In April 1840 the Fighting Waterholes massacre of up to 60 Jardwadjali Aboriginal people of the Konongwootong Gundidj clan occurred near the current day Konongwootong reservoir (then known as Den Hills creek), near present-day Coleraine, Victoria, Australia. [1] [2] [3]
On 1 March 1840, the Whyte brothers (William, George, Pringle and James Whyte) of the Konongwootong sheep run, along with their servants, were involved in the Fighting Hills massacre. Aboriginal protector Charles Sievwright investigated the incident but was unable to secure evidence from any third party witnesses, despite depositions from the participants admitting to the killing.
On 1 April, after the Konongwootong Gundidj stole sheep, the Whyte brothers and station hands Henry Skilton and William Fox rode off looking for the offenders. Having not found the sheep or Aboriginal people, the Whyte brothers rode off to the nearest station while the remaining station hands rode on to the home station. It was on the way there that station hands came upon "numerous old men, women and children" camping near waterholes. The station hands killed all the members of the camp. [4] There were varying reports of the numbers of the slain, from "numerous" to 40 and 60. [2] [5] [1]
After news of the massacre spread, the Whyte brothers dismissed the station hands. [2]
Eventually the remnants of the Konongwootong Gundidj clan moved on to Murndal station, where they joined the Wanedeet Gundidj clan. [2]
Later, news stories attributed the massacre to retaliation organised by the Whyte brothers to avenge the killing of a white shepherd in the area of Merino Downs. [6] [7]
In 1946 heavy flood uncovered skulls and bones, which were discovered by T. J. Fitzgerald. [3] [2] The remains were later reburied. [8]
A commemorative site at the Konong Wootong reservoir, named the Konongwootong Quiet Place, was created in 2014 to acknowledge the event. [4]
Portland is a city in Victoria, Australia, and is the oldest European settlement in the state. It is also the main urban centre in the Shire of Glenelg and is located on Portland Bay. As of the 2021 census the population was 10,016, increasing from a population of 9,712 taken at the 2016 census.
The Western District comprises western regions of the Australian state of Victoria. It is said to be an ill–defined district, sometimes incorrectly referred to as an economic region,. The district is located within parts of the Barwon South West and the Grampians regions; extending from the south-west corner of the state to Ballarat in the east and as far north as Ararat. The district is bounded by the Wimmera district in the north, by the Goldfields district in the east, by Bass Strait and the Southern Ocean in the south, and by the South Australian border in the west. The district is well known for the production of wool. The most populated city in the Western District is the Ballarat region, with 96,940 inhabitants.
Coleraine is a town in Victoria, Australia on the Glenelg Highway, 334 kilometres (208 mi) west of the state capital, Melbourne and 34 kilometres (21 mi) north-west of Hamilton in the Shire of Southern Grampians local government area. It was named after the town in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. At the 2006 census, the urban area of Coleraine had a population of 991.
Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre of Gunai/Kurnai people in colonial Victoria, during the Australian frontier wars. The creek is on a farm 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Sale, and 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Melbourne, in the South Gippsland area of Victoria, Australia.
James Whyte was a Scottish-born Australian politician who served as the sixth Premier of Tasmania, from 20 January 1863 to 24 November 1866. Before moving to Tasmania, Whyte was a pioneering sheep-farmer in western Victoria. He and his brothers perpetrated the Fighting Hills massacre of 40–80 Aboriginal people in Victoria while recovering stolen sheep.
The Taungurung people, also spelt Daung Wurrung, are an Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language.
Casterton is a town in Victoria, Australia, located on the Glenelg Highway, 42 kilometres east of the South Australian border, in the Shire of Glenelg. The Glenelg River passes through the town. Casterton is named after the village of Casterton in south-east Cumbria in England.
The Gippsland massacres were a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people, an Aboriginal Australian people living in East Gippsland, Victoria, committed by European settlers and the Aboriginal Police during the Australian frontier wars.
The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of southwestern Victoria. They are the traditional owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. Their land includes much of the Budj Bim heritage areas. The Kerrup Jmara are a clan of the Gunditjmara, whose traditional lands are around Lake Condah. The Koroitgundidj are another clan group, whose lands are around Tower Hill.
The following lists events that happened during 1840 in Australia.
Mount Elephant is a 380-metre-high (1,250 ft) conical breached scoria cone formed by a dormant volcano, located 1 km from the town of Derrinallum in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is a prominent landmark that forms the eastern gateway to the Kanawinka Geopark from the Hamilton Highway at Derrinallum.
The Convincing Ground Massacre was a massacre of the Indigenous Gunditjmara people Kilcarer gundidj clan by British settler whalers based at Portland Bay in South-Eastern Australia. It was part of the wider Eumeralla Wars between the British colonisers and Gunditjmara. Tensions between the two groups had been building since the establishment of the town as a whaling station some five years previously, however, around 1833 or 1834, a dispute over a beached whale caused events to escalate.
Macarthur originally known as Eumeralla, is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia on the Hamilton-Port Fairy Road. It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area and the federal Division of Wannon. At the 2016 census, Macarthur and the surrounding area had a population of 522.
The Blood Hole massacre occurred in what is now the Australian state of Victoria at Middle Creek, 10–11 kilometres (6–7 mi) from Glengower Station between Clunes and Newstead at the end of 1839 or early 1840, killing an unknown number of Aboriginal people from the Grampians district who were on their way home after trading goods for green stone axe blanks that they obtained near what is now Lancefield.
Murdering Gully, formerly known as Puuroyup to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839 massacre of 35–40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria, Australia. It is a gully on Mount Emu Creek, where a small stream adjoins from Merida Station.
The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British invaders and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District area of south west Victoria.
The Fighting Hills massacre occurred on 8 March 1840 when Victorian Western District squatters killed 51 Aboriginal people of The Hummocks, near Wando Vale, Victoria Australia.
Peter Manifold (1817–1885) was an English pastoralist and politician of western Victoria.
Lake Condah Mission, also known as Condah Mission, was established in 1867 as a Church of England mission in Victoria, Australia. It is approximately 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Lake Condah—traditionally known as Tae Rak—and about 20–25 kilometres (12–16 mi) south-east of Condah. The site of the mission, on 2,000 acres (810 ha) north of Darlot Creek, was formally reserved in 1869, and the Mission continued operations until the reserve was finally revoked in 1951, with most of the land handed over to the Soldiers Settlement Scheme to provide land for white veterans of World War II.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
