This documentary captures a story from Victoria, however there were similar stories as the waves of colonisation swept across the country. Some basic research puts Hatchers account into context. I knew two blacks, who though wounded came out of the hole alive. This documentary was made by university journalism students and staff. 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. Before declaring Hoddinotts tale to be completely reliable, it would have been prudent to analyse its contents. Convicts were entitled to a daily ration of fresh meat, as were the military and the civilian authorities. 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. Originally reported by Robinson as such, Gardner has interpreted an obscure comment by Robinson to argue that it was actually a massacre by settlers that Robinson was covering up. [30] Escapees living outside the law would therefore have posed a dire threat to the Kurnai. Second, Hatcher arrived in Gippsland several months after Tyers, so it was just a tad late to be a cover-up. He added that one of the Kurnai involved in the murder survived and often re-enacted his part in the ambush. News; Warrigal Creek doco at the Memo. The aim of this article is to examine Gardners interpretation of the Warrigal Creek massacre story and his accusations against McMillan. [12] The first reported attack on the squatters came in 1841 when, it was said, 600 Kurnai attacked Macalisters run. 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]. 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 . 0000020785 00000 n Massacre [ edit] This provides a contrast to Gardners analysis, which is based largely on a story from a schoolchildrens magazine from 1925. Can only find the trailer. 5 0 obj <> One was a boy at the time about 12 or 14 years old. Warrigal Creek Massacre: A Truth-telling Documentary. Home News Warrigal Creek doco at the Memo. Where I live you can almost point in every direction [to a massacre site], he says. L4V n)p>WRMXBe*(ru)%]>9,ZUN \p ,_`s=L{5vs{Gw 2ngnBaz0&#Xk+_ q10 m Gardner claims it is a secondary source but it is, at best, folk history that he has embroidered with his own fiction about McMillan. [59] McMillans Bushy Park run was on the eastern side of the Avon. The return did not include ex-convicts.[28]. true /ColorSpace 25 0 R /Intent /Perceptual /SMask 26 0 R /BitsPerComponent Gardners method in telling the story is to first present the massacre and McMillans involvement as matters of fact. 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. 91 58 Macalisters letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in 1843 and a search of Trove and the PROV websites reveal that this statement is incorrect. @7k_|F_j}t'J'fu_}"Y5Xgx{ps:KQb#wOQ:/[]6Hy Much has been written about the massacre of Aboriginal people that is believed to have occurred at Warrigal Creek in Gippsland in 1843. [10], When the squatters began occupying Kurnai territory with their herds of sheep and cattle, conflict soon followed. He recorded that there were fifty-five Prisoners of the Crown in Gippsland, nine of whom were in government service. Hoddinott said that more than 100 Aboriginal people were killed on that day. [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. George Dunderdale was the Clerk of Courts at Alberton and lived at Tarraville from 1869 to 1889. Gardner himself refers to Nuntin as the station established by McMillan for Macalister on western side of the Avon River in October 1840. 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. 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]. A trip to Gipps Land in April 1843 The Courier 23 June 1843, p.4, [8] Caldow, W (2012) Gippsland and the Van Diemens Land Livestock Trade: The Log of the Dew Drop 1847-49, The Great Circle, Vol 34, No. [10] Caldow (2012) p.25; Caldow W (2010) The early livestock trade between Gippsland and Van Diemens Land: insights from Patrick Coady Buckleys journal of 1844. y]\lt`(+WT5[y&Z}_~PbEH/XFN4Kz+Vb)44BQ?Zh*Y Eo4/xhJk But we strive to be one people, equality of opportunity for all, no privilege by birth, truly one nation. Many people accept the massacre as a matter of fact, as a truism. 2 0 obj Welcome to you all., Read Quadrant online or as a printed magazine Starting at $88.00 a year. In the spirit of this year's NAIDOC theme Voice.Treaty.Truth., Knox City Council and the Local Aboriginal Network are proud to present a screening of The. [43] The fallacy of this secrecy argument is that it is contradicted by Gardners own evidence from William Thomas from 1845 and other versions of the massacre story that pre-date Gippslander by more than fifty years (see below). In July 1843, up to 150 Gunaikurnai people were killed near the banks of what is now known as Warrigal Creek. 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. They did not find any Bunurong so they ransacked a squatters station instead. The Warrigal Creek Massacre on Vimeo. startxref No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet and work. 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. 0000024227 00000 n Film Screening The Warrigal Creek Massacre This country has a hidden history that is not widely acknowledged. It beggars belief that it was accepted as a completely reliable historical source. 0000116989 00000 n During this time he collected information for stories that were published in the magazine Austral Light. They returned in triumph with flesh from the Kurnai they had killed. bHn=Y,8M*[+GwXfi1^yn}vSuvA@pN. We are yet to have a complete understanding of Gippsland in the 1840s. The reference to Bundalaguah Swamp has previously escaped notice. Bells account is matter-of-fact and he did not name McMillan or any other person. Hatcher appears to suggest that there was a massacre at Bruthen Creek; Gardner has either ignored or failed to grasp this to make the account fit his Warrigal Creek narrative. Create events for free. It was made to better understand our country's true history. We acknowledge that in our past, as in most nations, bad things have happened. The next day, while on horseback, he was speared through the neck from behind. This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the project's quality scale. I ill not believe anything about aboriginal history that does not have the Indigenous Seal of Approval by the Bruce Pascoe Ministry of Truth. Power your marketing strategy with perfectly branded videos to drive better ROI. Events.com Browse is curated for you to find and attend events you love. [41] The conspiracy of secrecy is used to explain why Hoddinott probably with good reason, chose to remain anonymous, as the account implicated Angus McMillan as the leader of this murderous retaliation. 0000029696 00000 n This letter indicates that the Kurnai were still harrying the squatters the year after the massacre is believed to have occurredthere was conflict with the Kurnai before and after the murder of Macalister. 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. /Im4 20 0 R /Im1 8 0 R >> >> Sell more tickets through digital marketing. Production and research by Danielle Bowen, Jonathan Boadle, Jakeb Fair, Alex Owsianka, Don Sheil and Ben Winnell. [15]. The story was written anonymously for a magazine for primary school children eighty-two years after the incident described, without attribution, and by someone who was not there. 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. 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. It is free to attend this event, but bookings are essential. Lachlan Macalisters demand of Gipps to provide protection for the settlers gives the impression that the settlers were on the defensive against both the Kurnai and the convicts. Launch date: Wednesday 4 AprilStratford Courthouse TheatreFree entry but bookings essentialRegister via Eventbrite http://bit.ly/2sTmWsCAbout the filmWhen 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.At a quiet bend on a beautiful creek they committed one of the worst acts of indiscriminate killing in the Australian colonies.Drawing on official archives and oral histories that have never died, this is the story of The Warrigal Creek Massacre.Because to move forward we must acknowledge our past.Produced and directed by Andrew Dodd and Lisa Gye.Production and research by Danielle Bowen, Jonathan Boadle, Jakeb Fair, Alex Owsianka, Don Sheil and Ben Winnell.Supported by Swinburne University. Convicts under the control of the penal system in the Port Phillip District and elsewhere were notorious for their crimes against the Aborigines. The manager of the Krowathunkooloong keeping place in Bairnsdale, Rob Hudson, agrees. There exists little to no official documentation of the Warrigal Creek Massacre. One was a boy at the time about 12 or 14 years old. 0000030150 00000 n [35] This simplistic reductionism obscures the complexity of Gippslands early history, evident in his rejection of Robinsons observations on the escaped convicts. 0000003620 00000 n Their submission was denied; McMillan was renamed the Monash electorate instead. [6=ViWy|4X$l`DvNk#F/W/kO>{Z_:/\ 'lrgQvFY+fGQ 4\y~QVG[\^aeiQ>mx2k |#R[?#5M. They will be immediately recommended to interested users. According to Gardner, the Warrigal Creek massacre was revenge for his murder. Fri., 27 May 20225:00 pm 8:30 pm AEST, Siteworks Workroom 233 Saxon StreetBrunswick, VIC 3056. Rather, his involvement is presented as a fait accompli. Production and research by Danielle Bowen, Jonathan Boadle, Jakeb Fair, Alex Owsianka, Don Sheil and Ben Winnell. [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). 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]. In Chapter 4, he gives another rendition of the Gippslander story, stating the massacre was lead [sic] by McMillan. An independent expedition from Melbourne to Corner Inlet in the barque Singapore in the same year led to the discovery of the mouths of the Albert and Tarra rivers. hb``0c`` `01$Q3(f`faPS``e` 0=!E Clq.~Jg` `d``A h! In July 1843 Angus McMillan and a group of his countrymen known as the Highland Brigade shot between 60 and 150 Gunaikurnai people in retribution for the murder of Ronald Macalister, the nephew of a wealthy pastoralist, Lachlan Macalister, who owned a local station called Nuntin. Your email address will not be published. Over there, thats where the whitefellas killed our old fellas., The Gurnaikurnai artist Steaphan Paton says the monuments to McMillan one calls him Gippslands discoverer should be removed: They belong in a museum, they dont belong on our land.. qgAHrgAX8]eAVi a"0Uc|sQ d$uIOrE&n2"c,%$qHFWpTWn>!bB):I\PhE17 Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre in of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. 0000003041 00000 n In July 1843, a man named Ronald Macalister was killed by Aboriginal men near Port Albert, on the coast of Victoria. He wrote a number of reports on the state of Gippsland to his superior, Charles La Trobe, the Superintendent of the Port Phillip District. This announcement is all that I know, for a screening at Stratford,. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the brigade from one camp to another. [6], In contrast, there is an implicit assumption in Gardners work that the Kurnai were passive victims of European violence, but this does not do them justice. It may be student work out of Swinburne. T*,2$i ,2N0p$ rOE2)Tde$2([X~O`E([HH|MrJSo 0000115891 00000 n endstream [52] There could not have been a cover-up if human remains were still visible after their arrivals. 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. 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. 0000020971 00000 n Rather than pursuing plaques or western versions of reconciliation, as Irving puts it, the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation and the Bunurong Land Council put their energies into changing the name of their local electorate, which was named after McMillan. 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 |[jXaxqGw"0'JH-i`L>_n#&,6IvGr:hu'j^xsFo}\vfuklR4f/eK-fig;)pE?itkoe~x-gd}Y~N0f=)` s[/wE\|(u2|Jvp:n [37] Again, no proof is offered. Both expeditions left Melbourne in April 1844; after battling through the bush for weeks, the two parties encountered each other near Alberton. The attack on the Brataualung people camped at Warrigal Creek was one of several incidents resulting in loss of life among the Gunai Kurnai people. Following the murder, Lachlan Macalister wrote a letter to Governor Sir George Gipps via the Sydney Morning Herald in which he implicated the governor for the state of anarchy in Gippsland due to the lack of official protection. The Warrigal Creek Massacre, a documentary exploring the history of colonisation in Gippsland in the 1800s, is screening at the Memo in Healesville on Wednesday 27 February at 6:45pm. 0 0001064309 00000 n 0001064365 00000 n "qd]^vc'OontVsl 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. In an essay on Gippsland from April 1843, Henry Bebb Morris described a mock fight between six Kurnai men using spears, boomerangs and waddies: they are small men, and when in repose would not be remarked for beauty or figure, but under the excitement of the fight they put every muscle into motion, and threw themselves into attitudes which would have graced a Grecian warrior. 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. <> 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. Probably even as a child I just sensed something its a really spiritual place, she says. The themes in this page may cause distress. Gardner cites other versions of the death of Macalister and the massacre to build his narrative, all based on Gippslander or otherwise post-Dunderdale. [17], This story was repeated in several of the colonial newspapers but there does not seem to have been any follow-up reports. *OAQg( n}wWdcKuYl7nfTTYP0|8o6rlBUb[O>03v-Jg1]sng~f5!M .]e?n? 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. [44] The word colourful may have been more appropriate. [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 Warrigal Creek Massacre: True Story or Apocryphal? It was, of course, impossible to identify any blackfellow concerned in the outrage, and therefore atonement must be made by the tribe. Convicts were present in the early years of settlement in Gippsland in two very different ways: first, as the slave labour of the squatters, and second, as escapees congregated around Alberton. One thing is clear from his work: the Kurnai men were warriors. ktp33#`r[vhJ hR,t%434qrZQ7z Following the screening, VMIAC will facilitate a discussion about the film and its importance in understanding the effects of colonisation and inter-generational trauma and resilience for First Nations peoples. 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. No reason was given for the murder. [22] Sydney Morning Herald 15 April 1844, p. 4; the article appears to have Lachlan Macalisters turn of phrase. 91 0 obj <> endobj 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. a federal electorate was renamed that year. Nonetheless, it demonstrates that the early settlement of Gippsland was marked by violence involving the Kurnai, the settlers and convicts. One was a boy at the time about 12 or 14 years old. [54] Meyrick arrived in Gippsland in 1845 so he was not a witness to anything before that date. Gardner regards tribal warfare as a myth.[18]. 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. Facebook. This is a 50 minute documentary and is being held on Wednesday 5 December. 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. The Warrigal Creek Massacre | About the film 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. trailer 0000000016 00000 n It has influenced works including Don Watsons Caledonia Australis and Patrick Morgans The Settling of Gippsland. Drawing on official archives and oral histories that have never died, this is the story of The Warrigal Creek Massacre. 1 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). [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. %PDF-1.4 % A Scottish colonist, called Angus McMillan, led a group of about 20 settlers who . 0000034127 00000 n 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. 4751, June, 1980. )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 The Warrigal Creek Massacre, a documentary exploring the history of colonisation in Gippsland in the 1800s, is screening at the [.] At a quiet bend on a beautiful creek they committed one of the worst acts of indiscriminate killing in the Australian colonies. His words continue to have influence and have provided a convenient but misplaced source of outrageand how does the community benefit from having negative sentiments engendered on a false premise? The newspapers and Charles Tyerss reports indicate that attacks by the Kurnai continued in 1844 and 1845; they did not end at Warrigal Creek in 1843. At a quiet bend on a beautiful creek they committed one of the worst acts of indiscriminate killing in the Australian colonies. Gardner claims his work is partly political and partly moralistic; he disdains objectivity and describes his politics as left. Smith Street and Albert Street, Warragul, 3820, VIC, AU. In July 1843, up to 150 Gunaikurnai people were killed near the banks of what is now known as Warrigal Creek. Your email address will not be published. searching events in no time. Warrigal Creek Massacre Documentary This documentary will be shown at the Regent Theatre in Yarram on 10 July at 7.30pm during Naidoc Week. An excellent and detailed correction of Gardner. <>/ExtGState<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.4 841.8] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> >> 0000117321 00000 n the Warrigal Creek massacre - possibly even a participant in it 10. Part III: Other Versions of the Massacre Story. xref The answer is in three parts. Word of the murder was sent to Lachlan Macalister. It also suggests that the squatters were unprepared for the resistance they faced. endobj The validity of the will remains a problem. 0000020559 00000 n Gardners cover-up conspiracy theory thus rests on an obvious misrepresentation of Hatchers account. Gardner prefaced the following quote from Gippslander stating that after the murder of Macalister, An avenging party set out under the leadership of Angus McMillan , The brigade coming up to the blacks camped around the waterhole at Warrigal Creek surrounded them and fired into them, killing a great number, some escaped into the scrub, others jumped into the waterhole, and, as fast as they put their heads up for a breath, they were shot until the water was red with blood.