Battle of Pinjarra - Massacre

Massacre

The group was awoken two hours before dawn on 28 October, and ate breakfast in the dark. By 8 am, the party had rejoined the Murray where the river was 30 metres wide, between steep red loam banks, continuing northwards to cross the Oakley brook at about 8.35am. Peel approached along the western bank of the river and returned to tell of a settlement of about 20 bark beehive shaped mia-mias in the bend of the river. The weather broke and it started to rain heavily as Captain Ellis, Mr Norcott and three of the police attacked from the south.

The Aboriginal men gathered up their spears and woomeras, as the women and children fled towards the river, where Captain Stirling, Captain Meares, Thomas Peel and 12 others were waiting in hiding. Ellis was soon in a melee with the Aborigines, and Norcott, recognising a troublemaker called Noonaar, shot him with his double-barrelled shotgun, causing the first casualty. Five or more Aboriginal people were killed in the first charge, and the remainder of the Aboriginal group then turned and ran towards the river, intending to cross and scatter into the hills. One of the eldest women in the tribe, Teelak, was shot dead with her 4-year-old daughter screaming violently. At least 13 other children and women were then shot.

Stirling, hearing the shots reacted quickly. Roe was sent with four others to prevent the group escaping south and guard the pack horses at the ford. The governor and 14 others in a line abreast then ambushed the surprised Aborigines who had crossed the river. Ellis had been dislodged from his horse but Norcott continued pushing the group into the river where they were caught in a withering crossfire. The flood-scoured slopes gave the men, women and children little cover as they tried to hide behind what logs or bushes there were. Many ducked into the water, holding their breath as long as they could. Some tried to float downstream out of range, but the water was too shallow to permit their escape. They, too, were shot. Roe's journal records "Very few wounded were suffered to escape". Soldiers fired indiscriminately at those caught in the ambush and, when all had been slain, the posse remounted to chase the others who had fled north into the bush. By 10.05am it was all over and, because of the serious condition of two of the European wounded, Stirling decided to return immediately to Mandurah.