The Gippsland massacres were a series of

mass murders Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more pe ...

Gunai Kurnai people The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai ( ) people, also referred to as the Gunnai or Kurnai, are an Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slop ...

, an

Aboriginal Australian people Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

living in

East Gippsland East Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Victoria, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres (14%) of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114. Australian Bureau of Statistics2006 Census Community Profile Series: East Gippsland (Sta ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, committed by European settlers and the Aboriginal Police during the Australian frontier wars.

History

The perpetrators often did not record or speak about their actions for fear of prosecution and the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

under colonial law, as happened after the

Myall Creek massacre The Myall Creek massacre was the killing of at least twenty-eight unarmed Indigenous Australians by twelve colonists on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek near the Gwydir River, in northern New South Wales. After two trials, seven of the twelve co ...

. The names of many of the perpetrators remain on the rivers, roads and islands of Gippsland. Scots pastoralist

Angus McMillan Angus McMillan (14 August 1810 – 18 May 1865) was a Scottish-born explorer, pioneer pastoralist, and perpetrator of several of the Gippsland massacres of Gunai people. Arriving first in New South Wales in 1838, McMillan rose swiftly in Au ...

played a significant role in the massacres of Gippsland in retribution for the murder of a fellow pastoralist by the Gurnai Kurnai people. Gippsland

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846: ::The blacks are very quiet here now, poor wretches. No wild beast of the forest was ever hunted down with such unsparing perseverance as they are. Men, women and children are shot whenever they can be met with … I have protested against it at every station I have been in Gippsland, in the strongest language, but these things are kept very secret as the penalty would certainly be hanging … For myself, if I caught a black actually killing my sheep, I would shoot him with as little remorse as I would a wild dog, but no consideration on earth would induce me to ride into a camp and fire on them indiscriminately, as is the custom whenever the smoke is seen. They he Aborigineswill very shortly be extinct. It is impossible to say how many have been shot, but I am convinced that not less than 450 have been murdered altogether. The following list of massacres was compiled by settlers from white perpetrator sources such as letters and diaries, and thus does not take into account Gunai Kurnai knowledge of the history of occupation. :1840 - Nuntin- unknown number murdered by

's men :1840 - Boney Point - "Angus McMillan and his men took a heavy toll of Aboriginal lives" :1841 - Butchers Creek (now known as Boxes Creek,

Metung Metung is a town in East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. The town is east of the state capital Melbourne and between the larger towns of Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance. It is on a small peninsula south-east of Bairnsdale, separating Lak ...

) - 30-35 shot by Angus McMillan's men :1841 -

Maffra Maffra is a town in Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne. It is in the Shire of Wellington local government area and it is the second most populous city of the Shire. It relies mainly on dairy farming and other agriculture, and is the sit ...

- unknown number shot by Angus McMillan's men :1842 - Skull Creek - unknown number murdered :1842 - Bruthen Creek - "hundreds murdered" :1843 -

Warrigal Creek 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 south of Sale, and east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland area of Victoria, Austral ...

- up to 150 people shot by Angus McMillan and his men :1844 - Maffra - unknown number murdered :1846 -

South Gippsland South Gippsland, a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, is a well-watered region consisting of low, rolling hills descending to the coast in the south and the Latrobe Valley in the north. Low granite hills continue into Wilsons Promonto ...

- 14 murdered :1846 -

Snowy River The Snowy River is a major river in south-eastern Australia. It originates on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, draining the eastern slopes of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, before flowing through the ...

- 8 murdered by Captain Dana and the Aboriginal Police :1846-47 -

Central Gippsland The area known as Central Gippsland, also termed North Gippsland, is a region of Gippsland in Victoria, Australia, roughly corresponding to Shire of Wellington. Often this region is considered part of a larger "East Gippsland". Central Gippsl ...

- 50 or more shot by armed party hunting for a white woman supposedly held by Aborigines; no such woman was ever found. :1850 - East Gippsland - 15-20 murdered :1850 - Murrindal - 16 poisoned :1850 -

Brodribb River The Brodribb River is a perennial river of the Snowy River catchment, located in the East Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. Course and features Formed by the confluence of the South Branch and the North Branch of the river ...

- 15-20 murdered In 2020, the Wellington Shire Council voted against removing the monuments that celebrate Angus McMillan, with the vote finishing 5–4. Cr Rossetti, Cr Bye, Cr Ripper, Cr Hole and Cr Stephens voted against the movement despite McMillan's ties to genocide.

History

See also

References

Further reading