Pinjarra massacre

Massacre in Pinjarra, Western Australia

Governor Captain James Stirling According to Stirling, "about 60 or 70" of the Binjareb people were present at the camp and John Roe, who also participated, estimated about 70–80. This roughly agrees with an estimate of 70 by an unidentified eyewitness. On the defending side an uncertain number of Binjareb men, women, and children were killed. Stirling quantified the number of Binjareb people killed as probably 15 males;

The effects of the attack's outcome were devastating for the Binjareb, allowing "surrounding groups to exploit the weakness of the once powerful Binjareb", Indeed, Monang, some of his counterparts, and those who came after, were to contribute in a variety of ways to the development of the area into what it is today. Monang and Denmar, both involved in the murder of Nesbit, and originally on the list of "wanted" Nyungar men, in fact became the first "native" policemen at Pinjarra in 1838. Monang also developed a close association with Henry Bunbury and would accompany Bunbury on his expeditions. Presently, the Bindjareb people today remain custodians and representatives of their culture. This was followed in July 1834 by the ambush and murder of Hugh Nesbitt, a servant of Thomas Peel and the wounding of Edward Barron.</blockquote>

Stirling had been visiting the seaport of Albany and bad weather caused his return to be delayed until September. In response to calls from Pinjarra settlers for protection against the increased hostility of local Binjareb Noongars led by Calyute, Stirling organised a mounted force of police, bushmen and ex soldiers. Their brief was to protect settlers, safeguard Aboriginal mail carriers and confront the Binjareb on the Murray River. Stirling's attack at Pinjarra was specifically to collectively punish the Binjareb for their earlier individual attacks, to re establish a barracks on the road to the south, and to enable Peel to attract settlers into his lands at Mandurah. This followed an earlier failure by Surveyor General Septimus Roe and pastoralist Thomas Peel, who had led an expedition to the area with the goal of improving security and negotiating peaceful co existence. Stirling wanted a "decisive action" that would end the attacks "once and for all".

Stirling had wanted to begin on 17 October, but a Murray man seen in Perth was suspected of being a spy for Calyute and so the expedition was delayed one week. On the morning of Saturday 25 October, Stirling and Roe left Perth and travelled southwards to the Preston Ferry, there waiting for surveyor George Smyth and Corporal Julius Delmage, who had brought supplies south by boat from Perth. Spare horses from the ferry were loaded with supplies as the party set off to Hamilton Hill, skirting Fremantle to the east. There they were joined by Ellis and the five mounted police, superintendent Richard Meares and his son, Seymour. They then rode south to Peel's homestead where they were joined by Peel and two others. On the morning of 27 October, ten soldiers of the 21st Regiment, two corporals and eight privates, arrived to join the party. Ammunition was issued to a party on 27 October 1834, and they were issued with several weeks' supplies, as the soldiers were to remain at Pinjarra and establish the planned garrison there. Leaving Peel's farm they crossed the Serpentine River and went forward to the Murray delta where tracks of a sizeable group of Aboriginal men women and children were discovered heading towards Pinjarra. In the late afternoon, they camped at Jinjanuk, 10 mile (16 km) from the mouth of the Murray River, so that they could begin the attack early next morning when they judged the Aboriginal group would be least prepared.

The group woke two hours before dawn on 28 October and ate breakfast in the dark. By 8:00 am, the party had rejoined the Murray where the river was wide, between steep red loam banks, continuing northwards to cross the Oakley brook at about 8:35 am. 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 Ellis, Charles 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 Stirling, Meares, Peel and 12 others were waiting in hiding. Ellis was soon in a melee with the Noongars, 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 clash, and the remainder then turned and ran towards the river, intending to cross and scatter into the hills. Daisy M. Bates, writing for local newspaper The Western Mail, 5 August 1926, said Noonaar had been in the act of throwing a spear at Norcott when he was shot dead. She also wrote that eight women and some children were spared and assured of their personal safety, held during the fighting, then released afterward, on realising this some men "cried out that they were of the other sex". Later that week The Jackets of Green, a folk ballad honouring Ellis, was published and sheet music sold at hotels in Guildford and Perth. On the Aboriginal side, there are conflicting reports. 60 70 Aboriginal men, women and children in the camp had been subjected to intensive fire of 24 guns for an hour, and for another half hour the survivors were hunted through the bush. No male prisoners were taken alive and all wounded were immediately shot. At the end of hostilities, eight women and a few children were taken as captives. In his report, Stirling claimed 15 Aboriginal men had been killed. Roe estimated the dead at 15–20. But these numbers don't seem to have included women and children. Captain Daniel, whom Stirling later sent to survey the site of the incident, implied that many more were killed than officially acknowledged, as he found several mass graves, but the rain and his fear of an attack made exhuming the bodies for an official count impossible. Advocate General George Fletcher Moore estimated from his own investigations (he was not present) that between 25 and 30 were left dead on the field and in the river. The colony's native interpreter, Francis Armstrong, was given a woomera by a survivor shortly after the ambush, a description of which was printed in the Perth Gazette; an image drawn on the object depicted a river, horses, humans and the graves of the slain.

The massacre seemed to have increased and intensified the settlers' fears rather than allayed them. The belief that Aboriginal people would unite to drive the colonists out persisted into the 1850s when there was another massacre of Aboriginals gathering for a corroboree at Whiteman Park near Guildford. Mounted police continued regular patrols in the area, and the police force at Mandurah continued, though there was no further trouble. Peel continued to call for action to wipe out and exterminate the rest of the Binjareb, whom he called "a nest of hornets", although there were no further payback reprisals. The killing of so many Binjareb caused a major population imbalance between rival Aboriginal groups, with Swan and Canning Wadjuk and York Balardong attempting to profit from the decimation of the Murray Binjareb. Stirling also personally profited, as he was able to take ownership of Binjareb lands in the Harvey district, untroubled. Five months after the massacre, the Murray group sent a deputation to the governor seeking an end to hostilities and the later killings that had followed. Maigo, of the Wadjuk, went as a messenger, and the Binjareb promised support for actions of the governor. With the Wadjuk camped at the fresh water Doodinup spring at what is now Spring Street, and the Binjareb camped at the Deedyallup water hole near the present ABC building, a joint corroboree and distribution of 50 loaves of bread sealed the peace. Calyute survived the massacre, but his continued existence annoyed Peel. Calyute equally hated Peel, biting his beard whenever he saw his old enemy.

Since 1991, the massacre is annually remembered by the Binjareb people on 28 October; the commemoration is named Back to Pinjarra Day. Binjareb Noongar man Theo Kearing and his wife Roseanne Kearing were central figures in starting this memorial, after many years of work to have the event recognised as a massacre. It is performed at a memorial site in Pinjarra.