Site NameYork (2)
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name
Language Group, Nation or PeopleWhadjuk, Ballardong
Present State/TerritoryWA
Colony/State/Territory at the timeWA
Police District
Latitude-31.886
Longitude116.786
DateBetween 1 Jun 1837 and 16 Nov 1837
Attack Time
VictimsAboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
Victim DescriptionsAboriginal
Victims Killed18
Victims Killed Notes
AttackersColonists
Attacker Descriptions
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
Transport
MotiveReprisal
Weapons UsedFirearm(s)
NarrativeAfter the southwest Pinjarra massacre of October 1834 sites of conflict shifted northeast into Whadjuk and Ballardong Aboriginal Noongar country around Northam and York. From 1836 through 1837 tensions escalated with many reprisal killings between Aboriginal people and colonists.
In 1836, the Sydney Herald reported 'by late arrival' that 'The natives in the York district had committed several outrages, and two were shot. Additional military aid, under the charge of Lieutenant Bunbury, was despatched to the settlement' (Sydney Herald, 13 Oct, 1836).
Lieut. Bunbury wrote, in a published letter dated, 10 July 1836 'A few days after my return I was ordered over here [York] with a detachment to make war upon the Natives, who have been very troublesome lately, robbing farms and committing other depredations, even attempting to spear White people. ...I hope, however, it will not last very long as the Natives seem inclined to be quiet since I shot a few of them one night. I have no doubt, however, that ere long they will revenge the death of those we shot by spearing some White men when they can meet them alone and unarmed' (Bunbury, 1930, p 27)
In June 1837 a group speared and killed Isaac Green, a soldier (Perth Gazette, July 22, 1837, p 941).
A letter to the Swan River Guardian alluded to this being a retaliation for attacks on Aboriginal men and women, 'If the Natives have committed it wantonly, they ought to be severely punished. If on the other hand, their wives have been shot at in cool blood, and many of the males killed in a vindictive manner, then, the Natives have only obeyed one of their immutable Laws, which demands blood for blood' (Swan River Guardian, 1 Jun 1837, p 128).
On 8 July 1837 Edward Jones and Peter Chidlow were working on a property called Katrine when a large group of up to 40 Ballardong Noongar, incensed by the arrest of some of their countrymen for stealing, approached them demanding flour and bread. A fight broke out and both Jones and Chidlow were speared to death (nine and seven spears respectively) in an event creating months of payback conflict (Perth Gazette, 22 July, 1837 p 941).
These killings prompted calls from colonists for reprisals: 'To the Government Resident of York, D. MacLeod, Esq., and Lieutenants Bunbury and Mortimer, of H.M.'s 21st Regt., the difficult task of conciliating or coercing the natives has been confided... The barbarous murder of Jones and Chidlow has called for a severe and well-merited chastisement; the lives of three natives have fallen a sacrifice ... we therefore unhesitatingly, in common with the majority of our fellow colonists, give our full approbation of the proceedings of the government, being strongly impressed with the conviction, that nothing short of a bold and daring display of our superiority of which the distant tribes hold some doubt, construing our acts of kindness into timidity or imbecility will effectually eradicate from the mind of the savage, the impression that we may be plundered and murdered with impunity' (Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 29 Jul 1837, p 944). This article also lists the names of Aboriginal people accused of murder and livestock stealing livestock.
On 20 July 1837 a writer in the Swan River Guardian commented, 'Some parties advocate an indiscriminate slaughter of the Blacks, in the York district, others transportation of the Natives, from the Main Land, to one of the neighbouring Islands...Unnecessary cruelty ought not to be inflicted, but the deaths of Chidlow and Jones must be avenged, and we say that ample justice ought to be dealt against their Murderers in the first place, as a terror to their assistants or abettors, and in the next place let us enquire what salutary measures can be adopted to civilize the Natives, and make them acquainted with our Laws, our Religious, Civil and Military Institutions, and their own rights as British Subjects. A general Massacre would be offensive to the Laws of God, as well as those of Man, because the innocent might then be sacrificed to atone for the crimes of the guilty... The Murder of Chidlow and Jones calls aloud for vengeance, but Justice should be tempered with mercy, indiscriminate slaughter of inoffending Tribes can never be palliated' (Swan River Guardian, July 20, 1837 pp 205-206).
Another article warned, '... for so long as the British Government withhold protection and assistance from this Colony, a continual warfare will exist between the whites and blacks' and 'let us never forget that a general warfare must end in an utter extermination of one or other of the contending powers...' (Swan River Guardian, 20 July, 1837).
In November 1837 Reverend Louis Giustiniani wrote a series of letters to the Swan River Guardian saying in one that 'The huts of the Natives have been wantonly fired into during the night by Mr McLeod, and his assistants and the Kangaroo Cloaks of the poor creatures tossed into the fire' (Swan River Guardian, 16 November, 1837, p 248), and elsewhere that, 'The death of Jones and Chidlow has required eighteen innocent victims, (that is the complaint of the Aboriginal British Subjects). They have been immolated to the vengeance of a party in the most cruel manner. Every Soldier had received a carte blanc from Lieutenant Bunbury and Mr Mc Leod, to shoot the Natives in all directions, and they have been faithful to their mission; but none of those victims had been previously tried, nor even the least evidence brought against them, before the deadly weapon of the armed European prostrated them to the ground. Barbarities of the middle age have been committed even by boys and Servants, who shot the unarmed woman, the unoffensive child, and the men who kindly showed it them the road in the bush; the ears of the corpses have been cut off, and hung up in the kitchen of a gentleman, as a signal of triumph!' (Swan River Guardian, 16 November, 1837, p 249).
Violence continued after this massacre. In May 1839 Sarah Cook and her infant child were killed at York by Nyungar people and there were attacks on Aboriginal groups subsequently (Green 1984 p 214). An attack by a posse in June 1839 reportedly resulted in one dead and two wounded and there was an attack on the York Encampment in July 1839 by a posse in which three were reported as wounded (Green 1984, p 214). Green cites 'C. S. O. 1839, Bland, 26 August' for the first and 'C. S. O. 1839, 74 Bland, 31 July' for the second. The link between the killings of Sarah Cook and her child and the June-July attacks, and the ideas that the attacks were on Ballardong people, and were organised by Lieutenant Mcleod, Government Resident at York, come from Mary Blight (Blight 2024) rather than from Green. Green, however, does say that McLeod was responsible for 'a new wave of violence' at York when he ignored an existing truce between the Nyungar and the colonist Heal (Green 1984 pp 122-3).
SourcesSydney Herald, 13 Oct, 1836 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12862021; Perth Gazette, July 22, 1837, p 941 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/639907; Swan River Guardian, July 20, 1837, pp 205-206 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214041794, November 16, 1837, p 249 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article214041771; Bunbury, 1930, p 27 https://library.dbca.wa.gov.au/static/FullTextFiles/628354.pdf; Borowitzka, 2011 p 367; Lieut Bunbury Odds and Ends book, Battye Library, MN 2575, Papers of the H.W. (Henry William) Bunbury, ACC 327A, 6895A, 7146A https://purl.slwa.wa.gov.au/slwa_b1845344_1; The Swan River Guardian, November 16, 1837, p 248 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/23543294; The Swan River Guardian November 16, 1837, p 249 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/23543295; The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal July 29, 1837, p 944 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/639896/1010; H.W. Bunbury, 1834-37 in Cameron and Barnes, 2014; Blight 2024 https://maryblight.com/2024/02/25/massacres-on-noongar-boodjar-from-1830-onwards/; Green 1984 (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating**