Editorial: The Herald has a proud history of telling Australia’s story. But on Myall Creek, we failed dismally
As late afternoon light settled across Myall Creek Station in northern NSW on June 10, 1838, a cloud of red dust appeared on the horizon as 11 stockmen rode over a hill and headed towards a group of women, children and elderly men known as the Wirrayaraay, a tribal clan of the Kamilaroi nation.
The Wirrayaraay were marched away to a gully, where the stockmen slaughtered them in cold blood. Some were slashed or decapitated by swords and others trampled to death by horses. The 28 mangled bodies were thrown in a pile and burnt in an attempt to destroy any evidence of one of Australia’s worst massacres. In a final act of depravity, the men kept one Indigenous woman to rape over the coming days.
During the recent Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese observed that we have lived through a silence, a long tide of denial gnawing away at our spirit. “We have to come to grips with the past because a country that does not acknowledge the full truth of its history is burdened by its unspoken weight,” he said.has a long and proud history of telling the Australian story. But on Myall Creek, the truth is we failed dismally.
While it is true that the majority view of the colony was probably against the prosecutions, historians believe theposition was still something of an outlier. It cannot be dismissed merely as an “of its time” reflection of the era.We know this because other newspapers – which have long ceased publishing – had a much more respectful view about the trials and the notion Aboriginal people were entitled to the same legal protections as British subjects.
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