| Site Name | Murderers Flat, Darlot's Creek, Lake Condah Mission |
| Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | |
| Language Group, Nation or People | Dhauwurd wurrung |
| Present State/Territory | VIC |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | VIC |
| Police District | Portland |
| Latitude | -38.072 |
| Longitude | 141.795 |
| Date | Between 1 Jan 1850 and 12 Jan 1860 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 6 |
| Victims Killed Notes | |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Settler(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Opportunity |
| Weapons Used | Firearm(s) |
| Narrative | The massacre at Murderers Flat near Lake Condah Mission is recorded in the oral history of Gunditjmara people (Hope, 2021).
Reconstructing from oral records, Clark believes the incident happened in the early 1850s at a site 'known to the Kerup gundidj (more commonly known as the Kerreupjmara) as Murderers Flat,' or Darlot's Creek, Lake Condah Mission (Clark, 1995, p 52). Aboriginal woman Rose Donker nee Lovett (Donker, 1985, p 18, cited in Clark, 1995, p 52) has recounted what she knows of the massacre: '"My grandmother was Hannah MacDonald [later Lovett]. When she was small she walked with her brother Alfred and her mother from Macarthur to Condah Swamp. My grandmother was carried on her mother's back. They were looking for some place to live. They came to the Condah Swamp and there they found other Aboriginal people and families living there. There was a massacre there and they hid with their mother in the reeds until the fighting was over and then they headed off looking for somewhere safe. We were always told that Murderers Flat was where the fighting was. They were taken in and lived on the Condah Mission. I then understood they lived there as children, then as time went on they grew up there"' (Donker, 1985, p 18 cited in Clark, 1995, p 52). According to Clark, 'In Jo Sharrock's reminiscences of Lake Condah (see Savill, 1976, cited in Clark, 1995, p 52), he refers to "Harelip" Johnny Dutton, who claimed to have been one of the few survivors of the "Murdering Waterhole Massacre" as a small boy. He hid in the water among the reeds' (Savill, 1976 cited in Clark, 1995, p 52). As both accounts refer to hiding in the reeds in the same area, they most likely are two accounts of the same incident (Clark, 1995, p 52).
The date of this massacre is difficult to estimate from oral history. Accepting that Hannah McDonald and her brother were children when they witnessed the massacre with their mother, Clark notes estimates of the date this occurred vary from 1842 to 1875 (Clark, 1995 p 52). Clark calculates dates between 1849 and 1854 based on Hannah McDonald's age of 91 at death in 1940 (Clark, 1995, p54). Connor, on the other hand, notes that she died in 1946 and estimates Hannah McDonald was born either in 1855 or, based on marriage certificates, in 1859 and her brother in 1860 (Connor, 2021). If she were 5 at the time of the massacre, and she was 91 when she died in 1946 (Portland Guardian Aug 22, 1946, p 4), the massacre would have occurred in 1860. No birth certificate for Hannah McDonald is available so her age is not certain. As this is a late date for a massacre in this region, 1860 or earlier is most likely. |
| Sources | Hope, 2021 https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/a-moment-of-truth-how-hearing-our-first-nations-can-change-this-state-20210310-p579ky.html; Clark ID, 1995, p 52; Connor, 2021; Portland Guardian Aug 22, 1946, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/64408722 (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | * |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
