Murdering Gully massacre

Murdering Gully massacre
Date	mid-1839
Location	Gully on Mount Emu Creek, Strathdownie station later Glenormiston Station, where a small stream adjoins from Merida Station, near Camperdown38°15′05″S 142°58′04″E / 38.25139°S 142.96778°E
Result	European victory, a massacre
Belligerents
Frederick Taylor, James Hamilton, Broomfield and employees	Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung
Commanders and leaders
Frederick Taylor	Unknown
Strength
about 10	52
Casualties and losses
None	35 to 40 killed

Murdering Gully, formerly known as Puuroyup to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839 massacre of 35–40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria, Australia. It is a gully on Mount Emu Creek, where a small stream adjoins from Merida Station.^[1]

Of particular note for this massacre is the extent of oral history, and first hand accounts of the incident and detail in settler diaries, records of Wesleyan missionaries, and Aboriginal Protectorate records. Following the massacre there was popular disapproval and censure of the leading perpetrator, Frederick Taylor, so that Taylor's River was renamed Mount Emu Creek. The massacre effectively destroyed the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan.^[1]

^ ^a ^b Ian D. Clark, pp103-118, Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 ISBN 0-85575-281-5

[clark-1] Ian D. Clark, pp103-118, Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 ISBN 0-85575-281-5

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