Site NameEight Mile Well, Bridgetown
Aboriginal Place NameGeegelup
Language GroupKaniyang / Wardandi
Present State/TerritoryWA
Colony/State/Territory at the timeWA
Police DistrictBridgetown
Latitude-33.57
Longitude116.08
DateBetween 1 Jan 1860 and 31 Dec 1860
Attack Time
VictimsAboriginal People
Victim DescriptionsAboriginal
Victims Killed20
Victims Killed Notes
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsSettler(s)
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
TransportHorse
MotiveDispersal
Weapons UsedBreech Loading Rifle(s)
NarrativeEight Mile Well in the shire of Bridgetown is a registered site with the State Government of Western Australia’s Heritage Council (Aboriginal Sites and Events, Bridgetown Historical Society Heritage Council of Western Australia). The site is thought to have originally been used as a traditional watering hole by the local Aboriginal Noongar Kaniyang people. In the 1860s conflict was created over access to the waterhole between the traditional owners and the British settlers. The Heritage Council (HC) and others suggest a massacre took place prior to any police being stationed in Bridgetown and was carried out by a group of colonists. The HC write ‘The survivors of the attack were reported to have relocated to Three Acre Pool on the Blackwood River above Bridgetown. They subsequently caught chicken pox and in an attempt to cool their fever, they bathed in the Blackwood River, which in turn gave them pneumonia that eventually killed them’ (Citing Hadley, P, 1995).
SourcesBrad Goode & Associates, 2011; Hadley, Heritage Council of Western Australia http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Public/Inventory/Details/87a012e8-522e-47ad-b4a6-bc7a3dc03184 (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating*