Site Name Victoria Valley
Aboriginal Place Name
Language Group Djabwurrung
Colony PPD
Present State/Territory VIC
Police District Portland
Latitude -37.558
Longitude 142.284
Date Between 12 Aug 1840 and 20 Aug 1840
Attack Time day
Victims Aboriginal People
Victims Killed 23
Victims Killed Notes Killed: M 23 F; Probable: M F; Possible: M F; Wounded: M F
Attackers Colonisers: Settler
Attackers Killed 0
Attackers Killed Notes Killed:M F;Wounded:M F
Transport Horse
Motive Reprisal
Weapons Used Firearms
Narrative On 12 August 1840 Charles Wedge and his brothers shot ten Aborigines near the Grampians. On 28 August 1840, the Aborigines drove off nearly 1,300 sheep in the care of Colin Isaacs. A pursuit party comprising Charles and Henry Wedge, Joseph Read, Thomas Grant, William Marsh and R.W. Knowles recovered the sheep in the Victoria Valley and then killed 13 Aborigines. Assistant Protector Charles Sievwright took depositions which he presented to James Croke the Crown Prosecutor. He formed the opinion that the Aborigines had perpetrated the "outrages" and that the perpetrators had acted in self-defence.
Sources Clark ID 1995: 156-8; Orton 12 January 1841: 1840-2; Garden 1984: 17; VPRS 21. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating ***