The Gippsland massacres were a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people, an Aboriginal Australian people living in East Gippsland, Victoria, committed by European settlers and the Aboriginal Police during the Australian frontier wars.
The perpetrators often did not record or speak about their actions for fear of prosecution and the death penalty under colonial law, as happened after the Myall Creek massacre. The names of many of the perpetrators remain on the rivers, roads and islands of Gippsland. Scots pastoralist Angus McMillan played a significant role in the massacres of Gippsland in retribution for the murder of a fellow pastoralist by the Gurnai Kurnai people.[1][2][3]
Gippsland squatter Henry Meyrick wrote in a letter home to his relatives in England in 1846:
The following list of massacres was compiled by settlers from white perpetrator sources such as letters and diaries, and thus does not take into account Gunai Kurnai knowledge of the history of occupation.[6]
In 2020, the Wellington Shire Council voted against removing the monuments that celebrate Angus McMillan, with the vote finishing 5–4. Cr Rossetti, Cr Bye, Cr Ripper, Cr Hole and Cr Stephens voted against the movement despite McMillan's ties to genocide.[citation needed]
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