Site Name | Galup, Lake Monger |
Aboriginal Place Name | Galup |
Language Group | Whadjuk Noongar |
Present State/Territory | WA |
Colony/State/Territory at the time | SRC |
Police District | Perth |
Latitude | -31.929 |
Longitude | 115.826 |
Date | Between 3 May 1830 and 5 May 1830 |
Attack Time | Day |
Victims | Aboriginal People |
Victim Descriptions | |
Victims Killed | 30 |
Victims Killed Notes | 30-40 |
Attackers | Colonisers |
Attacker Descriptions | Military, Settler(s) |
Attackers Killed | 0 |
Attackers Killed Notes | |
Transport | Foot |
Motive | |
Weapons Used | Musket(s), Bayonet(s) |
Narrative | On the 18 May 1830, the commandant of the Swan River Colony’s 63rd regiment Frederick Irwin, made it clear to his superiors that he had a ‘duty’ to make the local Whadjuk Noongars subservient to British authority (Irwin cited in Carter, 2005, p 67). Two parties of colonists, one lead by Ensign Dale and the other by Irwin tracked down a group of over 40 Noongar people who were considered aggressive. After a twenty minute ‘parley’ an undetermined number of Noongar were killed and wounded (Swan River Papers series 111, Vol. 5, p 120). Another colonist wrote in a letter dated 14 July 1830 ‘The Natives – have been very troublesome in Perth since I wrote and in a skirmish with a strong party, who were evidently determined upon mischief – several of the detachment 63rd Regt were wounded with spears – the report says – (for it was impossible to ascertain the fact) that thirty or forty of the natives were kill’d or wounded (John Morgan, Swan River Papers, Vol. 6, p 73 cited in Carter, 2005, p 69). 'Eventually the blacks were dislodged from their position, when they hurriedly made for a swamp about 2.5 miles north west of the camp [Perth], probably what is now known as Monger's Lake.' |
Sources | Western Mail, March 20, 1914, p 52 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article37967507; 9 January, 1914, p 38 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/44879885/3479435;
‘Letter from W.H. Mackie to Col. Sec. P. Brown SROWA, Cons. 608 1 WA S1243; Irwin, Frederick Chidley, ‘Correspondence 1808-1844’, London Literary Gazette and Journal of the Belles Lettres, p805, ‘Affray at Swan River’; SROWA CSR ACC 36, Vol 6, p 146;
Swan River Papers, HRA Series III Vol. VI, p 73 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3144666http://arrow.latrobe.edu.au:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository; Carter, 2005, pp 67-74. (Sources PDF) |
Corroboration Rating | *** |