Blood Hole massacre

The Blood Hole massacre occurred in what is now the Australian state of Victoria at Middle Creek, 6 – 7 miles from Glengower Station between Clunes and Newstead at the end of 1839 or early 1840, killing an unknown number of Aborigines from the Grampians district who were on their way home after trading goods for green stone axe blanks that they obtained near what is now Lancefield.

Blood Hole massacre
Date1839 or 1840
Location
Middle Creek, 6 or 7 miles from Glengower Station between Clunes and Newstead
Result European victory, a massacre
Belligerents
Captain Dugald McLachlan and employees Unknown clan, Dja Dja wurrung language
Commanders and leaders
Captain Dugald McLachlan Unknown
Strength
Unknown Unknown
Casualties and losses
None Several, exact number unknown

Captain Dugald McLachlan established Glengower station, sometimes employing the local aborigines from the Dja Dja Wurrung (Jaara people). His employees also gave out flour and sugar rations to aborigines on occasion.

There is speculation that the massacre happened after the station hands found the cook hanging from a meat hook near the kitchen at the end of the day. Later the aborigines who had passed through on their way home were found at Middle Creek, a camping place on the aboriginal trading route from the Grampians to the Greenstone quarry at Mount William near Lancefield.

The aborigines were found at the waterhole on Middle Creek west of Glengower Station. The aborigines sought to hide by diving into the waterhole, where they were shot one at a time as they came up for air.[1][2][3]

References
  1. Aldo Massola, p88, Journey to Aboriginal Victoria, Rigby, 1969 as quoted by Ian D. Clark, pp97, Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803-1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 ISBN 0-85575-281-5
  2. Geoffrey Blainey, pp30, A History of Victoria, Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN 0-521-86977-3
  3. Edgar Morrison, Frontier life in the Loddon Protectorate : episodes from early days, 1837-1842, Daylesford [Vic.], The Advocate, 1967?. No ISBN

Further reading

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