This is an opportunity to look back, acknowledge events and move forward together as Australians, united though the country on which we all live and a better understanding of our nations history. endobj In 1845, Tyers reported on the Aborigines, stating: In the early part of 1843as I have been informed, some of the Corner Inlet tribe were occasionally employed by the few Settlers at Port Albert in carrying fire wood and in other light work for which they generally received payment in flour & cbut since the unprovoked murder of Mr Ronald Macalister by them at Port Albert, about that time, they have not been seen in the neighbourhood. 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. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the Brigade from one camp to another. This provides a contrast to Gardners analysis, which is based largely on a story from a schoolchildrens magazine from 1925. Smith Street and Albert Street, Warragul, 3820, VIC, AU. 0000885516 00000 n Oh how I wished I had written down the stories my grandmother used to regale us with. 0000010851 00000 n These stories contain the earliest known account of a massacre as revenge for the death of Macalister. Your email address will not be published. The next day, while on horseback, he was speared through the neck from behind. They returned in triumph with flesh from the Kurnai they had killed. This announcement is all that I know, for a screening at Stratford,. Gardner omitted a part of the quote that indicates Hatcher travelled to Gippsland with a man named Bennett. The Kurnai people were the indigenous inhabitants of Gippsland when the first Europeans arrived. 0000030698 00000 n We acknowledge that in our past, as in most nations, bad things have happened. Please enable JavaScript to experience Vimeo in all of its glory. Ranald Macalister was the nephew of Lachlan Macalister and the fifth European to be murdered by the Kurnai. Advice: This page does not contain images of people who have died. Robinson was also attempting to do the same, although by a different route. 0000020901 00000 n 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 . 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. 2151 His reports correlate with the newspaper accounts in describing the violent state of Gippsland. Happy New Year to all. The timing of this record is important because it was made after two of the three searches for a white woman allegedly held captive by the Kurnai. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the 'brigade' from one camp to another.". 0000020785 00000 n 0000008955 00000 n One was a boy at the time about 12 or 14 years old. Intertribal warfare was endemic in the region with raid and counter raid where men, women and children were slaughtered as they slept, and then eaten. 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. Historical. 0001021671 00000 n This documentary tells the story of the Warrigal Creek massacre of 1843 in Gippsland, Victoria, where as many as 150 Gunai Kurnai children, women and . Gunaikurnai people continue to visit the land to pay their respects. 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. This documentary was made by university journalism students and staff. Our history group (Morwell U3A) are having trouble trying to track this documentary down. 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. McMillan made the first export of livestock to Van Diemens Land in 1842 and the trade continued until 1868 when it was halted by a tariff war between Victoria and Tasmania. Please call Drouin Library for more information 56 251564. At a quiet bend on a beautiful creek they committed one of the worst acts of indiscriminate killing in the Australian colonies. Click here to subscribe. %PDF-1.3 Chapters 6 and 7 of Gippsland Massacres retell the story. The Commissariat let annual tenders for the supply of fresh meat and other staples. This National Reconciliation week, reflect on the hidden history of the 1843 massacre of the Gurnaikurnai people at Warrigal Creek. [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. Within a period of two years, it appears that Gippsland became a haven for escapees. The history of early Gippsland will invariably include many intersecting and conflicting narratives. Some themes may be unpalatable, including tribal warfare, the murderous role of the Native Police, and the role of convicts as both slave labour and perpetratorsthey are part of the historical record but not always part of the written history. The stories were republished as The Book of the Bush in 1898. Events.com Browse is curated to help you find and attend events you love. Purchase tickets, Drawing on official archives and oral histories that have never died, this is the story of The Warrigal Creek Massacre. /Im4 20 0 R /Im1 8 0 R >> >> Home; News; Entertainment; Sport; Galleries; Competitions; . This documentary captures a story from Victoria, however there were similar stories as the waves of colonisation swept across the country. The Latrobe Catchment Landcare Network is hosting a screening of the Warrigal Creek Massacre. Bells account and the report of the massacre involving the Native Police in April 1845 can be found by simple searches on Trove. Gardners reliability can best be judged by his rewriting of an inter-tribal massacre at Tambo Crossing. I learned a lot I had not previously known, and am still thinking about. He has attached his own assertions to his source material without distinguishing between them, and these assertions are made without proof or explanation. Inspire employees with compelling live and on-demand video experiences. Unfortunately, in Gippsland, his diatribe against McMillan has been conflated with issues such as Reconciliation and Black Lives Matter. << /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> 0000024998 00000 n <> 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. According to Tyers, at least fifty Kurnai were killed by the Native Police and other Aborigines attached to the search parties. The Warrigal Creek Massacre: True Story or Apocryphal? [6=ViWy|4X$l`DvNk#F/W/kO>{Z_:/\ 'lrgQvFY+fGQ 4\y~QVG[\^aeiQ>mx2k |#R[?#5M. Thats not to say they dont exist, but if you have knowledge of such I would be grateful to know it. 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. 0001000963 00000 n Food and drink refreshments will be offered (meat, vegetarian and gluten free options available). [58] Apart from the perverse logic of this claim, it is factually incorrect. [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. GLaWAC has been given permission to screen the Warrigal Creek Massacre film at our office at Forestec. 5 0 obj Elizabeth Balderstone stands next to Warrigal Creek on her farm in Victoria the site of an 1843 massacre. 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. He was afterwards adopted by one of the party and called Bing Eye. This land was never ceded. %PDF-1.4 % An unexpected error occurred. 0000020971 00000 n [55] The murder of Macalister may have marked a turning point in which the Europeans went on the offensive. 0000003656 00000 n Light refreshments will be available. The newspapers indicate that the murder was not an isolated event and occurred within a wider context of anarchy and violence involving the Kurnai and the convicts. The answer is in three parts. Howitt noted that the Kurnai killed by the Europeans were mostly, though not all, fighting men of the tribe. 0000116911 00000 n As Bell indicates the early 1840s certainly were . While we are not personally responsible we continue to live different experiences from these events; some of privilege, some of disadvantage, some unknowing. 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. Film Screening The Warrigal Creek Massacre This country has a hidden history that is not widely acknowledged. The manager of the Krowathunkooloong keeping place in Bairnsdale, Rob Hudson, agrees. Every day I look over and make sure things look peaceful there.. 0001003043 00000 n A Mr. Nelsons house was also attacked a few days before, and the blacks, after wounding a man in his employ, decamped with several articles of his property.[19]. [10], When the squatters began occupying Kurnai territory with their herds of sheep and cattle, conflict soon followed. 0000005571 00000 n Gardner claimed in June 2020 that Meyrick gave a death toll of about 150 for Warrigal Creek, which he did not. Warrigal Creek Massacre is within the scope of WikiProject Australia, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Australia and Australia-related topics. 0000021061 00000 n ~]}.>xxs6s;^^`MjEa 5oA/P;uv!MU~86>>iBTju?#Ghnudlnr\;u?pIyo%# if+;J6fLA,4lMMhn]Zrg b_tr>b$3]wG4?mdw # 7Lw/_Mx+47nY;N9Uvs1;. Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre in of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. [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]. 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