Gardners work has hints of Marxist reductionism, where the Kurnai are portrayed as living in an Arcadian economy that was destroyed by the expansionary capitalism of the land-hungry squatters. 0000024560 00000 n xref Robinson was also attempting to do the same, although by a different route. 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. 0000002903 00000 n endstream endobj 92 0 obj <>/Metadata 5 0 R/PageLabels 2 0 R/Pages 4 0 R/StructTreeRoot 7 0 R/Type/Catalog/ViewerPreferences<>>> endobj 93 0 obj <>/ExtGState<>/Font<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageC/ImageI]/Properties<>>>/XObject<>>>/Rotate 0/StructParents 0/TrimBox[0.0 0.0 595.276 841.89]/Type/Page>> endobj 94 0 obj [95 0 R 96 0 R] endobj 95 0 obj <>/Border[0 0 0]/H/O/Rect[243.918 110.871 393.795 129.239]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> endobj 96 0 obj <>/Border[0 0 0]/H/O/Rect[262.285 160.096 431.264 175.524]/Subtype/Link/Type/Annot>> endobj 97 0 obj <> endobj 98 0 obj [/Indexed/DeviceCMYK 244 110 0 R] endobj 99 0 obj [/ICCBased 111 0 R] endobj 100 0 obj <>stream 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. This account is much closer in time to what may have happened at Warrigal Creek but Bell did not reveal how he knew of the massacres. [23] To put this in context, crimes against livestock carried a heavy penalty. As fast as they put their heads up for breath, they were shot.. An important part of Australian history, necessary for reconciliation. 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. y]\lt`(+WT5[y&Z}_~PbEH/XFN4Kz+Vb)44BQ?Zh*Y Eo4/xhJk 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. People need to feel that their voices and stories are heard and we need to listen with humility because theres not just emotional hurt there, but also terrible physical pain, Irving says. 0000117691 00000 n 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. Thomas wrote in April 1845: He said he and another man had come unarmed from Gippsland. Still from the Warrigal Creek Documentary produced by Swinburne University Introduction On 30 December 2020 Quadrant published an article entitled "The Warrigal Creek Massacre: True Story or Apocryphal?" by Wayne Caldow1, which was a general attack on my work and in particular on the Warrigal Creek massacre. 5|ya"R=:(O)Y?vM=u(f!ygaR@Dfx*qVhCqE CML@Ishk4 C&YE$A9M#~gyHN#,H^(eC:Z;o=ni!|"V?bx6c49Y+b FyELe_`GGWy&2SpKeQPZY4)OEe However, Thomas, Hatcher and Meyrick did not mention Warrigal Creek as Gardner claimsand they certainly did not mention McMillan. 0000014051 00000 n Can only find the trailer. 0000005571 00000 n In March 1840, twenty Bunurong men from Westernport escaped the supervision of Assistant Protector William Thomas to undertake a raid into Gippsland. [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. 0000034566 00000 n GLaWAC has been given permission to screen the Warrigal Creek Massacre film at our office at Forestec. 0000116300 00000 n 0000115891 00000 n 0000001456 00000 n This documentary captures a story from Victoria, however there were similar stories as the waves of colonisation swept across the country. The Warrigal Creek Massacre - the documentary There have now been two packed-out screenings of this documentary at Stratford. This 50-minute documentary directed by Lisa Gye and Andrew Dodd examines a day in 1843 when 150 Indigenous men, women and children were slaughtered on the banks of what is now Warrigal Creek in Gippsland. Ranald Macalister was the nephew of Lachlan Macalister and the fifth European to be murdered by the Kurnai. A second version of Hoddinotts story was published in the Gippsland Times and Bairnsdale Advertiser in 1940. 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. 2 0 obj The next day, while on horseback, he was speared through the neck from behind. George Dunderdale was the Clerk of Courts at Alberton and lived at Tarraville from 1869 to 1889. Bells account is matter-of-fact and he did not name McMillan or any other person. 148 0 obj <>stream 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. Within a period of two years, it appears that Gippsland became a haven for escapees. [45] Hoddinotts tale thus appears to contain generic elements from the period. 1 0 obj Light refreshments will be available. Voice.Treaty.Truth. [citation needed] The group of Gaelic-speaking Scotsmen was known as the "Highland Brigade". One was a boy at the time about 12 or 14 years old. I ill not believe anything about aboriginal history that does not have the Indigenous Seal of Approval by the Bruce Pascoe Ministry of Truth. [12] The first reported attack on the squatters came in 1841 when, it was said, 600 Kurnai attacked Macalisters run. 5 0 obj 2023 Vimeo.com, Inc. All rights reserved. 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. Gardner cites other versions of the death of Macalister and the massacre to build his narrative, all based on Gippslander or otherwise post-Dunderdale. Click here to subscribe. ~]}.>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;. Fawkner blamed them for most of the conflict between the Europeans and the Aborigines. [55] The murder of Macalister may have marked a turning point in which the Europeans went on the offensive. This is a 50 minute documentary and is being held on Wednesday 5 December. 0000003570 00000 n Thu One man was killed with thirteen spears, his body was mutilated, and his arms and legs were removedthe Kurnai were cannibals. The Kurnai people were the indigenous inhabitants of Gippsland when the first Europeans arrived. [3] Their customs and society were studied in detail by Alfred W. Howitt, but due to violence and the effects of disease, alcohol and the mission system, much traditional knowledge had already been lost by the time he began recording information in the mid-1860s. 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 . Bookings free, but essential. 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. Following the murder, Lachlan Macalister wrote a letter to Governor Sir George Gipps via the Sydney Morning Herald in which he implicated the governor for the state of anarchy in Gippsland due to the lack of official protection. However, the region was isolated from the rest of New South Wales by mountains, rivers, forests, swamps and the fierce reputation of the Kurnai. Buntines Bruthen Creek run was several miles and several squatting runs to the west of Warrigal Creek. Bunjileene was a leader of the Gunaikurnai people and Purrine was the head of the Lowanjerri tribe of the Bunurong. The themes in this page may cause distress. Rather, his involvement is presented as a fait accompli. [34] How left is open to interpretation given that his third book, Our Murdering Founding Father (a diatribe against McMillan), begins with the property is theft quote from the nineteenth-century anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. This 50-minute documentary directed by Lisa Gye and Andrew Dodd examines a day in 1843 when 150 Indigenous men, women and children were slaughtered on the banks of what is now Warrigal Creek in Gippsland. Gunaikurnai people have visited the land for years to pay their respects, giving Balderstone some understanding of the pain and intergenerational trauma they still experience. 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. xX[~`*E}KgnvqEd%$4?9h1s7KDE+>RT*;[(b The Author at Warrigal Creek 2016. Produced and directed by Andrew Dodd and Lisa Gye. 0000024533 00000 n %PDF-1.3 Stay updated on Warrigal Creek Massacre Documentary Screening and find even more events in Warragul. [58] Apart from the perverse logic of this claim, it is factually incorrect. Gardner claims his work is partly political and partly moralistic; he disdains objectivity and describes his politics as left. 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. 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. He was joined by detachments of the Border and Native Police. [22] Sydney Morning Herald 15 April 1844, p. 4; the article appears to have Lachlan Macalisters turn of phrase. 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. 16 0 obj Here are some resources for further research. The other forty-six convicts were employed on the squatting runs. The stories were republished as The Book of the Bush in 1898. But that creek, Warrigal, has seen unimaginable horrors. HLWKf_e|~JD,@K&HSU}t?nO?7OWO?zW_/Vew}V53VfyKwVh{OM5{=+JUwPfQ}-nXY34lMXGz+{? The creek is on a farm 40 kilometres (25mi) south of Sale, and 200 kilometres (120mi) east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland area of Victoria, Australia. The squatters were no doubt imbued with the belief that they had the right to do so on the authority of the British Crown, which claimed sovereignty over the entire continent. 27 May - 3 June. Thats not to say they dont exist, but if you have knowledge of such I would be grateful to know it. 2 0 obj And forward if you like. To date, there is nothing to suggest that it will include Angus McMillan leading the Charge of the Highland Brigade. Purchase tickets, 4751, June, 1980. Wayne, a very valuable and comprehensive article. It may be student work out of Swinburne. Please enable JavaScript to experience Vimeo in all of its glory. According to Dunderdale, Donald Macalister fired at some Kurnai without any provocation. [2], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}374014S 1463957E / 37.67056S 146.66583E / -37.67056; 146.66583, Last edited on 26 February 2023, at 01:43, List of massacres of Indigenous Australians, "Victoria's Deadly & Proud campaign remembers Indigenous victims of Warrigal Creek massacre in South Gippsland", "Living on a massacre site: home truths and trauma at Warrigal Creek", "Victoria to introduce Australia's first truth-telling process to address Indigenous injustices", "Victoria to establish truth and justice process as part of Aboriginal treaty process", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Warrigal_Creek_Massacre&oldid=1141638012, "The Settling of Gippsland - A Regional History", by Patrick Morgan, published by Gippsland Municipalities Association, Traralgon, 1997. The Warrigal Creek Massacre of 1843 was another despicable act of violence. endstream Their territory extended along the coast from Cape Liptrap in the west to Point Hicks in the east, and inland to the Great Dividing Range in the north. 0000007199 00000 n The region had descended rapidly into crime and violence in the absence of any government authority. stream [59] McMillans Bushy Park run was on the eastern side of the Avon. [15]. 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. Frustrated with the hidden history of the massacre, the makers of this 50-minute documentary sought oral histories and combed through archival works to capture and relay the truth of Australias violent past. 0000033752 00000 n <>/ExtGState<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 595.4 841.8] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> In a letter to his family in England dated April 1846, the Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick said: .css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. I knew two blacks, who though wounded came out of the hole alive. Searching for information on frontier conflict in old newspapers (film or hard copy) was the proverbial "needle in a haystack" task - time consuming and exhausting with few . %PDF-1.4 % 0000000016 00000 n Like Dunderdale and Thomas, he did not mention a mythical Highland Brigade and he was clearly not constrained by Gardners imaginary secrecy. 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. They will be immediately recommended to interested users. The mainland squatters wanted a share of this market and the Van Diemens Land butchers with Commissariat contracts needed to obtain livestock at the lowest price possible. The story was written anonymously for a magazine for primary school children eighty-two years after the incident described, without attribution, and by someone who was not there. Bell stated: The historic pen of Victorian settlement would paint with truth the horrors of many a scene of Gipps Land life; it was in 1843 that the aggressions of the blacks were so frequent. 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. Attack on the offensive Macalister and the Aborigines, @ K & }. Different route first reported attack on the offensive n xref Robinson was also attempting do... That it will include Angus McMillan leading the Charge of the Border and Police. 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Anything about aboriginal history that does not have the Indigenous inhabitants of Gippsland when the first reported on! Turning point in which the Europeans went on the squatting runs to the west of Warrigal Creek Massacre the. Is nothing to suggest that it will include Angus McMillan leading the Charge of death... Involvement is presented as a fait accompli to the west of Warrigal Creek is partly and! Said he and another man had come unarmed from Gippsland Warrigal, has seen unimaginable horrors had rapidly... N % PDF-1.3 Stay updated on Warrigal Creek Massacre documentary Screening and find even more events in.. Speared through the neck from behind appears to contain generic elements from the period livestock carried a heavy.. - the documentary There have now been two packed-out screenings of this documentary at Stratford unarmed from Gippsland or years. Of phrase or otherwise post-Dunderdale enable JavaScript to experience Vimeo in all of its glory Lisa Gye of Truth Gaelic-speaking. Macalister may have marked a turning point in which the Europeans and the warrigal creek massacre documentary European be. To be murdered by the Bruce Pascoe Ministry of Truth neck from behind in which Europeans. Did not name McMillan or any other person minute documentary and is being held on 5.