page_title: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site
section_title: Heritage listing
hierarchical_section_title: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site / Heritage listing
caption_attribution_description: English: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site: SHR Plan No 2339
context_page_description: Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is the heritage-listed site of and memorial for the victims of the Myall Creek massacre at Bingara Delungra Road, Myall Creek, Gwydir Shire, New South Wales, Australia. It was added to the Australian National Heritage List on 7 June 2008 and the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2010.
context_section_description: The brutal massacre at Myall Creek of around 30 men, women and children of the Wirrayaraay and Gamilaroi peoples in June 1838, the subsequent court cases and the hanging of the seven settlers for their role in the massacre, was pivotal in the development of the relationship between settlers and Aboriginal people in NSW. It was the last attempt by the Colonial Administration to use the law to control frontier conflict between settlers and Aboriginal people. Instead of setting a precedent that Aboriginal people could be protected under the law, it hardened settlers' resolve to use whatever means were available to clear Aboriginal people from the land on the frontier.
  The massacre at Myall Creek is a relatively rare instance in NSW, where the massacre of Aboriginal people (as a result of frontier violence) is well documented, and broadly speaking the massacre is representative of the violent conflict that took place in frontier areas between Aboriginal people and settlers. The massacre at Myall Creek is also a landmark event because accounts of the massacre, written from the 1850s to the present, have continued to remind Australians about the mistreatment of Aboriginal people during the period of frontier conflict.
  The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is of high significance to the Wirrayaraay of Gamilaroi people, as the site of the brutal murder of their ancestors and for its ability to demonstrate the Wirrayaraay and Gamilaroi peoples experience of colonisation. The importance of site to the Wirrayaraay people is evidenced by their participation in the campaign to establish a memorial on the site of the massacre, and their continuing involvement in the management of site. Descendants of Aboriginal people who survived the massacre form part of the Myall Creek Memorial Committee, which co-manages the site.
  The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is important to the local community as a symbol of reconciliation and a place of education. District schools and representatives of all the Shires in the region participate in the annual service held at the site. The Myall Creek Memorial is also a place of reconciliation for the descendants of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people involved in Myall Creek massacre. In recognition of the role that the memorial has played as a place of reconciliation, the Myall Creek Memorial was the winner of the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation's Judith Wright Reconciliation Prize, in 2003.
  Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 12 November 2010 having satisfied the following criteria.
  The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales.
  The Myall Creek Massacre, the subsequent court cases and the hanging of seven settlers, played a pivotal role in the development of the relationship between settlers and Aboriginal people. In the half century following British settlement, the Colonial Administration stated on numerous occasions that Aboriginal people and settlers were equal before the law. However, juries regularly found settlers accused on killing Aboriginal people on the frontier not guilty. The Myall Creek massacre is important in the course of New South Wales' history as it was the last time the Colonial Administration intervened to ensure the laws of the colony were applied equally to Aboriginal people and settlers involved in frontier killings. The massacre at Myall Creek is also a landmark event because accounts of the massacre, written from the 1850s to the present, have continued to remind Australians about the mistreatment of Aboriginal people during the period of frontier conflict.
  The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history.
  The Myall Creek Massacre and Memorial Site is associated with the brutal massacre in June 1838 of a group of men, women and children of the Wirrayaraay and Gamilaroi peoples by settlers. A group of around 30 A
caption: Heritage boundaries
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