Rufus River Massacre

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The Rufus River Massacre , in which 35 Aborigines from the Maraura tribe (also called Maraudy ) were murdered, took place on August 26 and 27, 1841 in the so-called Island Country , which consists of a labyrinth of tributaries and islands of the Murray River the border of South Australia and New South Wales exists. The Rufus River massacre took place after several months of conflict over the cattle drives of cattle and sheep of the Europeans through the tribal area of ​​the Maraura because these cattle drives threatened the livelihoods of this Aboriginal tribe.

prehistory

When in 1838 the drover Hawdon successfully drove 340 animals for the first time on the 1,500-kilometer stretch from Melbourne to Adelaide , the Hawdon Route was named after him. It developed more and more into the main route of the drovers. The route runs along the north side of the Murray River , crosses the Darling River and passes Lake Victoria . It leads through the land of the Maraura Aborigines. The implementation of the cattle drives was a threat to the existence of the Aborigines living there, because the water points were polluted, the cattle ate up the grass and thereby drove other local animals away. The grasslands were trampled, from which grains and seeds were collected for consumption. The Europeans also hunted the local game, an important livelihood of the nomadic Aborigines. As a result, the food situation deteriorated to a great extent. In addition, the Europeans robbed Aboriginal women and brought diseases with them, which led to massive deaths of Aborigines because they were unable to develop endogenous antibodies against many diseases.

Conflicts

Threatened in their livelihoods, the Aborigines attacked a cattle drive with around 4,000 to 5,000 sheep on April 17, 1841 and stole them along with the wagons with equipment from the European drovers. Between 300 and 400 Aborigines were involved in this attack. The European drovers reported that they were injured and killed and that they were happy to get to Adelaide alive.

A police force with 23 armed mounted men was then dispatched to snatch the stolen goods from the thieves. The commando was called back to Adelaide on April 30th. On May 7th, a new group of ten armed men marched in pursuit of the crime, which was attacked by 300 Aborigines on May 13th. Eight Aborigines are said to have died and some were wounded. The mounted police reported losses of horses. The Governor of South Australia, George Edward Gray , sent on May 31, 1841 again a police force with 68 people to punish the Aborigines. It is said to have broken out on June 20th, in which four Europeans and five Aborigines lost their lives. Other reports point to further arguments and much higher numbers. This expedition was ultimately unsuccessful in terms of retrieving the cattle and equipment.

Rufus River Massacre

In the course of a third punitive expedition with 29 Europeans and three Aborigines, which was sent from Adelaide by Governor Gray on July 1, the actual Rufus River massacre occurred, which took place on August 26 and 27, 1841 on the Rufus River occurred when the expedition attacked large numbers of maraura. 15 Aborigines were shot dead in a 15-minute gun battle on the banks of the Rufus River on August 26th. The maraura could not escape because the river bank was behind them. When the Europeans wanted to negotiate with the Aborigines on August 27, they did not respond. Another 20 Aborigines were shot by the members of the expedition when the Aborigines tried to steal cattle from a cattle drive while crossing the Rufus River. Other dead who died as a result of injuries in the fighting are not officially named. There are said to have been 20 injured Aborigines. Further casualties are likely as travelers who crossed the area reported numerous human skeletons in the area.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John Nicholson: The Mighty Murray. P. 18.
  2. ↑ a b http://users.esc.net.au/~pereilly/rufus.htm