Convincing Ground massacre

Convincing Ground Massacre
Date 1833 or 1834 Location Portland, Victoria, Australia Coordinates: 38°16′42″S 141°39′34″E / 38.2784°S 141.6595°E / -38.2784; 141.6595 Result European victory, a massacre
Belligerents
Whalers	Kilcarer gundidj clan, Dhauwurd wurrung language
Commanders and leaders
Unknown	Unknown
Strength
Unknown	At least 200
Casualties and losses
Unknown	60 to 200, estimates vary. All but 2 young men killed

When Portland, Victoria was established as a whaling station in 1829, there was tension between the local Gunditjmara people Kilcarer gundidj clan and the whalers. In 1833 or 1834 this tension turned into a full-fledged massacre in a dispute over a beached whale. The Convincing Ground is located in Portland Bay southwest of Melbourne, near the coastal town of Portland in the Shire of Glenelg and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. Professor Lynette Russell from Australian Indigenous Studies at Monash University said "The Convincing Ground is probably the first recorded massacre site for Victoria."

The dispute appears to have arisen over the ownership of a beached whale.

While reports are varied on casualties, it is clear that Gunditjmara people were determined to assert their right to the whale as traditional food and when challenged by the whalers, were aggressive in return.

According to Edward Henty and Police Magistrate James Blair in conversation with George Augustus Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines in 1841, the whalers withdrew to the head station only to return with their firearms. Robinson's journal entry says "And the whalers then let fly, to use his expression, right and left upon the natives. He said the natives did not go away but got behind trees and threw spears and stones. They, however, did not much molest them after that." No mention was made in the conversation as to casualties. Later reports arising from a meeting in 1842 that Robinson had with Gunditjmara people stated only two members survived the massacre.

"Accounts vary, but the number of Aborigines killed is believed to be between 60 and 200."

The reason for this uncertainty over casualties and the actual date of the massacre appears to stem from the fact that the incident was only reported and documented several years after its occurrence. The earliest documented mention of the Convincing Ground locality is in an entry of Edward Henty's diary dated 18 October 1835.

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