| Narrative | According to an account in The Mount Alexander Mail, 3 November 1885, after visiting an outstation and finding the murdered bodies of a shepherd and a watchman and 1200 wethers gone in 1838, overseer John Coppock collected 19 men, supplied them with plenty of ammunition and went in search of the Aboriginal group who were camped in a deep gully in the region now known as Waterloo Plains. Coppock decided that "there was nothing now but to give the blacks a lesson they would not forget. He divided his men into 4 parties of 5 each, and arranged that a given signal the work of slaughter would commence, which was accordingly done, with the result that 23 blacks were left dead on the field." Two years after the massacre, Aboriginal Protector GA Robinson crossed the Coliban River near Munro's station and came to an old deserted hut and found the massacre site at the back of the hut, on a small hill. He wrote: "It is said that when the men came up with the blacks, the blacks called to them to come, they would fight them. There were, I believe, sixteen white men all armed and for the most part mounted. They fired from their horses; the blacks were down in the hole. They [the white men] were out of distance of spears. One old man kept supplying them with spears and was soon shot. Great many were shot. Some other blacks held up pieces of bark to keep off the balls but it was no use. Some were shot with their bark in their hands." According to a sworn statement by Coppock, there were only 8 stockmen in the party and that a pitched battle took place, in which seven or eight Aborigines were shot dead, the sheep being recovered the next day. On January 25, 1840, Robinson was at Munro's station and asked one of his employees if he was present at the Waterloo Plains massacre. The men replied, "What if I was, do you think I should be such a fool to tell you, to be hung?" Coppock was called to Sydney to confirm his report but the ship on which he was believed to be a passenger, disappeared and Coppock was reported missing. Ten years later he reappeared at Lake Albacutya, Wimmera District, and gave details of the massacre to his nephew who published the account in the Mount Alexander Mail, 20 years after Coppock's death. |
