La Grange massacre
The La Grange Massacre, also known as the La Grange Expedition , was a search expedition that was carried out in 1865 in the immediate vicinity of La Grange Bay in Western Australia in the Kimberley region. It was led by Maitland Brown . The expedition was looking for three settlers who had not returned from a previous expedition. The three men were believed to have been killed by Aboriginal people either with spears or clubs . Numerous Aborigines were subsequently massacred by the expedition members in clashes that are often referred to as the La Grange massacre.
prehistory
In 1864 an expedition was held investigating the case of Henry Wildman, who claimed that he had found gold near Camden Harbor . The expedition found no gold, but good settler land and the settlement at Roebuck Bay was established. In November 1864 three white men , Frederick Panter , James Harding and William Goldwyer left this settlement to explore the land around La Grange Bay. This expedition had food with them for two to a maximum of three weeks and when they did not return after three weeks another settler was looking for them. It got as far as the mangrove swamp at La Grange, but lost all traces of them.
When news of the missing men reached the Western Australia government in Perth , a search party led by Maitland Brown was immediately put together. There were suspicions that the three men were killed by Aborigines and there were calls to avenge their deaths. George Walpole Leake, for example, wrote: “ They have fallen in the service of their fellow-subjects, and it is our bounden duty to ascertain how and where they have fallen: and if by violence, avenge them. "(German: They fell for all of us and it is our duty and obligation to find out where and how they fell. If it happened through violence, it avenges.)
Search expedition
A ship, the Clarence Packet , was chartered and the group left Fremantle on February 16, 1865. On February 25, the ship reached the mouth of the De Gray River . The members of the group went to Walter Padbury's ranch station for news of the missing men, but there was none. The expedition then waited two weeks for an Aboriginal named Dutchmanchum. Dutchmanchum was said to have mastered the Aboriginal language in the Roebuck Bay area and it was decided that he should lead the expedition. When Dutchmanchum arrived, he reported that the three whites had been attacked and all were murdered on the Boola Boola River near La Grange Bay. Over the next few days, a number of other Aborigines reported the incident in the same way.
On March 13, the expedition sailed to Roebuck Bay, which is near Cape Villaret , and reached it on March 18. Four days later, a group of Brown's expedition members arrested five Aborigines at the Plains Race Course . These Aborigines reaffirmed the story of Dutchmanchum, and one of them, Lear-a-ban, stated that some of the Aborigines who were involved in the killing are camping near Cape Latouche Treville . Brown decided he wanted to see these Aborigines.
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Maitland Brown decided he was going to be brutal with the Aborigines and wrote in his diary that he was ready to capture the Aborigines who were guilty, but added, “ But I trust that throughout the whole trip there will be no necessity for capture - that not only amongst this lot, but also amongst all others we may meet, the guilty natives, if such there are, will either attack us or resist us in such a manner as will of itself justify us in exterminating them. “(German: But I suspect that there will be no opportunity for capture during the entire trip; not only in this bunch, but also among everyone else we meet, the guilty Aborigines, if any, will either be us attack or resist so that they will give us justification to execute them.)
The Clarence Packet was on its way to Cape Latouche Treville, and Brown landed on March 27th. There he arrested three more Aborigines the same day and another group the following day. Brown thought some of these men were culpable in the attack and threw ten of them overboard. One of the Aborigines, Karimba, said he could bring the search expeditions to the killers. But when he got her to the Boola Boola River, he led her back and astray all day, for he had warned the Aborigines about the persecution beforehand. Karimba had thus made it possible for the Aborigines to get to safety, and the search party now saw themselves being pursued by a large group of armed Aborigines.
It is possible that Karimba as well as two other Aborigines were sent on the ship to distract and lead them to death. The two Aborigines led the whites directly to the killing site, where they found the three white settlers. Two of them, Panter and Harding, had been killed with spears and beaten to death with clubs in their sleep, with cloths still on their eyes. The reason for Goldwyer's death was difficult to fathom as there was no sign of a fight on him. Numerous fights with the Aborigines are noted in the diaries of those killed and that they hoped for support. Brown had the bodies wrapped up and wanted to put them on the ship. When this was decided, the two leaders tried to flee and in the process they were shot by one of the men; one of the local assistants made himself available as a guide.
La Grange massacre
Instead of returning to the ship, the expedition now explored the country. Brown described this behavior as further inquiries, but at this point most scientists agree that this was the start of the punitive expedition. On April 6, 1865, Brown's expedition got into a conflict with a large group of Aborigines. Most reports state that the whites were ambushed, but one report identifies this as a raid on an Aboriginal camp. Despite this difference, the outcome of the massacre is undisputed: In the end six, possibly more than 20 Aborigines were killed, whereas the expedition did not have a single wounded.
Follow-up
The search expedition returned to Perth in May 1865. The Panters, Harding and Goldwyer killed received a public funeral. It was the largest funeral Western Australia had seen to date, with 750 people attending. Thousands of spectators lined the streets on the way to East-Perth-Cemetery (German: Ost-Perth-Friedhof), where the men were buried.
Maitland Brown accompanied loud cheers from the way back home for having successfully found the men and avenged their deaths. Although many settlers felt that " the requital Mr. Brown had inflicted on the murderers utterly inadequate ". (German: that Mr. Brown had inflicted extremely unjustified and disproportionately great suffering on the murderers). The British government, however, expressed its view as follows: "force had been exercised towards the natives without sufficient warranty." (Violence was exercised on the natives without sufficient legal protection.)
Maitland Brown died in 1904 and was buried in Karrakatta Cemetery. In 1911 his bones were moved from Karrakatta near the tombs of Panter, Harding and Goldwyer in East Perth. A short time later, Pietro Porcelli was commissioned to erect a memorial for Brown. The result was the Explorer Monument in Fremantle, a bronze bust of Brown on a granite base with a plaque depicting the murdered and describing the circumstances of their death. The partial representation of the original plaque was recognized after a long protest by the Aboriginal community. The Aborigines had fought the Explorer Monoment as a racist memorial that misrepresents the story of the La Grange Massacre. In 1994, on the initiative of the Aborigines, another plaque was put up, depicting this act as a massacre as a result of the invasion of the Aboriginal land by the whites.
literature
- Maitland Brown: Journal of an Expedition in the Roebuck Bay District, under the Command of Maitland Brown, Esq., In Search of Messrs. Panter, Harding, and Goldwyer . Reprinted from the Perth Gazette and WA Times. of May 19, and 26, 1865.
- Lockier Clere Burges: The Pioneers of the Nor'-West Australia . Constantine and Gardner, Printers and Publishers, Geraldton 1913.
- Peter Cowan : Maitland Brown: A View of Nineteenth Century Western Australia . Fremantle Arts Center Press, Fremantle, Western Australia 1988, ISBN 0-949206-27-X .
- Kay Forrest: The Challenge and the Chance: The Colonization and Settlement of North West Australia 1861-1914 . Hesperian Press, Victoria Park, Western Australia 1996, ISBN 0-85905-217-6 .
- David Francisco: The Panter-Harding-Goldwyer relief expedition of 1865: being a copy of a diary kept by one of the members of the expedition led by Mr. maitland Brown to the Roebuck Bay District in search of Messrs Panter, Harding and Goldwyer, whose murdered bodies were found at their camp on Lake Ingedana . Royal Western Australian Historical Society, 1928.
- Bruce Scates: A Monument to Murder: Celebrating the Conquest of Aboriginal Australia In: Lenore Layman, Tom Stannage (Eds.): Celeb Scates, rations in Western Australian History (Studies in Western Australian History X). University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 1989.
Blackboard texts
This monument was erected by CJ BROCKMAN, a comrade of the wanderers, as a tribute to PANTER, HARDING and GOLDWYER, after Gray and Gregory the earliest discoverers of this "Terra Incognita", which was attacked by insidious natives at night and at the Boole Boola near Le Grange Bay were murdered on November 13, 1864. Also as an appreciative token of memory of MAITLAND BROWN, one of the pioneering cattle farmers and first politician of this state, fearless leader of the government search force and the punitive expedition. His remains are along with the sad relics of the unfortunate three who were salvaged from the savages at great risk and danger and now rest under a public monument in East Perth Cemetery. "SO WE DON'T FORGET"
THIS PLAQUE WAS ERECTED BY THE PEOPLE WHO FOUND THE MONUMENT IN FRONT OF YOU OFFENSIVE. THE MONUMENT DESCRIBES THE EVENTS AT LA GRANGE ONLY FROM ONE PERSPECTIVE: THE VIEWPOINT OF THE WHITE "SETTLERS". The right of the Aborigines to defend their land or the story of the provocation that led to the death of the explorers is not mentioned. The punitive expedition mentioned resulted in the deaths of around 20 Aborigines. The whites were well armed and none of their group were killed or wounded. This sign is in memory of the Aborigines who were killed in La Grange. It also commemorates all of the other Aborigines who died during the invasion of their land. SO WE DON'T FORGET MAPA JARRIYA-NYALAKU