Robert Tombs’s essay notes that “the worst single massacre of indigenous Australians was committed by a self-styled Highland Brigade led by a kirk elder.” See https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/scots-in-the-british-empire/
This refers to the 1843 reprisals in Gippsland after Ronald Macalister’s death, usually linked to Angus McMillan and the so-called Highland Brigade at Warrigal Creek.The frequently cited figure of 60–150 dead rests on thin evidence. The earliest source that estimates a number killed was George Dunderdale’s The Book of the Bush (1898), over half a century after the incident. He gives the number as “about sixty,” and immediately adds that this was “probably an exaggeration.”
This is likely, as he goes on to say that the one “who capered about to attract young Macalister’s attention escaped”.
The higher numbers, and the specific Warrigal Creek waterhole story, come from William Hoddinott (“Gippslander”) writing in 1925, some 82 years later and 14 years after his own birth in 1857. He was not a witness…despite what is currently shown on Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrigal_Creek_Massacre)
Weak as these late second-hand sources are, they don’t even take into account the practical challenges. Twenty men with slow-loading muskets could not easily produce such a toll in one action against people who would scatter.
In addition, Kurnai residential groups were normally small family bands, not dense camps of 100-plus.
No one denies a reprisal occurred after Macalister’s murder. Claiming it was “the worst single massacre of indigenous Australians,” however, does not meet the evidentiary standard one expects from History Reclaimed.
Kind regards,
Scott
