Wulwulam - Woolwonga MassacrePrint Page 
The Wulwulam, also known as the Woolwonga, were an indigenous Australian people of the Northern Territory. They are reputed to have been almost completely exterminated in the 1880s in reprisal for an incident in which some members of the tribe speared 4 miners.
Starting on 3 September 1884, several Wulwulam murdered four European settlers and in a reprisal known as the Coppermine massacres. Francis Herbert Sachse who ran a cattle station and also managed the mine, led the massacre at Blackfellow Creek, where an estimated 150 natives were shot, leading to their effective extermination. The Norwegian ethnographer Knut Dahl , who lived in the area for over a year a decade later, wrote as follows:
"The sequel, which in the Australian bush has always followed such murders, occurred in due course... Another gathering of white men, friends and fellows of the victims, also embarked upon a campaign of vengeance against the Wolwanga tribe, which had been responsible for the deed. The reports on this campaign vary, but participants have told me that after a long search they finally found a great portion of the tribe gathered at the abandoned mine. They surrounded them, drove them into a lagoon, and shot them all, men, women and children."
The pogrom continued for some years, enfeebling what had been the most powerful Daly river tribe, and also decimating the Mulluk-Mulluk tribe.
Four Wulwulam men, Tommy, Jimmy, Daly, and Ajibbingwagne, were put on trial for the killings of 4 settlers, Johannes Lubrecht Noltenius, Jack Landers (known as Hellfire Jack), Henry Houschildt and Schollert. The Jesuit mission diary records Sachse as still waging his campaign against the Wulwulam 4 years later, in 1888.
Charlie Yingi, known as Long Legged Charlie, one of the four Aboriginal men charged for the killings, was cleared eventually and settled at the Jesuit Mission on the Daly River. He was later sentenced to death for the Coppermine killing.
In 2014 there came to light a document indicating that one child of Wulwulam/Woolwonga parentage had been registered in the census undertaken in 1889, and that by virtue of this fact, her descendants moved to assert native title rights to the old Wulwulam hunting grounds.
From all over the country, the Woolwonga mob gathered in late September for a ceremony under blazing sun at an old railway siding at Burrundie, directly north of the Emerald Springs Roadhouse. It was an affirmation of their identity as Woolwonga, and a memorial to their ancestors who were all but wiped out in a raid by police and white settlers in September 1884. This was a reprisal for the spearing of four miners at the Daly River copper mine. The Woolwonga people inhabited country from the Adelaide River across to the McKinlay River and south to Pine Creek, and the 1884 massacre was thought to have been the end of them as a tribe.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion attended the ceremony at Burrundie, and recounted details of the killing spree 130 years ago. “Of the 30 men that took to the water, none were known to survive. Of the other men, women and children, they made an attempt to escape, but their fate was not revealed,” Mr Scullion said. “What happened then was appalling then and appals us now. “There is no justice in taking the lives of nearly an entire family group for the lives of four prospectors. Today, as we acknowledge and remember these awful events together, we take another step towards reconciliation.”
The ceremony was the culmination of many years of research which gathered historical material about the Woolwonga from sources as far away as Great Britain. Darwin resident Lynette Hopkins, a retired public servant whose husband, Glen, has traced his lineage to the Woolwonga survivors, has led the research effort. “No doubt our up-and-coming generations will embrace a better comprehension of the past here today, as we certainly have a lot of descendants from all around Australia in attendance that stem from the Woolwonga tribe that were thought to be extinct,” Ms Hopkins told the crowd of around 200. “Hopefully we can gain recognition of the Woolwonga group and land, so we have a sense of belonging to our ancestors with the political statement we are making here today. “This is an emotional event for us all and we hope authorities will take heed of what this event means to all our younger Woolwonga generations, who are lost souls.”
Land Rights News – Northern Edition October 2014.
Location
| Address: | Burrundie Railway Siding, Burrundie, 0822 |
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| State: | NT |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -13.4921 Long: 131.861 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Monument |
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| Monument Theme: | Conflict |
| Sub-Theme: | Frontier |
| Approx. Event Start Date: | September-1884 |
| Approx. Event End Date: | September-1884 |
Dedication
| Approx. Monument Dedication Date: | September - 2014 |
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