Gippsland massacres
Encyclopedia
The Aboriginal people of East Gippsland
, Victoria
, Australia
, known as the Gunai
/Kurnai people, fought against the European invasion of their land. The technical superiority of the Europeans' weapons gave the Europeans an absolute advantage. At least 300 people were killed, but other figures estimate up to 1,000, however it is extremely difficult to be certain about the real death toll as so few records still exist or were even made at the time. Diseases introduced from the 1820s by European sealers and whalers also caused a rapid decline in Aboriginal numbers. The following list was compiled from such things as letters and diaries.
There is very little evidence to back up any of these claims.
Gippsland squatter
Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846:
East Gippsland
East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114....
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, known as the Gunai
Gunai
The Gunai or Kurnai is an Indigenous Australian nation of south-east Australia whose territory occupied most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The nation was not on friendly terms with the neighbouring Wurundjeri and Bunurong nations...
/Kurnai people, fought against the European invasion of their land. The technical superiority of the Europeans' weapons gave the Europeans an absolute advantage. At least 300 people were killed, but other figures estimate up to 1,000, however it is extremely difficult to be certain about the real death toll as so few records still exist or were even made at the time. Diseases introduced from the 1820s by European sealers and whalers also caused a rapid decline in Aboriginal numbers. The following list was compiled from such things as letters and diaries.
- 1840 - Nuntin- unknown number killed by Angus McMillanAngus McMillanAngus McMillan , was an explorer and pioneer pastoralist in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. He is also known for being an instigator of many of the massacres against the Aboriginal peoples in the Gippsland region.-Early life:...
's men - 1840 - Boney Point - "Angus McMillanAngus McMillanAngus McMillan , was an explorer and pioneer pastoralist in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. He is also known for being an instigator of many of the massacres against the Aboriginal peoples in the Gippsland region.-Early life:...
and his men took a heavy toll of Aboriginal lives" - 1841 - Butchers Creek - 30-35 shot by Angus McMillanAngus McMillanAngus McMillan , was an explorer and pioneer pastoralist in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. He is also known for being an instigator of many of the massacres against the Aboriginal peoples in the Gippsland region.-Early life:...
's men - 1841 - Maffra - unknown number shot by Angus McMillanAngus McMillanAngus McMillan , was an explorer and pioneer pastoralist in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. He is also known for being an instigator of many of the massacres against the Aboriginal peoples in the Gippsland region.-Early life:...
's men - 1842 - Skull CreekSkull CreekSkull Creek is a common name for a number of creeks and waterways in Australia. In each case, it is named so due to the killing of Aboriginal people in the area....
- unknown number killed - 1842 - Bruthen Creek - "hundreds killed"
- 1843 - Warrigal CreekWarrigal Creek-Warrigal Creek massacre:In July 1843 Ronald Macallister was killed by Aboriginies near Port Albert. To avenge his death a party of whites led by a rich squatter attacked a group of Aborigines. It is thought that over 60 people were killed in this action...
- between 60 and 180 shot by Angus McMillanAngus McMillanAngus McMillan , was an explorer and pioneer pastoralist in Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. He is also known for being an instigator of many of the massacres against the Aboriginal peoples in the Gippsland region.-Early life:...
and his men - 1844 - Maffra - unknown number killed
- 1846 - South GippslandGippslandGippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
- 14 killed - 1846 - Snowy RiverSnowy RiverThe Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the Snowy River National Park in Victoria and emptying into...
- 8 killed by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police - 1846-47 - Central GippslandGippslandGippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
- 50 or more shot by armed party hunting for a white woman supposedly held by AboriginesWhite woman of GippslandThe white woman of Gippsland, or the captive woman of Gippsland, was supposedly a European woman rumoured to have been held against her will by Aboriginal Kurnai people in the Gippsland region of Australia in the 1840s...
; no such woman was ever found. - 1850 - East GippslandGippslandGippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
- 15-20 killed - 1850 - Murrindal - 16 poisoned
- 1850 - Brodribb RiverBrodribb RiverThe Brodribb River is a river of Gippsland in south-eastern Victoria, Australia. It was named after William Adams Brodribb, an early settler.-Description:...
- 15-20 killed
There is very little evidence to back up any of these claims.
Gippsland squatter
Squatting (pastoral)
In Australian history, a squatter was one who occupied a large tract of Crown land in order to graze livestock. Initially often having no legal rights to the land, they gained its usage by being the first Europeans in the area....
Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846:
-
- The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. 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 … For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They [the Aborigines] will very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 450 have been murdered altogether.
See also
- Kurnai
- List of massacres in Australia
- List of Australian Aboriginal massacres
- Skull CreekSkull CreekSkull Creek is a common name for a number of creeks and waterways in Australia. In each case, it is named so due to the killing of Aboriginal people in the area....
- White woman of GippslandWhite woman of GippslandThe white woman of Gippsland, or the captive woman of Gippsland, was supposedly a European woman rumoured to have been held against her will by Aboriginal Kurnai people in the Gippsland region of Australia in the 1840s...