Convincing Ground Massacre | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Whalers | Kilcarer gundidj clan, Dhauwurd wurrung language | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown |
When Portland, Victoria was established as a whaling station in 1829, there was tension between the local Indigenous Australian tribe, the Kilcarer gundidj clan of the Gunditjmara people and the whalers. In 1833 or 1834 this tension turned into a full fledged conflict in a dispute over a beached whale.[1] The Convincing Ground is located in Portland Bay southwest of Melbourne, near the coastal town of Portland in the Shire of Glenelg and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.[2] Professor Lynette Russell from Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash University said "The Convincing Ground is probably the first recorded massacre site for Victoria."[3]
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The dispute appears to have arisen over the ownership of a beached whale.[1]
While reports are varied on casualties, it is clear that the Gunditjmara were determined to assert their right to the whale as traditional food and when challenged by the whalers, were aggressive in return.
According to Edward Henty and Police Magistrate James Blair in conversation with George Augustus Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines in 1841, the whalers withdrew to their sheds only to return with their firearms. Robinson's journal entry says "And the whalers then let fly, to use his expression, right and left upon the natives. He said the natives did not go away but got behind trees and threw spears and stones. They, however, did not much molest them after that." No mention was made in the conversation as to casualties. Later reports arising from a meeting in 1842 that Robinson had with Gunditjmara people stated only two members survived the massacre.[4]
Reports vary between 60 and 200 Aborigines killed, including women and children.[1]
The reason for this uncertainty over casualties and the actual date of the massacre appears to stem from the fact that the incident was only reported and documented several years after its occurrence. The earliest documented mention of the Convincing Ground locality is in an entry of Edward Henty's diary dated 18 October 1835.[4]
George Augustus Robinson visited the site of the massacre in 1841 and talked with local squatters and made the following official report (although he made more extensive notes in his journal):
Robinson was only briefed by Aborigines on the massacre when 30 men and women from various clans of the Gunditjmara people met with him on 23 March 1842 at Campbell's station on the Merri River and told him that all but two men of the Kilcarer gundidj clan were slain in the massacre. The two survivors were called Pollikeunnuc and Yarereryarerer and were adopted by the Cart Gundidj clan of Mount Clay. The Cart Gundidj would not allow any member of the clan to go near the settlement of Portland following the massacre, although in May 1842 Cart Gundidj resistance leader Partpoaermin was captured at the Convincing Ground after a violent struggle.[4]
Also conflicting with Robinsons account is a letter dated 1841 from Police Magistrate Blair To Governor Latrobe [1]:
C. J. La Trobe Esqr. &c &c Melbourne [Annotation: attached] 2 10 June. am. A messenger has just arrived from the Convincing Ground with the intelligence that upwards of 200 Blacks have assembled there & the whalers are in consequence obliged to remain on shore, being in momentary expec- of an attack on their huts. This being the same site of the alleged massacre and upon the supposed sacred ground.
Historian Richard Broome estimated that about 60 were killed at the Convincing Ground massacre.[5] Bruce Pascoe, in his book published in 2007 titled Convincing Ground - Learning to Fall in love with your country, said:
There has also been debate over the origin of the term, Convincing Ground, with three different European based accounts:
Henty's diary entry referring to the Convincing Ground by name in October 1835 precedes the visit of Mitchell so logically invalidates this account. Clark believes the account by Henty and Blair as told to Robinson is the most likely source of origin.[4]
A fourth account - the oral tradition and reports by the Gunditjmara - was that a massacre took place almost wiping out an entire clan to "convince them" of white rights to the land."[6]
Professor Clark told Message Stick documentary in 2007:
Some historians such as Keith Windschuttle and Michael Connor contest that a massacre even occurred and accuse Aborigines of "exaggerating the case for political bloody-mindedness"[9] and allege the story of the massacre is "myth-making" and "very dubious".[10] According to Michael Connor, historian Damien Cash offered the following dissenting opinion on the documentary evidence considered at a hearing of the three person committee for the Victorian Heritage Council:
In 2005 a developer was granted the right to build homes on the site. This caused a dispute between the Western Victoria's Glenelg Shire Council and the local Koori community on whether or not the location should be protected.[1]
Kilcarer clan traditional owner Walter Saunders, a descendant of one of the two massacre survivors, explained the cultural importance of the site on ABC radio:
As a result of a confidential agreement in 2007, some development would occur but the Convincing Ground would become a public reservation.[13]