The Pinjarra Massacre

The Swan River Colony was established in Western Australia on 2 May, 1829. Despite an abundant existing population, the British had decreed that Australia was legally ‘terra nullius’; no mans land. The colonists claimed the land inhabited by the local indigenous people for the Empire.

By 1834 the colony had spread and was pushing further south into the land surrounding the Murray River, traditional territory of the Pindjarup people. During those five years of settlement the Pindjarup had been responsible for the deaths of five settlers, as well as a number of minor thefts. Because the indigenous people were now classified as British subjects, any acts of resistance were considered to be criminal behaviour rather than opposition to an invading force.

This meant that all occurrences of theft or violence were treated as crimes, for which punishments were applied. Sentences ranged from public flogging to execution by firing squad, sometimes without trial. The indigenous people frequently retaliated when punished, leading to ongoing exchanges of tit-for-tat violence.

When a group of Pindjarup broke into the Shenton Mill and stole a large quantity of flour, Calyute, one of the men believed to be responsible was captured and severely flogged before being confined in the jail at Fremantle. Shortly after his release he was implicated when Hugh Nesbitt died at the hands of the Pindjarup, likely in retaliation for the flogging. A call for violent retribution against the Pindjarup was published in the local newspaper:

‘...this unprovoked attack must not be allowed to pass over without the infliction of the severest chastisement; and we cordially join our brother Colonists in the one universal call - for a summary and fearful example. We feel and know from experience, that to punish with severity the perpetrators of these atrocities will be found in the end an act of the greatest kindness and humanity.’ Perth Gazette, July 26, 1834.

In late October, 1834, the governor of the colony, James Stirling, assembled a party made up of settlers, mounted police and soldiers of the 21st Regiment and travelled south expecting to encounter the Pindjarup.

Though contemporary written accounts of the events that followed do exist, they can’t be trusted as the authors had political reasons for twisting, eliminating, minimising or enhancing certain details; what truly happened the following day will never be known.

What is certain though is that twenty five men on horseback, armed with muzzle loading rifles came across a Pindjarup camp of men, women and children armed with spears by the Murray River. Within a short time one of the European party had received a head injury from which he later died, while a sustained campaign of shooting led to the deaths of many Pindjarup.

The exact number of Pindjarup killed by the river that day is unknown. The violence was not limited to known perpetrators of past crimes, and women and children were killed as well as men. Governor Stirling estimated 15 men dead in his report to the Colonial Office, a ‘Gentleman’ present estimated 25 to 30 dead in total, while a patrol visiting after the fact observed three mass graves twelve feet in length alongside 13 individual graves. Contemporary statements given by Pindjarup people name almost 30 casualties, including more women and children than any of the European accounts admit.

What happened at Pinjarra that day is just one of many conflicts that occurred during the foundation of Australia, and which continued until the 1930s.

The death toll of indigenous people due to the colonisation of Australia will forever be unknown, but estimates of the decline in the indigenous population represent losses in the hundreds of thousands due to conflict, disease and starvation. Resistance began almost immediately after the British arrived in Australia, with indigenous populations fighting a war against dispossession by an invading foreign empire. They fought against the British army, government employees, police and settlers. The colonists were fighting a war of invasion, attempting to protect their lives, their crops, their livestock and the land they occupied.

Many people continue to believe in the myth of a peaceful settlement of Australia.