This talk was given at a commemoration march in Busselton on 22 February 2025

‘I begin today by acknowledging the Wardandi people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather today, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I recognise that Wardandi people have an ongoing connection to the land and waters of this beautiful place from time immemorial, and acknowledge that they never ceded sovereignty. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today.’

The information in this speech today comes from depositions written by Captain John Molloy, John Garrett Bussell, Vernon Bussell and Alfred Pickmore Bussell. These depositions are stored at the State Records Office, in the State Library of WA, and describe three punitive settler parties that went out after Wardandi leader Gaywal speared and killed settler George Layman at Wonnerup after an argument on 22 February 1841.[1] These depositions depict the events following George Layman’s death, but also highlight information on a Wardandi man called Bun-ni. This is probably his true Wardandi name, as it has been noted in the records of Charles Symmons, a ‘Protector of Aborigines’ from 1839 to 1857. Symmons’ records generally noted the real name of the Noongar people he interacted with, and he would write their names down phonetically. He spelled Bun-ni’s name as it is written here and this is what I will call him throughout this talk.[2]

Previously in 1837 in June and July, settlers at Busselton massacred at least nine Wardandi people, after Gaywal and other family members killed and ate a calf.[3] In August 1837, the Bussell family took hostage a young Wardandi child from a family group near Capel, keeping the child until October. Eventually, Bun-ni along with a woman known as Mrs Woolgat, collected the child from Cattle Chosen and returned him to his family.[4] In December 1840, John Garrett Bussell went to the Leschenault district and arrested a Wardandi warrior called Nungundung, who had been resisting the settler invasion of his land, by spearing Wardandi youths who worked for settlers, and a settler shepherd called Henry Campbell.[5] Bussell sent Nungundung to Rottnest, and Wardandi people feared that he would be executed. This angered Gaywal, and several Wardandi people, including Bun-ni, warned Vasse settlers that there would be trouble.[6] Despite this tension, on 22 February 1841 Gaywal and twenty-two other Wardandi people agreed to help George Layman to thresh his crop at Wonnerup, in exchange for flour to make damper. That night, George Layman had an argument with Gaywal over the damper, and Gaywal speared and killed him.

On 23 February, John Garrett Bussell and Captain Molloy went in search of Bun-ni, as they had heard he wished to help hunt for Gaywal. They detained Bun-ni at Cattle Chosen, until ‘a conviction that he was true and zealous induced [them] to liberate him.’[7] Although Bun-ni appeared willing to help, he then took many actions to lead settlers astray in their search for Gaywal as the following report shows.

During the next week settlers conducted three punitive expeditions on Wardandi boodjar. Members of the 51^st regiment, who were stationed at Wonnerup, and settlers at Wonnerup and the Vasse participated in all three expeditions.

The first punitive expedition went out on 24 February 1841, led by John Garrett Bussell and Captain John Molloy, headed for Capel River and Mallokup. Bun-ni was designated a ‘special constable’ and guided this expedition.[8] As they searched for a group of Wardandi people that they suspected of hiding Gaywal, Bun-ni guided them through the swampy area at Mallokup, forcing the settlers to camp overnight without water. They camped overnight in sandhills near a group of Wardandi people, who they then attacked in a dawn raid. A report written by John Garrett Bussell and Captain John Molloy gives a disjointed description of a violent encounter, saying that five Wardandi people were killed.[9] This total number was already an understatement, as Fanny Bussell noted in her diary on 26 February that seven Wardandi people had been killed.[10]

A history of Western Australia from by Warren Bert Kimberly, gathered from settlers and Wardandi survivors in 1897 says that dozens of Wardandi people were killed, probably in this encounter.[11] An oral history from George Webb available in the State Library archives also relates how settlers pursued Wardandi people up to Minninup and killed many people.[12]

After this violent encounter, Captain Molloy and John Garrett Bussell took a group of surviving Wardandi people hostage, and headed the group back to Wonnerup.[13]  They were disappointed that Gaywal was not among the dead, and annoyed at Bun-ni who was randomly firing his gun to warn other Wardandi people where the group was. So they ordered Bun-ni to go out and shoot Gaywal, threatening his family to ensure his compliance. Bun-ni went off for a while, and then caught up with the group as they arrived at Wonnerup that afternoon, saying that he had shot and killed Gaywal. John Garrett Bussell and Captain Molloy doubted this, deciding to send out a second punitive party to check. Their suspicions were correct, as Bun-ni had indeed not killed Gaywal. His intention appears to have been to protect and warn him instead.

When they arrived back at Wonnerup with the Wardandi hostages, John Garrett Bussell and Captain Molloy had received a message saying that Charles Symmons, the ‘Protector of Aborigines’ had arrived unexpectedly at Cattle Chosen, and they hurried off to meet him. The settlers at Busselton were angry that Symmons had arrived at such a volatile time. Symmons was simply undertaking a regular visit to the district, as part of his duties, but he was seen by the Vasse settlers as ‘a persecutor of the European’.[14]

Vernon Bussell led the second punitive expedition, heading out from Wonnerup towards Mallokup on the evening of 26 February. Bun-ni was once again their guide. On the morning of 27 February they met up with a Wardandi group that pretended to be very afraid of Gaywal and offered to help find him. Bun-ni and the group of Wardandi people then led Vernon’s group astray for a day, getting them lost in the swamps at Mallokup. At the end of the day, Vernon and his companions took the Wardandi group hostage, sending for more ammunition and supplies. Due to a miscommunication, his brothers Alfred Pickmore and Charles Bussell thought he was surrounded by armed Wardandi warriors, rather than holding them hostage, and went out in two separate groups to help him. When Alfred’s group joined Vernon’s group, more Wardandi people were killed. Vernon Bussell reported that two Wardandi men were killed in this incident. Vernon’s punitive group and the hostages then went back to the Layman house at Wonnerup.[15]

During Vernon Bussell’s punitive foray, they met up with one of Gaywal’s wives, who told them that Gaywal had gone south, which was also not true. Acting on this information, John Garrett Bussell and Captain John Molloy led a third expedition from Cattle Chosen on 28 February, heading south in search of Gaywal. They returned on the 1 March, with John Garrett Bussell reporting that Bun-ni would not co-operate with them, so they had to abandon the search.[16]

The Vasse settlers then sent out a message saying that they would wait until Wardandi people gave Gaywal up to them. On 7 March, a Wardandi man nicknamed Crocodile sent a message to settlers, hoping to be forgiven for an offence against them and offered to give Gaywal up. A final expedition, led by Captain Molloy, John Garrett Bussell and Lieutenant Northey of the 51^st regiment, headed out, guided by Crocodile. They found Gaywal at 3am on the morning of 8 March, and shot him as he rose up, reaching for a spear.[17]

This information, obtained from reports in the State Records Office and from other sources show that that Bun-ni, Gaywal’s wife, and the first and second group of Wardandi people, all took strong action to protect Gaywal and frustrate settlers in their search for him. The punitive activities by Vasse settlers depicted show similarities to the tactics they used in 1837: taking hostages, punishing the collective Wardandi group for an offence committed by one person, rather than simply arresting the offender, and under-reporting of the number of Wardandi people killed.

Due to this under-reporting, it is not possible to ascertain how many Wardandi people were killed in the violent events following George Layman’s death on 22 February 1841. The State Records Office reports, other colonial archives and Wardandi oral history do show that many Wardandi people were killed by settlers in these punitive actions. It is this event that we bear witness to today in the interest of truth-telling. Thank you for listening.

References

Bussell, John Garrett. “26 December 1840: Transcription of Letter to Peter Brown Col Sec Regarding the Arrest of Nugundung”. Battye Library, Shann papers, Acc 337A/788. State Library Western Australia.

“Diary of Elizabeth Capel Bussell April-December 1837”. Shann Papers, MN 586; ACC 337A/795, Battye Library. State Library of Western Australia.

“Diary of Frances Louisa Bussell (Junior) 1 April 1840 to 27 April 1841”. Bussell family papers MN586, ACC 337A/391, Battye Library. State Library of Western Australia. https://encore.slwa.wa.gov.au/iii/encore/record/C__Rb6648830.

Kimberly, Warren Bert. History of West Australia: A Narrative of Her Past Together with Biographies of Her Leading Men. Melbourne: F.W. Niven and Co., 1897. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_West_Australia.

“List of ‘Native Constables’ July 1841.” Saturday 21 August 1841, page 4. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/643053.

Molloy, John, and John Garrett Bussell. “23 February 1841: Deposition of Mary Anne Rought”  Acc 36, CSR Vol 100, SROWA.

———. “27 February 1841: Report on Death of George Layman” Acc 36, CSR Vol 101 folios 93-4, SROWA.

Molloy, John, John Garrett Bussell, Alfred Pickmore. Bussell, and Joseph Vernon Bussell. “10 March 1841: Report on Pursuit of Gayware”. Acc 36, CSR Vol 101 folio 99, SROWA.

“Cattle Chosen Massacre 1837.” Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930, University of Newcastle, 2017-2022, https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=1035.

Shann, E. O. G. Cattle Chosen: The Story of the First Group Settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841. Historical Reprint Series. Facsimile ed. ed. Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 1978 reprint of 1926 edition.

Webb, George Edward. Interview by Ramona Johnson, 1989, Transcript, OH 2522/13. State Library of Western Australia.

[1] See John Molloy and John Garrett Bussell, “27 February 1841: Report on death of George Layman” Acc 36, CSR Vol 101 folios 93-4, SROWA. Also John Molloy et al., “10 March 1841: Report on pursuit of Gayware”, Acc 36, CSR Vol 101 folio 99, SROWA.

[2] “List of ‘Native Constables’ July 1841,” Saturday 21 August 1841, page 4, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/643053.

[3] “Cattle Chosen Massacre 1837,” Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930, University of Newcastle, 2017-2022, https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=1035. There were two events, one just north of the Bussell family claim at Cattle Chosen, Busselton, and later on further east on the Sabina River.

[4] “Diary of Elizabeth Capel Bussell April-December 1837”, Shann Papers, MN 586; ACC 337A/795, Battye Library, 39, State Library of Western Australia. Bessie Bussell called her ‘Mrs Wolgood’ and she is possibly Wardandi man Woolgat’s wife. He is mentioned on page 45 of the diary.

[5] John Garrett Bussell, “26 December 1840: transcription of letter to Peter Brown Col Sec regarding the arrest of Nugundung”, Battye Library, Shann papers, Acc 337A/788, State Library Western Australia.

[6] John Molloy and John Garrett Bussell, “23 February 1841: Deposition of Mary Anne Rought”  Acc 36, CSR Vol 100, SROWA.

[7] Molloy and Bussell, “27 February 1841: Report on death of George Layman”

[8] Molloy and Bussell, “27 February 1841: Report on death of George Layman”

[9] Molloy and Bussell, “27 February 1841: Report on death of George Layman”

[10] “Diary of Frances Louisa Bussell (Junior) 1 April 1840 to 27 April 1841”, Bussell family papers MN586, ACC 337A/391, Battye Library, See entry for 26 February 1841., State Library of Western Australia, https://encore.slwa.wa.gov.au/iii/encore/record/C__Rb6648830.

[11] Warren Bert Kimberly, History of West Australia: A Narrative of her Past Together with Biographies of Her Leading Men. (Melbourne: F.W. Niven and Co., 1897), 116. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_West_Australia.

[12] George Edward Webb, Interview by Ramona Johnson, 1989, transcript, OH 2522/13, 29, State Library of Western Australia.

[13] Molloy and Bussell, “27 February 1841: Report on death of George Layman”

[14] E. O. G. Shann, Cattle Chosen: the Story of the First Group Settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841, Facsimile ed. ed., Historical reprint series., (Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 1978 reprint of 1926 edition), 118.

[15] Molloy et al., “10 March 1841: Report on pursuit of Gayware”.

[16] Molloy et al., “10 March 1841: Report on pursuit of Gayware”.

[17] Molloy et al., “10 March 1841: Report on pursuit of Gayware”.

This was the research I read out at the Wonnerup Massacre March in Busselton on 22nd February 2023 at the invitation of Bill Webb, Wardandi Traditional Owner, from the Wardan Centre at Injidup.

1801 Wardandi Country before colonisation as seen by the Baudin expedition

The Geographe Bay area in the south-west of Western Australia has been Wardandi Country for at least 45,000 years.[1] In 1801 a French expedition, led by Baudin, arrived at Geographe Bay and during their time here, the scientists observed a landscape shaped by fire with extensive fish trap systems and several Wardandi settlements.[2]

[The first poster displayed here is from a drawing by Charles Lesueur, who was an artist on the expedition. It shows Wardandi country near Wonnerup, including fish traps and dwellings, depicting the abundant and managed landscape]

Peaceful encounters with several Wardandi people and the number of footprints seen by the French indicated that a significant number of Wardandi people were living in the area.[3] The scientist Peron came across a sacred grove during his time onshore, saying that it inspired awe in him and was designed to ‘draw out the heart’s sweet emotions’. This grove is further evidence of Wardandi culture and society and their occupation and management of this Country.[4]

[This sacred grove is shown in the second poster here]

1829 Colonisation of the Swan River and massacres on Wadjuk Country

In 1829 the Swan River Colony was established up at Perth and James Stirling was the Governor there until 1839. During his time running the colony, several massacres on Wadjuk land occurred: The Galup massacre in 1830 at a location known today as Monger’s Lake,[5] a massacre at Success Hill near Guildford in 1831,[6] in the same month as one at Walyunga, north of Guildford,[7] and at least sixteen Wadjuk men[8] were killed by settlers during the time that Midgegooroo, Yagan and Weeip were leading the resistance against colonial violence in Perth. There are also most likely other colonial massacres on Wadjuk country that research has not yet brought to light. All of these massacres and killings were blamed on Wadjuk people taking food, but they were actually caused by the assumption of the colonists that they could take Noongar land and use it without permission or compensation.

1834 Colonisation of the Vasse and Wonnerup districts and the Pinjarra Massacre

On April 18, 1834 the colonisation of Wardandi country at Geographe Bay began when John, Charles, Vernon and Lenox Bussell, George Layman,[9] and the Chapman brothers arrived from Augusta with four soldiers from the 21^st Regiment, who would be posted near the Bussell’s house at Cattle Chosen.[10] The Bussells and Captain John Molloy took land at the Vasse River, and the Chapmans and Layman later on took land up at Wonnerup.

During the same month, April 1834, in Perth, Calyute, the leader of a group of Pinjareb people living near Pinjarra, led a daring raid on Shenton’s flour mill in South Perth to obtain flour. In October 1834, Governor Stirling led a punitive party out to the area where they knew Calyute’s people lived, and attacked a group of about 70 Pinjareb people. According to a newspaper report, around 30 Pinjareb people were killed, with the colonial group focusing on killing the Pinjareb men, but six women and a little girl were also killed.[11] Two of the punitive party were wounded, and one later died. Pinjareb oral history says that many more people were killed, and that most of the Pinjareb men, including Calyute, were away on ceremonial purposes, so the group that was attacked comprised mainly elderly men, women and children.[12]

The Pinjarra Massacre is listed on the Massacre Map project that has been done by the University of Newcastle.[13] This project defines a massacre as being the deaths of 6 or more people and shows that colonial violence was widespread around Australia. While the Pinjarra Massacre was spoken about openly at the time it occurred, often a code of silence prevailed about punitive massacres, leading to a lack of knowledge today about them.

1836 Lieutenant Bunbury punitive action on Balladong Country. Later he walks through Pinjareb Country from Pinjarra to Wardandi Country

In June and July 1836, Lieutenant Bunbury was ‘ordered’ by Governor Stirling to go to York, ‘with a Detachment to make war’ on Balladong people.[14] On July 9, the Perth Gazette reported that several Balladong men and a woman had been killed.[15]

Lieutenant Bunbury was then posted to Pinjarra and he travelled from there to the Vasse in December 1836, guided by Monang, Calyute’s son.[16] During this three day trip Bunbury commented that during that day they had at least one hundred and sometimes two hundred Pibelmen people accompanying them, and when they crossed the Collie River they were greeted by a group of 150 Wardandi people as they went on towards the Preston River.[17] Lieutenant Bunbury was later sent to the Vasse in March 1837 to set up a barracks out at Wonnerup.[18] Towards the end of April 1837, he went to Perth for instruction on this and then was sent back to York by Governor Stirling.

1837 Massacres at York and the Vasse

The district of York is on Balladong Country, and in 1837 a cycle of violence between settlers and Balladong people began again. In July 1837, Balladong men Durgap and Garbung were arrested and sent to Perth to stand trial as part of a plan by Stirling to start trying Noongar people in court for offences against settler property. A Balladong man who volunteered to go with Durgap and Garbung to Perth became ill on the journey and was killed at Greenmount by the soldiers with them.[19]

In July 1837, at York, as payback for the arrest and removal to Perth of Durgap and Garbung, two settler servants called Peter Chidlow and Edward Jones were speared by a group of Balladong men.[20] Lieutenant Bunbury volunteered to go to York and he, and nineteen solders from the 21^st Regiment, were sent to York with instructions from Stirling to perform ‘proper examples of Severity to the full extent to which the Law warrants in such cases’.[21] Bunbury was aided by Lieutenant Mortimer and Resident Magistrate McLeod in undertaking punitive activities in the York, Toodyay and Beverley districts that resulted in the deaths of at least eighteen Balladong people during July and August of 1837. This incident is also recorded on the Massacre Map.[22]

1837 Massacres at the Vasse district

While this was happening in York, during June and July of 1837 the first massacres of Wardandi people by Vasse settlers took place. At that time John Bussell was away in England seeking a wife and his brother Lenox was the Justice of Peace. The Molloy family was still living at Augusta.

In June 1837, a heifer belonging to the Chapman’s was speared and eaten by Gaywal and his family. A Wardandi man called Bobingroot was then forced to lead Alfred Bussell, two of the Chapman brothers, Constable Elijah Dawson and two soldiers from Wonnerup to a place known as Yulojoogarup,[23] near the Sabina River.[24] There the settlers killed nine and wounded two Wardandi people.[25] In response to Constable Elijah Dawson leading this massacre, on 13July, Wardandi men threw spears at him and his wife, wounding him in the arm.[26] On July 30 1837, Wardandi people could be heard shouting down near some abandoned huts. The soldiers and settlers went down to the estuary where they shot three Wardandi women, one man and a boy.[27]

1841 The Wonnerup massacre

Several years later, in 1841, a large punitive massacre took place on Wardandi country. By now the Molloys had left Augusta and moved up to the Vasse, John Bussell had returned from England with his new bride, and the Chapman brothers and George Layman had moved out to Wonnerup. Soldiers from the 21^st Regiment had now been replaced with men from the 51^st Regiment.[28] Captain Stirling had also been replaced by Governor Hutt, who had a more benign approach to the treatment of Noongar people. The arrival of a new Governor, however, did not make much difference to the violence that was going in the Swan River Colony.

Again, a cycle of violence had been going for some time at the Vasse, with settlers shooting Wardandi people for taking flour, while also hunting out the kangaroos in the area. Gaywal’s daughter was raped, and his son-in-law re-arrested after punishment for payback for this, and a dispute was going on between Gaywal and George Layman over Wardandi women working for him.[29]

On February 21,1841, Gaywal and other Wardandi people were working for George Layman out at Wonnerup, helping harvest and thresh a crop. That evening around the campfire outside of Layman’s hut a dispute broke out between Wardandi men Dr Miligan and Gaywal. George Layman came out and intervened, insulting Gaywal in the process, and Gaywal speared and killed him. The settlers, led by Resident Magistrate Captain John Molloy and Justice of the Peace John Bussell, then undertook several punitive expeditions over the next weeks. On 25February five Wardandi people were shot after being tracked through the sandhills by the settlers. The settlers pursued the Wardandi up to Lake Minninup, shooting several Wardandi people, but ‘were not satisfied’.[30] Finally, on a sandbar near Lake Minninup dozens of Wardandi were killed by the settlers according to a history of Western Australia published in 1897 and J. S Battye’s History of Western Australia published in 1924.[31] Wardandi oral history says that many more people were killed than the recorded here. Gaywal was not among the dead, so the hunt continued.[32] Finally on 7March 1841, Gaywal was shot and killed after a Wardandi man led the settlers to where he was hiding.[33]

[The massacres at Cattle Chosen in 1837 and at Wonnerup/Minninup in 1841 are also on the Massacre Map. The third poster shows details of where they are on the map. There is also a QR code to allow you to access the Massacre Map on your phone to see how extensive frontier violence was in Australia.]

Since that time there were many more massacres in Western Australia. Current research indicates that the most recent massacre in Western Australia was in the East Kimberley region in the 1930s when poisoned meat was given to Kija people at Panton River.

As research by academics is ongoing, I am sure many other colonial massacres in Western Australia will be revealed. It is important that they are documented thoroughly and acknowledged. We need to have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Western Australia, to acknowledge the violence of colonisation so that we can move forward to true Reconciliation.

References

[1] Bill Bunbury, Invisible Country: South-West Australia: Understanding a Landscape (Crawley, Western Australia: UWA Publishing, 2015). p. 150.

[2] Bill Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2011). p. 213. François Michel Ronsard, Journal nautique de François Michel Ronsard (tome 1), 1801, University of Sydney, The Baudin Legacy Project  p. 18. Théodore Leschenault, Extrait du journal de Théodore Leschenault, 1801, University of Sydney, The Baudin Legacy Project  p. 9-11.

[3] Pierre Bernard Milius et al., Pierre Bernard Milius: le dernier commandant de l’expédition Baudin: le journal 1800-1804, Milius: last commander of the Baudin expedition: the journal 1800-1804., (West Perth, Western Australia: Australian Capital Equity Pty Limited conjointement avec la National Library of Australia, 2013). p. 61.

[4] Shino Konishi, “Early encounters in Aboriginal place: The role of emotions in French readings of Indigenous sites,” Australian Aboriginal Studies (Canberra, A.C.T. : 1983) 2015-, no. 2 (2015). P. 13.

[5] See Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930, by University of Newcastle, https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=885 for details.

[6] See Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930, by University of Newcastle, https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=884 for details.

[7] Bevan Carter, Nyungah Land: Records of Invasion and Theft of Aboriginal Land on the Swan River 1829-1850 (Guildford: Swan Valley Nyungar Community, 2006). pp. 80-82.

[8] See Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930, by University of Newcastle https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=886 for details.

[9] Rodger Jennings, Busselton: “-outstation on the Vasse,” 1830-1850 (Busselton, W.A: Shire of Busselton, 1983).P. 34.

[10] William J. Lines, An all consuming passion: origins, modernity, and the Australian life of Georgiana Molloy (St. Leonards, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin, 1994). pp. 190-191

[11] See Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal (WA : 1833 – 1847), Saturday 1 November 1834, page 382 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/641213 and Register of Heritage Places – Assessment Documentation Pinjarra Massacre Site,  (18 December 2007). p. 11

[12] Register of Heritage Places – Assessment Documentation Pinjarra Massacre Site, Short. p. 11.

[13] See https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=887

[14] Henry William Bunbury, Lieutenant Bunbury’s Australian Sojourn: The letters and journals of Lt. H.W. Bunbury, 21st Royal North Fusiliers, 1834-1837, ed. JMR Cameron and Phyllis Barnes (Hesperian Press, 2014). p. 124.

[15] The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal (WA : 1833 – 1847) View title info Sat 9 Jul 1836 Page 724 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/771

[16] Bunbury, Lieutenant Bunbury’s Australian Sojourn: The letters and journals of Lt. H.W. Bunbury, 21st Royal North Fusiliers, 1834-1837. See pp. 131 and 156.

[17] Bunbury, Lieutenant Bunbury’s Australian Sojourn: The letters and journals of Lt. H.W. Bunbury, 21st Royal North Fusiliers, 1834-1837. p. 165.

[18] Bunbury, Lieutenant Bunbury’s Australian Sojourn: The letters and journals of Lt. H.W. Bunbury, 21st Royal North Fusiliers, 1834-1837. p. 221.

[19] Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal (WA : 1833 – 1847), Saturday 15 July 1837, page 936 (3) https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/639917

[20] Rika Erickson, Old Toodyay and Newcastle (Toodyay Shire Council 1974).p. 28.

[21] Bunbury, Lieutenant Bunbury’s Australian Sojourn: The letters and journals of Lt. H.W. Bunbury, 21st Royal North Fusiliers, 1834-1837. p. 224. See also Swan River Guardian (WA : 1836 – 1838) View title info Thu 20 Jul 1837 Page 25-206. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/23543251

[22] See University of Newcastle Massacre Map:  https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=1029

[23] E. O. G. Shann, Cattle chosen: the story of the first group settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841, Facsimile ed. ed. (Nedlands, W.A: University of Western Australia Press, 1978 reprint of 1926 edition). VII. Relations with the Natives.

[24] Jennings, Busselton: “-outstation on the Vasse,” 1830-1850.p. 124.

[25] Shann, Cattle chosen: the story of the first group settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841.

[26] Gil Hardwick, “The Irish R. M.: Capt. John Molloy of the Vasse,” Studies in Western Australian history The Irish in Western Australia. Reece, Bob (ed.) 1 (2000).p. 9.

[27] Shann, Cattle chosen: the story of the first group settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841. p. 107.

[28] See https://redcoat-settlerswa.com/about/

[29] Jessica White, “‘Paper talk,’ Testimony and Forgetting in South-West Western Australia,” Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature : JASAL 17, no. 1 (2017). pp. 2,6. Shann, Cattle chosen: the story of the first group settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841. pp. 115-117.

[30]  Warren Bert Kimberly, History of West Australia  (1897), https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_West_Australia/Chapter_13.paragraph 116.

[31] See Kimberly, History of West Australia  and James Sykes Battye, Western Australia: a History from Its Discovery to the Inauguration of the Commonwealth, ed. Facsimile ed. (Nedlands, W.A: University of Western Australia Press, 1978 reprint of 1924 edition).

[32] Shann, Cattle chosen: the story of the first group settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841.

[33] Alexandra Hasluck, Portrait with background: a life of Georgiana Molloy (Melbourne [Vic: Oxford University Press, 1955). p. 219.

Posters produced in consultation with Bill Webb. Graphics and design by Sam Blight.

This was the research I read out at the Wonnerup Massacre March in Busselton on 22nd February 2022 at the invitation of Bill Webb Wardandi Traditional Owner from the Wardan Centre at Injidup.

‘I begin today by acknowledging the Wardandi people, Traditional Custodians of the land on which we gather today, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I recognise their continued connection to the land and waters of this beautiful place, and acknowledge that they never ceded sovereignty. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today.’

On 18^th April 1834 the colonisation of Wardandi country began when John, Charles, Vernon and Lenox Bussell arrived by boat from Augusta with servants Phoebe Bower and Elijah Dawson. They were met at the beach by some Wardandi men who showed them one of their wells, in keeping with the accommodating attitude to strangers shown by Noongar and Pibelmen people. The Bussells were accompanied by George Layman who had arrived in the Augusta district in 1831.[1] The next day George, Henry and James Chapman arrived overland with soldiers from the 21^st Regiment who would set up a barracks out at Wonnerup with the help of Lieutenant Bunbury.[2] Later in that year, in October 1834, Governor Stirling led 25 police, soldiers and settlers in the Pinjarra massacre in retaliation for the theft of flour in Perth.[3] This example would later be followed by the Vasse settlers, as the district was now called, with Gaywal, the senior birdiya of the Wardandi at the Vasse a particular target over the following years.

In 1837 in July two massacres occurred that were conducted by the Bussell brothers Charles, Vernon, Lenox and Alfred. John Bussell was away in England at the time. Later on, in 1839 Captain John Molloy and his wife Georgiana left Augusta and moved up to the Vasse. John Bussell had returned from a trip to England with a new bride, and Captain Stirling had been replaced by Governor Hutt.

In 1841 a much larger punitive massacre took place on Wardandi country. The cause of this new incident was the ongoing conflict with Wardandi birdiya (leader) Gaywal. Trouble had started a year earlier when Henry Campbell was killed in the Leschenault district by Nungundung, Duncock and Gerback[4] for raping Gaywal’s daughter or perhaps for beating up one of the men who speared him. My research is still investigating the cause.[5] These three Wardandi men were flogged by the Resident Magistrate of the Leschenault district and then released. John Bussell was infuriated by this lenient treatment and later he arrested Nungundung when he came across him in the bush, confined him at Cattle Chosen and sent him up to Perth to be tried for murder. Wardandi people were very upset about this, fearing that Nungundung would be summarily killed without trial like Midgegooroo had been in 1833. Nungundung was, however, sent to Rottnest and John Bussell was instructed by Governor Hutt to not to arrest anyone else.[6]

On February 21, 1841, Gaywal and other Wardandi people were working for George Layman out at Wonnerup, helping harvest and thresh a crop. That evening around the campfire outside of Layman’s hut a dispute broke out between Wardandi men Dr Miligan and Gaywal. George Laymen came out and intervened, telling Gaywal to share his damper, the wages for his work, with Dr Miligan. He pulled Gaywal’s beard for emphasis, a huge insult in Wardandi culture. Gaywal stepped back, shouted ‘George!’ and speared him. Layman ran back into his hut and died within minutes. The settlers, led by Resident Magistrate Captain John Molloy and Justice of the Peace John Bussell, then undertook several punitive expeditions over the next weeks. On 25 February five Wardandi people were shot after being tracked through the sandhills by the settlers. Gaywal was not among the dead, so the hunt continued.[7]  On 26 February Fanny Bussell noted in her diary ‘Capt. Molloy drank tea here. 7… killed. Gaywal supposed to be wounded’.[8]

The pursuit of Gaywal continued and a large punitive party went out, led by Captain John Molloy and John Bussell. They pursued the Wardandi up to Lake Minninup, shooting several, but ‘were not satisfied’.[9] According to testimony taken down by Warren Bert Kimberly in 1896 from Weelah, a Wardandi Birdiya, several other Wardandi people and colonial settlers it is known that a punitive expedition went out. Finally, on a sandbar near Lake Minninup:

“The soldiers and settlers pushed on, and surrounded the black men on the sand patch. There was now no escape for the fugitives… [Person after person] was shot, and the survivors, knowing that orders had been given not to shoot the women, crouched on their knees, covered their bodies with their bokas, and cried, “Me yokah” (woman). The white men had no mercy. The black men were killed by dozens, and their corpses lined the route of march of the avengers.” [10]

It has been noted by historian J.S. Battye in 1924 that ‘there is a sandpatch near Minninup where skulls and bones are still to be seen, and near which even present-day [Wardandi People] will not go’.[11]

Bill Webb has recounted that his ancestral grandmother was a witness to the killing of George Layman, being tied up so that she ‘couldn’t go off and warn’ the Wardandi when the Bussells and Captain Molloy gathered there two days after George Layman was killed. Bill goes on to recount:

“She said she could hear the gunshots and the screams all day, right off into the distance. And they used carbine rifles. They click up and put the shell in and you put that down, you know, and bayonets and sabres. So she said when they went off, later in the afternoon they came back and the men and the horses were completely covered in blood. The horses were foamed up and nearly dead on their feet. They couldn’t look each other in the eyes over what happened.”[12]

 Governor Hutt had previously issued instructions on the treatment of Indigenous people, and this definitely broke those rules. The Vasse colonial settlers found these ideas ‘impractical, pettifogging’ and ‘closed ranks against further enquiry’ after John Bussell and Captain Molloy submitted reports on the earlier, less deadly skirmishes.[13]

Finally on 7 March 1841, Gaywal was shot and killed after a Wardandi man called Crocodile led Captain Molloy, John, Charles and Alfred Bussell and others to where he was hiding. Gaywal’s sons Woberdung, who was accused of also throwing a spear at Layman, and Kenny and Mungo were tricked aboard the boat of Captain Plaskett and detained. After a week or so, Mungo was released and Kenny and Woberdung were taken to Perth for trial.[14]

Life for the Wardandi continued to be very difficult. There were a number of further incidents of shootings of Wardandi people by the Bussell family and other settlers. The massacres undertaken by the Bussells, Captain Molloy and other colonial settlers in the Geographe Bay area are, however, largely forgotten today, with Bussell family members ignorant of their family’s history.[15] In contrast, Wardandi people have a strong oral history concerning the massacre. This forgetting of massacres on Wardandi land is an aspect of wadjela history that needs to be addressed to help reconciliation between Indigenous and white Australians.

Note

The Wonnerup Massacre is on the map of Colonial Frontier Massacres compiled by researchers working with the University of Newcastle. The researcher responsible for the Western Australian part of the map is Dr. Chris Owen.

https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=889https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=889

Footnotes

[1] Jennings, R. (1983). Busselton : “-outstation on the Vasse,” 1830-1850. Shire of Busselton. P. 34.

[2] Lines, W. J. (1994). An all consuming passion : origins, modernity, and the Australian life of Georgiana Molloy. Allen & Unwin.  pp. 190-191

[3] Lines, W. J. (1994). An all consuming passion : origins, modernity, and the Australian life of Georgiana Molloy. Allen & Unwin. p. 199.

[4] Green, N. (1984). Broken Spears : Aborigines and Europeans in the Southwest of Australia. Focus Education Services. p. 215.

[5]White, J. (2017). ‘Paper talk,’ Testimony and Forgetting in South-West Western Australia. Journal of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature : JASAL, 17(1), 1-13. p. 6.

[6] Shann, E. O. G. (1978). Cattle chosen : the story of the first group settlement in Western Australia, 1829 to 1841 (Facsimile ed. ed.). University of Western Australia Press. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cattle_Chosen  https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cattle_Chosen/Chapter_8

[7] Ibid.

[8] Ibid.

[9]  Kimberly, W. B. (1897). History of West Australia  https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_West_Australia/Chapter_13 paragraph 116.

[10] Ibid.

[11] Battye, J. S. (1978). Western Australia : a History from Its Discovery to the Inauguration of the Commonwealth. University of Western Australia Press. p. 161.

[12] Webb, B. (2021). [Interview]. Wardan Aboriginal Centre Injidup 21 August 2021 p. 54.

[13] Hardwick, G. (2000a). Capt. John Molloy of the Vasse First published April 2000 in Reece R.H.W. (ed.), The Irish in Western Australia Studies in Western Australian History, Vol. 20 Department of History, University of Western Australia. pp. 11-12.

[14] Hasluck, A. (1955). Portrait with background : a life of Georgiana Molloy. Oxford University Press. p. 219.

[15] In September 2021 Sam Carmody, a descendant of John Bussell did a podcast about his discovery that his family had been involved in the Wonnerup Massacre. See Carmody, S. (Sun 19 Sep 2021, 8:05am). In The Ghosts are not Silent. https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/backgroundbriefing/the-ghosts-are-not-silent/13545048