Forrest River massacre
The Forrest River Massacre refers to a tragic series of violent attacks in 1926, where a group of White Australian police and settlers targeted Aboriginal peoples near the Forrest River Mission in Western Australia. This violent episode was precipitated by tensions arising from cattle being speared by Aboriginal residents, as well as an act of revenge by an Aboriginal man named Lumbia, who killed a local settler after an alleged assault on his wife. In retaliation, a posse of police and settlers undertook brutal reprisals, resulting in the deaths of over thirty Aboriginal individuals, with bodies burned to conceal the extent of the massacre.
The Forrest River Mission, established in 1913, was initially intended to support Aboriginal peoples by providing a Christian community. However, it became a site of conflict as the mission residents faced increasing pressures due to land dispossession and governmental neglect of Aboriginal rights. Although the two leaders of the posse were charged, the case did not proceed to trial, and no accountability was established for the killings. Meanwhile, Lumbia was convicted for his crime and sentenced to life in prison. Today, the massacre is viewed as a pivotal event in the ongoing struggle for recognition and rights among Aboriginal Australians, highlighting the lasting impacts of colonial violence and systemic injustice.
On this Page
Subject Terms
The Forrest River Massacre
The Forrest River massacre was a series of attacks led by a posse of White Australian police and settlers against Aboriginal peoples, particularly the residents of the Forrest River Mission. The attacks occurred in 1926 after several cattle were speared at the Nulla Nulla station settlement. The situation was exacerbated when Lumbia, a local Aboriginal man, murdered one of the owners of the Nulla Nulla station for allegedly raping his wife.
The posse attacked the residents of the Forrest River mission and surrounding communities, killing more than thirty Aboriginal people. After the massacres were carried out, the posse burned the bodies to hide the number of murders. Though the two posse leaders were eventually charged with murder, the case was never brought to trial. However, Lumbia was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Background
The Forrest River Mission, named after the nearby river, was established in 1913 near Wyndham, Australia. The mission was originally founded and led by Anglican missionary Richard Bulmer Gribble, who had previously founded several other Australian missions, including the Yarrabah Mission in Queensland and the Mitchell River Mission on the Gulf of Carpentaria.
These missions were intended to convert the Australian Aboriginal peoples to Christianity. However, prior to Gribble’s work, these efforts had resulted in extremely few religious conversions. Additionally, they often increased tensions between the Aboriginal peoples and the White Australians. Though Gribble quickly developed a reputation for creating successful missions with numerous Aboriginal residents, critics argue that much of his success was due to circumstances beyond his control. During the years that Gribble was creating missions, the Aboriginal people lost significant amounts of land to White Australians. Many turned to mission life after losing their land, failing to see any way to maintain their traditional way of life. Some Aboriginal mission residents continued to practice their historic religions in addition to undergoing the Christian rites necessary to continue to live in a mission.
Continued land loss to White Australians, in addition to pressure to convert to Anglican Christianity, led to an increase in tensions between the Aboriginal peoples and the Europeanized Australians. This dissatisfaction was made worse by the Australian government’s denial of basic rights to Aboriginal peoples. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Aboriginal people were prohibited from enlisting in the military, receiving a pension, working in a post office, or voting. Though Indigenous rights movements fought for the rights of Aboriginal peoples in Australia, they were not granted the right to vote until 1949.
Overview
The Forrest River Massacre was a series of attacks carried out by White Australians against Aborigines. At the time, continuous tension existed between the Aboriginal residents of the Forrest River Mission and the White residents of the nearby settlement Nulla Nulla station. The White settlers sought to continue to claim land for White Australians, while the Aboriginal residents resented that Nulla Nulla station had been built on their ancestral lands and was pushing them toward mission life.
In 1926, a group of Aboriginal people residing at the Forrest River Mission returned to the Nulla Nulla station, spearing nearby cattle on their ancestral lands. This upset the owners and residents of the Nulla Nulla station, who believed that the Aboriginal people were poaching their livestock. A group of police officers responded to the complaints by violently dispersing the Aboriginal camp. Witnesses from the incident stated that nine men were shot to death by police, while numerous women and children were thrown from cliffs.
Lumbia, a local Aboriginal man, had publicly accused the co-owner of the Nulla Nulla station of raping his wife. Lumbia then murdered Frederick Hay, a pastor, as revenge for the sexual assault. The Australian police forces were not immediately certain who had murdered Hay. However, the enraged police suspected that the murder had been carried out by local Aboriginal people. Western Australian police officers Graham St Jack and Denis Regan recruited a posse of more than a dozen police officers and local White Australians. They armed the posse with rifles, shotguns, ammunition, and horses. The group began carrying out brutal reprisal attacks against local Aboriginal populations, including those at the Forrest River Mission.
Over several days, the posse attacked several Aboriginal camps in the region, capturing and killing more than thirty Aboriginal people. The posse constructed ovens to burn their remains and disguised their presence in the region. Gribble and other members of the Forrest River Mission subsequently reported large numbers of missing residents, bringing their concerns to the Australian government. When questioned, the police officers stated that they had killed sixteen people and burned their remains. Later investigations by the Australian government found that an additional eleven Aboriginal people were killed in the attacks.
These extrajudicial attacks severely damaged the already strained relations between the local Aboriginal peoples and the White settlers. Though the two officers leading the posse were arrested and charged with murder, local governments stopped the case from ever going to trial. No punishments were ever issued to anyone involved in the attacks. However, Lumbia was later convicted of Hay’s murder. Though he was initially sentenced to death, the sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
In the twenty-first century, the Forrest River Mission massacre is regarded as a significant point in an intergenerational cycle of violence between White Australians and Aboriginal Australians. Many experts argue that the effects of the killings linger, as Aboriginal people continue to reflect on the killings of their ancestors. Further mistreatment led to continued struggles for the Aboriginal Australians, such as persistent poverty and homelessness, after they were forcibly relocated away from their ancestral homelands.
Bibliography
“’A Very Tragic History’: How the Trauma of a 1926 Massacre Echoes Through the Years.” The Guardian, 7 Mar. 2019, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/mar/08/a-very-tragic-history-how-the-trauma-of-a-1926-massacre-echoes-through-the-years. Accessed 14 June 2023.
“Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788–1930.” NewCastle.EDU, 2023, c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=918. Accessed 14 June 2023.
“Forrest River Mission (1913–1968).” Find and Connect, 2023, www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/wa/biogs/WE00077b.htm#:~:text=Forrest%20River%20Mission%20was%20established,closely%20regulated%20until%20the%201950s. Accessed 14 June 2023.
“Invitation to Remember.” Australian Book Review, 2023, www.australianbookreview.com.au/abr-online/archive/2023/989-may-2023-no-453/10231-ann-curthoys-reviews-o-leary-of-the-underworld-the-untold-story-of-the-forrest-river-massacre-by-kate-auty. Accessed 14 June 2023.
“The Forest River ‘Massacre’ and More.” Quadrant.org, 2022, quadrant.org.au/magazine/2022/10/the-forest-river-massacre-and-more/. Accessed 14 June 2023.