April 9.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
The Rufus River massacre
Between April 1838 and April 1841, a minimum of 36 parties travelled the western Central Murray route, bringing with them at least 480 Europeans, 90,000 sheep and 15,000 cattle, as well as horses, bullocks, drays and goods into Aboriginal territories. Moreover, the stock route...followed much older Aboriginal pathways, a common occurrence across Australia that complicated Aboriginal people’s access to traditional travel routes. [1]
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The Rufus River massacre 1841
On 16 April 1841 one of these overlanding parties, led by Henry Inman and consisting of 11 men and 5,000 sheep, was attacked on the banks of the river ‘at a place 40 miles to the eastward of Lake Bonney’. [2] According to Governor Grey:
[a] body of natives from 300–400 strong ... forcibly took possession of the sheep, drays &c, and dispersed the Europeans, severely wounding two, and nearly killing another ... and this notwithstanding a strenuous resistance was offered, and at least one of the natives killed. [3]
This ‘outrage’ caused a police party to be dispatched to the area, led by the Commissioner of Police, Major Thomas O’Halloran, which was recalled before it reached its destination. In their stead a group of volunteers, including Henry Field, a member of Inman’s original party, James Hawker and Field’s brother, Lieutenant William George Field, offered to recover the sheep, setting out on 7 May. On 13 May they too fell in with the same party of natives, between 300 and 400 strong, who attacked them, wounding one of their number, at the same time killing one, and wounding two, of their horses. The Aborigines eventually compelled them to a hasty retreat, although not without suffering a loss of from eight to ten men on their own part. [4]
The attacks on Inman’s and Field’s parties sparked a concerted public reaction. In order to avoid a vigilante group, and in response to the news that another overlanding party, led by Alfred Langhorne, was presently en route, newly arrived Governor Grey swore in a batch of volunteers as special constables under the jurisdiction of O’Halloran and the Protector of Aborigines, Matthew Moorhouse. A large party of men, including mounted and foot police, left Adelaide on 31 May. They met up with Langhorne’s party on 22 June, only to learn that they had been attacked two days earlier at the Rufus River, resulting in the deaths of four Europeans and the wounding of another two. Five Aboriginal people had been killed and approximately 10 wounded in the conflict. [5]
In response to a formal request in July 1841 to protect a third group of overlanders, this time led by William Robinson, another official party, including police, three Aboriginal people and Moorhouse, again left for the Murray. On arriving at the Rufus on 27 August they met up with Robinson’s party, who, like Langhorne’s, had been attacked further to the east on the previous day. Five Aboriginal men had been killed, and 10 wounded, but there had been no loss of European life. In the hours following, Moorhouse and two others encountered a large party of men and women near Lake Victoria, who immediately ran towards them and a second clash ensued, despite Moorhouse’s attempts to negotiate through interpreters. In the ensuing gunfire ‘nearly 30’ Aboriginal people were killed (although at the subsequent enquiry Moorhouse acknowledged that he had only seen 21 bodies), [6] ‘about 10’ wounded and four captured. [7] Of the Europeans, only Robinson himself was wounded. A subsequent enquiry questioned the participants, including Pangki Pangki, the Aboriginal interpreter, and Pulkanta, one of the Rufus River captives, but eventually declared that the conduct of both European parties was justifiable. [8] Much later this ‘collision’ became known as the Rufus River massacre. [9]
The Rufus River conflict is often seen as the end-point of conflict in the region, both because of its scale, since it signalled the largest number of deaths as a result of a single event, but also because reports of attacks on overlanding parties disappear from the literature after 1842.
Spooner et al. 2010.
Deposition of Henry Inman in Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons 1843, Papers Relative to South Australia, Aborigines (hereafter PRSAA), Enclosure 1 in No. 87: 268.
Grey to Russell, 29 May 1841, in PRSAA 1843, Enclosure 87: 267.
Grey to Russell, 29 May 1841, in PRSAA 1843, Enclosure 87: 267.
Moorhouse to Mundy, 4 September 1841, in PRSAA 1843, Enclosure 1 in No. 97: 294.
Testimony of Matthew Moorhouse to Bench of Magistrates, 21 September 1841, in PRSAA 1843: 299.
Moorhouse to Mundy, 4 September 1841, in PRSAA 1843, Enclosure 1 in No. 97: 294. 152
Bench of Magistrates, Minutes of meeting 20–22 September 1841, in PRSAA 1843, Enclosure in No. 98:302.
See Foster 2009; Foster and Nettelbeck 2010; Foster et al. 2001
Acknowledgment: Heather Burke, Amy Roberts, Mick Morrison, Vanessa Sullivan and the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (RMMAC), “The space of conflict: Aboriginal/ European interactions and frontier violence on the western Central Murray, South Australia, 1830–41” Aboriginal History Vol. 40 (2016) pp.151 n.31, n.33; 152 n.34, n.35, n.36, n.37, n.38, p.153 n.39, n.40.