Mount Cottrell massacre

On 16 July 1836, between 5 and 35 Wathaurong or Woiworrung Aboriginals were murdered in retaliation for the killing of squatter Charles Franks and his convict shepherd Thomas Flinders.[1][2][3]

Mount Cottrell massacre
Location	Mount Cottrell, Melbourne, Victoria
Coordinates	37°46′08″S 144°38′02″E
Date	16 July 1836 At dawn – (UTC+11:00)
Target	Wathaurong or Woiworrung people (clans unknown)
Attack type	Attack at dawn following observation during previous evening.
Weapons	Assailants: Muskets Defenders: Uncertain
Deaths	Up to 35 Aboriginals
Injured	Unknown
Victims	Tribe of about 80 Aboriginals
Perpetrators	A group of 17 men
Assailants	Henry Batman Mr Guy George Hollins Michael Leonard David Pitcairn Alexander Thomson William Winberry John Wood Aboriginals Benbow, Derrimut, Baitlange (Ben Benger) and Ballyan Sydney Aboriginals Bullett, Stewart and Joe the marine
No. of participants	17 assailants and about 80 victims
Defenders	About 80 Wathaurong or Woiworrung people
Motive	Revenge for killing of Charles Franks and Thomas Flinders
Inquiry	Investigation by Port Phillip Magistrate William Lonsdale sometime after late September 1836
Accused	None
Convicted	None
Verdict	None
Convictions	None
Charges	None
Litigation	None

Charles Franks was allotted a run at Mount Cottrell in the Port Phillip District of New South Wales as a member of the Port Phillip Association. Franks had arrived at Point Gellibrand (modern day Williamstown) on 23 June with 500 sheep and had reached the Mount Cottrell area by 2 July. With his business partner George Smith they pitched their tent close to thick bushland "about eight miles" from the nearest station.

George Smith left the camp to get supplies from the port. Soon after Franks and Flinders were visited by five Aboriginals (two men, two women and a boy).[4]

George Smith later returned to the area finding a ransacked tent and later raising the armed party.[5]

Squatters Armytage and Malcolm discovered the remains of Franks and Flinders near their hut after a period of them being missing.[6] At the time it was believed that the Aboriginals that had been seen around their hut were involved. The squatters believed Aboriginals were to blame as Franks and Flinders were killed with tomahawk blows to the head and their dog was found speared.

The party of 17 men (Henry Batman, Mr Guy, George Hollins, Michael Leonard, David Pitcairn, Alexander Thomson, William Winberry, John Wood and Aboriginals Benbow, Derrimut, Baitlange (Ben Benger) and Ballyan, Sydney Aboriginals Bullett, Stewart and Joe the marine went in search of the perpetrators, armed with muskets.[7] They tracked a tribe of about 80 Aboriginals to Mount Cottrell area and watched them during the evening.[8] At dawn, the party attacked from 91 metres (100 yd) firing on the tribe and the ensuing raid resulted in the death of many tribal Aboriginals.

Some early media reports of the incident stated five Aboriginals were killed, but according to Aboriginal oral history 35 had been killed. Contemporary research suggest ten were killed.[9][3]

The Cornwall Chronicle stated the party put

into effect a preconcerted plan of attack, succeeded in "ANNIHILATING THEM."[10]

Aftermath

Media at the time were divided as the "Colony has to deplore the loss of one of its brightest ornaments".[8] Some championed the revenge:

The barbarous murders of Mr. Franks and his shepherd, have been, in some degree, revenged, which, we trust, will be a warning to the natives, not in future to commit wanton excesses upon our countrymen.[10]

While some were critical of the lawless nature of the killing.[11] The Tasmanian Colonial Times newspaper editorializing:

This will not end here - a tribe swept off from the face of the earth so illegally - so diabolically - will require retributive justice. Good heaven! Is a whole community to be murdered in cold blood for the offence of three? -- this is indeed visiting the sins of the father upon the children. Every human being, save the Port Philip jobbers, will look with horror on such pro-ceedings; and this very act alone ought to destroy the settlement.[12]

Newly appointed Port Phillip Magistrate William Lonsdale landed at Point Gellibrand months later (around late September 1836) to formalise the illegal settlement of Melbourne. After which he undertook an investigation into the incident. Party members were interviewed and admitted firing on the tribe but were unaware if any were wounded.[13]

The event was notable at the time as Charles Franks was the first free settler to be killed (convicts had been killed previously) in frontier violence in new European colony of Port Phillip. The reprisal raid foreshadowed similar conflict that would take place across Victoria's western district.[14]

See also

• List of massacres of Indigenous Australians

Further reading

• Razik, Naveen (11 July 2020). "Victoria to introduce Australia's first truth-telling process to address Indigenous injustices". SBS News, Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
• Thorne, Leonie (11 July 2020). "Victoria to establish truth and justice process as part of Aboriginal treaty process". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 11 July 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2020.

References

1. Pascoe, Bruce, 1947- (2007). Convincing ground : learning to fall in love with your country. Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN 9780855756949. OCLC 671655666.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. "History". Brimbank City Council. 12 November 2019. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 15 May 2020.
3. Litster, Mirani; Wallis, Lynley A. (October 2011). "Looking for the proverbial needle? The archaeology of Australian colonial frontier massacres". Archaeology in Oceania. 46 (3): 105–117. doi:10.1002/j.1834-4453.2011.tb00105.x. ISSN 0728-4896.
4. "Port Philip". Bent's News and Tasmanian Three-penny Register. 1 (31). Tasmania, Australia. 6 August 1836. p. 3. Retrieved 1 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
5. "Shire or Melton heritage study - Mount Cottrell homestead" (PDF). Melton shire council. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
6. "To the Editor of the Sydney Gazette". The Sydney Gazette And New South Wales Advertiser. XXXV (1335). New South Wales, Australia. 27 April 1837. p. 3. Retrieved 29 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
7. "- 'I Succeeded Once': The Aboriginal Protectorate on the Mornington Peninsula,1839–1840 - ANU". press-files.anu.edu.au. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
8. "VAN DIEMEN'S LAND". The Australian. IV (326). New South Wales, Australia. 26 August 1836. p. 2. Retrieved 1 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
9. Evershed, Nick; Ball, Andy; Allam, Lorena; O'Mahony, Ciaran; Nadel, Jeremy; Earl, Carly. "The killing times: a massacre map of Australia's frontier wars". the Guardian. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
10. "PORT PHILIP". The Cornwall Chronicle. 2 (31). Tasmania, Australia. 30 July 1836. p. 2. Retrieved 1 November 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
11. "Colonial Times". Colonial Times. 21 (437). Tasmania, Australia. 9 August 1836. p. 5. Retrieved 29 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
12. "Horrid Murder". Colonial Times. 21 (436). Tasmania, Australia. 2 August 1836. p. 6. Retrieved 30 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
13. "Region's brutal past revealed in University of Newcastle map". Star Weekly. 7 August 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
14. Thomas, Rogers. "The Killing of Charles Franks and the Obliteration of Port Phillip's Convicts". Victorian Historical Journal. 87 – via Victorian Historical Society.