Myall Creek : 10th June 1838

I

At Myall Creek, murder took place.

II

In the water-dry divan of the Gwydir River is met Myall Creek
where break margins of dubious Felix and desert collude,
and the outpost of Dangar's Station was found, squatting.

Grass thin plains trampled under hoof and cow pat
in 1838 had become paddocks, rough England it was hoped,
and tree-built fences implied ownership.

Disenfranchised from centuries of fecundity
a generous land was ruined by a wild generation's greed.
And cattle, those plodding racks of meat, were rushed for food.

In response, condemned by an invader's assumption
a pliant dozen rose in indignation!
By this complete randomness, without verity,

and from 40 miles away they descended
accusing fifty by the colour of their skin
with a vengeance as grimy as hell.

They roped together the Gins
and with their selfish seed they raped;
the blood of ruptured vaginas crying into the ochre soil.

Old men were chopped by cutlass and
burned alive on malodorous smoke pyres,
their stench of necrosed limbs lusting pathetic little Englishmen.

In this killing-field, children looked with perplexed eyes
and were slaughtered by bullet and buckshot
fired deliberately, coldly, gleefully,

by the prejudiced barrel of discriminate muskets.
Myall Creek flowed once more
this time with the wash of blood and trashed muscle

of twenty-eight inoffensive, unarmed innocents.

Stirring, the conscience of a sole killer eventually confessed,
and though a jury acquitted the other 11
Governor Gipps intervened

and justice at a second trail saw seven swing.
Yet, the Squatters and their servants
had exterminated thousands before

and not heard the creak of England's rope.
The white defence called it justifiable revenge.
There was a brief, passing revulsion.

Myall Creek was bloody murder.

Notes:

Myall Creek is located in the Outback of New South Wales (a State of Australia).

Over 172 years ago, a massace of up to 28 indigenous people took place near Henry Dangar's Station not far from the Gwydir River, by 12 settlers intent on finding any aborigines they could find using a false claim of cattle theft as the basis of retaliation. After two trials, seven of the twelve involved enventually hung.

It is a shameful chapter in Australian history