Murdering Gully

Fighting Hill Massacre

Convincing Ground

Extracts

In March, 1840, the Whyte brothers, who had arrived in the western district in 1837, were involved in the massacre of an estimated 30 Aboriginal people, (although later statements put the number of dead as high as 69). An understanding of this atrocity is important, in that the Whyte brothers made no attempt to hide their actions, and in fact reported them to government authorities. It was well known at the time that as long as European settlers could claim that their property, (in the instance, sheep) was threatened by Aboriginal people, they could commit such acts with immunity. It is clear that to a large extent that settler-society valued its own wealth and claims to land over the lives of Aboriginal people.

Fighting Hills

PLACE NAME: Fighting Hills
LOCATION: The Hummocks, near Wando Vale
DATE OF INCIDENT: 8 March 1840
ABORIGINES INVOLVED: Konongwootong gundidj clan, Jardwadjali language
EUROPEANS INVOLVED: The Whyte brothers and three employees, Daniel Turner, Benjamin Wardle, and William Gillespie
REPORTED ABORIGINAL DEATHS: over 40 men, women and children, possibly as many as 80 people.

The Whyte brothers, William, George, Pringle, James and John arrived in Port Phillip in 1837 and took up land near the Pentland Hills. In 1838 they travelled west and took up country about Wannon River. They occupied Konongwootong station on Koroit Creek, 6.5 kilometres north of Coleraine, in February1840. This massacre was the first of two inflicted on the Konongwootong gundidj clan by the Whyte brothers. Despite the fact that Assistant Protector C.W. Sievwright had investigated this massacre, and one of the Whytes had personally informed the government of its occurrence, no action was taken. In 1843, a European named Bassett, who lived on Whyte's station, was killed in revenge for these massacres.

This slaughter occurred at the Hummocks near Wando Vale, and became known as Fighting Hills. The Hummocks is a unique rocky outcrop dissected by the narrow gorge of the Wando River, and is estimated to be about 150 million years old. Ironically, in 1849 a stone police station and courthouse was erected at the Hummocks, replacing an earlier wooden structure. About this time, the Hummocks is believed to have been surveyed as a site for a township, however settlement did not proceed and with the subsequent survey of Casterton in 1852, the court sittings and police presence were transferred there.

On 8 march 1840, the Whyte brothers hunted down the Konongwootong gundidj, some of whom had made off with 127 sheep. In the ensuing clash, the Whytes admitted killing between 20 and 30 Aborigines, although one of their men deposed before Sievwright that 'between thirty and forty men, exclusive of women and children were shot dead, only one escaping out of the whole tribe'. 'Lanky Bill', the sole survivor, was himself killed the following month by George McNamara, one of Francis Henty's hut keepers at Merino Downs, on the Wannon River, near Henty. The numbers killed were far too great to dismiss this massacre by referring to the local magistrate, or to hush it up altogether, so John Whyte went personally to Superintendent CJ La Trobe.

On 23 March 1840, John Whyte visited Niel Black at Glenormiston station near Terang, en route to inform La Trobe of the massacre. In his journal for this day, Black made the following entry.

'In the evening . . . Mr White [sic] from Portland Bay came to my house, . . . on his way to inform the Governer of an affray he had with the natives in which it is said 41 of them has been killed. About a fortnight ago a large party of them came to one of the out stations and took from the shepherd 900 breeding ewes. He immediately acquainted his master of it, and they made preparations for following their flock next day as too much time had been lost to be able to come up with them in time that evening. The sheep were carried away about 3.o.c. that afternoon. Next morning 9 men set out after the blacks, 5 on horse and 4 on foot. When they travelled about 8 miles they came upon the native encampment. When Whites [sic] were seen approaching they set up a tremendous yell, and about 30 drew out in order of battle.

They were on the opposite side of the creek, and the first man that crossed the creek was speared through the calf of the leg and pinned to the ground. His friends followed him and soon dispatched the blackfellow. He fell - after having 9 balls lodged in his body - making signs to his friends to fight. They stood and fought for an hour but did not hurt or injure any other person, but one of the Whites has his cheek cut by a ball fired at random by one of his own party.

The Protector of Aborigines was within 6 miles [9.5 kilometres] at the time the affray took place, and his report (collected among the natives themselves) is that 41 has been killed, and Mr White says that he is not aware of more than 25. The bodies were all removed and put out of sight by the natives - a thing they never fail to do.I think they will never occasion much trouble in that quarter again.

The whole of the sheep was recovered except 45 which they had slaughtered and on which they were feasting themselves when first surprised by the Whites [sic], having first skinned and roasted them.

There are several brothers of the Whites, all young men, and they only went to Portland Bay in January last. They . . . will [n]ever be troubled with blacks again. They may, however, be obliged to go to Sydney to stand their trial for murder, but it will be a mere formality. They must be acquitted.' (Black 1839-40).

Since stolen property was involved, Whyte had few apprehensions about the outcome of his interview. At the very worst, he and his brothers would have to stand trial in Sydney, but that would be a mere formality, as Black expected. Whyte's confidence was fully justified. Despite discrepancies, the depositions of his party were accepted, no check was made as to their accuracy and no trial held. The depositions that Sievwright had argued they were statements by the principals in the action, not witnesses. On 29 March 1840, Whyte visited Chief Protector George Robinson at La Trobe's request, and reported the massacre. He told Robinson he was willing to give £100 per annum towards feeding the Aborigines, and that other squatters were willing do the same.

As Black recorded, CW Sievwright was in the vicinity of the station and duly investigated this massacre. The Reverend Joseph Orton cited this massacre in his journal, dated 12 January 1841, in which he summarised Sievwrights report. Orton highlighted the fact that the recovery of stolen property did not appear to be the Whytes principal object, for when their sheep were found, they did not merely secure them, but they preferred to go on with 'putting out of the way the blacks'.

On 3 April 1840, La Trobe notified Edward Deas Thomson, the Colonial Secretary in New South Wales, of various conflicts between Europeans and Aborigines in the Western District. In this report he referred to the 'Fighting Hills' massacre as 'a most serious affray'.

James Croke, the Crown Prosecutor, subsequently examined the depositions collected by Sievwright in correspondence dated 17 June 1840, and reported that according to depositions of Daniel Turner, William Gillespie and Benjamin Wardle, convict servants of the Whytes, that the 'blacks' appeared to have been the aggressors. The Aborigines had stolen sheep and had made their own enclosure and were busy skinning and cooking the sheep when they were found by the Europeans. William Whyte admitted he killed two Aborigines, but not before a spear had been thrown at him, and John Whyte stated that no less than 200 spears were thrown and not less than 30 Aborigines were killed.

In his 1841 journal, George Robinson discussed the attitudes of settlers in the Portland Bay area, and the actions of the Whyte brothers need to be seen in context.

The settlers as the Bay spoke of the settlers up the country dropping the natives as coolly as if they were speaking of dropping cows. Indeed, the doctrine is being promulgated that they are not human, or hardly so and thereby inculcating the principle that killing them is no murder.

Mr Pilleau said the settlers encourage their men to shoot the natives because, thereby, they would the sooner get rid of them. And he himself seemed inclined to the doctrine. He said, and others have said - and said it to me - that there would never be peace until they was extirpated. He admitted they were badly treated and that for every white man killed 20 blacks were shot. He said that after Gibson's shepherd was killed a number of them were shot. He said they did not kill them when many of them were together, lest they should be known, but singly. He said it could not but be expected that the natives retaliate.

I said that the parties who had killed natives in the way he had described did it at their peril and if an accomplice gave evidence against them they would be hanged as sure as they had a neck. He said it was hard for settlers to have their sheep taken. I said the law in the case of sheep stealing did not require life. But the squatters keep on shooting the blacks even under such circumstances were guilty of murder. (Robinson journals, 27 May 1841 see Clark 1998)

John G Robertson, who settled on the Wannon River at Wando Vale station in 1840, wrote to La Trobe on 26 September 1853. In his letter he mentioned the massacre at Fighting Hills.

On 6 July 1860, the Gippsland Guardian (in Gardner 1983) published the following account of this massacre under the heading 'Shooting Blackfellows'. The anonymous author was presumed either Turner, Wardle, or Gillespie. The names of the squatters are fictitious, however the 'Parks' are pseudonyms for the Whyte brothers.