Pinjarra massacre

The Pinjarra massacre, sometimes inaccurately still called the Battle of Pinjarra, occurred on 28 October 1834 in Pinjarra, Western Australia when a group of Bindjareb Noongar people were attacked by a detachment of 25 soldiers, police, and settlers led by Governor James Stirling. According to Stirling, "about 60 or 70" of the Bindjareb people were present at the camp and John Roe, who also participated, estimated about 70–80. This roughly agrees with an estimate of 70 by an unidentified eyewitness.

Of the attackers, Captain Theophilus Tighe Ellis died and Corporal Patrick Heffron was injured. Of the attacked, an uncertain number of Bindjareb men, women, and children were killed. Stirling quantified the number of Bindjareb people killed as probably 15 males; Roe estimated the number killed as between 15 and 20. An unidentified settler eyewitness counted about 25–30 dead, including a woman and several children, but also suggested it was "very probable that more men were killed in the river and floated down with the stream". The number of Bindjareb people injured remains uncertain, as do the number of deaths resulting from injuries sustained during the attack. However, both Bindjareb oral histories and the eyewitness put the number of dead and injured higher than Stirling and Roe did.

The Pinjarra massacre was the culmination of increasing tension and violence between newly arrived settlers, who were appropriating the land for farming, and the Noongar peoples, who lived on it as hunter-gatherers. After the attack, Governor Stirling was "effectively threatening to kill 80% of the Noongar population of the South West". Stirling claimed as justification for the attack that the Bindjareb had threatened to "destroy all the whites in their district". Some Bindjareb did continue to fight back, while others sought peace.

The effects of the massacre's outcome were devastating for the Bindjareb, allowing "surrounding groups to exploit the weakness of the once powerful Bindjareb". Despite this, some of the younger generation of Bindjareb (notably Calyute's son Monang and another individual called Denmar) later became involved with the newcomers. Indeed, Monang, some of his counterparts, and those who came after, were to contribute in a variety of ways to the development of the area into what it is today. Monang and Denmar, both involved in the murder of Nesbit, and originally on the list of "wanted" Noongar men, in fact became the first Aboriginal policemen at Pinjarra in 1838. Monang also developed a close association with Henry Bunbury and would accompany Bunbury on his expeditions. Presently, the Bindjareb Noongar people remain custodians and representatives of their culture, and still live on their ancestral lands.