Warrigal Creek Massacre

Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre in of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. 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.

Massacre

In July 1843, a man named Ronald Macalister was killed by Aboriginal men near Port Albert, on the coast of Victoria. The Scottish colonist and pastoralist, Angus McMillan, led a group of around 20 colonists to attack and kill several groups of Aboriginal people across a number of days. The group of Gaelic-speaking Scotsmen was known as the "Highland Brigade". 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.[1]

The estimates of numbers of deaths vary: some historical accounts say that 60 people were killed, while other sources suggest that up to 150 people may have been killed.[2] Some historians assert that the number of 60 is an exaggeration, despite the witness accounts. The statistical discrepancies likely emerged because Macmillan's group killed Aboriginal people at five different locations in the area.

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. I knew two blacks, who though wounded came out of the hole alive. One was a boy at the time about 12 or 14 years old. He was hit in the eye by a slug, captured by the whites, and made to lead the 'brigade' from one camp to another."

Hoddinott said that more than 100 Aboriginal people were killed on that day.

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. Gardner concludes that McMillan's group initially killed two family groups at Warrigal Creek waterhole and then a few days later killed another 60 people at the mouth of Warrigal Creek, then killing three other groups at Freshwater Creek, Gammon Creek, and Red Hill.[4][1]

Despite the widespread belief that MacMillan led several massacres, as of 2021 there are over 12 monuments in the Gippsland region dedicated to him.[2]

See also

References
  1. Glowrey, Cheryl (8 June 2016). "Angus McMillan". Australian Dictionary of Biography. This article replaces the original Volume 2 ADB biography, authored by Theo Webster. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  2. Webb, Carolyn (7 February 2021). "Victoria's Deadly & Proud campaign remembers Indigenous victims of Warrigal Creek massacre in South Gippsland". The Age. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  3. "Centre For 21st Century Humanities". c21ch.newcastle.edu.au. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  4. Gardner, Peter (2001). Gippsland Massacres: The Destruction of the Kurnai Tribes, 1800-1860. Bairnsdale: Ngarak Press. pp. 47–61.

Bibliography
  • The Book of the Bush
  • "The Settling of Gippsland - A Regional History", by Patrick Morgan, published by Gippsland Municipalities Association, Traralgon, 1997 ISBN 0-646-33857-9
  • Gardner, Peter, 'The Warrigal Creek massacre', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, pp. 47–51, June, 1980.

Further reading

37°40′14″S 146°39′57″E

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