Warrowen massacre

Last updated August 26, 2023

The Warrowen massacre was an apparent mass killing of Bunurong people by a group of Kurnai people in the vicinity of present-day Brighton, Victoria, Australia. It is dated to the early 1830s, close in time to the founding of Melbourne. The killing was recorded separately several years later by William Thomas and George Augustus Robinson, based on testimony from Aboriginal sources. Thomas stated that at least 60 people had been killed. According to Robinson, the massacre contributed to the end of an entire Bunurong clan, the Yowengerre, allowing a Kurnai clan to take over their territory.

Background

Early European settlers in the Western Port and Gippsland regions of Victoria were told that there had been a long-running conflict between indigenous groups, with "each carrying out surprise attacks on the other and killing several people at a time".^[1] According to Robinson, the victims of the massacre at Warrowen were the Yowengerre (or Yowenjerre) and the perpetrators were the Borro Borro Willun.^[2] There was an "existing tenuous connection" between the two, as their respective neighbours exchanged women for marriages.^[3] The Yowengerre (or Yowenjerre) were the easternmost clan of the Bunurong people, occupying the Tarwin River watershed and parts of Wilsons Promontory.^[4]^[5] The traditional country of the Borro Borro willun (clan) of the Gunai (Kurnai) was the Avon River of Gippsland. The Borro Borro were surrounded by a larger group, the Braiakaulung (Briakalung), but were more closely linked with the Brataualung to the south.^[6]

Events

The main sources for the massacre are the letters of William Thomas, the Assistant Protector of Aborigines of Port Phillip. In an 1840 letter to Superintendent Charles La Trobe, he wrote that "about four years ago 77 people were killed at Little Brighton not nine miles from Melbourne".^[7] The letter listed "events in which the Bonurong had suffered at the hands of the Kurnai", in order to "explain to La Trobe the deadly enmity that had existed for a very long time between the Bonurong and their eastern neighbours". He further explained that he had "known about these historic events almost from when he arrived in Melbourne, and that they formed part of the Bonurong singing".^[8]

In a later report in 1849, Thomas recorded that:

[the] blacks remember the awful affair at Warrowen (place of sorrow) near where Brighton now stands, where in 1834 nearly a quarter of the Western Port blacks were massacred by the Gippsland blacks who stole up on them before dawn of day."^[9]

Thomas gave further detail of the massacre in his description of an incised tree in a paper on Aboriginal monuments and inscriptions:

[They have] no monuments whatever further than devices on trees where any great calamity have befallen them. On a large gum tree in Brighton, on the estate of Mr McMillan was a host of blacks lying as dead carved on the trunk for a yard or two up. The spot was called Woorroowen or incessant weeping. Near this spot in the year 1833 or 4, the Gippsland blacks stole at night upon the Western Port or Coast tribe and killed 60 or 70 of them.^[10]

While passing through Gippsland in 1844, George Augustus Robinson wrote in his diaries that "the natives of Gippsland have killed 70 of the Boongerong [Bunurong] at Brighton". His informant was Munmunginna (transcribed by Robinson as "Mun mun jin ind"), whose father was from the Yowengerre clan.^[2]

According to Fels (2011), the massacre was "well known to early settlers, is mentioned in histories of Brighton, and pioneers' accounts – it was commonplace information in early Melbourne history".^[7] Cooper states:^[11]

The aboriginals told the settlers of a tradition which they had of a great tribal fight in the vicinity of Landcox Park. Large numbers of those engaged were killed. Settlers in the early days found bones, & evidences of camp fires having been numerous on the place pointed out as the scene of the fight.

Location

Landcox Park (top) and Hurlingham Park (bottom)

Thomas named the place of the killings as "Little Brighton" or in the local language Warrowen (also spelt Warowen, Worawen, Worrowen or Woorroowen), meaning "place of sorrow" or "incessant weeping". Robinson also gave Brighton as the location of the massacre.^[2] The area was one of the Bunurong's regular places of encampment, but was also used by "anyone travelling to and from Melbourne, even though the route was outside their own country". The Bunurong continued to use the area after the killings, as in 1843 "Worawen" was listed as the place of death of Worrowurk, a 28-year-old man.^[12]

Based on accounts from early settlers, Fels (2011) identifies this location with two parks in present-day Brighton East. John Butler Cooper's history of Brighton states that the first European settlers found bones in the area and were told of "a great tribal fight in the vicinity of Landcox Park". Another account held by the Brighton Historical Society mentioned bones being ploughed up in Hurlingham Park. According to Fels, the two parks are "practically contiguous" and "before being renamed separately by Europeans, they would have been the same place or space".^[10] The pioneers' accounts state that the tree Thomas mentioned stood until the 1860s when it was felled by lightning.^[13]

Related incidents and aftermath

In his letter to La Trobe, Thomas recorded two other mass killings inflicted on the Bunurong by the Kurnai. In the first, which he dated to about 1820, "nearly half the tribe were killed" at Buckkermitterwarrer (Baggamahjarrawah) near Arthurs Seat.^[14] The second was at Kunnung near Koo Wee Rup, where he was told twelve women, children and elderly were killed. The Kunnung massacre was also recorded by James Maxwell Clow, who gave the number of dead as 25.^[15] Thomas also recorded in 1840 a revenge expedition by the Bunurong which resulted in the deaths of nine people.^[16]

In 1844, Robinson noted that the Yowengerre "once powerful are defunct and the country in consequence is unburnt having no native inhabitants ... this is the reason why the country is so scrubby". He stated there were only two survivors of the clan, Munmungina and Kurburra (also Kaborer or Carborer).^[17]^[18] However, Robinson's hypothesis about unburnt country as evidence of depopulation has been challenged by Ian Clark, who believes it was based on a false analogy with other areas.^[19] By 1844 the Borro Borro had permanently relocated into what had previously been Yowengerre country. According to Wilson & Ellender (2002), the "push factors" for the move would have been overpopulation, inter-Aboriginal conflict and conflict with Europeans, particularly Angus McMillan who had taken over their lands to establish his "Bushy Park" estate.^[20]

Related Research Articles

The Wurundjeripeople are an Australian Aboriginal people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin nation. They are the traditional owners of the Yarra River Valley, covering much of the present location of Melbourne. They continue to live in this area and throughout Australia. They were called the Yarra tribe by early European colonists.

The Gunaikurnai or Gunai/Kurnai people, also referred to as the Gunnai or Kurnai, are an Aboriginal Australian nation of south-east Australia. They are the Traditional Custodians of most of present-day Gippsland and much of the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps. The Gunaikurnai nation is composed of five major clans. Many of the Gunaikurnai people resisted early European squatting and subsequent settlement during the nineteenth century, resulting in a number of deadly confrontations between Europeans and the Gunaikurnai. There are about 3,000 Gunaikurnai people alive today, predominantly living in Gippsland. The Gunaikurnai dialects are the traditional language of the Gunaikurnai people, although there are very few fluent speakers today.

The Boonwurrung people are an Aboriginal people of the Kulin nation, who are the traditional owners of the land from the Werribee River to Wilsons Promontory in the Australian state of Victoria. Their territory includes part of what is now the city and suburbs of Melbourne. They were called the Western Port or Port Philip tribe by the early settlers, and were in alliance with other tribes in the Kulin nation, having particularly strong ties to the Wurundjeri people.

Warrigal Creek is the site of an 1843 massacre in 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angus McMillan</span> Australian colonialist leader

Angus McMillan was a Scottish-born explorer, pioneer pastoralist, and perpetrator of several of the Gippsland massacres of Gunai people.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighton East</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Brighton East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Bayside and Glen Eira local government areas. Brighton East recorded a population of 16,757 at the 2021 census.

The white woman of Gippsland, or the captive woman of Gippsland, was supposedly a European woman rumoured to have been held against her will by Aboriginal Kurnai people in the Gippsland region of Australia in the 1840s. Her supposed plight excited searches and much speculation at the time, though nothing to put her existence beyond the level of rumour was ever found.

Henry Edmund Pulteney Dana (1820–1852) established the Native Police Corps in the Port Phillip District in 1842, he was responsible for two massacres of Aboriginal people one at Barmah Lake in 1843 and the other at Snowy River in 1846. Dana was born in England, his father being Captain William Pulteney Dana of the 6th Regiment. Henry Dana migrated to Van Diemen's Land in 1840, but in 1842 he relocated to the Port Phillip District where he renewed acquaintance with Superintendent Charles La Trobe, whom he knew in London. The two men became firm friends and Latrobe appointed Dana to establish a native police corps.

Billibellary was a song maker and influential ngurungaeta of the Wurundjeri-willam clan during the early years of European settlement of Melbourne. He was known by various names including Billi-billeri, Billibellary, Jika Jika, Jacky Jacky and Jaga Jaga. He was an astute and diplomatic leader, described as powerfully built with an influence and reputation that extended well beyond his clan.

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 Woiwurrung, also spelt Woi-wurrung, Woi Wurrung, Woiwurrong, Woiworung, Wuywurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Woiwurrung language group, in the Kulin alliance.

Tunnerminnerwait (c.1812–1842) was an Australian Aboriginal resistance fighter and Parperloihener clansman from Tasmania. He was also known by several other names including Peevay, Jack of Cape Grim, Tunninerpareway and renamed Jack Napoleon Tarraparrura by George Robinson.

The Brataualung are an Indigenous Australian people, one of the five tribes of Gippsland, in the state of Victoria, Australia, and part of a wider regional grouping known as the Kurnai.

Frederick Taylor was an English mass murderer, colonial property manager and agricultural capitalist in the Victoria region of Australia. He is best known as the main perpetrator of the Murdering Gully massacre which occurred in 1839 along Mount Emu Creek near Mount Noorat. This massacre resulted in the deaths of about 40 men, women and children of the Tarnbeere gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung people. Taylor was also involved in other shooting deaths of Aboriginal people near Geelong and Lake Colac. After moving to Gippsland, he was involved in the frontier conflict there with the Gunai people. Despite his responsibility for the killings being well known and well documented, Taylor was never convicted and enjoyed high esteem in British colonial society until his death in 1872.

The Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation is a Registered Aboriginal Party and incorporated association representing the Bunurong community in the state of Victoria, Australia, particularly in matters relating to the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.

The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District area of south west Victoria.

Charles Wightman Sievwright was a British army officer before being appointed Assistant Protector of Aborigines in part of the Port Phillip District of the colony of New South Wales, now Victoria, Australia.

References

↑ Wilson & Ellender 2002, p. 58.
1 2 3 Fels 2011, pp. 255–256.
↑ Wilson & Ellender 2002, p. 61.
↑ Clark 2014: "... the Yowengerre, the easternmost Boonwurrung clan, which was associated with the Tarwin River watershed and Wilson's Promontory"
↑ Wilson & Ellender 2002, p. 59.
↑ Wilson & Ellender 2002, p. 60.
1 2 Fels 2011, p. 255.
↑ Fels 2011, pp. 254–255.
↑ Thomas, William (1849). Thomas Half yearly Report. unit 11,1850/55,PROV: VPRS 10.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
1 2 Fels 2011, p. 256.
↑ John Butler Cooper (1925). History of Brighton, 1842–1925. p. 83.
↑ Fels 2011, p. 261.
↑ Fels 2011 , p. 255: "[T]he corroboree tree on which stick figures were incised detailing the events was still standing in the 1860s. It eventually fell after a lightning strike, according to early Brighton pioneers' accounts."
↑ Fels 2011, p. 260.
↑ Fels 2011, pp. 259–260.
↑ Fels 2011, p. 250.
↑ Clark 2014: "With the exception of two men, Kurburra and Munmungina, Robinson noted in 1844 that the Yowengerre clan was defunct. According to Robinson, the clan had been exterminated by the neighbouring Ganai clan, the Boro Boro Willum. He noted that because of the practical demise of the Yowengerre, their country had become scrubby because it was not periodically burned."
↑ Wesson 2001: "In 1844 G.A. Robinson was told that a man named Kaborer was one of two survivors of a battle with the Borro borro willum (the Boon wurrung name for the Bushy Park people of Gippsland)..."
↑ Fels 2011, p. 280.
↑ Wilson & Ellender 2002, pp. 60–61.

Sources

Clark, Ian (2014). "The Tara-Waragal and the Governor's levee in Melbourne, 1863 – a reinterpretation of Woiwurrung local group organisation". Australian Aboriginal Studies (1): 33–54.
Fels, Marie Hansen (2011). 'I Succeeded Once': The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula (PDF). Australian National University E Press. ISBN 978-1921862137.
Wesson, Sue (2001). Aboriginal Flora and Fauna Names of Victoria: As Extracted From Early Surveyors' Reports (PDF). Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages. ISBN 0957936001.
Wilson, Lyell; Ellender, Isabel (2002). "Aboriginal versus European perspectives on country". PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature (2): 55–62. doi:10.4225/03/57D899F7E3805.