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  3. October
  4. 28
  5. Pinjarra massacre

Events on October 28 in history

Pinjarra massacre
1834Oct, 28

The Pinjarra massacre occurred in the Swan River Colony at present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. An estimated 30 Noongar people were killed by British colonists.

The Pinjarra massacre, also known as the Battle of Pinjarra, occurred on 28 October 1834 at Pinjarra, Western Australia when a group of Binjareb Noongar people were attacked by a detachment of 25 soldiers, police, and settlers led by Governor James Stirling.: 25  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.: 8  The attack at Pinjarra was in response to sustained aggression by the Binjarebs, including robberies and murder of settlers and members of other Nyungar tribes.On the attacking side, Captain Theophilus Tighe Ellis died and Corporal Patrick Heffron was injured. 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,.: 9  Roe estimated the number killed as between 15–20,.: 10  An unidentified eyewitness counted about 25–30 killed, including 1 woman and several children. In addition, suggesting it was "very probable that more men were killed in the river and floated down with the stream".: 9  The number of Binjareb people injured remains unknown, as do the number of deaths resulting from injuries sustained during the attack.

The Pinjarra Massacre was the culmination of increasing tension and violence between newly arrived settlers who were appropriating the land for farming and the Noongar peoples who lived on it as hunter-gatherers. After the attack, Governor Stirling was "effectively threatening to kill 80% of the Noongar population of the South West" which is also what the Binjareb wished to inflict on the settlers ("destroy all the whites in their district"), should the Binjareb continue to resist further settlement. Some Binjarreb did continue to fight back, while others sought peace.Although the effects of the attack's outcome were devastating for the Binjareb, allowing "surrounding groups to exploit the weakness of the once powerful Binjareb",: 13  the Bindjareb people today remain custodians and representatives of their culture.: 62–63 

References

  • Pinjarra massacre
  • Swan River Colony
  • Pinjarra, Western Australia

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