Murdering Gully Massacre
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Murdering Gully, formerly known as ''Puuroyup'' to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839
massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
of 35–40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It is a gully on Mount Emu Creek, where a small stream adjoins from Station.Ian D. Clark, pp103-118, ''Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'', Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 Of particular note for this massacre is the extent of
oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...
, and first hand accounts of the incident and detail in settler diaries, records of Wesleyan missionaries, and Aboriginal Protectorate records. Following the massacre there was popular disapproval and censure of the leading perpetrator, Frederick Taylor, so that Taylor's River was renamed Mount Emu Creek. The massacre effectively destroyed the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan.


Cause

The massacre was undertaken by Frederick Taylor and others in retaliation for some sheep being killed by two unidentified Aboriginal people, as reported by one of Taylor's shepherds. As Aboriginal clans were pushed from their lands, their traditional food of kangaroo and emu became scarce, forcing them to kill sheep to fend off starvation. A common resistance tactic against the European invasion and dispossession was an economic war to drive sheep off and to kill sheep for food.Richard Broome, pp76-79, ''Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800'', Allen & Unwin, 2005, , However, George Robinson, the Chief
Protector of Aborigines The Australian colonies in the nineteenth century created offices involved in managing the affairs of Indigenous people in their jurisdictions. The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role beca ...
, in a letter to Assistant Protector Charles Sievwright on 11 July 1839, questions Taylor's allegation saying:
What proof is there of the Blacks having killed the sheep? The shepherd said so. Might not the shepherd have done it himself and after keeping the hindquarters for his own use have given the forequarters to the natives ... If this is the only charge Mr Taylor can allege against the aboriginal natives it certainly amounts to very little. In point of law it proved it is an offence, but who in the name of common humanity I would ask would think of injuring those already too much injured people, and for such a trifle.Robinson Papers, Vol 24, as quoted by Ian D. Clark, pp109-110, ''Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'', Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995


Massacre

Frederick Taylor, the manager at Glenormiston station, with associates James Hamilton and Bloomfield led a group of several shepherds in their employ and attacked a sleeping Aboriginal camp, firing upon and killing men, women and children. The bodies were dumped in the waterhole and later burnt, according to some accounts. Several Aboriginal people were able to escape and later told their accounts to Assistant Protector Sievwright, and Wesleyan missionaries Benjamin Hurst and Francis Tuckfield. Taylor had formerly been implicated in the killing of Woolmudgin from the Wathaurong people on 17 October 1836, and had fled to
Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...
to avoid interview and possible prosecution in that case. In a deposition by Edward Williamson, overseer to the Wesleyan Buntingdale Mission establishment at Birregurra, outlines the events of the massacre as reported to him by Wore-gu-i-moni:
...The party advanced in an extended line upon the natives, Mr Taylor was in the centre of the line, the shepherds were on each side of him, they advanced shouting and immediately fired upon the natives who were asleep. They succeeded in killing all they could see, amounting to thirty five (35). I was particular in ascertaining the exact number and they (the natives) gave me the same number over and over again. The slaughtered consisted of men, women and children. The above named native was one of the party attacked and succeeded in hiding himself among the long grass and thus escaped. The whites immediately threw the bodies into a waterhole, and left the spot leaving the bodies there.Deposition sworn by E Williamson, Wesleyan Mission Station, sworn before Charles Sievwright JP on 30 December 1839 as quoted by Ian D. Clark, pp109-110, ''Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'', Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995
Charles Sievwright collected another witness statement from Wan-geg-a-mon relating to the murder of his wife and child in the massacre:
...about six moons ago, I with my lubra and child (male) were encamped with thirty others Aboriginal natives, men, women and children, upon the Bor-rang-yallock, when Mr Taylor and many poor men (shepherds) came towards our miam-miams with guns, Mr Taylor was on horseback, they came up in an extended line Mr Taylor in the centre they advanced quick and immediately fired upon the natives, I ran to the other side of the river and lay down behind a tree among the grass, they killed more than thirty men women and children, my lubra and child were among the dead, the white people threw them into the water and soon left the place, the water was much stained with blood, I saw the dead body of my lubra but did not see my child. I remained for two days near the spot. Two days after the murder Yi-yi-ran (Mr Andreson) and Mr Watson came and saw the bodies and seemed sorry and said to Mr Taylor why did you kill so many lubras and children. Yi-yi-ran, Charles Courtney, James Ramslie and James Hamilton, burned the bodies, and made fires. Mr Taylor, Mr Andreson and Mr Watson came on horseback two days after with a sack and took away part of the bones not consumed.Statement made to Charles Sievwright JP on 16 January 1840. Statement confirmed by Ben-a-dug, whose father was killed upon this occasion, and also by Born, who both escaped. As quoted by Ian D. Clark, pp109-110, ''Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'', Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995
Oral history collected by James Dawson in 1881, told of Bareetch Chuurneen (alias Queen Fanny the chieftess of the clan) escaping with a child. She was pursued to Wuurna Weewheetch on the west side of Lake Bullen Merri. With the child on her back she swam across the lake to finally escape her pursuers.Richard Broome, pp82, ''Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800'', Allen & Unwin, 2005, ,


Aftermath

Glenormiston station was purchased by Niel Black in 1840, who wrote in his journal:
The blacks have been very troublesome on it lenormistonand I believe they have been cruelly dealt with. The late superintendent aylorran off from a fear that he would be apprehended and tried for murdering the natives. The poor creatures are terror stricken and will be easily managed. ... It is the opinion of Blackie he station overseerthat about 35 – 40 natives have been despatched on this establishment and that there is only two men left alive of the tribe. He is certain we will never be troubled with any of them on this run.
Black maintained the dispossession and native terror engendered by the massacre by driving Djargurd Wurrung people from his run, pulling down any bark shelters he found and leaving gunpowder to show as a warning sign. Taylor, fearing prosecution for the massacre, in late 1839 or early 1840 fled to the obscurity of India for a few years. He returned to Victoria and in June 1844 was managing a station on the
Mitchell River Mitchell River may refer to: Australia *Mitchell River (Queensland) *Mitchell River (Victoria) *Mitchell River (Western Australia) *Mann River (New South Wales) is sometimes referred to as Mitchell River. Canada *Mitchell River (Cross River) *Mit ...
near Lindenow. When Taylor applied to take up his own run in
Gippsland Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...
, the Commissioner of Crown Lands,
Charles Tyers Captain Charles James Tyers RN FRSV (13 September 1806 – 20 September 1870) was a 19th-century Anglo-Australian surveyor and explorer, and the Commissioner of Crown Lands for Portland (1842–1843) and Gippsland (1844–1867). There are m ...
, refused to grant any land citing Taylor's treatment of Aborigine people in the Western District. Taylor appealed to Governor
Charles La Trobe Charles Joseph La Trobe (20 March 18014 December 1875), commonly Latrobe, was appointed in 1839 superintendent of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and, after the establishment in 1851 of the colony of Victoria (now a state of Aust ...
requesting:
a copy of these grave charges that are recorded against me that I may have an opportunity of showing Mr Tyers and the Government that I am innocent of any improper treatment of the aboriginal natives of this district.
La Trobe reviewed the case over subsequent months, including the evidence collected by Charles Sievwright and forwarded by Chief Protector of Aborigines George Robinson, and upheld Tyer's decision. Despite this decision Taylor became a joint licence holder of Lindenow with the Loughnans in 1845. In March 1846 La Trobe informed the Colonial Secretary that all charges against Taylor had "ended in satisfactory disproval". For the next 13 years Taylor continued to hold licences for land in Gippsland along the Mitchell and Tambo rivers, around Lake Victoria and Lake King, and at Swan Reach, where he continued with a campaign of dispossession of the Gunai people.


See also

* List of massacres in Australia *
List of massacres of Indigenous Australians Colonial settlers frequently clashed with Indigenous people (on continental Australia) during and after the History of Australia (1788–1850), wave of mass immigration of Europeans into the continent, which began in the late 18th century and la ...


Further reading

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References


External links

* Redreaming the Plain
Murdering Gully
Museum Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation that includes a number of museums and related bodies in Melbourne. These include Melbourne Museum, Immigration Museum, Scienceworks (Melbourne), Scienceworks, IMAX Melbourne, a research institute, the UNESCO W ...
page with an extract from Ian Clark on Murdering Gully, ''Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'', Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995, {{Campaignbox Australian frontier wars 1839 in Australia Massacres in 1839 19th century in Victoria (state) Massacres of Indigenous Australians Camperdown, Victoria 19th-century mass murder in Australia Murder in Victoria (state)