On 3 May 1804, a large number of Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed and wounded by colonists and soldiers of the New South Wales Corps stationed at the fledgling British settlement of Risdon Cove, Van Diemen's Land.[1] Although some details of the massacre have been debated,[2] eyewitness evidence indicated that at least three Aboriginal corpses were accounted for when "a great many were slaughtered and wounded" by the approximately 75 British soldiers and colonists.[3][2][4]
Events
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In early May 1804, around 300 Aboriginal people from either the Oyster Bay (Paredarerme)[5] or Big River nation gathered near the recently established British outpost at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River. These men, women and children, approached the settlement whilst occupied on a kangaroo hunt.[5] Although some were upset by the presence of the colonists, there had been no widespread aggression. The colonists and a detachment of soldiers from the New South Wales Corps stationed at the settlement mistakenly thought they were being attacked and under the orders of Lieutenant William Moore, the commanding officer at the time, launched three sorties against the native people.[6]
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Lieutenant Moore, who together with his soldiers were possibly drunk,[7] was wary of being able to protect the small outpost from such a large group of people whose land they were occupying, especially as both the commandant of Risdon Cove, Lieutenant John Bowen, and the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land, David Collins, were absent from the outpost at the time.[1]
The massacre of the gathered Aboriginal people began at 11 o'clock in the morning of 3 May 1804 and the final shot, a blast from a carronade, was heard in the neighbouring settlement of Hobart three hours later. The soldiers and the colonists were armed with Brown Bess muskets, which could be reloaded and fired once every 20 seconds and be used in close-quarters fighting as a club.[1]
In addition to the firearms, the soldiers were ordered to fire grape shot from a 12-pounder carronade (a short-barrel, heavy calibre naval cannon known to sailors as "the smasher") to disperse the Indigenous people.[8][5] The clergyman Robert Knopwood heard "roar of the cannon at Risdon at 2 p.m". The 12-pounder carronade involved was one of two ordered to be salvaged from the ship HMS Investigator, by Governor Philip Gidley King and given to Lieutenant Bowen.[9]
Aftermath
edit"There were a great many of the Natives slaughtered and wounded", according to Edward White, an eyewitness to the event.[10] Claiming to be the first to see the approaching Aborigines, he also said that "the natives did not threaten me; I was not afraid of them; (they) did not attack the soldiers; they would not have molested them; they had no spears with them; only waddies".[2][7]
None of the colonists or soldiers were harmed during the massacre, while three Aboriginal Tasmanian bodies were recovered from the scene. The colonists "had reason to suppose more were wounded, as one was seen to be taken away bleeding".[4][1] Reverend Knopwood was of the opinion that at least five or six had been killed.[11]
It is also known that an infant boy about 2–3 years old whose parents had been killed in the slaughter was taken by Jacob Mountgarrett, the colony's surgeon. The boy was brought into British colonial society and given the name Robert Hobart May.[12]
Mountgarrett also obtained the corpse of one of the deceased Indigenous men and dissected it. The skull and bones of this man were shipped to Sydney in two casks.[13]
Five days after the massacre, the Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land, David Collins, ordered the closure of the Risdon Cove settlement. While he moved the settlers to Hobart, Collins ordered the outpost's soldiers to be sent back to Sydney citing their lack of discipline as being troublesome for the colony.[1]
Lieutenant William Moore was acquitted of any wrong doing in a court martial in September 1804. In 1809, he was promoted to the rank of captain in the 102nd Regiment.[14]
In a 2022 publication, Truth-Telling at Risdon Cove, the authors claimed that Edward White, who gave important eye-witness testimony, was not actually present at the massacre. The substance of the book has been described as being easily dismissed and the authors' claims have since been rejected.[15][16]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e Boyce, James (2008). Van Diemen's Land. Collingwood: Black Inc. ISBN 9781760644819.
- ^ a b c Tardif, Phillip (6 April 2003). "So who's fabricating the history of Aborigines?". The Age (online ed.).
- ^ "Massacre at Risdon Cove? An Australian history Mystery" (PDF). National Museum of Australia. 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
- ^ a b Refshauge, W. F. (June 2007). "An analytical approach to the events at Risdon Cove on 3 May 1804". Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society. 93 (1).
- ^ a b c Edmonds, Penelope (29 February 2016). "'Our history is not the last word': Sorry Day at Risdon Cove and 'Black Line' Survival Ceremony, Tasmania". Settler Colonialism and (Re)conciliation. Frontier Violence, Affective Performances, and Imaginative Refoundings. 2635-1633 (1st ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 126. doi:10.1057/9781137304544. ISBN 978-1-137-30453-7.
- ^ Wentworth, W. C. (1819), A statistical, historical, and political description of the colony of New South Wales and its dependent settlements in Van Diemen's Land : with a particular enumeration of the advantages which these colonies offer for emigration, and their superiority in many respects over those possessed by the United States of America, Cambridge Library Collection - History of Oceania, London: G. and W.B. Whittaker, pp. 116–117, doi:10.1017/CBO9781139109055, ISBN 9781139109055, retrieved 31 May 2024 – via Cambridge University Press
{{citation}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) - ^ a b Bonwick, James (1870). The Last of the Tasmanians; or, The Black War of Van Diemen's Land. London: Low.
- ^ Watson, Frederick; Chapman, Peter; Australia. Parliament. Library Committee (1925), Historical records of Australia / [edited by Frederick Watson], III, vol. 1, Library Committee of the Commonwealth Parliament, pp. 237–238, retrieved 14 April 2024 – via National Library of Australia
- ^ Maynard, John (2008). "The Shark, Remora and Aboriginal History" (PDF). International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies. 1 (1): 45–51. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
- ^ Arthur, Sir George; Great Britain. Colonial Office; Tasmanian Historical Research Association (1971), Van Diemen's Land : copies of all correspondence between Lieutenant-Governor Arthur and His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, on the subject of the military operations lately carried on against the Aboriginal inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land / With an historical introduction by A.G.L. Shaw, vol. 19, Hobart: Tasmanian Historical Research Association, p. 53, ISBN 0909479003, retrieved 14 April 2024 – via National Library of Australia
- ^ Pybus, Cassandra (1 August 2024). "Joseph Banks and the stolen skulls". Inside Story. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
- ^ "Natives". The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser. 2 September 1804. p. 2.
- ^ Pybus, Cassandra (2024). A Very Secret Trade. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781761066344.
- ^ "Colonial Secretary Index, 1788-1825". State Records of NSW. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
- ^ Ward, Malcolm (2022). "Book reviews". THRA. 69 (2): 76–77.
- ^ "Risdon Cove". Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930. University of Newcastle. Retrieved 25 April 2025.