The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District area of south west Victoria.[1]
The wars are named after the region around the Eumeralla River between Port Fairy and Portland where some of the worst conflict was located. They were part of the wider Australian frontier wars.
The conflict lasted from the mid 1830s up until the 1860s with the most intense period being between 1834 and 1844. The Aboriginal people mostly employed guerrilla tactics and economic warfare against the livestock and property of the British colonists, occasionally killing a shepherd or settler. The colonists utilised a wider range of strategies, such as killings of individuals and massacres of larger groups of Indigenous people, including women and children, by armed groups of whalers, settlers, station workers, and members of the Border Police and the Native Police Corps.[2] They also used more lawful means such as judicial executions and the rounding up of the local Aboriginal people and placement of them on temporary reserves.[3]
Casualties from the conflict are estimated to be in the thousands with up to 6,500 Aboriginal deaths (based on an estimated pre-contact population of 7,000 declining to just 442), and an approximate 80 deaths of settlers.[4]
The remains of some of the people involved in the conflict are at the Deen Maar Indigenous Protected Area.[5]
^"A forgotten war, a haunted land", Sydney Morning Herald 10 August 2013 accessed 30 March 2014
^Clark, Ian D. Scars in the Landscape: A register of massacre sites in Western Victoria, 1803–1859. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1995.
^Robinson, George Augustus; Clark, Ian D. (1998), The journals of George Augustus Robinson, chief protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate, Heritage Matters, ISBN 978-1-876404-03-1
^"Indigenous beginnings". glenelglibraries.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
^"Deen Maar Indigenous Protected Area", Department of the Environment accessed 30 March 2014
The EumerallaWars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called...
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following list ranks wars and times of war or conflict by their duration, including both historical and ongoing battles. List of wars extended by diplomatic...
1834: 1834 Norfolk Island Convict Rebellion 1834–1849 or 1860s: The EumerallaWars 1834: Battle of Pinjarra 1836: Mount Dispersion massacre 1838: The Waterloo...
at Portland Bay in South-Eastern Australia. It was part of the wider EumerallaWars between the British colonisers and Gunditjmara. Tensions between the...
This is a list of wars, armed conflicts and rebellions involving the Commonwealth of Australia (1901–present) and its predecessor colonies, the colonies...
from the late 1830s, attempts to colonise the Gunditjmara led to the EumerallaWars, which did not conclude until the 1860s. The rocks and uneven land of...
the government provide security. These clashes, later known as the EumerallaWars, formed part of the battle over land use and resources between traditional...
relocated to Lake Condah Mission, although not without resistance, in the EumerallaWars. Damaging floods in 1946 led to the construction of a large drain along...
between 300 and 1,000 Gunai (or Kurnai) people murdered. 1840–1860. The EumerallaWars between European settlers and Gunditjmara people in south west Victoria...
over its 78-kilometre (48 mi) course. The river lends its name to the EumerallaWars, a notable conflict of the 1840s between European settlers and the traditional...
Victoria took place near the Shaw River and the Eumeralla River. That conflict, known as the Eumerallawars, occurred from the 1840s until about 1860. In...
inland. The effects of the colonisation of Victoria, which included the EumerallaWars, along with later government policies leading to the stolen generation...
people which was later to become known as the EumerallaWars. British settlers in the region around the Eumeralla River were in near continuous battles with...
were relocated to the Mission, although not without resistance, in the EumerallaWars. Cooke had good relations with the local Gunditjmara people, which was...
(IPA) located in south-west Victoria, Australia, on land bounded by the Eumeralla River and Bass Strait. The nearest town is Yambuk. In 1842 Deen Maar was...
described by Mr Dawson' (Howitt 1904) "All the land that lay between Eumeralla proper and the sea, a tract of country of some twenty or thirty miles...
such themes include: The Wild Colonial Boy, Click Go The Shears, The Eumeralla Shore, The Drover's Dream, The Queensland Drover, The Dying Stockman and...
the frontier wars between first nations people in South Western Victoria and settlers between 1840–1863. The requiem, "Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace"...
An indeterminate spinosaurid was discovered in the Early Cretaceous Eumeralla Formation, Australia. It is known from a single 4 cm long partial cervical...
streams. In the Aboriginal Taungurung language, the river has several names: Warring, meaning "big or large water"; Bayyango, where Thomas Mitchell noted that...
palaeontologist Ernst Stromer in 1915. The original remains were destroyed in World War II, but additional material came to light in the early 21st century. It is...
Cawrse – Flame and Shadow (text by Sara Teasdale) Deborah Cheetham Eumeralla: a war requiem for peace Gulaga Yekaterina Chemberdzhi – Double Concerto for...
such themes include: The Wild Colonial Boy, Click Go The Shears, The Eumeralla Shore, The Drover's Dream, The Queensland Drover, The Dying Stockman and...
themes include: "The Wild Colonial Boy", "Click Go the Shears", "The Eumeralla Shore", "The Drover's Dream", "The Queensland Drover", "The Dying Stockman"...
Portland and Melbourne, at Bass in 1835. It was only after the end of World War II that serious consideration was given to the development of the port, and...
in further mass fatalities namely at Lake Learmonth, Cape Otway, the Eumeralla area and at Captain Firebrace's Mt Vectis property. The Native Police...
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