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CONFLICT IN THE COLONY
The Swan River settlement was established by Governor James Stirling in 1829, and soon afterwards, some British settlers headed south toward the areas inhabited by the Bindjareb Nyungars. After initially cordial relations, it became evident that the newcomers had no intention of respecting local protocols and obligations, nor of leaving, and conflict between the groups gradually escalated. Clashes and casualties were recorded across the colony, as actions necessary for the economic survival of each group threatened that of the other. The Nyungars resisted the invasion of their lands and the settlers responded with excessive force in order to impress upon the Nyungars their superiority.
Mr Thomas Peel, who had failed in his attempt to establish a settlement at Clarence, moved in 1830 to try his luck in Mandurah and the fertile land to its east. Colonial soldiers broke down fish traps on the Murray and Serpentine Rivers that were at the heart of Bindjareb Nyungar economic and ceremonial life. The Bindjareb Nyungars destroyed settler stock, crops, equipment and buildings with their strategically lit fires, and speared stock or drove them away. With their well crafted gidgees (spears), solid and able bodied fighters and intimate knowledge of their country, they were a force to be reckoned with, and Peel blamed them for thwarting his intended development of the Murray Region. Detachments of soldiers from the Swan River Settlement were called on repeatedly to help defend the floundering settlement, and were attacked by forces of Bindjareb Nyungar warriors. In 1833 the annual gathering of two or three hundred Nyungars around Peel’s settlement for the harvesting of fish, although peaceful, set fear amongst the newcomers that the Nyungars could rally forces to overthrow the settlement.
By 1834, things were more than desperate for Peel and his settlement, and there seemed to be but one answer to the problem – military force to break the Nyungar stronghold. At the same time, successful expansion of the colony required securing a line of garrisons between Perth and Albany, which would eventually develop into towns and be connected by road. The trigger point came when the Nyungars’ flour rations were cut, prompting a Bindjareb Nyungar raid on the South Perth flour mill. Some of the offenders were subsequently captured, publicly flogged and incarcerated as an example to others. The Bindjareb Nyungars then plotted to ambush and spear Peel, stealing one of his prized mares in the hope that he would join them to search for it. Instead a prospective buyer, Barron, and local servant, Nesbit, who had been on friendly terms with the Bindjareb Nyungars, assisted in the search and were speared; Nesbit fatally so, with ritual mutilations to his body. This prompted a fearful reaction in the colony, and calls for a severe example to be made of the ‘tribe’, lest their successful resistance “tempt other tribes to pursue the same course, and eventually combine together for the extermination of the whites (Stirling to Stanley of the Colonial Office in Britain, 1 November 1834). Stirling went on to report to his superiors that: “It therefore became of the most urgent necessity that a check should be put on the career, of that particular tribe”. |
