The Colonisation of Australia Had a Devastating Impact on the Indigenous People Who Had Lived on This Land for Over 60,000 Years
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Massacres The colonisation of Australia had a devastating impact on the Indigenous people who had lived on this land for over 60,000 years. Before British Settlement More than 500 Indigenous nations inhabited the Australian continent, approximately 750,000 people in total. Their cultures had developed over 60,000 years, making Indigenous Australians the custodians of the world’s most ancient living culture. Each group lived in close relationship with the land and had custody over their own traditional country. Papal Bull’s meant that the land was deemed ‘Terra Nullius (nobody’s land) and as non-Christian custodians, ‘permission’ was granted to others to invade and overrule. It is estimated that between 1788 and 1900, the Indigenous population of Australia was reduced by 90%. Three main reasons for this dramatic population decline were: -The introduction of new diseases -Settler acquisition of Indigenous lands -Direct and violent conflict Diseases The most immediate consequence of colonisation was a wave of epidemic diseases including smallpox, measles and influenza. Disease spread ahead of the settlement frontier and annihilated many Indigenous communities. Violence Historical records document numerous occasions on which Indigenous people were hunted and brutally murdered Massacres of Indigenous people often took the form of mass shootings or driving groups of people off cliffs. There are also numerous accounts of colonists offering Indigenous people food laced with arsenic and other poisons. Australian Frontier Wars The Australian frontier wars were a series of conflicts that were fought between Indigenous Australians and mainly British settlers that spanned a total of 146 years. The first fighting took place several months after the landing of the First Fleet in January 1788. The last clashes occurred as late as 1934. THINGS TO KNOW I It is important to recognise that throughout the colonisation process, Indigenous Australians continually resisted the infringement of their rights to their lands, and its impact on their cultures and communities. It is estimated that at least 20,000 Aboriginal people were killed as a direct result of colonial violence during this time. (Between 2,000- 2,500 settler deaths resulted from frontier conflict during the same period.) THINGS TO KNOW II Although British authorities originally had good intentions towards Aboriginal people, they also intended to take their land. From the European point of view, Aboriginal people did not really 'own' the land. The Aboriginal people, on the other hand, considered the land to be theirs, and saw European settlement, which quickly began to rob them of their hunting and fishing grounds, as an invasion they should resist. Just as the Europeans had no respect for Aboriginal land ownership, they also had little understanding or respect for Aboriginal culture. Most Europeans at that time considered their civilisation to be superior, and thought that Aboriginal people were backward and in need of help. THINGS TO KNOW III Misunderstanding existed on both sides. The Aborigines had no knowledge of European customs and values. They did not understand the European idea of ownership. In the beginning, they were willing to share food and knowledge about the land with Europeans. In return they expected the settlers to share their tools, animals and other food with them. Of course there was conflict when they tried to do that as Europeans saw things differently. The deliberate ill treatment of Aboriginal people, the terrible impact of European diseases and the introduction of alcohol all contributed to a breakdown of Aboriginal society. When their tribal lifestyle was destroyed, the Aborigines came to live on the edge of European settlement, begging and taking up the worst European habits. Europeans saw this as evidence of their backwardness. On the other hand, if Aborigines took up weapons to defend their land, they were seen as evil savages who needed to be taught a lesson. Pemulwuy One of the first leaders of the Aboriginal resistance was Pemulwuy, a member of the Botany Bay tribe. He organised Aborigines living in the Sydney area to make attacks on European settlers and their property. In 1790 Pemulwuy killed Governor Phillip's gamekeeper, a man he believed to be responsible for mistreating Aborigines. In retaliation, Phillip ordered his soldiers to capture or kill six people from Pemulwuy's tribe. In doing this, Phillip was acting brutally and against British law. Such an action was uncharacteristic of Phillip, but it showed that he did not believe that Aboriginal people had to be treated according to the same laws and Europeans. (They failed to find Pemulwuy or his tribe, but this ‘set the mood’ for how discord would be handled.) Pemulwuy continued to lead attacks on settlers all around the outskirts of Sydney. 1810s 1816 – Appin Massacre. New South Wales Governor Macquarie sent parties against the Gundungurra and Dharawal people on their lands along the Cataract River in retaliation for violent conflicts with white settlers (in which several died). When the group came upon Cataract Gorge, the soldiers used their horses to force men, women and children to fall from the cliffs of the gorge, to their deaths below. Captain Willis from the party of soldiers wrote: "The fires were burning but deserted. A few of my men heard a child cry… The dogs gave the alarm and the natives fled over the cliffs. It was moonlight. I regret to say some (were) shot and others met their fate by rushing in despair over the precipice. Fourteen dead bodies were counted in different directions.” 1820s 1824 - Bathurst massacre. Following the killing of seven Europeans by Aboriginal people around Bathurst, NSW, and a battle between three stockmen and a warband over stolen cattle which left 16 Aborigines dead, Governor Brisbane declared martial law to restore order and was able to report a cessation of hostilities in which 'not one outrage was committed under it, neither was a life sacrificed or even Blood spilt'. 1827 - 12 Gringai aboriginals were shot dead for killing in reprisal a convict who had shot one of their camp dogs dead. 1830s I 1838 - On 26 January Waterloo Creek massacre, also known as the Slaughterhouse Creek or Australia Day massacre. A Sydney mounted police detachment attacked an encampment of Kamilaroi people at a place called Waterloo Creek in remote bushland. Official reports spoke of between 8 and 50 killed. The missionary Lancelot Threkeld set the number at 120 as part of his campaign to garner support for his Mission.[15] Threkeld also claimed Major James Nunn later boasted they had killed from two to three hundred natives, a statement at odds with his own claim, and both not based on any direct evidence. Other estimates range from 40 to 70, but judge that most of the Kamilaroi were wiped out. 1830s II 1838 - The Myall Creek massacre took place on a sheep station in northern New South Wales at a time of conflict between Aborigines and European settlers. Local Aboriginals had been accused of stealing sheep. As happened elsewhere on the frontier, white settlers reacted to such events by hunting down Aboriginals and inflicting their own punishments. At Myall Creek the Aborigines who were massacred had not been involved in sheep stealing. It was a group of women, children and elderly people who had been living on friendly terms with some of the European workers at Myall Creek station. They had no reason to hide or to expect violence from Europeans. But, on a weekend in June 1839, this group was suddenly attacked by a party of men on horseback, who simply rode up and surrounded them. The horsemen were armed with swords and pistols. They tied the Aboriginals together in a long line and led them away to a place which had been chosen for their execution. A total of 28 were murdered. A few were shot but many were hacked to death or decapitated with swords. The bodies were later burned. 1830s III This was the first Aboriginal massacre for which white European and black African settlers were successfully prosecuted. (Previously settlers had been found not guilty by juries despite all the evidence. One colonist who was found guilty had been pardoned when his case was referred to Britain.) Eleven men were charged with murder but were initially acquitted by a jury. After a new trial seven of the eleven men were found guilty of the murder of one Aboriginal child and hanged. This successful prosecution resulted in pacts of ‘silence’ becoming a common practice to avoid guilty verdicts. Poisoning Aboriginal people also became more common as "a safer practice". Many massacres were to go unpunished due to these practices. 1830s IV 1838 - In about the middle of the year at Gwydir River. A war of extirpation was waged all along the Gwydir River in mid-1838. 'Aborigines in the district were repeatedly pursued by parties of mounted and armed stockmen, assembled for the purpose, and that great numbers of them had been killed at various spots’. In July 1838, men from the Bowman, Ebden and Yaldwyn stations in search of stolen sheep shot and killed 14 Aboriginal people at a campsite near the confluence of the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers in New South Wales. 1840s 1841 - On 27 August. The Rufus River massacre, various estimates - between 30-40 deaths. 1842 - Evans Head massacre - the 1842/1843 massacre of 100 Bundjalung Nation tribes-people at Evans Head by Europeans, was said to have been in retaliation for the killing of 'a few sheep', or the killing of 'five European men' from the 1842 'Pelican Creek tragedy'. It is also referred to as the 'Goanna Headland massacre’. From 1838 to 1851 during the spread of pastoral stations along the Macleay River, it is estimated that some 15 massacres took place of the indigenous peoples of this Djangadi area.