Site NameSwan Valley
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name
Language Group, Nation or PeopleWhadjuk Noongar
Present State/TerritoryWA
Colony/State/Territory at the timeSRC
Police DistrictPerth
Latitude-31.895
Longitude115.958
DateBetween 1 Jan 1829 and 31 Dec 1829
Attack TimeEvening
VictimsAboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
Victim DescriptionsAboriginal
Victims Killed20
Victims Killed Notes20-30
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsSettler(s), Soldier(s)
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
TransportFoot
MotiveReprisal
Weapons UsedMusket(s), Bayonet(s)
NarrativeIn 1914 a local historian, 'C.B' described an increase in conflict in 1831, during which sheep were driven off from the farms of Mr Brown and Mr Bull. 'The opening months of the year 1831 passed without any serious outbreak, but in September and October there was a recrudescence of the depredations. At this period The Most Serious Raid chronicled up to then took place on the stock at the Upper Swan. Nearly 100 sheep were looted from the locations of Messrs. Brown and Bull, and a strong party of natives being detected in the act. The natives were driven off, but not before half of the captured stock had been killed and eaten' (Western Mail, 16 Jan 1914, p 53). C.B. says that no aboriginal people were killed in these reprisals, but earlier sources indicate a massacre or massacres occurred in the aftermath.
Early colonist Captain Charles Fremantle wrote of an incident in the Swan Valley after over 40 of Peter Brown's sheep were taken by local Noongar people in what they clearly considered an act of reciprocity and exchange of food. Local Noongar approached the farm shouting 'Kangaroo, Kangaroo!' suggesting exchange of sheep for the kangaroo the colonists had killed (Fremantle cited in Carter, p 78).
Another account by Jane Dodd provides more detail about the reprisal. Lilian Heal in her book on the colonist Jane Dodds (1788-1844) quotes from a letter written by Dodds which was extracted in The Morning Herald (London), 4 September 1832:
'Tom sends you a kangaroo skin, two spears and one throwing board, the latter the natives never part with but with life. You have, no doubt, heard bad accounts of them, but in almost every instance the settlers have been the aggressors; the one I am about to record you may rely on is true. A party of natives drove off several of Mr Browne's sheep, in sight of the shepherd, calling "Kangaroo, kangaroo", which was a plain way of saying "you have killed our kangaroo, now we must have yours", but the sequel is dreadful to contemplate; they were followed, and the soldiers and others fell in with them about midnight (it was supposed their number exceeded two hundred men, women, and children), seated around several large fires, at which were roasting about ten sheep; the followers all fired into the midst of the thickest groups, killing some, and wounding many; however, the others fled in the greatest confusion, leaving all they possessed behind them, and among the rest the spears in question. In the course of a day or two some of the natives returned, and murdered the shepherd, which created no small sensation in our neighbourhood, but it appears they will have a victim should any of their party fall, and they always aim at the quarter from whence the blow comes upon them, so that the innocent often suffer with the guilty' (Heal, 1998, p 60).
George Fletcher Moore wrote of the sheep raid at Mr Bull's but did not indicate that Aboriginal people were killed: 'Proceeding upwards in a due north course, we passed a fine reach of perhaps a mile and a half in length, having some very rich ground on its banks, which seemed so admirably adapted for a farm, that we gave it the name of "Homestead Reach." A little above this we crossed the river, finding the way almost impracticable for our horses, from the stony nature of the ground. From this, proceeding still due north, we passed a dry rocky broad part of the bed of the river, which was recognised as the spot to which nearly 80 sheep of Mr. Bull's were formerly driven by the natives, and on which many of them were slaughtered' (Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 May 1834, p 4).
In 1833 Baron Von Huegel wrote that the raid of Mr Bull's sheep lead to the killing of Aboriginal people: 'For instance, Mr [Henry] Bull, the settler at the furthest reach of the Swan River, lost a flock of 70 sheep. This attack, however, had grave consequence for the savages. A detachment of troops pursued them as they carried off their booty. They finally drove them into a valley surrounded by cliffs and fired at them at will until they cried out for mercy' (von Hügel, 1994, p 28).
It's unclear whether there was a single massacre after the two raids, or whether the sequence of events was the first raid at Mr Brown's, a first reprisal massacre at a large campsite at Swan Hill, the killing of a shepherd in retaliation, the second raid at Mr Bull's followed by another massacre in a narrow stretch of river at Success Hill.
SourcesWestern Mail, 16 Jan 1914, p 53 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/44881496; Berryman, 2002, p 233; Carter, 2005, pp 78-80; Heal 1988; Blight 2024 https://maryblight.com/2024/02/25/massacres-on-noongar-boodjar-from-1830-onwards/; Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 May 1834, p 4 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2216240; von Hügel, 1994. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating***