Waterloo Creek massacre

Last updated October 17, 2023

The Waterloo Creek massacre (also Slaughterhouse Creek massacre) refers to a series of violent clashes between mounted police, civilian vigilantes and Indigenous Gamilaraay peoples, which occurred southwest of Moree, New South Wales, Australia, during December 1837 and January 1838.^[1] The Waterloo Creek Massacre site is listed on the New South Wales Heritage Register as a place of significance in frontier violence leading to the murder of Gamilaraay people.^[2] The events have been subject to much dispute, due to wildly conflicting accounts by various participants and in subsequent reports and historical analyses, about the nature and number of fatalities and the lawfulness of the actions. Interpretation of the events at Waterloo Creek was raised again during the controversial "history wars" which began in the 1990s in Australia.

The events

A Sydney mounted police detachment was dispatched by acting Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass, to track down the Namoi, Weraerai and Kamilaroi people who had killed five stockmen in separate incidents, on recently established pastoral runs on the upper Gwydir River area of New South Wales.^[3] After two months the mounted police, consisting of two sergeants and twenty troopers led by Major James Nunn, arrested 15 Aboriginals along the Namoi River. They released all but two, one of whom was shot whilst attempting to escape.^[4] The main body of Kamilaroi eluded the troopers, thus Major Nunn's party, along with two stockmen, pursued the Kamilaroi for three weeks, from present-day Manilla on the Namoi River north to the upper Gwydir River.^[5] On the morning of 26 January, in a surprise attack on Nunn's party, Corporal Hannan was wounded in the calf with a spear, where subsequently members of the Kamilaroi were killed. While one source puts the number of Kamilaroi fatalities at 4-5, there are other sources which say this number was closer to 40-50.^[5]^[6] The Aboriginals fled down the river as the troopers regrouped, rearmed and pursued them, led by the second-in-command, Lieutenant George Cobban. Cobban's party found their quarry about a mile down the river at a point now known as Waterloo Creek, where a second engagement took place.^[5] The encounter lasted several hours and no Aboriginals were captured.^[7]

'Disproportionate force'

As there had been no declaration of martial law or other authorising legislation, the police lacked authority to use more than reasonable force proportionate to any risk to the safety of persons or property. Nobody at all had a licence to kill.^[8] The troopers may therefore have used disproportionate force directed towards individuals who posed little or no risk. "There was a suspicion that the troopers might have acted as an ill-disciplined military force rather than as a regular police force."^[8]

Official inquiry

On 5 March 1838, Nunn submitted a report on his expedition to the newly arrived Governor Gipps.

Within the following month the colony's Executive Council (the Colonial government constituted by the Governor and his advisers) accepted a recommendation of the Attorney General John Plunkett, that there be an official inquiry into the expedition, including the Aboriginal deaths.

The colonial government and the Colonial Office in England were both conscious of a need to extend the rule of law to Aboriginals as well as other "British subjects" in the Colony.

On 6 April 1838 the Executive Council decided to issue regulations in the form of a government notice announcing that there would be an inquiry (that is, a coronial inquiry) into the death of any Aboriginal at the hands of a Colonist in the same way as that held when the death of a Colonist occurred through violence or suddenly. However, the decision to publish this Inquiry notice was delayed, with the Executive Council deciding to defer publication until after "public excitement" (about the Myall Creek murderers' executions) had abated.

On 14 August 1838 the Legislative Council appointed a Committee of Inquiry into "the present state of Aborigines", to be presided over by the Anglican Bishop, William Broughton.

Gipps's own inquiry into the Nunn expedition was delayed. He claimed to be unable to produce eyewitness evidence from mounted police owing to demands on police attendance elsewhere, and he could not afford to alienate the police volunteers upon whom policing then depended. ^{[ citation needed ]}

Additionally, Colonists away from urban areas were tending to take the law into their own hands.^[9]

Some argue that there was a breakdown in law and order, affecting the capacity of the NSW Government to govern.^[8]

Although the Nunn inquiry was reactivated on 22 July 1839 at the Merton Courthouse, New South Wales, there were no convictions and the matter was dropped. The only eyewitness accounts of the fatal main engagement were provided by Lieutenant Cobban and Sergeant John Lee. Its outcome did not result in any further judicial proceedings.^[8]

Attorney General Plunkett was reluctant to prosecute any of Nunn's expeditionary force, due to the time delays, the unavailability of reliable evidence and popular opposition.

The Executive Council decided to take no further action. It accepted that the Aboriginal deaths at Waterloo Creek were the consequence of the police, led by a military officer, acting honestly even if mistakenly or unwisely, under orders and in execution of their duty, to repel an "aggressive attack" by Aboriginals.^[8]

Police statements

Lieutenant Cobban claimed he rode to the rear of the group and found a large cache of Aboriginal weapons in the bush and secured them.^[5] When he returned to the river, he admitted to seeing two Aboriginals being shot, trying to escape and believed that at most three or four Aborigines had been killed in the conflict.^[5]

Sergeant John Lee was with the main detachment of mounted police that pursued the Aboriginals into the river. He claimed that 40 to 50 Aboriginals were killed.^[10]

Later historians' views

More recently, historians and other commentators have offered varying accounts of the site of the conflict and the number of casualties.

R. H. W. Reece: The site was at the junction of the Slaughterhouse Creek and the Gwydir River, and 60 or 70 Aboriginals were killed.^[11]
Lyndall Ryan: Sergeant Lee's estimate of 40 to 50 killed is the most reliable.^[12]
Roger Milliss: 200-300 Gamilaraay people were killed around the site of Snodgrass Lagoon at the Lower Waters of Waterloo Creek.^[13]

Waterloo Creek Massacre Site

On 25 June 2021, the Waterloo Creek Massacre site at 3837 Millie Road, Jews Lagoon was declared a site of state heritage significance as "a place of frontier conflict" and listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register.^[2] The site is recognised as a significant place as a place of memorial for the Aboriginal community that honours the resistance and resilience of their ancestors. Located along the Waterloo/Millie Creek waterway the site has been largely degraded with only remnant vegetation including leopardwood, weeping myall, brigalow and silver-leaved ironbark.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Gwydir River, a major inland perennial river of the Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tablelands, North West Slopes, and Orana districts of New South Wales, Australia.

Moree is a town in Moree Plains Shire in northern New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the banks of the Mehi River, in the centre of the rich black-soil plains. The town is located at the junction of the Newell Highway and Gwydir Highway and can be reached by daily train and air services from Sydney.

The Namoi River, a major perennial river that is part of the Barwon catchment of the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tablelands and North West Slopes districts of New South Wales, Australia.

The Myall Creek massacre was the killing of at least twenty-eight unarmed Indigenous Australians by twelve colonists on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek near the Gwydir River, in northern New South Wales. After two trials, seven of the twelve colonists were found guilty of murder and hanged, a verdict which sparked extreme controversy within New South Wales settler society. One—the leader and free settler John Fleming—evaded arrest and was never tried. Four were never retried following the not guilty verdict of the first trial. Nevertheless, the prosecutions, the only successful one conducted against Australian settlers accused of massacring Aboriginals, have been described more as war crimes trials than a standard murder prosecution, as they occurred during the Australian frontier wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Gipps</span> British colonial administrator (1790–1847)

Sir George Gipps was the Governor of the British Colony of New South Wales for eight years, between 1838 and 1846. His governorship oversaw a tumultuous period where the rights to land were bitterly contested in a three way struggle between the colonial government, Aboriginal people and wealthy graziers known as squatters. The management of other major issues such as the end of convict transportation, large immigration programs and the introduction of majority elected representation also featured strongly during his tenure. Gipps is regarded as having brought a high moral and intellectual standard to the position of governor, but was ultimately defeated in his aims by the increasing power and avarice of the squatters.

William Ridley was an English Presbyterian missionary who studied Australian Aboriginal languages, particularly Gamilaraay.

The following lists events that happened during 1838 in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liverpool Plains</span>

The Liverpool Plains are an extensive agricultural area covering about 12,000 km² (4,600 sq mi) of the north-western slopes of New South Wales in Australia.

Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal troopers under the command of white officers appointed by colonial governments. These units existed in various forms in colonial Australia during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentieth centuries. From temporary base camps and barracks, Native Police were primarily used to patrol the often vast geographical areas along the colonial frontier in order to conduct indiscriminate raids and punitive expeditions against Aboriginal people. The Native Police proved to be a brutally destructive instrument in the disintegration and dispossession of Indigenous Australians. Armed with rifles, carbines and swords, they were also deployed to escort surveying groups, gold convoys and groups of pastoralists and prospectors.

William Lee, also variously known as William Smith and William Pantoney until 1816, was an Australian pastoralist and politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly between 1856 and 1860. Lee was a foremost pioneer of British colonisation in New South Wales, being amongst the first white men to take land in the Bathurst, Capertee, Bylong, Bogan and Lachlan River regions.

The New South Wales Mounted Police Unit is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force. Founded by Governor Sir Thomas Brisbane, on 7 September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from a British military regiment stationed in NSW at the time, to protect travellers, suppress convict escapees and fight Indigenous Australians. The force remained the mounted division of the British Army in the colony of New South Wales until 1850, when it took upon a more civilian role. The NSW Mounted Police Unit is the oldest continuous mounted group in the world.

Kenneth Snodgrass was a Scottish-born soldier and colonial administrator. He acted as lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land and governor of New South Wales for brief periods.

The Border Police of New South Wales was a frontier policing body introduced by the colonial government of New South Wales with the passing of the Crown Lands Unauthorised Occupation Act 1839.

Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is the heritage-listed site of and memorial for the victims of the Myall Creek massacre at Bingara Delungra Road, Myall Creek, Gwydir Shire, New South Wales, Australia. The memorial, which was unveiled in 2000, was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 7 June 2008 and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2010.

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.

Criminal activity in New South Wales, Australia is combated by the New South Wales Police Force and the New South Wales court system, while statistics about crime are managed by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research. Modern Australian states and cities, including New South Wales, have some of the lowest crime rates recorded globally with Australia ranked the 13th safest nation and Sydney ranked the 5th safest city globally. As of September 2018 the City of Penrith (475.7) and City of Blacktown (495.1). Rural areas have comparatively high crime rates per 100,000 with rural shires such as Walgett Shire (1350.3) and Moree Plains Shire (1236.2) having some of the highest violent crime rates in the state. The overall NSW crime rate has been in steady decline for many years.

Myall Creek is a locality split between the local government areas of Inverell Shire and the Gwydir Shire in New South Wales, Australia. In the 2016 census, Myall Creek had a population of 38 people.

John Henry Fleming was an Australian born pastoralist who is best known as being the ringleader of the 1838 Myall Creek massacre which resulted in the murder of at least twenty-eight unarmed Indigenous Australians.

Keera is a locality on the upper Gwydir River in Murchison County in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. The nearest town is Bingara which is approximately 20km to the north-west.

References

↑ Historical Records of Australia , [Enclosure A6 to Minute No. 20 of 1839], 22 July 1839. Depositions at inquiry re collision between mounted police under J. W. Nunn and Aborigines
1 2 3 "Waterloo Creek Massacre Site". State Heritage Inventory. 25 June 2021. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
↑ Ryan, L. (2003), Attwood, Bain; Foster, S.G. (eds.), Waterloo Creek, Northern New South Wales, 1838, Frontier Conflict : The Australian Experience, Canberra: National Museum of Australia, pp. 33–43, ISBN 1876944110
↑ Historical Records of Australia p. 251.
1 2 3 4 5 Ryan p. 36
↑ John Connor, Australian Frontier Wars, 1788-1838, USNW Press, 2002.
↑ Deposition of George Geddes McKenzie Cobban, 17 May 1839, Historical Records of Australia , Series I, vol. XX,pp. 253–6.
1 2 3 4 5 Lindsay, Geoff (2007). "Aborigines, Colonists and the Law 1838" (PDF). The Francis Forbes Society For Australian Legal History. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 February 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
↑ Attwood, Bain (1999), "'My Country': A history of the Djadja Wurrung 1837-1864", Monash Publications in History, 25, ISSN 0818-0032, archived from the original on 5 March 2018, retrieved 5 March 2018
↑ Historical Records of Australia p. 252
↑ Ryan p. 38
↑ Ryan p. 39
↑ Milliss, Roger (1992). Waterloo Creek: The Australia Day Massacre of 1838. George Gipps and the British Conquest of New South Wales. Ringwood, Victoria: McPhee Gribble. p. 834. ISBN 9780869141564.

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[1] Historical Records of Australia , [Enclosure A6 to Minute No. 20 of 1839], 22 July 1839. Depositions at inquiry re collision between mounted police under J. W. Nunn and Aborigines

[:0-2] 1 2 3 "Waterloo Creek Massacre Site". State Heritage Inventory. 25 June 2021. Archived from the original on 1 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.

[3] Ryan, L. (2003), Attwood, Bain; Foster, S.G. (eds.), Waterloo Creek, Northern New South Wales, 1838, Frontier Conflict : The Australian Experience, Canberra: National Museum of Australia, pp. 33–43, ISBN 1876944110

[auto-4] Historical Records of Australia p. 251.

[auto1-5] 1 2 3 4 5 Ryan p. 36

[6] John Connor, Australian Frontier Wars, 1788-1838, USNW Press, 2002.

[7] Deposition of George Geddes McKenzie Cobban, 17 May 1839, Historical Records of Australia , Series I, vol. XX,pp. 253–6.

[forbessociety.org.au-8] 1 2 3 4 5 Lindsay, Geoff (2007). "Aborigines, Colonists and the Law 1838" (PDF). The Francis Forbes Society For Australian Legal History. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 February 2018. Retrieved 28 February 2018.

[9] Attwood, Bain (1999), "'My Country': A history of the Djadja Wurrung 1837-1864", Monash Publications in History, 25, ISSN 0818-0032, archived from the original on 5 March 2018, retrieved 5 March 2018

[10] Historical Records of Australia p. 252

[11] Ryan p. 38

[12] Ryan p. 39

[13] Milliss, Roger (1992). Waterloo Creek: The Australia Day Massacre of 1838. George Gipps and the British Conquest of New South Wales. Ringwood, Victoria: McPhee Gribble. p. 834. ISBN 9780869141564.

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