In June 1838, more than thirty Aboriginal people, mostly women and children were cruelly murdered by eleven convict station hands, led by a district squatter’s son. The colony was in uproar at the court’s decision to hang seven of the convicts for this horrendous crime. The local Reconciliation group host this walk through the memorial track.
	DATE: TUESDAY 25th APRIL 2006 Dress: Casual clothes, walking shoes and hat; toilets available Location: Coach departs Tourism Inverell, Campbell Street, Inverell Time: 2.00pm – 5:00pm Cost: $25.00
Limited Numbers - Bookings Essential

The Myall Creek Massacre was notorious because of its callousness and brutality. About twelve stockmen rode into Myall Creek late one afternoon. They herded together about thirty local Wirrayaraay people – old men, women and children - who had been living peacefully for some weeks alongside the Myall Creek Station huts, tied them up and dragged them away a few hundred yards, shot one or two and hacked the rest to death. They then piled up the bodies and burned them. The Aboriginal men were away working on another property.

Such massacres were common enough in the fighting that erupted as pastoralists seized Aboriginal lands in the early 19th century. It was unique because for the first time the perpetrators were brought to trial for the crime. In the first trial, the men were found not guilty. But they were immediately re-arrested and some of them turned Crown witnesses. In a second trial, seven of the men were found guilty of murder and were hanged for the crime. This was the first, and perhaps the only time in Australian history when white people were found guilty of the murder of Aboriginal people. It was not the end of the massacres, but it did mark a significant moment in the history of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Australia.

Myall Creek is in the Inverell area in Northern New South Wales. A number of Aboriginal and non-Indigenous people, some local and some from other places erected a beautiful memorial to the people who died in the massacre. The Memorial stands on a knoll overlooking the site of the massacre and the Myall Creek Station. It was opened on 10 June 2000 with a gathering of about fifteen hundred people from near and far. About half were Aboriginal people, and half were non-Indigenous. For several years prior to that a few people had gathered each year to commemorate the history.

The Memorial was erected because people believed that a frank acknowledgment of the truth of our shared history is a necessary step in reconciliation.

Because of its representative nature the Memorial should be recognized as a site of national heritage significance. The event it commemorates was significant for the development of justice in Australia. The erection of the Memorial was dramatically significant for reconciliation in Australia. In its simple beauty and candid recording of the truth, the Memorial affects profoundly all who visit it.