Map of Port Phillip by JH Wedge – c 1836
In the March of 1836, William Buckley who, after having lived with the Aborigines for over 30 years, had heard that a party of Wattle Bark Strippers from a visiting ship’s crew to Western Port, had surrounded a sleeping encampment of natives, shortly after sunrise – and had sadly shot at them. The Port Phillip Association’s, John Helder Wedge, reported the shooting whilst Buckley immediately dispatched messengers to the area so that the wounded could be transported to Melbourne. The incident occurred just 9 months after the establishment of John Batman’s Treaty with the Aborigines.
Four Aborigines had been shot, one being a 13 year old girl who was wounded in both her legs – though she lived, she was never expected to gain the use of her legs again. Her parents had carried her all the way from Western Port to Melbourne . . .
View other important events in this Region’s History . . .
