Bookings free, but essential. 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]. Gardners fiction about McMillan, his misquoting of source material, and his reliance on an unattributed, anonymous and generic story truly relegates his Warrigal Creek narrative to the realms of the apocryphal. 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. endobj 2151 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. The culture of secrecy surrounding the massacres was evident in Willy Hoddinotts account (as an anonymous Gippslander) published in the Gap magazine more than 80 years later: .css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}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 breath, they were shot until the water was red with blood. 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. % The current awareness of the Warrigal Creek massacre stems largely from the writing of the self-published historian Peter Gardner, who contends that his work represents currently accepted history. Establishing the factual basis of this will require in-depth research to uncover any written evidence before Bells account from 1874, as well as archaeological evidence at locations such as Bruthen Creek and Bundalaguah Swamp. 0000030698 00000 n The other was a little older; he made his escape up the creek by swimming and diving. 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. Ranald Macalister was the nephew of Lachlan Macalister and the fifth European to be murdered by the Kurnai. 0000015443 00000 n 0000115891 00000 n Some of the tale also bears a resemblance to accounts of the Hospital Creek massacre in New South Wales that emerged between 1911 and 1919, in which the survivor was a one-eyed Aborigine. McMillans employer, Captain Lachlan Macalister, described the squatters as legally authorised occupiers of Crown lands. I knew two blacks, who though wounded came out of the hole alive. << /ProcSet [ /PDF /Text /ImageB /ImageC /ImageI ] /ColorSpace << /Cs1 7 0 R Inspire employees with compelling live and on-demand video experiences. L4V n)p>WRMXBe*(ru)%]>9,ZUN \p ,_`s=L{5vs{Gw 2ngnBaz0&#Xk+_ q10 m Thu From 1839, Angus McMillan tried on numerous occasions to reach Corner Inlet from the Monaro District and finally succeeded in February 1841 when he reached the tidal bank of the Albert River. 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. There exists little to no official documentation of the Warrigal Creek Massacre. Many of the stock keepers were ticket-of-leave holders or assigned convict servants. External Lived Experience Employment Opportunities, Complete the VMIAC Conference 2023 Survey, CEO Update with Craig Wallace | 17.02.2023, New Consumer Register Opportunity: Access Policy & Triage Guidelines, CEO Update with Craig Wallace | 03.02.2023, CEO Update with Craig Wallace | 20.01.2023. new domain, Events.com. [citation needed], A witness, Willy Hoddinott, wrote the following in 1925:[3], "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 breath, they were shot until the water was red with blood. It is cited in the Australian Dictionary of Biography entry for McMillan, which is in turn cited on the Victorian Parliament website. share events with your friends and make the most out of every experience. 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. In July 1843, up to 150 Gunaikurnai people were killed near the banks of what is now known as Warrigal Creek. Production and research by Danielle Bowen, Jonathan Boadle, Jakeb Fair, Alex Owsianka, Don Sheil and Ben Winnell. Facebook. Peter Gardner deserves recognition for highlighting the reality of conflict in early Gippsland. Considering that Gardner has political motives and a disdain for objectivity, his work should perhaps be seen as a political campaign rather than as history. This provides a contrast to Gardners analysis, which is based largely on a story from a schoolchildrens magazine from 1925. 0001003043 00000 n Warrigal Creek Massacre Documentary This documentary will be shown at the Regent Theatre in Yarram on 10 July at 7.30pm during Naidoc Week. [23] To put this in context, crimes against livestock carried a heavy penalty. Gardner regards tribal warfare as a myth.[18]. 0000117691 00000 n We are here to help! Perhaps the most revealing example of Gardners influence is Cal Flynns Thicker Than Water, in which McMillan is denounced by his own descendant. The creek is on a farm 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Sale, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland area of Victoria, Australia. Purchase tickets, Buntines Bruthen Creek run was several miles and several squatting runs to the west of Warrigal Creek. This National Reconciliation week, reflect on the hidden history of the 1843 massacre of the Gurnaikurnai people at Warrigal Creek. T*,2$i ,2N0p$ rOE2)Tde$2([X~O`E([HH|MrJSo Many people accept the massacre as a matter of fact, as a truism. His alleged role in the massacre is a construct entirely of Gardners own making, where he attached McMillans name to the Gippslander story without revealing this to his readers. [50] This raises two issues: first, this is a fallacious misuse of the material; Hatcher said the bones might be gathered uphis might be has transmogrified into Gardners were. Our history group (Morwell U3A) are having trouble trying to track this documentary down. There exists little to no official documentation of the Warrigal Creek Massacre. He recorded that there were fifty-five Prisoners of the Crown in Gippsland, nine of whom were in government service. [22] Sydney Morning Herald 15 April 1844, p. 4; the article appears to have Lachlan Macalisters turn of phrase. 2, pp.20-21, [9] Cox, Kenneth (1973) Angus McMillan: Pathfinder, Published by the author. 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). [55] The murder of Macalister may have marked a turning point in which the Europeans went on the offensive. 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. Gardner accepted Hoddinotts Gippslander story literally and uncritically, stating that it is completely reliable due to its vividness and detail. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the 'brigade' from one camp to another.". 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 . 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. 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. << /Type /Page /Parent 3 0 R /Resources 6 0 R /Contents 4 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595 842] [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). Your email address will not be published. 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]. The other forty-six convicts were employed on the squatting runs. 0001021671 00000 n He calls them The McMillan Massacres. Massacre [ edit] endobj 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 historical record of this conflict up to 1843 is sparse and consists of just a few newspaper reports. The question posed at the start of this article was whether Gardners Warrigal Creek massacre story should be seen as historical fact or an apocryphal tale. 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]. 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. 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. [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. The second piece of evidence from Thomas is the record of his conversation with the Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick in January 1847. '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. 0000005571 00000 n The manager of the Krowathunkooloong keeping place in Bairnsdale, Rob Hudson, agrees. 0000116524 00000 n 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. 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. [7], Many histories of Gippsland have quaint notions of founding fathers, churches and shires, but the reality is that squatters occupied the region in order to capture a share of the filthy lucre of the Van Diemens Land convict economy. 0001031115 00000 n 8 /Filter /FlateDecode >> 0000002733 00000 n Unfortunately, in Gippsland, his diatribe against McMillan has been conflated with issues such as Reconciliation and Black Lives Matter. Can only find the trailer. A documentary was made in 2018 and a federal electorate was renamed that year to remove the legacy of Angus McMillan, the alleged instigator, who is otherwise remembered as an explorer, squatter, MP and Protector of Aborigines. In a letter to the Age in August 1874, R.L. 148 0 obj <>stream bHn=Y,8M*[+GwXfi1^yn}vSuvA@pN. He has attached his own assertions to his source material without distinguishing between them, and these assertions are made without proof or explanation. 2020, Cnr. During this time he collected information for stories that were published in the magazine Austral Light. He was shot through the foot and was so injured that he was called Club Foot.[39]. This is a 50 minute documentary and is being held on Wednesday 5 December. Macalisters letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in 1843 and a search of Trove and the PROV websites reveal that this statement is incorrect. Dunderdale states: Lachlan Macalister had a long experience in dealing with blackfellows and bushrangers; he had been a captain in the army and an officer of the border police. %%EOF [42] Elsewhere he states that Hoddinotts desire to remain anonymous would seem to indicate that the telling of the story may have had undesirable repercussions. 0000003570 00000 n They did not find any Bunurong so they ransacked a squatters station instead. 0001000963 00000 n But we strive to be one people, equality of opportunity for all, no privilege by birth, truly one nation. Thomas wrote in April 1845: He said he and another man had come unarmed from Gippsland. Please enable JavaScript to experience Vimeo in all of its glory. 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. Gardners reliability can best be judged by his rewriting of an inter-tribal massacre at Tambo Crossing. The Latrobe Catchment Landcare Network is hosting a screening of the Warrigal Creek Massacre. An excellent and detailed correction of Gardner. 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. There is now a documentary on the Warrigal Creek Massacre, near Woodside, north of Yarram. Wayne, a very valuable and comprehensive article. 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. One was a boy at the time about 12 or 14 years old. The area of Nuntin is on the western side of the Avon and was shown in a survey map of 1857. Their submission was denied; McMillan was renamed the Monash electorate instead. 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]. Much has been written about the massacre of Aboriginal people that is believed to have occurred at Warrigal Creek in Gippsland in 1843. 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. 0000030150 00000 n Could you help us please? 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. I have seen somewhere that this version of the. 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 %PDF-1.3 [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. For them to do that and come up with a shared name was a major achievement. 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. 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