Pinjarra Massacre Memorial

WEST AUSTRALIANA Aboriginal

17 p : col. ill., maps  #190524

The Battle of Pinjarra, which occurred in 1834, is one of the most notorious massacres of Aborigines in Australian history. Captain James Stirling, Governor of the Colony of Western Australia, responded to continuing requests for military protection from a small group of settlers on the Murray River.

The new settlement at Pinjarra lay some 80 kilometres south of the Swan River settlement. Stirling formed a party of about twenty-five that was a mixture of police, soldiers and a few settlers. Their plan was to punish any Aborigines in the local area in order to drive home the message that the settlers and their cattle must not be attacked or speared. One account of the massacre explained the rationale for the attack as simply that the moment was considered favourable for punishing the perpetrators of such acts.

The party came across a group of seventy Aborigines. The Aborigines, sensing trouble, fled into the bush. Stirling divided the party and attempted to encircle the fleeing group. They caught them at a river crossing and when the Aborigines showed signs of retaliation, Stirling and his men opened fire. No one knows how many people were killed. Estimates vary from fourteen to thirty.

• Art — Study and teaching — Western Australia
• Art, Australian — 21st century — Exhibitions — Study and teaching — Western Australia
• Massacres — Western Australia — Pinjarra — Exhibitions
• Race relations – Violent – Massacres, murders, poisonings etc. – To 1900
• Religion – Totemism
• Noongar / Nyungar / Nyungah people (W41) (WA SI50)
• Education – Teaching – Materials
• Art – Exhibitions
• History – Battles – Pinjarra