October 28.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Two further massacres
The massacre of Pinjarra
So as the Swan River settlement expanded, the colonists encountered increased resistance. The scene of conflict shifted from the region around Perth to the Murray River district, where even the first groups of settlers were immediately attacked. By the end of 1834, about seven white settlers had been killed, [1] together with an unknown number of Aboriginal resisters. Matters were brought to a head by the Aborigines' embarrassing imprisonment of the 21st Regiment in their own barracks and their theft of half a ton of flour from Shenton's Mill.
[Governor James] Stirling decided to lead an attack himself, in what came to be known as the 'Battle of Pinjarra'. Stirling's troops surrounded the Murray River people and shot a large number of them. Minimising the fatalities, as was invariably done, Stirling's official report claimed that fifteen Aboriginal men were killed and a few Europeans injured. [2] Septimus Roe, the Surveyor-General, who had accompanied the military expedition recorded that between nineteen and twenty-six Aborigines were killed. [3] Joseph Hardey, a Christian settler and prominent Methodist supporter, although not involved in the attack, wrote that it was 'a shocking slaughter' and that between twenty-five and thirty had been killed, including women and children. [4]
Stirling specifically stated that 'on this occasion the women and children had been spared'. He warned the survivors that if there were any more trouble, 'four times the present number of men would proceed amongst them and destroy every man, woman and child'. [5] Stirling's view was that the only way to deal with Aborigines was to exhibit extreme force, to 'reduce their tribe to weakness' and to inflict 'such acts of decisive severity as will appal them as people'. [6] Stirling's actions delighted many settlers, particularly Thomas Peel who had been anxiously seeking title deeds to the Aborigines' land around the Murray. In the same month, November, Peel received title to 250 000 acres. He was negotiating the sale of 100 000 acres for a handsome profit by December. [7]
Armed resistance to the Europeans diminished in the Murray region following the Battle of Pinjarra, but the massacre served both to convince Aborigines further afield to resist the invasion vigorously, and to harden the resolve of settlers to kill as soon as possible a large enough number of Aborigines to instil fear in the remainder. By 1835, the frontier was further inland in the York region. Aboriginal resistance met with stern reprisals until, by 1838, active Aboriginal resistance was crushed in all areas where settlement was taking place.
Deposition accompanying Stirling's despatch, 1 November 1834.
Ibid.
Roe Journal, 28 October 1834, Acc. no. 269, BL.
J.W. Burton, the Diary of Joseph Hardey, Journal and Proceedings of the Western Australian Historical Society, 1929, 1(4): 26.
Perth Gazette, 1 November 1834.
Stirling, cited in Paul Hasluck, Black Australians, MUP, Melbourne, 1942: 48-49.
Christine Fletcher, The battle for Pinjara – a revisionist view, in Reece, Bob and Stannage, Tom (eds) European – Aboriginal Relationms in Western Australian History, [Studies in Western Australian History VIII] , UWAP, Nedlands, 1984, pp. 1-5.
Acknowledgment: John Harris, One Blood, pp. 257-258, 307 n. 5, n.6, n.7, n.8, n.9, n.10, n.11.
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Killing children as well as adults.
[Lieutenant] John Henderson [1] and those who tell the story today also say that following the all-night siege of Wabro station home, a local grazier led a party of revenge which shot many blacks. This grazier was the most ruthless of those present and was killing children as well as adults. Someone present remonstrated with him for murdering the young and innocent to which he replied: ‘Nits grow into lice’. It is said that this man topped every post of his stockyard with a skull.
Lieut. John Henderson, Adventures and Excursions in N.S.W., Vol. 2, 1851.
Acknowledgment: Geoffrey Blomfield, Baal Belbora – The End of the Dancing, pp. 34, 53 n.32.