Research Paper On The Myall Creek Massacre

The Myall creek massacre was the one of the first major attacks on the Aboriginals. Aboriginal men, women and children in an episode of extreme violence were slaughtered. The Myall Creek massacre was pure racism towards aboriginals caused by underlying attitudes within European people towards indigenous Australians. It was underpinned by Europeans settlers wanting to control the land which aboriginals had historically regarded as their own.

The Myall creek massacre occurred 50 years after Europeans arrived in Sydney. For all the 50 years, there had been confliction between the aboriginals and the Europeans over competition of land. “Myall Creek was the tip of the iceberg of frontier violence against Aboriginal people.” (Prof. Rhonda Craven)

George Anderson and Charles kilmeister were stationed at Myall Creek as they were convicts. There were approximately 35 Wirrayaraay people camping. As they saw the stockmen coming, they ran into the convict’s tents, begging for mercy. “Take the blacks over the back of the range and frighten them.” (John Russell, 1838) The stockmen, joined by kilmeister, tied up all the Weraearai people, with a light whip cord. Anderson refused to join and was able to help a young girl to escape. Two more aboriginal boys escaped the scene by jumping into the creek. Those who were tied, were all led to the gully for slaughter. The aboriginals were hacked and slashed to death with there bodies placed in a fire. “Two beautiful young girls were allowed to live so that they could be raped.” ('Massacre at Myall Creek', The Sydney Morning Herald,

George Anderson – the key witnessed of the massacre- told the police and had the killers charged with murder. The first trial was on the 15th of November 1838. Unfortunately, the first trial was unsuccessful as all the killers were found not guilty. Ten days later, the second trial happened, focusing on the murder of a single child. The outcome of this trial found the perpetrators guilty of murder. On the 18th of December they were hanged. “I would never see a white man hanged for killing a black.” (jurors, The Australian, 1838.) This quote shows how racist people were back in 1838. Their views were basically ‘a white person shouldn’t get hanged, even though they killed person that is black.’ Ultimately, Europeans thinking they were better than the aboriginals as didn’t matter and were no ones. Remarkably, that was the reality of the time and their own opinion. You could say it was one of the excuses for the massacre. Unfortunately, the overall the massacre was poorly documented atrocity on the