Skull Creek

Skull Creek is a common name for a number of creeks and waterways in Australia. In each case, it is named so due to the killing of Aboriginal people in the area.

• Skull Creek, Victoria, in the Gippsland region was the site of killings of Kurnai in 1842 during the Gippsland massacres.
• Skull Creek, Northern Territory, near Barrow Creek, was the site of killings of Kaytetye in 1874, known as the Barrow Creek massacre.^[1]
• Skull Creek, Western Australia, near Laverton, was the site of the white killings of Aboriginal people in the 19th century.

Don McLeod also tells a story of clashes over soak water at the time of the gold rushes in Western Australia:

During the time of the Laverton rush, the Blackfellows tried to keep their meagre water supplies hidden from the knowledge of white prospectors since their horses and camels quickly exhausted the limited soaks.

McLeod relates a story told to him by an old prospector by the name of Long, observing an Aboriginal man and woman:

The man took the throwing stick he was carrying and worked it into the sand. He then broke off a hollow reed and, placing it in the hole he had thus developed, lay down on his stomach and appeared to suck up something through the reed. His companion repeated his movements before they quietly moved on...

Without delay Long, with the aid of a shovel, proved the existence of a soak of sweet water, from which he replenished his supplies...Only a few days later in the same place, another prospector had the same Blackfellow bailed up, threatening to shoot him unless he revealed a source of water. This was certainly not an untypical bush encounter. However, [they were] interrupted by yet another prospector riding a camel. The Blackfellow took advantage of the confusion and threw a spear into the bush and escaped.

On the diggings, a hue and cry was raised over this alleged murderous attack and a party was quickly organised to set out and teach the Blackfellows a lesson - for daring to protect their water. Mustering what guns they could, the punitive party went out to what later became known as Skull Creek, and shot every Blackfellow they could find. The bodies were buried in shallow graves.^[2]

• Skull Springs, Western Australia, near Nullagine, was the site of a massacre of Aboriginal people in the 19th century.
• Skull Hole, on the head of Mistake Creek, Bladensburg Station (near Winton) Central Queensland. In 1888 the visiting Norwegian scientist Carl Lumholtz recalled how, in about 1882-84, he "was shown" at Bladensburg "a large number of skulls of natives who had been shot by the black police" some years earlier.^[3]

Skeleton Creek

There are also numerous Skeleton Creeks around Australia, including:

• near Woree, Queensland is the site of a massacre of Djabugay people.^[4] Sixteen skulls were placed on poles after the massacre.^[5]

See also

• List of massacres of indigenous Australians
• Gippsland massacres
• Barrow Creek
• 1946 Pilbara strike
• Indigenous Australians

References

1. Centenary of Federation - Connecting the Continent
2. Don McLeod, How the West was Lost, self-published, Port Hedland, 1984, pp27-28
3. http://tourism.racq.com.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/68109/Winton-Route-of-the-RIver-Gum.pdf
4. http://www.nntt.gov.au/determination/files/WO03_498Determination21042004.pdf
5. ABC Radio National Hindsight program. Cairns Historian Dr Timothy Bottoms -

External links

• AIATSIS place name register