On ThisDay Sunday, 10 June 1838, twenty-eight Aborigines are massacred by vengeful stockmen at Myall Creek.
On ThisDay Sunday, 10 June 1838, twenty-eight Aborigines are massacred by vengeful stockmen at Myall Creek. Australian history is dotted with instances where Aborigines have been massacred, but their deaths have gone unrecorded. The Myall Creek massacre stands alone as one in which there was some attempt to bring the white perpetrators to justice. On 10 June 1838, a gang of stockmen, heavily armed, rounded up between 40 and 50 Aboriginal women, children and elderly men of the Wirrayaraay people at Myall Creek Station, near Bingara, not far from Inverell in New South Wales. 28 Aborigines were murdered. It was believed that the massacre was payback for the killing of several colonists in the area, yet most of those massacred were women and children. At a trial held on 15 November 1838, twelve Europeans were charged with murder but acquitted. Another trial was held on November 26, during which the twelve men were charged with the murder of just one Aboriginal child. They were found g...