Marking the anniversary of the Myall Creek Massacre - 10 June

On 10 June 1838, at least 28 Wirraraay people were murdered by a group of armed settlers at Myall Creek Station in northern New South Wales.

This event is remarkable not because of the brutality or the scale of the massacre – such acts of violence against Aboriginal peoples were disturbingly common during the period now known as the Frontier Wars.

What makes Myall Creek unique in Australian history is that it was the first – and only – time European settlers were successfully prosecuted for the mass murder of Aboriginal people.

Leading the prosecution team were then NSW Attorney General John Plunkett and Muswellbrook Police Magistrate Edward Denny Day. They persevered with the prosecutions despite fierce opposition in the colony, including from newspapers and powerful landholders. Seven of the eleven perpetrators arrested were tried in the NSW Supreme Court and were eventually convicted and hanged.

Tragically, the massacres did not stop with Myall Creek; historians have documented more than 300 massacres and poisonings of First Nations peoples across Australia between 1788 and 1930.

But as we mark the 186th anniversary of the massacre, all prosecutors should take pride in and inspiration from the courage and integrity shown by Plunkett and Denny Day, who fought for justice for the Aboriginal community in the face of extreme political, media and social pressure.    

The events of Myall Creek are still commemorated each year when thousands of people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, gather at the memorial site near Moree to pay their respects to the dead.

For further information on the Myall Creek Massacre please see the links below:

https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/myall-creek-massacre 

Read

Denny Day: The life and times of Australia’s greatest lawman https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-349183829 

A copy of Murder at Myall Creek, by former Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi KC, is available to borrow from the ODPP Library.

Watch

The new film Myall Creek- Day of Justice https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8211964/ 

Attend

The annual Myall Creek Massacre memorial

https://myallcreek.org/2024/06/01/2024-myall-creek-massacre-memorial-june-commemoration/

Images: ‘Mark Mohell - Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’.