Fighting Hills Massacre

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On March 8, 1840, the Fighting Hill massacre took place near the "The Hummocks", not far from Wando Vale in Victoria, Australia, to the Konongwootong- Gundidj , a clan that belonged to the Jardwadjali Aboriginal tribe . More than 40 men, women and children, possibly more than 80 Aborigines, were killed by the Whyte brothers and three of their employees.

prehistory

The Whyte brothers, William, George, Pringle, James and John came to Port Phillip , Australia as early as 1837 and later settled at Konongwootong Station on Koroit Creek not far from Coleraine in Victoria in February 1840. It was there that the first of two massacres by the Whyte brothers with the Gundidj Aborigines occurred, resulting in death for the Aborigines. Since one of those who investigated this massacre was involved in it, it was inconsequential for the Whyte brothers.

The European settlers invaded the tribal area of ​​the Gundidj and restricted their living space, with the result that their food base was restricted and their existence was threatened. The conquest of the English colonizers meant that the ancestral watering places of the Aborigines were not only polluted, but that a fresh water bottleneck was created. European cattle ranching drove local animals away because the land was used as grazing land and grains and seeds collected for consumption were destroyed in the process. Furthermore, the Europeans hunted the local game, an important livelihood of the nomadic Aborigines. The Aborigines faced an invasion and in their distress they took to the herds of cattle.

Fighting Hills Massacre

The second massacre by the Whyte brothers and by Daniel Turner, Benjamin Wardle and William Gillespiebrothers occurred on March 8, 1840 at Wando Vale. The location of this event became known as the Fighting Hills. The Aborigines robbed more than 120 sheep. The theft was quickly discovered and the Whyte brothers formed a group of seven persecutors who caught the thieves and shot, according to various reports, 20 to 51 Aborigines in a two-hour battle. The women and children fled with their husbands and as a result they too were among the dead. The estimates are therefore 80 victims among the Aborigines, while a white man was injured in his leg by a spear. 50 of the sheep had already been slaughtered. Since this massacre was so large it could not be concealed and John Whyte reported it to Charles La Trobe , the later governor of South Australia. He asked Whyte to explain this incident to the Chief Protector of Aborigines , George Augustus Robinson . Whyte downplayed the incident to Robinson and offered cash payments in return for his act. La Trobe considered the Fighting Hills massacre to be an extremely serious affair between blacks and whites. Robinson investigated and reported that the Aborigines planned to steal 50 sheep.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chris Coulthard-Clark: The encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles. P. 16
  2. ↑ a b http://museumvictoria.com.au/encounters/journeys/robinson/fighting_hills.htm