Blood Hole massacre
| Blood Hole massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of Australian frontier wars | |
| Location | Middle Creek, 6 or 7 miles from Glengower Station between Clunes and Newstead, Colony of Victoria |
| Date | 1839 or 1840 |
| Target | Dja Dja Wurrung people |
Attack type | Mass murder, hate crime |
| Deaths | Unknown |
| Victims | Unknown clan of Dja Dja Wurrung people |
| Perpetrators | Captain Dugald McLachlan and employees |
The Blood Hole massacre occurred in what is now the Australian state of Victoria at Middle Creek, 10–11 kilometres (6–7 mi) from Glengower Station between Clunes and Newstead at the end of 1839 or early 1840, killing an unknown number of Aboriginals from the Grampians district who were on their way home after trading goods for green stone axe blanks that they obtained near what is now Lancefield.
Captain Dugald McLachlan established Glengower station, sometimes employing local Aboriginal people from the Dja Dja Wurrung (Jaara people). His employees also gave out flour and sugar rations to Aboriginals on occasion.
The massacre happened after the station hands found the cook hanging from a meat hook near the kitchen at the end of the day. Later the Aboriginals who had passed through on their way home were found at Middle Creek, a camping place on the Aboriginal trading route from the Grampians to the Greenstone quarry at Mount William near Lancefield.
The Aboriginal people were found at the waterhole on Middle Creek west of Glengower Station. The Aboriginals sought to hide by diving into the waterhole, where they were shot one at a time as they came up for air.[1][2][3][4]
References
- ^ Aldo Massola, p88, Journey to Aboriginal Victoria, Rigby, 1969 as quoted by Ian D. Clark, pp97, Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803-1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 ISBN 0-85575-281-5
- ^ Geoffrey Blainey, pp30, A History of Victoria, Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-521-86977-3
- ^ Edgar Morrison, Frontier life in the Loddon Protectorate : episodes from early days, 1837-1842, Daylesford [Vic.], The Advocate, 1967?. No ISBN
- ^ Evershed, Nick; Ball, Andy; Allam, Lorena; O'Mahony, Ciaran; Nadel, Jeremy; Earl, Carly. "The killing times: a massacre map of Australia's frontier wars". the Guardian. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
Further reading
- Razik, Naveen (11 July 2020). "Victoria to introduce Australia's first truth-telling process to address Indigenous injustices". SBS News, Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- Thorne, Leonie (11 July 2020). "Victoria to establish truth and justice process as part of Aboriginal treaty process". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
