query: when did the myall creek massacre start and end

pos: Myall Creek massacre Myall Creek massacre The Myall Creek massacre near Gwydir River, in the central New South Wales district of Namoi, involved the killing of up to 30 unarmed indigenous Australians by ten Europeans and one African on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek near Bingara, Murchison County, in northern New South Wales. After two trials, seven of the 11 colonists involved in the killings were found guilty of murder and hanged. A group of eleven stockmen, consisting of assigned convicts and former convicts, led by one, John Henry Fleming, who was from "Mungie Bundie Run" near Moree, arrived at Henry

pos: Myall Creek massacre Myall Creek massacre The Myall Creek massacre near Gwydir River, in the central New South Wales district of Namoi, involved the killing of up to 30 unarmed indigenous Australians by ten Europeans and one African on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek near Bingara, Murchison County, in northern New South Wales. After two trials, seven of the 11 colonists involved in the killings were found guilty of murder and hanged. A group of eleven stockmen, consisting of assigned convicts and former convicts, led by one, John Henry Fleming, who was from "Mungie Bundie Run" near Moree, arrived at Henry

pos: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. The Myall Creek Massacre is a relatively rare instance in NSW where the massacre of Aboriginal people, as a result of frontier violence, is well documented. The substantial public record of the terrible events that took place at Myall Creek Station on the 10 June 1838 exists, largely because of the immediate reporting of the event, the investigation by officers of the law and the documentation of the event through the subsequent court cases. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a

pos: Oldholme Aborigines who had been living on the banks of Myall Creek. The Myall Creek Massacre occurred on 10 June 1838 when a group of stockmen rounded up 28 Aboriginal men, women and children and killed them. Mr Day apprehended 11 white men, seven of whom were hanged following the subsequent trial. It is the first recorded hanging of white men for killing Aboriginal people. There was a public outcry at the hangings as the public believing that the killing of Aboriginals was not murder and white people should not be hung for such killings. Day was also responsible for the

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site was I remember when we used to drive past that place. It just had a feeling about it that I can't explain'. The Myall Creek massacre was marked by the unusual circumstance that one of the station hands who did not participate in the massacre, George Anderson, informed the station manager, William Hobbs, who reported the incident to the local magistrate. The reports by Anderson and Hobbs were not without danger, as the inquiry of magistrate Edward Day noted "[I] took George Anderson with [me], believing that [his] life would be in danger if he remained at Myall Creek". In

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Indigenous history, the Myall Creek massacre also became part of Australia's reconciliation movement. In 1998 the Uniting Church in Australia held a conference on reconciliation at Myall Creek, which lead to the establishment of a Myall Creek Memorial Committee. This Committee is made up of descendants of the Aboriginal people who survived the Myall Creek massacre, concerned locals and participants of the conference. One of the aims of this Committee was to establish a memorial in recognition of the Myall Creek massacre. In June 2000, after several years of work, the Committee opened the Myall Creek Memorial "in an act

neg: Myall Creek massacre they like to think he did so out of a guilty conscience. The importance of the Myall Creek massacre is mainly political, as this was the only massacre of its kind in colonial Australian history after which some white people were brought to justice and subsequently executed . The Myall Creek massacre was by no means outstanding in terms of numbers killed; it was simply just one of many massacres that took place in that district (the Liverpool Plains) around that time. There were also many other massacres that took place right across the colony of New South Wales as

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site poet Eliza Dunlop was subsequently set to music. The events were also recounted in texts published in Australia and overseas. From 1920 to 1950 the Myall Creek massacre was less frequently discussed in texts although it did receive some attention. In the early 1970s, the historian Charles Rowley described the Myall Creek massacre as one of Australia's horror stories that has "given us such as racist image overseas" and must be told if Australians are "to understand the real nature of the Aboriginal problem [and] the brutalizing forces that brought it into being". It was around this time that stories

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site history of New South Wales's history. The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is associated with the brutal massacre in June 1838 of a group of men, women and children of the Wirrayaraay and Gamilaroi peoples by settlers. A group of around 30 Aboriginal people were camped peacefully on Myall Creek Station when twelve stockmen rode on to the station, rounded them up and tied them together, before leading them off to be massacred. The place has strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. The Myall

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site 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. It was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 7 June 2008 and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2010. In the half century following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, a pattern of relations developed between Aboriginal people and European settlers that lasted into the 1900s. While the British Colonial Office instructed Arthur

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site under CC-BY 3.0 license, accessed on 16 July 2018. Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site 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. It was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 7 June 2008 and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2010. In the half century following the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, a pattern of relations developed between Aboriginal people and European settlers that lasted into

neg: Myall Creek massacre in January 2005, with the words "murder", "women" and "children" chiselled off, in an attempt to make it unreadable. The location is described as 23 km north east of Bingara at the junction of Bingara-Delungra and Whitlow Roads. The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site was included on the Australian National Heritage List on 7 June 2008 and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2010. The memorial is maintained and funded by the Friends of Myall Creek, an Australian non-profit organisation. Myall Creek massacre The Myall Creek massacre near Gwydir River, in the central New South

neg: Myall Creek massacre around the district rounding up and slaughtering any Aborigines they came across. Nunn's campaign culminated in the Australia Day Massacre of 1838 at Waterloo Creek. As there are no definitive historical records available it is impossible to accurately determine the exact number of Aborigines who were slaughtered there but estimates range from forty to over one hundred. When Nunn returned to Sydney, many of the local squatters and stockmen continued the "drive" against the Aborigines. The perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre were some who continued that relentless slaughter. The Aborigines killed at Myall Creek were not involved in any

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site at Myall Creek is a relatively rare instance in NSW, where the massacre of Aboriginal people (as a result of frontier violence) is well documented, and broadly speaking the massacre is representative of the violent conflict that took place in frontier areas between Aboriginal people and settlers. The massacre at Myall Creek is also a landmark event because accounts of the massacre, written from the 1850s to the present, have continued to remind Australians about the mistreatment of Aboriginal people during the period of frontier conflict. The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is of high significance to the Wirrayaraay

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site and a place of education. District schools and representatives of all the Shires in the region participate in the annual service held at the site. The Myall Creek Memorial is also a place of reconciliation for the descendants of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people involved in Myall Creek massacre. In recognition of the role that the memorial has played as a place of reconciliation, the Myall Creek Memorial was the winner of the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation's Judith Wright Reconciliation Prize, in 2003. Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site massacre between five spreading gumtrees. The memorial rock is a 14 tonne granite boulder with a simple plaque surrounded by a circle of crushed white granite, edged in by stones from all around the state of New South Wales. The Bronze Plaque on the memorial states: The area is mainly woodland with the Myall Creek Memorial being constructed of fire resistant granite and metal alloys. The Myall Creek Memorial was opened in 2000. The memorial is managed by the Gwydir Shire Council and the Myall Creek Memorial Committee. The brutal massacre at Myall Creek of around 30 men, women and

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site of Major Nunn's campaign highlight this. Governor Gipps indicates that one of the reasons for the delay into the enquiry was the settlers "very excited state in respect to the blacks" after the execution of seven men for their part in the Myall Creek massacre. Governor Gipps also was concerned that any action taken against Major Nunn would result in the military quitting their positions, leaving the frontier severely weakened. Despite the guilty verdicts and the hanging of seven men that followed the Myall Creek trials, frontier violence between settlers and Aboriginal people did not diminish. Although the police and

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site of the Myall Creek massacre returned to prominence in texts on Australian history to illustrate the conflict between Indigenous people and settlers on the frontier. The Myall Creek massacre was also included in specialised text on Indigenous history and frontier conflict to describe race relations in Australia and the way the Colonial Administration dealt with Indigenous issues. In the 1990s the New South Wales Board of Education included the Myall Creek massacre in its "Discovering Democracy Unit" which formed part of the curriculum for civics and citizenship education. As well as playing an important role in educating people about Australian

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site for their protection from wrong and injury as for that of European settlers". The Myall Creek massacre provided Governor Gipps with an opportunity to demonstrate that the law could protect Aboriginal people through its equal application. When news of the incident was reported to him, Governor Gipps did not hesitate to order the perpetrators be brought to justice. Once Governor Gipps was informed he gave instructions that Police Magistrate Day should proceed immediately to the scene of the tragedy with a party of mounted police to seek out the murderers. Day conducted a thorough investigation and apprehended eleven of twelve

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales. The expansion of pastoral frontiers in the Colony of New South Wales, was invariably accompanied by some degree of conflict between settlers and displaced Aboriginal peoples. During the years 1837 and 1846 the Colony experienced the worst racial clashes in its history. The massacre at Myall Creek is a well documented example of the mistreatment of Aboriginal people during this period. and Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site, Bingara Delungra Rd, Myall Creek via Bingara, NSW, Australia published by the Government of Australia and the Department of Environment and Energy

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is of high significance to the Wirrayaraay of Gamilaroi people, as the site of the brutal murder of their ancestors and for its ability to demonstrate the Wirrayaraay and Gamilaroi peoples experience of colonisation. The importance of site to the Wirrayaraay people is evidenced by their participation in the campaign to establish a memorial on the site of the massacre, and their continuing involvement in the management of site. Descendants of Aboriginal people who survived the massacre form part of the Myall Creek Memorial Committee, which co-manages the site. The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site of Gamilaroi people, as the site of the brutal murder of their ancestors and for its ability to demonstrate the Wirrayaraay and Gamilaroi peoples experience of colonisation. The importance of site to the Wirrayaraay people is evidenced by their participation in the campaign to establish a memorial on the site of the massacre, and their continuing involvement in the management of site. Descendants of Aboriginal people who survived the massacre form part of the Myall Creek Memorial Committee, which co-manages the site. The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is important to the local community as a symbol of reconciliation

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Red Gum, Scribbly Gum and various Ironbarks. The land is part of a Travelling Stock Route used by cattle to access the creek. Two basalt blocks mark the beginning of the memorial walkway which is a 600-metre winding path in red gravel that leads through woodland and grasses. At various stages along the walkway there are seven oval shaped granite boulders which contain plaques with etchings and words in English and Gamilaroi. These plaques tell the story of the Myall Creek massacre. At the end of the walkway the memorial is set on a rise overlooking the site of the

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Site is important to the local community as a symbol of reconciliation and a place of education. District schools and representatives of all the Shires in the region participate in the annual service held at the site. The Myall Creek Memorial is also a place of reconciliation for the descendants of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people involved in Myall Creek massacre. In recognition of the role that the memorial has played as a place of reconciliation, the Myall Creek Memorial was the winner of the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation's Judith Wright Reconciliation Prize, in 2003. The place possesses

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Aboriginal protectors investigated the frequent reports of violence towards Aboriginal people, settlers were rarely arrested and when they were, juries generally found them innocent of any crime. On the rare occasion when a settler was convicted for the murder of Aboriginal person, their sentence would generally be reduced. The Myall Creek massacre was a landmark event because retelling the story continued to remind Australians about the mistreatment of Aboriginal people during the period of frontier conflict. During the 1800s several popular poems were written about the massacre including "Incantation Scene", "Weird Sisters" and "The Aboriginal Mother", the latter written by

neg: Myall Creek massacre The Myall Creek massacre has been claimed to be the first and only time in Australia's history that Europeans were executed for the massacre of Australian Aborigines. However, recent research has shown that Europeans had been executed for the murder of Aboriginal people on at least one occasion prior to Myall Creek. In 1820, two convicts, John Kirby and John Thompson, attempted to escape from the colony but were captured by local Aborigines and returned to Newcastle. A military party accompanied by two constables set out to meet them and Kirby was seen by the party to stab Burragong (alias

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site suspected Myall Creek murderers. The eleven men were arrested and tried for the murder of Daddy and an unknown Aboriginal The twelve men responsible for the massacre included freed convicts and assigned convicts, led by John Fleming, the manager of the Mungie Bundie Station. The original party assembled at Bengari on a station owned by Archibald Bell before they set off and were joined by the remaining members somewhere along the Gwydir River. After spending the day unsuccessfully pursuing Aborigines the group came to the Myall Creek Station. They discovered approximately 30 Aborigines belonging to the Gamilaroi and Wirrayaraay peoples

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Kirby & Thompson 1820) it was the first time that settlers were found guilty of, and hanged for, the killing of Aboriginal people on the frontier. It is also the last time the Colonial Administration intervened to ensure the laws of the colony were applied equally to Aboriginal people and settlers involved in frontier killings. Governor Gipps' public resolve to treat Aboriginal people equally never diminished, however the public response to the Myall Creek trial influenced his future decisions. The failure to re-try the remaining four men accused in the Myall Creek massacre and the continuing delays to the enquiry

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Register on 12 November 2010 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. The Myall Creek Massacre, the subsequent court cases and the hanging of seven settlers, played a pivotal role in the development of the relationship between settlers and Aboriginal people. In the half century following British settlement, the Colonial Administration stated on numerous occasions that Aboriginal people and settlers were equal before the law. However, juries regularly found settlers accused on killing Aboriginal people on the frontier not guilty. The Myall Creek

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site district." According to Reece this still known in local tradition as "The Bushwhack" or "The Drive". The Myall Creek Massacre took place in June of that year, on Myall Creek Station near the Gwydir River. The escalating conflict between settlers and Aboriginal people on the frontier was one of the issues confronting Governor Gipps on his arrival in the New South Wales colony in 1838. Governor Gipps and the Colonial Secretary Lord Glenelg agreed that an important measure to prevent frontier conflict was to impress Aboriginal people with "the conviction that the laws of the colony will be equally administered

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site the massacre in 2008. This was attended by Federal Minister for Heritage, The Hon. Peter Garrett who announced the inclusion of the site on the National Heritage List (Australia's Living Heritage 1(3), Summer 2008-9, 8-9). Each year on the June long weekend over 400 people from around Australia gather at the memorial to commemorate the massacre of 1838. The Myall Creek massacre and memorial site is located on gently rolling slopes and small hills which have mostly been cleared and improved for grazing sheep and cattle. The area supports dry sclerophyll woodland species such as the White Box, Bimble Box,

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site massacre is important in the course of New South Wales' history as it was the last time the Colonial Administration intervened to ensure the laws of the colony were applied equally to Aboriginal people and settlers involved in frontier killings. The massacre at Myall Creek is also a landmark event because accounts of the massacre, written from the 1850s to the present, have continued to remind Australians about the mistreatment of Aboriginal people during the period of frontier conflict. The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural

neg: Australian frontier wars in 1826 after fighting broke out there between Wonnarua and Kamilaroi people and settlers. From the 1830s British settlement spread rapidly through inland eastern Australia, leading to widespread conflict. Fighting took place across the Liverpool Plains, with 16 British and up to 500 Indigenous Australians being killed between 1832 and 1838. The fighting in this region included several massacres of Indigenous people including as the Waterloo Creek massacre and Myall Creek massacres in 1838 and did not end until 1843. Further fighting took place in the New England region during the early 1840s. The British established a settlement in Van

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site Phillip, the first Governor, to treat the Aboriginal population with goodwill and kindness, competition for resources and land following the expansion of European settlement invariably resulted in frontier conflict. Frontier violence posed a problem for the British administration because Aboriginal people and settlers were legally British subjects with the same rights and protection. Lack of resources and pressure from settlers however, made it increasingly difficult for the Administration to ensure the application of the rule of law. The Myall Creek massacre in 1838, the subsequent court case and the hanging of seven settlers for the massacre of Aboriginal people, is

neg: Myall Creek massacre left after being warned the killers would be returning. On the party's return to Myall two days later, they dismembered and burnt the bodies before resuming the search for the remaining people. The ten people had gone to MacIntyre's station near Inverell, 40 kilometres to the east, where between 30 and 40 Aboriginal people were reportedly murdered with their bodies being cast onto a large fire. Many suspect this massacre was also committed by the same stockmen. After several days of heavy drinking the party dispersed. When the manager of the station, William Hobbs, returned several days later and discovered

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site of reconciliation and in acknowledgement of the truth of our shared history". This memorial has brought together the descendants of the victims, survivors and perpetrators and each year a commemoration ceremony is held at the site. A Sydney Friends of Myall Creek has also been established to promote the significance of this site for all Australians. In recognition of the role that the memorial has played as a place of reconciliation, the Myall Creek memorial is a winner of the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation's Judith Wright Reconciliation Prize. A memorial service was held for the 170th anniversary of

neg: Myall Creek massacre newspaper reported, was that poisoning Aborigines became more common as "a safer practice". Many massacres were to go unpunished due to these practices, as what is variously called a 'conspiracy' or 'pact' or 'code' of silence fell over the killings of Aborigines. The Myall Creek massacre and the subsequent trial and hanging of some of the offenders had a profound effect on the "outside" settlers and their dealing with indigenous people throughout all sections the colonial Australian frontiers. The "Sydney Morning Herald" and the spokesmen for the settlers in the remote districts of New South Wales and Victoria, frequently leading

neg: Myall Creek massacre worked on the Myall Creek station, many years after the massacre actually occurred, that it had happened in a stockyard to which the Wirrayaraay were led by the stockmen. Although this oral tradition is very strongly held by some local descendants of the stockmen and others, there is absolutely no primary source evidence from the time to support the idea. All the evidence collected by Police Magistrate Edward Denny Day and provided in evidence at the two trials clearly contradicts the suggestion that it occurred in a stockyard. Witnesses William Hobbs, Thomas Foster, Andrew Burrowes and Edward Denny Day himself

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site the complete disruption of local Aboriginal communities. When the trial of the stockmen commenced, they had expensive defence counsel paid for by the local landowners from the Myall Creek area. The workings of criminal law in 1838 meant there could only be one victim in relation to any particular trial for murder, no matter how many accused had been charged. This presented problems of identification for the prosecution, particularly because one witness saw the Aborigines being led away and a different witness saw their largely burnt bodies. Plunkett was the subject of considerable public criticism for initiating the prosecution and

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site pivotal in the development of the relationship between settlers and Aboriginal people. It is the first and last time that settlers were found guilty of, and hanged for, the killing of Aboriginal people on the frontier. It is the last time the Colonial Administration intervened to ensure the laws of the colony were applied equally to Aboriginal people and settlers involved in frontier killings. However, instead of setting a precedent that Aboriginal people could be protected under the law, Ryan (1980:20) states: the Myall Creek massacre and the ensuing cases had intensified the squatter's determination to have unfettered occupation of

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site the first trial resulted in not guilty verdicts. But this was where the one-victim rule played into Plunkett's hands. He chose a different victim for a second trial of seven of the stockmen, who again made no statements on their own behalf. This time the verdict was guilty, and, after an appeal was dismissed, all seven were hanged, despite public petitions and violent editorials demanding that the sentences be commuted. It is something of an irony that Plunkett himself was opposed to capital punishment. The hanging of the seven stockmen in 1838 for their part in the Myall Creek massacre

neg: Myall Creek massacre that he did not seek to be rewarded for testifying, rather he asked "only for protection". The trial continued until 2 am on 30 November, when the seven men were found guilty. On 5 December they were sentenced to execution by hanging. The sentence was ratified by the Executive Council of New South Wales on 7 December, with Gipps later saying in a report that no mitigating circumstances could be shown for any of the defendants, and it could not be said that any of the men were more or less guilty than the rest. The seven men, Charles Kilmeister,

neg: Myall Creek massacre clearly heard there were just two shots. Unlike Anderson, Charles Kilmeister joined the slaughter. Testimony was later given at trial that the children had been beheaded while the men and women were forced to run as far as they could between the stockyard fence and a line of sword-wielding stockmen who hacked at them as they passed. After the massacre, Fleming and his gang rode off looking to kill the remainder of the group, who they knew had gone to the neighbouring station. They failed to find the other Aboriginal people as they had returned to Myall that night and

neg: Myall Creek massacre King Jack) whereupon he was felled by a waddy. Burragong initially appeared to recover, stating that he was "murry bujjery" (much recovered) and collected his reward of a "suit of clothing". However, he later complained of illness and died from his wound 10 days after being injured. Kirby and Thompson were both tried for "willful murder". All the European witnesses testified that "no blow was struck by any native" before Kirby attacked Burragong. Thompson was acquitted, but Kirby was found guilty and sentenced to death, with his body to be "dissected and anatomized". The Myall Creek case led to significant

neg: George Gipps he left. One of Gipps' major tasks was to try to keep settler squatters within "boundaries of location" defined previously. A part of his stance, other than that of official policy, derived from the manner in which the settlers treated Aborigines as their lands constantly spread out. Examples of this were the Myall and Waterloo Creek Massacres, where in 1838, 100 – 300 Aboriginal people were massacred on two separate occasions by squatters. This horrified Governor Gipps, and seven men were hanged for their part in the Myall Creek massacre. As a partial result of this, and his inability to

neg: Myall Creek massacre of the spearing of cattle or the attacks on stockmen's huts that were occurring elsewhere as they had been living peacefully on McIntyre's and Wiseman's stations for many months prior to moving to Myall Creek. They simply got caught up with the colonists' desires to drive them off their land so that they could continue with the expansion of the colony. In his book, "Blood on the Wattle", journalist Bruce Elder says that the successful prosecutions resulted in pacts of silence becoming a common practice to avoid sufficient evidence becoming available for future prosecutions. Another effect, as one contemporary Sydney

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site on the station, rounded them up and tied them together. When the station hand, George Anderson asked what they intended to do with the Aborigines he was told they were taking them over the back of the range to frighten them. A few minutes later the Gamilaroi and Wirrayaraay were led off and massacred. Two days later the men returned to burn the bodies. The impact of the massacre on the Gamilaroi and Wirrayaraay peoples was devastating. As one of the descendants whose great-great-great-grandfather survived the massacre states 'We didn't want to talk about it because of how dreadful it

neg: Myall Creek massacre three of the colony's foremost barristers, Foster, a'Beckett and Windeyer, paid for by an association of landowners and stockmen from the Hunter Valley and Liverpool Plains region including Henry Dangar, the owner of the Myall Creek station. The Black Association, as they called themselves, were led by a local magistrate, who apparently used the influence of his office to gain access to the prisoners in Sydney, where he told them to "stick together and say nothing". Not one of the eleven accused gave evidence against their co-accused at the trial, something that Gipps attributes to the magistrate's role. "R. v.

neg: Myall Creek massacre Dangar's Myall Creek station in New England on 9 June 1838. They rode up to the station huts beside which were camped a group of approximately thirty-five Aboriginal people. They were part of the Wirrayaraay (alternative spelling: Weraerai) group who belonged to the Kamilaroi people. They had been camped at the station for a few weeks after being invited by one of the convict stockmen, Charles Kilmeister (or Kilminister), to come to their station for their safety and protection from the gangs of marauding stockmen who were roaming the district slaughtering any Aboriginal people they could find. These Aboriginal people

neg: Myall Creek massacre the massacre at the second trial. He told the court that: While Master was away, some men came on a Saturday, about 10; I cannot say how many days after master left; they came on horseback, armed with muskets and swords and pistols; all were armed ... the blacks, when they saw the men coming, ran into our hut, and the men then, all of them, got off their horses; I asked what they were going to do with the blacks, and Russel said, "We are going to take them over the back of the range, to frighten them". Anderson

neg: Myall Creek massacre describe the massacre site without making any mention of a stockyard. Hobbs stated in evidence to the Supreme Court that the stockyard was close to the huts whereas the massacre site was "about half a mile from my house in a westerly direction". Historians dismiss the stockyard as the location of the massacre as a "bush myth". A memorial to the victims of the massacre was unveiled on 10 June 2000, consisting of a granite rock and plaque overlooking the site of the massacre. A ceremony is held each year on 10 June commemorating the victims. The memorial was vandalised

neg: Waterloo Creek massacre 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

neg: Myall Creek massacre smoke in the same direction they went; this was soon after they went with the firesticks ... Fleming told Kilmeister to go up by-and-by and put the logs of wood together, and be sure that all [of the remains] was consumed ... the girls they left, and the two boys, and the child I sent away with 10 black fellows that went away in the morning ... I did not like to keep them, as the men might come back and kill them. Anderson said that he wanted to speak the whole truth at the second trial. He also said

neg: Myall Creek massacre of the earth, the better. I knew the men were guilty of murder but I would never see a white man hanged for killing a black." The letter writer did not hear this said himself, but alleged that he had spoken to a second man who told him he had heard this third man, the juror, say it. The letter writer who had reported this outrage went on to say, "I leave you, Sir, and the community to determine on the fitness of this white savage to perform the office of a juryman under any circumstance". "R. v. Kilmeister (No.

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site As a result of this policy, Phillip did not respond aggressively to the spearing of convicts by Aboriginal people. However, following the spearing and death of one of his servants in 1790, he authorised a punitive expedition against the "Botany Bay" tribe. He ordered the expedition to bring back two Aboriginal men to be hanged and the heads of a further ten Aboriginal men but it returned empty handed. Phillip never ordered another punitive expedition. Phillip appears to have generally adopted a non-hostile approach to dealing with Aboriginal attacks. Conversely he ordered the flogging of settlers who took Aboriginal spears

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site one more large melee with local Aboriginal people before the party left the Plains. Major Nunn's Campaign (as it was known in the district) did not prevent further racial conflict. In March of that year two men working for Surveyor Finch were killed in the neighbouring district of New England, then in April a hutkeeper on the Gwydir was killed. In the following months stockmen from stations along the Gwydir River organised themselves into armed groups and scoured the country side in what is described by Reece as "a concerted campaign to get rid of all the Aborigines in the

neg: Myall Creek massacre had previously been camped peacefully at McIntyre's station for a few months. They were therefore well known to the whites. Most of them had been given European names such as Daddy, King Sandy, Joey, Martha and Charley. Some of the children spoke a certain amount of English. When the stockmen rode into their camp they fled into the convict's hut pleading for protection. When asked by the station hut keeper, George Anderson, what they were going to do with the Aboriginal people, John Russell said they were going to "take them over the back of the range and frighten them".

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site children of the Wirrayaraay and Gamilaroi peoples in June 1838, the subsequent court cases and the hanging of the seven settlers for their role in the massacre, was pivotal in the development of the relationship between settlers and Aboriginal people in NSW. It was the last attempt by the Colonial Administration to use the law to control frontier conflict between setters and Aboriginal people. Instead of setting a precedent that Aboriginal people could be protected under the law, it hardened settlers' resolve to use whatever means were available to clear Aboriginal people from the land on the frontier. The massacre

neg: History of Australia (1788–1850) whites of Aboriginal men, women and children. Among the most famous massacres of the early nineteenth century were the Pinjarra massacre, the Myall Creek massacre, and the Rufus River massacre. Famous Aborigines who resisted British colonisation in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries include Pemulwuy and Yagan. In Tasmania, the "Black War" was fought in the first half of the nineteenth century. History of Australia (1788–1850) The history of Australia from 1788–1850 covers the early colonial period of Australia's history, from the arrival in 1788 of the First Fleet of British ships at Sydney, New South Wales, who established the

neg: Myall Creek massacre the bodies, counting up to twenty-eight of them (as they were beheaded and dismembered he had difficulty determining the exact number) he decided to report the incident but Kilmeister initially talked him out of it. Hobbs discussed it with a neighbouring station overseer, Thomas Foster, who told squatter Frederick Foot who rode to Sydney to report it to the new Governor, George Gipps. Supported by the Attorney General, John Plunkett, Gipps ordered Police Magistrate Edward Denny Day at Muswellbrook to investigate the massacre. They carried out a thorough investigation despite the bodies having been removed from the massacre site where

neg: Dundalli the present day Brunswick Street and Wickham Street. His presence in the town was revealed when a Turrbal enemy, Wumbungur tipped off the police. The trial was presided over by Roger Therry, who had been assistant prosecutor in the Myall Creek massacre, and who had gone on record affirming at the bench the rights of Aboriginals to justice. Nonetheless, in this trial, commentators suggest he was somewhat intimidated by Dundalli's huge stature and physique, his visible disdain for the proceedings and an attempt to bribe him. The evidence brought against Dundalli is now regarded as having been weakly constructed, and

neg: Oldholme Police Magistrate, including Denny Day. Magistrate Day won fame for capturing those responsible for the Myall Creek massacre in June 1838 and the Jewboy Davis gang in December, 1840. Day also laid the foundation stone of the Maitland Gaol in February, 1884 and also the foundation stones of Maitland Hospital and the Maitland Benevolent Society. Passing visitors were also accommodated, including Governor Gipps in 1839 and 1843 when it was grandly called "Government House". Edward Denny Day was born in Ireland in 1801, the son of an Irish clergyman. He chose the Army as a career and was a lieutenant

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site to roam unattended in the bush. Liverpool Plains settlers demanded military protection against Aboriginal attacks. In response to their demands, Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass, Acting Governor of New South Wales sent a large Mounted Police party north to enquire into and repress the aggressions complained of. The Mounted Police party, led by Major Nunn and composed of around twenty troopers reached Liverpool Plains in January 1838. What occurred after they arrived remains unclear, but at Waterloo Creek, 50 kilometres southwest of what is now Moree, the Mounted Police encountered a large party of Aboriginal people camped alongside the Creek. In the

neg: Myall Creek massacre uproar among sections of the population and the media, sometimes voiced in favour of the perpetrators. For example, an article in the "Sydney Morning Herald" declared that "the whole gang of black animals are not worth the money the colonists will have to pay for printing the silly court documents on which we have already wasted too much time". John Henry Fleming, the leader of the massacre, was never captured. John Blake, one of the four men acquitted at the first trial and not subsequently charged, committed suicide by cutting his throat in 1852. One of his descendants says that

neg: Myall Creek massacre The stockmen then entered the hut, tied them to a long tether rope and led them away. They took them to a gully on the side of the ridge about 800 metres to the west of the station huts. There they slaughtered them all except for one woman who they kept with them for the next couple of days. The approximately 28 people they murdered were largely women, children and old men. Ten younger men were away on a neighbouring station cutting bark. Most of the people were slaughtered with swords as George Anderson, who refused to join the massacre,

neg: Eliza Hamilton Dunlop as well. After moving to Australia, Dunlop continued writing poems, as well as song lyrics which were given a tune by Isaac Nathan, after he arrived in Sydney in April 1841. Many of her works were published in a variety of newspapers there, including the "Maitland Mercury", the "Sydney Gazette", and "The Australian". In particular, she wrote the poem "The Aboriginal Mother" in 1838, which she composed due to her opposition to the Myall Creek massacre. It was the fourth poem she had written since she arrived in Australia. The massacre had killed 29 Aboriginal Australians, and occurred just a

neg: Myall Creek massacre troopers were "useless" as they could not be "acting against the blackfellows as they wished, lest an outcry should be raised against them, and they could be prosecuted for murder". Arthur Macalister, spokesman for the opposition (later three times Premier of Queensland) agreed, equally using the term "judicial murder". The notion seemingly almost unanimously agreed to by the first Queensland parliament was that no white man should ever be prosecuted in Queensland for the killing of a black. Over the years there has been some debate over the exact location of the massacre. An oral tradition developed among stockmen who

neg: Myall Creek massacre only a few bone fragments remained. He arrested eleven of the twelve perpetrators. The only one to escape was the only free man involved, the leader, John Fleming. Anderson was crucial in identifying the arrested men. He had initially refused to name the men involved but after finding out that the massacre had been planned more than a week earlier to coincide with the absence of Hobbs he agreed to identify the killers to the magistrate. Beginning on 15 November 1838, the case was heard before the Chief Justice of New South Wales, James Dowling. The accused were represented by

neg: Squatting (pastoral) here on, squatters were able to purchase parts of their land, as opposed to just leasing it. It is known that many squatters fought battles with advanced European weapons against the local Indigenous Australian communities in the areas they occupied, though such battles were rarely investigated. These battles/massacres are the subject of the history wars, being the term for an ongoing public discussion on Australia's interpretation of its history. Squatters were only occasionally prosecuted for killing indigenous people. The first conviction of white men for the massacre of Indigenous people followed the Myall Creek massacre in 1838, in which Aboriginal

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site caused controversy throughout the colony. It led to heightened racial tensions and hardened attitudes towards Aboriginal people. This was evident on the day of the execution when the Australian published a letter which said, "I look on the blacks as a set of monkies, and the earlier they are exterminated from the face of the earth the better. I would never consent to hang a white man for a black one" (The Australian, 18 December 1838). While this was not the first time settlers were hanged for murdering Aborigines (see R v Ridgway, Chip, Colthurst and Stanley 1826, R v

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site an appointment in 1829 when the British Parliament removed most of the restrictions on members of that faith holding public office. In 1836 he became the colony's first Attorney-General but continued to carry out the duties of both positions. The colony was divided, often acrimoniously, between three groups - convicts, those who had been convicts but were now emancipated, and those who thought themselves superior because they had never been either. One of the most powerful sections of the community were the squatters, who had established large pastoral holdings in the north of the colony, one result of which was

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site with these orders to stay away from European settlement as the conflict on the frontier continued. Despite this, successive Governors in New South Wales adopted similar approaches to addressing frontier conflict. In 1796 Governor Hunter ordered settlers to "mutually afford their assistance to each other by assembling when ever any numerous bodies of natives are known to be lurking about the farms". By 1801 Governor King's orders were even more specific stating that the blacks were to "be driven back from settlers" habitations by firing at them'. In 1816 Governor Macquarie issued a proclamation stating that "No Aboriginal person is

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site response to the charging of the eleven suspects settlers formed groups such as the "Black Association" to support the men charged with the murder. Papers such as the Sydney Herald protested against the trials. Charging the perpetrators of the massacre also stimulated the activism of religious and humanitarian groups who called for the execution of the perpetrators. These views were promoted through papers such as the Sydney Monitor and the Australian. Upon being found not guilty, seven of the men were re-arrested and tried for the murder of an Aboriginal male named Charley. The second trial resulted in a guilty

neg: The Aboriginal Mother The Aboriginal Mother "The Aboriginal Mother" is a poem written by Eliza Hamilton Dunlop, which expresses her lament over the Myall Creek massacre, a mass murder of 30 Aboriginal Australians. It was published initially in "The Australian" on 13 December 1838, several days after seven men were found guilty of the incident but a few days before before they were hanged to death. The poem is told in first-person as a mother trying to quiet her baby, who's older child and husband died in the massacre. It was published in a variety of newspapers and books and after being set

neg: Myall Creek massacre then gave evidence that the Aboriginal people in the hut had cried out to him for assistance. He said two women were left behind at the huts, one "because she was good-looking, they said so," and that there was a young child who had been left behind, who attempted to follow her mother (who was tied up with the others), before Anderson carried her back to the hut. There were also two other young boys who had escaped by hiding in the creek. Anderson also gave evidence about the perpetrators' return and the burning of the bodies. I [Anderson] saw

neg: Dalby Town Council Chambers and Offices Arts was accepted on 4 August 1931. The first settlement of Myall Creek (Dalby) occurred when Henry Stuart Russell built a slab and bark hut in 1846 for the use of Samual Stewart and his family. Stewart had been Russell's hut keeper at Cecil Plains for five years prior to moving to Myall Creek. A number of similar buildings were constructed in the same area over the following years. After several approaches to the New South Wales Government by residents (the separation of Queensland had not occurred), surveyor EO Moriaty was instructed to lie out a township of one square

neg: Myall Park Botanic Garden benches was constructed at the Gordon family residence house, to provide an art space for Dorothy and to store herbarium specimens. The house is now located within the Myall Park pastoral property, just outside the Botanic Garden boundary. The herbarium specimens formerly located in the house are now held by the Myall Park Botanic Garden. In 1952 Gordon commissioned the damming of a section of Myall Creek, northeast of the house and garden, to increase water supplies. This was done in 1952 by Joh Bjelke-Petersen (later Premier of Queensland 1968-87), who was working at Myall Park as a contractor clearing

neg: History of Australia pursuing the establishment of equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists, then by extending legal protections to convicts, assigned servants and Aborigines. Plunkett twice charged the colonist perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre of Aborigines with murder, resulting in a conviction and his landmark "Church Act" of 1836 disestablished the Church of England and established legal equality between Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and later Methodists. In 1840, the Adelaide City Council and the Sydney City Council were established. Men who possessed 1,000 pounds worth of property were able to stand for election and wealthy landowners were permitted

neg: John Plunkett with Governor Richard Bourke in bringing about a new church and schools act. He was determined to establish equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists and he then extended legal protections to convicts and assigned servants. Finally Plunkett attempted to legally protect aboriginals, and twice charged the perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre with murder. The first trial resulted in acquittal on a technical point; however the second resulted in a conviction. Plunkett's Church Act of 1836 disestablished the Church of England and established legal equality between Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and later Methodists. Plunkett obtained leave

neg: Myall Creek massacre Kilmeister (No. 1)" – The station hutkeeper, George Anderson, the only white witness, was the key witness for the prosecution, conducted by Plunkett and Roger Therry as his junior counsel. He told the court how the eleven men had tied the victims together, and led them away. He also said that Edward Foley, one of the perpetrators, had shown him a sword covered with blood. Anderson's testimony was supported by William Hobbs and Magistrate Day, who had conducted the police investigation. The defence's case solely rested on the argument that the bodies could not be identified accurately. Justice Dowling took

neg: Myall Creek massacre men such as William Charles Wentworth, typically classified the trial and execution of the offenders as "judicial murder". Similar opinions were voiced years later in Queensland, the most populated section of the continent in terms of indigenous people, where it was the subject of numerous statements in the then newly separated parliament. In 1861, there was almost unanimous agreement that the prosecution and hanging in 1838 had been nothing less than '...judicial murder of white men in Sydney', as the government spokesman Robert Ramsay Mackenzie phrased it in his speech in the Legislative Assembly on 25 July, and that 'white

neg: Myall Creek massacre James Oates, Edward Foley, John Russell, John Johnstone, William Hawkins and James Parry, were executed early on the morning of 18 December 1838. The four remaining accused, Blake, Toulouse, Palliser and Lamb, were remanded until the next session to allow time for the main witness against them, an Aboriginal boy named Davey, to be prepared in order to take a Bible oath. According to the missionary, Lancelot Edward Threlkeld, Dangar had arranged for Davey "to be put out of the way" and he was never seen again. With Davey unable to be located, the four were discharged in February 1839.

neg: Oldholme reflects the beginnings of official settlement in the area. The current house was visited by Governor Gibb and was home to Police Magistrate Denny Day. Day was responsible for the prosecution of the Myall Creek Massacre perpetrators and the capture of Jewboy Davis gang. Oldholme was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. Oldholme Oldholme is a heritage-listed residence at 12 Wallis Street, East Maitland, City of Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1835 to 1839. It is also known as Government Cottage, Denny Day's Cottage and Bonnie Doon. It was

neg: Myall Creek massacre care to remind the jury that the law made no distinction between the murder of an Aboriginal person and the murder of a European person. The jury, after deliberating for just twenty minutes, found all eleven men not guilty. A letter to the editor of "The Australian" on 8 December 1838 alleged that one of the jurors had said privately that although he considered the men guilty of murder, he could not convict a white man of killing an Aboriginal person: "I look on the blacks as a set of monkeys and the sooner they are exterminated from the face

neg: Tomago House the Australian School Society, and prominent in the education debates. He was a member of the Aborigines Protection Society. His attention had been attracted to their legal disadvantages in the trial of an Aboriginal, Murrell, and the trials arising out of the Myall Creek massacre in which he had appeared. As the law stood, Aboriginals were not allowed to give evidence in the courts because they could not understand the nature of an oath. Windeyer supported proposals, later adopted, that they should be allowed to make unsworn statements. On his motion a select committee was appointed in 1845 to consider

neg: James Dowling 1837 Forbes retired from his office, and Dowling was appointed chief justice on 29 August 1837. He had the misfortune to have associated with him as third judge John Walpole Willis who arrived at Sydney in November 1837, and made himself so obnoxious to the chief justice that for the sake of peace Governor Gipps transferred Willis to Melbourne in January 1841. Dowling was present at the trial of the Myall Creek Massacre. In June 1843 Dowling expressed his willingness to act as speaker of the new legislative council, but Gipps ruled againstjkm this as he considered it would not

neg: Myall Creek massacre 2)" – Attorney-General Plunkett however requested the judge to remand the prisoners in custody awaiting further charges from the same incident. Although all eleven were remanded in custody only seven were to face a second trial. The second trial was held on 27 November but only 28 of the 48 called up for jury service turned up, it later came to light that the Black Association had intimidated many into staying away. The trial restarted on 29 November under a different judge. Anderson, who had been the key witness at the first trial, gave an even more lucid account of

neg: Roxy Theatre and Peters Greek Cafe Complex Bingara. Its good soils and abundant water had attracted a number of squatters who claimed runs in the nearby area. The valley land was taken up by the Hall family who already had considerable claims on land in the Hunter Valley and in the Hawkesbury. As the squatters became more numerous and the resources of the land and cattle was contested between the Aboriginal people and the Europeans, numerous attacks occurred by both Europeans and Aboriginals. These escalated during the 1830s and culminated in one of the most renowned of the attacks, the Myall Creek massacre of 18 December 1838.

neg: Myall Creek massacre it expanded across more and more Aboriginal land. As elsewhere in the colony, the Aborigines at times put up resistance to the invasion of their land by spearing sheep and cattle for food and sometimes attacking the stockmen's huts and killing the white men. In the Liverpool Plains district there had been some cattle speared and huts attacked and two whites murdered (allegedly by Aborigines). The squatters complained to the acting Governor Snodgrass, who sent Major James Nunn and about twenty-two troopers up to the district. Nunn enlisted the assistance of up to twenty-five local stockmen and together they rode

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site for crops and the grazing of sheep and cattle. Aboriginal people relied upon the same land for food and water. The initial response by the Administration was to dispatch troops to police the frontier, but the expanding area of land to be covered made this an increasingly difficult task. A lawless frontier environment soon existed where it was impossible to control the conflict between settlers and Aboriginal people. In response to this challenge the Administration ordered settlers to defend themselves and ordered Aboriginal people to stay away from European habitation. There is no evidence that Aboriginal people understood and agreed

neg: Kinchela Aboriginal Boys' Training Home white men. With the spread of settlers and their livestock came conflict and dispossession. The first bill for the Protection of Aborigines was drafted in 1838 after the Myall Creek massacre in June that year. Thus began a systemic government approach to the regulation and control of the lives of Aboriginal people that got tighter and tighter until the 1967 referendum finally brought significant change. Until 1881 Aboriginal people were under the jurisdiction of the Colonial Secretary, Police and the Lands Department. In 1880 a private body known as the Association for the Protection of Aborigines was formed and following

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site The dispersed nature of the settlers stations enabled the Gamilaroi to easily isolate and attack stockmen and their livestock. In April 1836 two stockmen working for the Hall Brothers, were killed while forming a new station. In September and November of the following year two hutkeepers and two shepherds from the Bowman and Cobb stations were killed. Crown Land Commissioner Alexander Paterson reported back to Sydney in the second half of 1837 that stockmen on the Loder station, which was the westernmost station on the Namoi, were so afraid of raids by the Gamilaroi that they had abandoned their livestock

neg: Henry Dangar . These included: Along the Great North Road to Liverpool Plains he acquired town allotments and established inns and stores. At Newcastle he had boiling-down works and meat-preserving and tinning works, and in New Zealand he established a steam flour-mill near the wheat farms around Official Bay (Auckland). The Myall Creek Massacre took place in 1838 on property owned by Dangar. Dangar advised two of the witnesses, George Anderson and William Hobbs, not to report the crime. Anderson was a convict assigned to Dangar, while Hobbs was a free man in Dangar's employ. Dangar spoke at the trial of how

neg: Bomaderry Aboriginal Children's Home a consequence the Wiradjuri hid their children from the white men. With the spread of settlers and their livestock came conflict and dispossession. The first bill for the Protection of Aborigines was drafted in 1838 after the Myall Creek massacre. Thus began a systemic government approach to the regulation and control of the lives of Aboriginal people that got tighter and tighter until the 1967 referendum finally brought significant change. Until 1881 Aboriginal people were under the jurisdiction of the Colonial Secretary, Police and the Lands Department. In 1880 a private body known as the Association for the Protection of

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site however, refused to leave their barricaded hut. The war party responded by attacking the hut and attempted to remove the roof. The warriors were forced to retreat after numerous members of the party were killed by the sixteen heavily armed stockmen. The stockmen then followed the retreating party on horseback and "taught them they knew how to fight". By 1837 settlers had pushed beyond the Peel and Namoi Rivers and taken up large tracks of land along the Gwydir or the "Big River" as it was then known. Local Gamilaroi groups resisted the alienation of their traditional lands almost immediately.

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site and nets or damaged Aboriginal canoes. Although Aboriginal witnesses to the floggings were horrified, Phillip used the floggings to demonstrate that settlers guilty of offences against Aboriginal people would be punished. In some cases he also provided compensation to Aboriginal people for their loss. However, following his departure in December 1792 all accommodation ended and the British Administration adopted a simpler solution: the unequal application of the law for settlers and Aboriginal people. With the expansion of European settlement into the Hawkesbury and Hunter regions, frontier conflict intensified. This conflict was the result of competition for land which settlers required

neg: Cootamundra Domestic Training Home for Aboriginal Girls up to the institutions. The Government of New South Wales also subsidised missionary activity among the Aboriginal people, including that of the London Missionary Society in the 1820s and 1830s. On the frontier of Wellington Valley the Reverend Watson gained a reputation for stealing Aboriginal children and as a consequence the Wiradjuri hid their children from the white men. With the spread of settlers and their livestock came conflict and dispossession. The first bill for the Protection of Aborigines was drafted in 1838 after the Myall Creek massacre in June that year. Thus began a systemic government approach to the

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site pastoral land. They were not prepared to wait while protectors rounded up the Aborigines, nor were they prepared to allow their stockkeepers to endure the full force of the law...for 1838 was the year that saw the final loss of control by government of pastoral expansion. Aboriginal attacks on unarmed convicts were commonplace following the establishment of the settlement at Port Jackson in 1788. While some members of the Administration felt that the Aboriginal inhabitants of the area should be driven away and kept away by the judicious use of muskets, Governor Phillip attempted to establish friendly relations and trade.

neg: History of Indigenous Australians which all the waters of New Holland would be insufficient to wash out the indelible stains." In 1790, an Aboriginal leader Pemulwuy in Sydney resisted the Europeans, waging a guerrilla-style warfare on the settlers in a series of wars known as the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars, which spanned 26 years, from 1790 to 1816. In 1838, twenty eight Aboriginal people were killed at the Myall Creek massacre; seven of the convict settlers responsible, six white men and one African man, were tried, convicted and hung for the murders. Many Aboriginal communities resisted the settlers, such as the Noongar of south-western

neg: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site the Hunter Valley and Mudgee, in need of more pasture for their rapidly increasing flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, began arriving on the Liverpool Plains in . At this time there were an estimated 12,000 Aboriginal people living in the district, mostly belonging to the Gamilaroi (also spelt Kamilaroi) language group but including other Aboriginal groups. The Gamilaroi people appear, from the very beginning, to have resisted European settlement. Surveyor William Gardner recorded how shortly after stations were formed on the Namoi River, local Aboriginal groups issued a formal challenge to the settlers to do battle. The stockmen

neg: Racism in Australia a penal colony to a budding free society. He sought good relations with the Aborigines and upset British government opinion by treating emancipists as equal to free-settlers. Soon after, the reformist attorney general, John Plunkett, sought to apply Enlightenment principles to governance in the colony, pursuing the establishment of equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists, then by extending legal protections to convicts, assigned servants and Aborigines. Plunkett twice charged the colonist perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre of Aborigines with murder, resulting in a conviction and his landmark "Church Act" of 1836 disestablished the Church