted by current and former Swinburne. x[Ys~W`R.$7nN$QI.%>pA>\83FOT]K!+qq{|$E hj]Qw >|nQ)jn'L-.~>>ze)/[B_=|?b1R2Kz~&>,g0cppJBw'YzDh/sZOfyfALsn/P%v=3jeVy~;>H"Oj4**@EBxT14:=l3\Es`eeJZT%L}nz`^Kgxh
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s[/wE\|(u2|Jvp:n Production and research by Danielle Bowen, Jonathan Boadle, Jakeb Fair, Alex Owsianka, Don Sheil and Ben Winnell. /Im4 20 0 R /Im1 8 0 R >> >> [37] Again, no proof is offered. In the revised edition of Gippsland Massacres, Gardner reinvented the account, claiming the bones were carried away from the [Warrigal] Creek by the cartload. 0001021671 00000 n
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It was made to better understand our country's true history. 0000020901 00000 n
The second piece of evidence from Thomas is the record of his conversation with the Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick in January 1847. 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. The validity of the will remains a problem. Required fields are marked *. share events with your friends and make the most out of every experience. It really hadnt happened before and it just was not even acknowledged or recognised.. The Warrigal Creek Massacre - the documentary There have now been two packed-out screenings of this documentary at Stratford. Nonetheless, it demonstrates that the early settlement of Gippsland was marked by violence involving the Kurnai, the settlers and convicts. [14], Conflict with the Kurnai was not restricted to the Europeans. 0000116300 00000 n
<< /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> [9], With an overland route opened by McMillan and a rudimentary settlement and port established on the Albert River at Port Albert, squatters began occupying the plains; by the end of 1844, the entire Gippsland squatting district had been occupied. The murder of his nephew gave him both a professional and a family interest in chastising the criminals, and he soon organised a party to look for them. "qd]^vc'OontVsl Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre in of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. Some basic research puts Hatchers account into context. 0001000963 00000 n
The historical record of this conflict up to 1843 is sparse and consists of just a few newspaper reports. 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. Robinsons comments are significant in that he was revealing that escaped convicts were responsible for mistreating the Kurnai. [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. Elizabeth Balderstone stands next to Warrigal Creek on her farm in Victoria the site of an 1843 massacre. You can still browse your favorite events on our He stated: Mr. Ranold McAlister, nephew of the allegorical author, was dragged off his horse, and cruelly murdered, on the township of Alberton, his head being so totally disfigured that his countenance could not be recognised among even his most intimate friends, by these harmless, innocent denizens of the wild of Gipps Land . We were hearing the stories all the time, especially when we were near the places or going past somewhere, my mum would always say, Over that way. Shed point the finger and say, Dont go that way. Warrigal Creek Massacre is within the scope of WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. 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. One man was killed with thirteen spears, his body was mutilated, and his arms and legs were removedthe Kurnai were cannibals. 0000001456 00000 n
[10], When the squatters began occupying Kurnai territory with their herds of sheep and cattle, conflict soon followed. xref
8 /Filter /FlateDecode >> [15]. 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. endobj Because to move forward we must acknowledge our past. This mass murder was committed by early colonists Angus McMillan and the Highland Brigade. ktp33#`r[vhJ hR,t%434qrZQ7z But we strive to be one people, equality of opportunity for all, no privilege by birth, truly one nation. Like Dunderdale and Thomas, he did not mention a mythical Highland Brigade and he was clearly not constrained by Gardners imaginary secrecy. One might assume that Balderstone was blissfully unaware of this when she moved to the farm in 1974, but she explains she knew about Warrigal Creek from the beginning. Ranald Macalister was the nephew of Lachlan Macalister and the fifth European to be murdered by the Kurnai. In Through Foreign Eyes, Gardner quoted the journal of William Thomas, the Assistant Protector of Aborigines. These stories contain the earliest known account of a massacre as revenge for the death of Macalister. <>
In other words, by coincidence, Robinson and Hatcher arrived in Gippsland at exactly the same time. [13], The squatting runs were large tracts of unfenced landMacalister had 100 square mileswhere livestock was left in charge of shepherds and hut keepers whose job it was to tend the livestock and prevent it from straying. McMillans employer, Captain Lachlan Macalister, described the squatters as legally authorised occupiers of Crown lands. Elizabeth Balderstone leads a lifestyle that many city dwellers fantasise about, on a farm in Victorias Gippsland, surrounded by friendly sheep, with a humble little creek just 60 metres from her house. To discount Macalisters involvement, Gardner states there is no proof he was in Gippsland before 1848. [1], The estimates of numbers of deaths vary: some historical accounts say that 60 people were killed,[citation needed] while other sources suggest that up to 150 people may have been killed. /TT4 13 0 R /TT6 15 0 R /TT1 10 0 R >> /XObject << /Im2 16 0 R /Im3 18 0 R The return did not include ex-convicts.[28]. <<6C2049F009130640B9B98E7F057F832E>]/Prev 1164416/XRefStm 1766>>
While we are not personally responsible we continue to live different experiences from these events; some of privilege, some of disadvantage, some unknowing. hbbbd`b`` K
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. [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). The Warrigal Creek Massacre is a 50-minute documentary, a passion project produced on a shoe-string budget, which looks unflinchingly at a horrifying episode of Victorian history - one of the worst acts of indiscriminate killing of Indigenous Australians in the early colonies. Hoddinott said that more than 100 Aboriginal people were killed on that day. 0000003620 00000 n
Host virtual events and webinars to increase engagement and generate leads. It also suggests that the squatters were unprepared for the resistance they faced. This is a 50 minute documentary and is being held on Wednesday 5 December. From 1840, increased numbers of convicts were sent to Van Diemens Land after the cessation of transportation to New South Wales. 0000116911 00000 n
Just before European settlement, the Kurnai raided as far as Brighton and Arthurs Seat on Port Phillip Baya distance of at least 120 kilometres as the crow fliesand they are believed to have wiped out about half of the Bunurong. In July 1843, a man named Ronald Macalister was killed by Aboriginal men near Port Albert, on the coast of Victoria. This raises the inevitable question of whether the massacre story, based on Gardners interpretation, should be seen as historical fact or an apocryphal tale. 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]. There were further reports of violence involving the Kurnai in April 1844 when the Sydney Morning Herald printed a letter from a Gippsland squatter: The blacks are still continuing their outragesburning huts, robbing peoples gardens, and slaughtering cattle by wholesale. I sometimes feel scared that there seems to be such an ugly resistance to understanding our past, she says. %PDF-1.4
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Third, Gardners narrative is constructed around a story written for schoolchildren in 1925, a story that could at best be considered as folk history. 0000020559 00000 n
His reports correlate with the newspaper accounts in describing the violent state of Gippsland. The aim of this article is to examine Gardners interpretation of the Warrigal Creek massacre story and his accusations against McMillan. In my research for Bitter Harvest, I could find no reference, in original sources, to The Highland Brigade, established, according to the Gardner version of history, to seek out and exterminate blacks. [11] The violent response from the Kurnai was the same as that meted out to their tribal enemies when defending their territory. This implied that the other four police were assigned servants, or white slaves, as John Pascoe Fawkner, the editor of the Port Phillip Patriot and a fierce critic of the convict system, called them. 5|ya"R=:(O)Y?vM=u(f!ygaR@Dfx*qVhCqE
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FyELe_`GGWy&2SpKeQPZY4)OEe But I wish to look forward, unimpeded by SJWs. A second version of Hoddinotts story was published in the Gippsland Times and Bairnsdale Advertiser in 1940. Gardners reliability can best be judged by his rewriting of an inter-tribal massacre at Tambo Crossing. The Warrigal Creek Massacre event will include: Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country Refreshments Filmscreening Panel-led discussion Date: Thursday 11 July 2019 Time: 6.30pm . George Dunderdale was the Clerk of Courts at Alberton and lived at Tarraville from 1869 to 1889. Events.com Browse is curated for you to find and attend events you love. Build a site and generate income from purchases, subscriptions, and courses. The Gippslander account mentions the Highland Brigade and a death toll of 100 to 150, but McMillans involvement, Scotsmen, the swearing to God and the Queen, and secrecy, are entirely Gardners creation. 2023 Vimeo.com, Inc. All rights reserved. Bookings free, but essential. Gardners cover-up conspiracy theory thus rests on an obvious misrepresentation of Hatchers account. 4751, June, 1980. Produced and directed by Andrew Dodd and Lisa Gye. 0000115891 00000 n
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]. Gardner says this was almost certainly McMillan of Nuntin and that Dunderdale was mistaken as the person he was most likely referring to was McMillan of Bushy Park. Coincidentally or not, the Australasian newspaper published stories between 1923 and 1925 with a one-eyed Aboriginal character named Bing-eye; the term club foot was ubiquitous. The men were easy prey for the Kurnai and by mid-1843, four had been murdered. 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. This announcement is all that I know, for a screening at Stratford,. Bookings free, but essential. Wayne, a very valuable and comprehensive article. [35] This simplistic reductionism obscures the complexity of Gippslands early history, evident in his rejection of Robinsons observations on the escaped convicts. [54] Meyrick arrived in Gippsland in 1845 so he was not a witness to anything before that date. Your email address will not be published. It is cited in the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for McMillan, which is in turn cited on the Victorian Parliament website. [46] Gardner admonished Hoddinott, stating, in this account he failed to implicate McMillan as he had done 15 years earlierbut neither version implicated McMillan.[47]. 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. [8], Michael Connor: The Massacre Maps shoddy research, In order to export livestock, the squatters needed a port and grazing land in Gippsland, as it was the closest part of the mainland to Van Diemens Land. 2, pp.20-21, [9] Cox, Kenneth (1973) Angus McMillan: Pathfinder, Published by the author. 0000002733 00000 n
[32] Gardners work has been influential and generally unquestioned. 0000030698 00000 n
If you would like to participate, visit the project page. 29 May 2018. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. [45] Hoddinotts tale thus appears to contain generic elements from the period. This documentary captures a story from Victoria, however there were similar stories as the waves of colonisation swept across the country. endobj
They say they want to tell the story widely, and take down the monuments to McMillan the butcher of Gippsland. 0000024998 00000 n
They will be immediately recommended to interested users. However, Thomas, Hatcher and Meyrick did not mention Warrigal Creek as Gardner claimsand they certainly did not mention McMillan. The creek is on a farm 40 kilometres south of Sale, and 200 kilometres east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland area of Victoria, Australia. Messrs. Pearson and Cunninghame have been the latest sufferers by those cannibals; it is not only the stock they kill we feel the loss of, but running the remainder off their runs, and the expense the proprietors are put to in collecting their cattle, and procuring guns and ammunition for everyone engaged in their employment.[22]. The Australian reported in August: The Prince George touched at Port Albert on the 25th ultimo, and reports that the Agenoria is taking in cattle there, the captain of which reported the blacks to be in a very riotous state. >> [30] Escapees living outside the law would therefore have posed a dire threat to the Kurnai. I asked him if he was not afraid of meeting the Blacks, his reply was, Blks Sir no fear of them now they would run away as soon as they see a white man but there are not many left, he said he had a Brother who had been in Gippsland from the first his name was Bunton & kept a Public house in Gippsland by the Dirty Water Holes & a cattle station joining to Mr. McAllister who was killed, that after Mr. McAllisters murder great slaughter of the blacks took place and that on his brothers station a cart load of Blks bones might be gath.rd up [49]. 16 0 obj Captain Charles Tyers RN arrived in Gippsland in January 1844 as the Commissioner for Crown Lands. Advice: This page does not contain images of people who have died. Gardners method in telling the story is to first present the massacre and McMillans involvement as matters of fact. Light refreshments will be available. 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