Myall Creek massacre
1838 killing of Indigenous Australians in New South Wales / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Myall Creek massacre was the killing of not less than thirty[1] unarmed Indigenous Australians by twelve colonists on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek near the Gwydir River, in northern New South Wales.[2][3] After two trials, seven of the twelve colonists were found guilty of murder and hanged,[3] a verdict which sparked extreme controversy within New South Wales settler society.[4] The leader of the perpetrators, a free settler, John Henry Fleming, evaded arrest and was never tried. Four were never retried following the not guilty verdict of the first trial.[2][5]
Date | 10 June 1838; 185 years ago (10 June 1838) |
---|---|
Location | Myall Creek, New South Wales, Australia |
Outcome |
|
Deaths | 28+ |
Accused | John Henry Fleming and 11 assigned convicts |
Convicted | Charles Kilmeister, James Oates, Edward Foley, John Russell, John Johnstone, William Hawkins, and James Parry |
The prosecutions, the only successful one ever conducted against Australian settlers accused of massacring Aboriginals, have been described more as akin to war crimes trials than a standard murder prosecution.[6] An editorial in one newspaper argued at length that "the murders... are, to a serious extent, chargeable upon us as a nation."[7]