The Elliston Massacre

The Elliston Massacre

  The coastal township of Elliston, located some 650 kms from Adelaide, on South Australia's Eyre Peninsula, is a small beach-front town known for whale, sea lion and dolphin spotting on the tranquil waters of Waterloo Bay.
  Elliston also featured one of the largest murals in the southern hemisphere, covering 500 square meters. The mural was painted by local artists and community members.

  The area was first described by Matthew Flinders in his ship log in 1802. The area was further explored in 1840 by Edward Eyre on a journey to Western Australia. The township didn't acquire its name until 1878 when Governor Jervois noted it on a regional map.

  Many Aboriginal mobs called this area home and camped on the outskirts of the small town as they moved between ancient tribal sites. Little did they know they would play such a large part in this communities dark disturbing future... 

  In 1836, colonial settlers made their way onto the Eyre Peninsula to farm the vast fertile plains. Some of the European settlers decided the land in the area we now call Elliston was sufficient for settlement, farming and fishing. So they made plans to start their small community.

  A mob of about two hundred Aboriginal people lived on the outskirts of Elliston. Two young Aboriginal hunters went about the business of bringing food back to the tribe. On their journey, they came across a farm where sheep were being kept. The farmer who owned the property arrived home and took note of the two Aboriginal hunters. The next day, after the usual counting of heads of sheep, the farmer noted four sheep had gone missing. He linked the missing sheep to the two Aboriginal hunters he had seen the day before and reported the missing sheep and the two hunters to the local police.

  Local police troopers descended upon the camp of the closest Aboriginal mob and began asking who stole the sheep from the farmer the day before. The Elders replied that no one had taken any sheep. The policeman was suspicious and asked; “Who went out hunting yesterday?”
  The mob named the two men, knowing they had done no wrong, and told the police trooper they came back with a wombat and a kangaroo. The officer suspected the Aboriginal elders were protecting their hunters by lying about the sheep. He arrested the two hunters, who spoke no English and locked them in the gaol.

  Weeks later a judge was sent from Adelaide for the trial of the two hunters, which was held in a large barn in Elliston. The Aboriginal hunter's mob stood outside in the dark, watching through holes in the walls and through tiny windows, listening as their hunters were accused.
  The hunters, who spoke no English, professed their innocence in their native tongue. The hunters told the judge they hunted wombat and kangaroo, but the judge couldn’t understand them and said, “Hang them! Give them an example. Show them what will happen if they steal again!”

  The townsfolk took the two Aboriginal hunters and hung them that night in the centre of town. The two bodies were left swaying all the next day as a warning to the Aboriginal people. The Mob wept and mourned their lost family members and the next night cut them down and took them away to bury them in their own custom. While some of the tribe cut the young men down, others sneaked through the town to the building where the Judge was sleeping, they coaxed him from his slumber with a "whoobu-whoobie" ( An Aboriginal device that can sound like a horse neighing, or a dog growling) and knocked him unconscious.
They then hung the white judge from the very spot he had hung the Aboriginal hunters.

   The next morning, when the townsfolk found the judge hanging, they banded together and formed a posse. The local police trooper rounded up horsemen from farms and told the local farmers of the Judge's murder.
   The posse rode to the Aboriginal camp and herded the tribe, men, women, and children, together, any that tried to escape were shot, whipped or beaten with sticks. The posse herded the tribe to the local cliffs and forced them off the side to their deaths.

   Only four Aboriginals from the tribe survived the brutal justice of the townsfolk. Three teenagers, one girl, two boys and a baby. The baby survived by its mother taking the full impact of the fall. The teenagers that survived lay quiet and still, waiting for some time as the white men at the top of the cliff looked for survivors to kill. Eventually, the posse moved on and the children made their escape down the beach towards Streaky Bay.

  The news of the massacre spread swiftly among the Indigenous mobs and they began to flee the area towards Talewan, and the Gawler Ranges, not wanting to suffer a similar fate at the hands of the merciless white folk of Elliston.

   History repeats, and within ten years, the townsfolk of Elliston, repeated their horrible massacre of more local Aboriginal tribes near the local "sweep holes", for very similar reasons to the first massacre. After the second massacre, it is believed that no Aboriginal people have ever lived in Elliston.

It was well documented that when a farmer killed his sheep in the town, the Aboriginal mobs would collect the guts and whatever was left and use it for their own purposes if there was no food from their own local resources.
The only evidence the Police had against the two hunters were tracks in the scrub.
It wasn't until many years later that the Aboriginal men were proven to be innocent, two white men admitted to stealing the sheep to start their own farm in a nearby town. The two Aboriginal men were hung for no reason, and a whole innocent tribe was killed for the death of one man, who had not given a fair trial to a fellow human being.

Local legends persist, and amongst Mobs in the area, the place is considered cursed. It is said that amongst the cliffs where the Aboriginal Mob fell to their deaths, at times, their voices, screams and cries can be heard. Reports of phantoms have also been made near the cliffs and near the sweep holes.

References:

Iris Burgoyne: The Mirning - We are the whales - published by Magabala books 

Black armband Blogspot 

Wikipedia 

Elliston Community Website 

Across the bar to Waterloo bay: Elliston 1878 - 1978. - Compiled by the Elliston book committee 

A special Thank you to Andrew Brown who reminded me of this story!

Original story was written Dec 6. 2011

Edited 31/1/2012: © 2013 -Allen Tiller

www.eidolonparanormal.com.au

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The Maria Massacre - 25 July 1840

The Maria Massacre - 25 July 1840

  Maria, a 136-ton sailing ship left Port Adelaide headed towards Hobart, Tasmania on the 20th of June 1840, when it was blown off course and floundered at Cape Jaffa on a reef. (near Kingston SE, South Australia)
Maria's passengers and crew consisted of the following 25 people:

Captain William Smith and his Wife.

Samuel Denham and Mrs Denham and their five children (Thomas, Andrew, Walter, Fanny and Anna).

Mrs York (sister of Mr. Denham), who had recently been widowed and her infant.

James Strutt who had been hired as Mrs Denham's servant.

George Young Green and Mrs Green.

Thomas Daniel and Mrs Daniel.

Mr. Murray

The ship's mate and crew:

John Tegg

John Griffiths

John Deggan

James Biggins

John Cowley

Thomas Rea,

George Leigh

James Parsons.

  When the Maria hit the reef, the passengers and crew made their way ashore with the goal of making their way, by foot to Encounter Bay to seek help aide for the now-abandoned ship.
  The party came across local indigenous people and asked them to lead the party to safety. Along the way, a path heading inland was discovered, and it is believed the party split in two at this point, with the Captain making his way inland, and some of the crew and passengers choosing to follow the shoreline back to Encounter Bay.

Somewhere along the shoreline, some of the travelling party decided they would prefer to re-join the Captain, and left the walking party to find the Captains inland party. Now there were three groups of settlers trying to make their way back to Encounter Bay.
Not one of the passengers or crew members of the Maria, was ever seen alive again.

Eventually, someone happened upon two bodies, both of which had weddings rings used to identify who they were.
Soon rumours began to emerge of an alleged massacre by Aboriginal people of the passengers and crew of the Maria.

 More bodies were discovered in different areas in close proximity to the Maria wreckage. Also, the Maria's logbook and some of the passenger and crews clothing were found amongst local indigenous people.
As the rumours grew into a crescendo of upset with settlers in the colony, Governor Gawler, South Australia's second Governor, ordered Major Thomas O'Halloran to head south and investigate the situation, and to uphold the law in the region.

  O'Halloran left Goolwa with the mounted troop on the 22nd of August 1840, headed toward cape Jaffa, whilst a small boat set sail to search the coastline.
 On 23 August, the force ran into a number of Aborigines and rounded up 13 men, 2 boys and 50 women and children. They shackled the men and set the others free, though they voluntarily remained nearby their men.
  Two of the terrified Aboriginal men tried to escape their capture by swimming out to sea but were shot and wounded by O'Halloran's men. A man named Roach, who had two years prior been arrested in the area by O'Halloran, led the mounted troop to a wurley where blood-stained clothing, passengers belongings, and the Maria's logbook had been stored.
  O'Halloran followed Governors Gawler's instructions to the letter, and at 3pm on the 25th of August, hung the two men who had tried to escape earlier.
Governor Gawler's instructions to O'Halloran were very clear:

"...when to your conviction you have identified any number, not exceeding three, of the actual murderers...you will there explain to the blacks the nature of your conduct ...and you will deliberately and formally cause sentence of death to be executed by shooting or hanging"

  The hangings caused quite the stir in Adelaide, and in London. The press had a field day with accusations of murder, corruption and miscarriages of Justice. “The Aborigines Protection Society” argued that South Australian law could not be used in this case as the Aboriginal's of the area had not pledged allegiance to the Crown.

The case was brought into the public eye on the 10^th of April 1841 when Mr Richard Penny was guided by members of the Tonkinya peoples to the grave of a white man who had died at sea. It was thought the body would be that of Captain Collet Barker, who was speared to death in the region in April 1831. However, Penny would find four of the five bodies still unaccounted for from the Maria wreck.

The bodies were in a bad state, and it was clear that they had been beaten to death. The Tonkinya people then went on to tell Penny how the killings had happened.

Major O'Halloran's expedition to the
Coorong, August 1840

It seemed the Sailors and passengers had promised blankets and other goods for safe passage back to Encounter Bay, they had promised to return with the goods. The Aboriginal mob was unhappy with this arrangement and wanted something now that they could use. The sailing party refused, and a fight broke out, of which the white men lost.

Maria's hull was never found, it is thought she broke up on the reef. However, her cannon was found and would later become a garden ornament at Victor Harbor's Adare Castle, fired every New Years Eve as a family tradition!