memorial plaque
The Waterloo Bay massacre was a clash between European settlers and Aboriginal Australians that took place on the cliffs of Waterloo Bay near Elliston, South Australia, in late May 1849. Part of the Australian frontier wars, it is likely that it resulted in the deaths of tens or scores of Aboriginal people. In the lead-up, three European settlers were killed by Aboriginal people, and one Aboriginal person was killed and five others were poisoned by European settlers. Local Aboriginal people have oral history traditions that a large-scale massacre occurred. While older European accounts suggest that the event was exaggerated into a myth over time, it has now been concluded that the stories are founded in fact, and that some form of punitive action did take place. In 2017, the District Council of Elliston erected a memorial (pictured) to acknowledge what occurred, and received a national award for their work in memorialising the massacre. (Full article...)