Myall Creek Massacre - Massacre

Massacre

A group of eleven stockmen, consisting of assigned convicts and former convicts, ten of them of European extraction and one African, led by a squatter, John Fleming, arrived at Henry Dangar's Myall Creek station on 10 June 1838. They rode up to the station huts beside which were camped a group of approximately thirty five Aboriginals. They were part of the Wirrayaraay (alternative spelling: Weraerai) group who belonged to the Kamilaroi tribe. They had been camped at the station for a few weeks after being invited by one of the convict stockmen, Charles Kilmeister, to come to their station for their safety and protection from the gangs of marauding stockmen who were roaming the district slaughtering any Aboriginals they could find. These Aboriginals 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 the Aboriginals 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 Aboriginals, John Russell said they were going to "take them over the back of the range and frighten them." The stockmen then entered the hut, tied the Aboriginals 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. Most of the younger men were away on a neighbouring station cutting bark. Most of the Aboriginals were slaughtered with swords as George Anderson, who refused to join the massacre, clearly heard there were just two shots. Unlike Anderson, Charles Kilmeister joined the slaughter of the Aboriginals. 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 succeeded, and on their return two days later dismembered and burnt the bodies.

When the manager of the station, William Hobbs, returned several days later and discovered 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.

Day carried out a thorough investigation despite the bodies having been removed from the massacre site where 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.