Aboriginal Massacre

1546 Words7 Pages
Background, 1788 – 1837 The infamous massacre of Aborigines at Myall Creek in Northern New South Wales in June 1838 occurred in the fifty first year after the British began their penal colony near Sydney cove. The encroachments of the Europeans brought years of devastating strife to Aboriginal peoples, who had lived on this country for thousands of years. They suffered terribly, as they were exposed to diseases to which they had no immunity and they died in large numbers. They were driven from their lands, which had sustained them physically and spiritually. Demoralized and debauched, they were coming to be seen as a doomed race. A proportion of the white population abused them, despised them and coveted their lands. The first British Governor,…show more content…
He was a ‘very old, big tall man’, who William Hobbs later described as the ‘doctor of the tribe’. He has been spoken of as the clan’s ‘clever man’. Old Joey, Tommy Sandy and his wife Martha and their precocious son Charlie, who was liked by everyone and was William Hobbs’ special favourite, were others Anderson recalled. The stockmen were deaf to the cries of their victims. Within twenty minutes of first arriving, the mounted men surrounded their frantic captives and they were hauled forward by a man with the end of the rope hitched to his saddle. They headed west from the hut, with Anderson watching until they had disappeared from view over the top of a rise. Two solitary shots were heard 15 or 20 minutes later. There is no eyewitness account of the killings. About 800 metres from the huts, the defenceless black people were hacked and slashed to death. Only one of the whole clan was spared – John Blake appears to have selected an Aboriginal woman. All of the other Aboriginal people were beheaded and their headless bodies were left where they fell. It is thought that the gang spent the night camped out, carousing and recalling their bloody deeds. Meanwhile, Anderson waited at the hut, later claiming to have never visited the site. Davey slipped away and brought back news of what he had
Open Document