Plan drawn by witness

On 24 February 1842, Christopher McGuinness, a carpenter employed at Caramut station, south of the Grampians, witnessed the massacre of two Aboriginal families of the Moperer gundidj clan, at a site known afterwards as Lubra Creek. Several men employed at the station ambushed the families as they slept. As the group fled the men fired, killing three women (one of whom was pregnant) and a boy; two men, a woman and another child were wounded during their escape. Three of the perpetrators faced trial, but the jury, comprised mostly of squatters, found them "not guilty".

 

Christopher McGuinness. Pen and ink, 1842

 

 

Accession number: MS 8781

 

From the State Library of Victoria's Manuscripts collection.

 

 

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Tarnishing the crown