Tunnerminnerwait & Maulboyheenner
executed 20th January 1842
at the site the exeuction took place
Where: cnr Bowen & Franklin St. Melbourne.
When: 12.00pm to 1.00pm Wednesday 20th January 2010
Listen Live: The commemoration will be broadcast live
12.00pm-1.00pm on Community Radio 3CR - 855
on the AM dial and streaming live on www.3cr.org.au
The microphone will be opened to the people
attending the commemoration to air their views after
the guest speakers have spoken. Guest speakers will be
asked to speak for four minutes. People from the
audience will be asked to limit their responses to
2 minutes each, to give as many people as possible
the opportunity to air their views.
Tasmanian aborigines Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were the first judicial executions in Melbourne on January 20, 1842, The execution was held in public attended by about 5,000 people, a quarter of Melbourne's population at the time. The two had been found guilty of murder of two whalers on circumstantial evidence in a court in which they could not make statements in their own defence. The Jury had asked for clemency due to the circumstances, but this was refused by Colonial authorities in Sydney. Along with Planobeena, Pyterrunner, and Trucannini, they had waged an 8 week campaign of resistance to settlement from Dandenong to Western Port and South Gippsland districts on the outskirts of Melbourne that had the new settlement of Melbourne in uproar. It took 3 military expeditions to successfully track and capture them, with the help of native police.
In 1986 Janine Roberts published her research into this forgotten story of indigenous resistance; a story of Melbourne largely forgotten and buried along with the two executed aborigines. Her book on the events surrounding Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyhenner, Jack of Cape Grim, suffered a similar fate - a passing account of interst to a few historians. In 2005 Dr Joseph Toscano was motivated by Jan Roberts account to organise a commemoration on the anniversary in 2006 at he site of the execution. Joseph Toscano is a tenacious campaigner, who organised the formation of a commemoration committee with Carolyn Briggs, Boon Wurrung elder, as Patron. In the 2008 election for Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Toscano stood as a candidate and campaigned for a public memorial. Melbourne City Council has referred the proposal for a memorial for consideration as part of an aboriginal heritage study being prepared for council. The attendance of the Lord Mayor, Robert Doyle, at the 2009 commemoration is a sign that recognition and a memorial may at last be forthcoming.
Jan Roberts, when told about these events, said "Wonderful to see this happening. it fulfills a long dream of mine, When I wrote "Jack of Cape Grim" in 1986 about these events, it was because I was appalled how Melbourne had ignored what had happened when it was founded to the local inhabitants. Now we have the Mayor remembering these events. And last year, I should mention, the book went back into print in a new edition - [you can] find it on Amazon etc. (new ISBN no.) and people started to talk about a film."
Jack of Cape Grim was republished in July 2008 by Impact Investigative Media Productions. ISBN 13: 9780955917707 ISBN 10: 0955917700. It is available from Powells.com and Amazon.com, but why not ask your local bookeller to order it in and stock it so others can also read the story. Jan Roberts other books include From Massacres to Mining: The colonization of Aboriginal Australia (also republished), and Fear of the Invisible, an investigation of scientific fraud in seminal aids research (see www.fearoftheinvisible.com/). She also co-produced with Aboriginal Spokesman and Elder Robert Bropho in 1985 "Munda Nyuringu", an award winning film of black voices narrating massacres and the impact of the European invasion in Western Australia.
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Robbie Thorpe, Gunnai Elder |
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Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle |
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Humphrey McQueen (Historian) |
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Greg Platt from Australia Asia Worker Links (AAWL) |
Posted January 21st, 2009 by takver on Sydney Indymedia
Aboriginal Freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were remembered by about 60 people in Melbourne on the anniversay of their judical execution on January 20, 1842. Robert Doyle, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, a former Liberal Party parliamentarian, joined the commemoration, which was led by a welcome to country address and smoking ceremony by Gunnai elder Robbie Thorpe. Other speakers included Greg Platt from Australian Asia Worker Links, historian Humphrey McQueen and Melbourne City Greens Councillor Cathy Oke.
Photos | Videos: Robbie Thorpe (Gunnai Elder), Robert Doyle (Lord Mayor), Humphrey McQueen (historian), Greg Platt (AAWL)
Gunnai elder, Robbie Thorpe spoke at the 2009 commemoration for indigenous freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, giving the welcome to country address and smoking ceremony to show respect to the spirits and ancestors. His address highlighted in a very personal fashion that aboriginal people have never ceeded sovereignity over their land and even today a treaty is needed to advance the reconciliation process and resolve the many injustices of the invasion and dispossession of the aboriginal people from their land, culture and life. (Watch video)
Joseph Toscano from the Anarchist Media Institute has been prominent in the campaign for a memorial to Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, with a commemoration on the site of the execution on the anniversary each year since 2006. Toscano has issued a booklet on this forgotten history of Melbourne, based upon the research of Jan Roberts in her 1980s book 'Jack of Cape Grim'.
Joe Toscano was a candidate in the 2008 Melbourne Mayoral electoral campaign and focused in public election meetings on an indigenous memorial. Fellow Lord Mayoral candidate Robert Doyle said "I didn't know this story until Joe made it clear to me and a couple of people who are supporters and carriers of the flame if you like, made this known to me during the course of the Lord Mayoral election campaign and I made the commitment to Joe and others that I would come down here and help you mark this ...comemoration."
Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle commemorates story of aboriginal resistance Photo and Transcript |
Melbourne City Council has unanimously voted for a memorial to be seriously considered by a council committee.
Greg Platt spoke as the co-ordinator of the Indigenous Solidarity Campaign of Australia Asia Worker Links (AAWL) at the 2009 commemoration for indigenous freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner. AAWL believes the rights of indigenous people fall into two main categories: the right to be treated equal with everybody in this country and the right to remain Indigenous. He also spoke about Australia being stolen land. (Watch video)
Other speakers included historian Humphrey McQueen who emphasised the importance of a memorial to remember the indigenous resistance as part of the history of Melbourne. (watch video) Other speakers included Cathy Oke, Melbourne City councillor representing the Greens, as well as commemmoration committee speakers and members of the crowd.
Posted January 21st, 2008 by takver on Sydney Indymedia
Photo by Takver Carolyn Briggs, Boon Wurung elder and patron of the Commemoration Committee, thanks people for attending |
Commemoration website | Photos
"Every Australian knows the story of Ned Kelly. Few know the remarkable story of Tunnerminnerwait, Maulboyheenner, Pyterruner, Truganini and Planobeena – a story of revolt, passion, courage, murder, armed resistance and execution." said a statement on the Commemoration website. The Commemoration Committee was launched in August 2007 to bring this largely untold and forgotten story to public attention. The Committee is convened by Dr Joseph Toscano, with the patron being Carolyn Briggs - Elders Spokesperson for Boon wurrung Elders Land Council.
The Commemoration Committee has called for the erection of a public monument to publicly acknowledge this story and its contribution to the history of Melbourne.
"Considering the number of statutes and monuments that have been erected around Melbourne to honour the Europeans who founded it, it would be appropriate if a public monument was erected on the spot Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were executed to mark their contribution to the story of the City of Melbourne." said the statement on the Comemoration Committee website.
Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were amoung 5 Tasmanian Aborigines who conducted a campaign of resistance to European settlement in 1841. The other three were Pyterruner, Truganini and Planobeena. They had been brought to Melbourne by the officially appointed Protector of Aborigines, George Augustus Robinson.
They raided station after station from Dandenong to Cape Paterson. They stole firearms and burnt down stations, trying to avoid unnecessary deaths and gunfights. They killed 2 whalers, Cook and Yankee, wounded 5 settlers, burnt down numerous farmhouses and evaded capture for 8 weeks. Three military expeditions were launched against them. Although they set out to drive the settlers from the bush, they didn't harm women or children and only fired at those that fired at them. Considering the outrages that had been perpetrated on them and their families in Tasmania, it´s extraordinary that they didn´t kill many more settlers when they had the opportunity to even up the score.
Their capture was effected by an overwhelming party of soldiers, police, settlers and black trackers near Anderson´s Inlet, not far from Cape Patterson. During the 8 weeks of their roaming, reports of their feats sent a shiver down the spine of the Europeans who were living in Melbourne and its surrounds.
They arrived in chains under military escort in Melbourne on 21st November 1841. All 5 were charged with murder and appeared in court before Judge Willis on the 20th December 1841. The jury delivered a verdict after half an hour finding the men guilty of murder, and the women not guilty. The jury made a very strong plea for clemency for the men ´on account of general good character and the peculiar circumstances under which they are placed´.
The next day Judge Willis sentenced the 2 men to death and the 3 women were discharged into Robinson´s care. The jury´s plea for mercy was rejected by the Executive Council of New South Wales. On the 20th January 1842 Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were led to the scaffold, where the current RMIT building is located. Here they were hanged watched by a crowd of about 5,000. The first public judicial execution in Melbourne.
Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were buried outside the Melbourne cemetery (under the current Victoria Market).
The Commemoration Committee formed with the aims:
by Takver Friday January 26, 2007 at 03:06 AM on Melbourne Indymedia
The first Execution in Melbourne Painting by WFE Liardet See the colour version at the Public Records Office, Victoria |
Thirty people, gubbahs and kouris, gathered at the corner of Franklin and Bowen Street, Melbourne, opposite the City Baths to remember Tasmanian Aborigines Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay, the 165th anniversary of the judicial murder of these two indigenous freedom fighters. They were the first public executions in Melbourne on January 21, 1842, before a crowd of 5,000.
As the current furore over the death in custody of Domadgee Mulrunji continues, it is important to reflect on the aboriginal resistance to the European invasion. European justice remains a means to justify the invasion, dispossession, and continued repression of indigenous resistance up to the present day.
Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay were amoung 5 Tasmanian Aborigines who conducted a campaign of resistance to European settlement in 1841. They had been brought to Melbourne by the officially appointed Protector of Aborigines, George Augustus Robinson.
They raided station after station from Dandenong to Cape Paterson. They stole firearms and burnt down stations, trying to avoid unnecessary deaths and gunfights. They killed 2 whalers, Cook and Yankee, wounded 5 settlers, burnt down numerous farmhouses and evaded capture for 8 weeks. Three military expeditions were launched against them. Although they set out to drive the settlers from the bush, they didn't harm women or children and only fired at those that fired at them. Considering the outrages that had been perpetrated on them and their families in Tasmania, it's extraordinary that they didn't kill many more settlers when they had the opportunity to even up the score.
Their capture was effected by an overwhelming party of soldiers, police, settlers and black trackers near Anderson's Inlet, not far from Cape Patterson. During the 8 weeks of their roaming, reports of their feats sent a shiver down the spine of the Europeans who were living in Melbourne and its surrounds.
They arrived in chains under military escort in Melbourne on 21st November 1841. All 5 were charged with murder and appeared in court before Judge Willis on the 20th December 1841. The jury delivered a verdict after half an hour finding the men guilty of murder, and the women not guilty. The jury made a very strong plea for clemency for the men "on account of general good character and the peculiar circumstances under which they are placed".
The next day Judge Willis sentenced the 2 men to death and the 3 women were discharged into Robinson's care. The jury's plea for mercy was rejected by the Executive Council of New South Wales. On the 21st January 1842 Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay were led to the scaffold, where the current RMIT building is located. Here they were hanged watched by a crowd of about 5,000. The first public judicial execution in Melbourne.
Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay were buried outside the Melbourne cemetery (under the current Victoria Market).
by Joseph Toscano Friday January 27, 2006 at 12:25 AM on Melbourne Indymedia
Repost from Anarchist Age Weekly Review 676
 Maulboyheenner - Painting by Thomas Bock
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The 30 or so people who gathered at the corner of Bowen and Franklin Streets in Melbourne last Saturday to mark the 164th anniversary of the execution of the indigenous freedom fighters Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay, decided to appoint a Steering Committee to examine the possibility of ongoing action.
Australia has been involved in a viscous culture war over the past 2 decades that has been conducted by a small but influential clique of reactionary historical revisionists who enjoy a great deal of support in the Federal Cabinet and Murdoch's flagship in Australia - The Australian. This war has been fought to undermine gains made by indigenous Australians, the trade union and community based orgnisations. They have succeeded in their efforts to undermine the gains made by people who have been oppressed for generations.
Ironically, while historical revisionists that deny the Holocaust occurred are correctly marginalised and ridiculed, those in Australia who deny the reality of the colonisation process in this country are lauded, are given a voice by both the Federal government and influential sections of the corporate media. The formation of a group that is willing to take these historical and cultural revisionists head on, is long overdue.
The best way to tackle the lies and misinformation that is currently doing the rounds, is by publicly commemorating significant events in our past, by erecting memorials, plaques and statues to physically mark these events, by putting pressure on local councils to establish and maintain these memorials and encouraging them to hold seminars and information days to inform the residents of their municipalities about these significant events and to put pressure on the government of the day to ensure that these important stories are told in the National Museum, the National Library, the National Art Gallery and most importantly of all, the story about the indigenous resistance to white colonisation is told in the Canberra War Memorial.
If you are interested in joining and supporting the 'CULTURE WARS COUNTERATTACK', keep reading the Anarchist Age Weekly Review and listening to the Anarchist World This Week [3CR Wednesdays 10am] to find out what is planned for the rest of the year.
PERSONAL OBSERVATION
I first came across the story of Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay in a second hand bookshop 4 or 5 years ago. I'd heard about the first executions that had occurred in Victoria in the early 1840's, but knew nothing about them. It was one of those fortuitous meetings that happen once in a while. In the bottom shelf of the Australian History section was a copy of Jack of Cape Grimm which has been written by Jan Roberts as a bicentenary subject. She wanted to do a TV series, nothing came of it, now her book, like the bones of Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay rotting underneath the Queen Victoria Market, have joined the community's collective unconsciousness.
I've been thinking about organising something to mark their execution for 2 to 3 years. It was only late last year after a little bit of prodding from a friend - Bill, that the Anarchist Media Institute organised a commemoration. Even if 3 or 4 turned up, the event would stir up a few leaves in the collective amnesia of the city of Melbourne.
Saturday was the hottest day for over a year, temperatures soared around 40degrees. The spot - corner Franklin & Bowen Streets is bare asphalt, workmen were trying to get in and out of RMIT in their utes. About 30 of us made a circle, a few talked about the significance of the events, for an hour we remembered, we had blown life into this city's forgotten history. Although the media had been invited, no one came, no one called. I didn't expect anybody to bother; they had bigger fish to fry - what was happening at Ramsey Street, the cricket and 101 other meaningless events to cover.
It doesn't matter, we have started a tradition which will grow and grow, a Steering Committee was appointed - ‘THE CUTURE WARS COUNTER ATTACK' was born kicking and screaming. It is amazing what happens when we try to make the ideas in our heads a reality. Tunnerminnerwait and Peevay's deaths are not forgotten. People had tears in their eyes as I recounted their stories. A bunch of flowers, an A3 poster and a leaflet were taped around a tree, someone else will come across their story, maybe, just maybe, they will take the trouble like you to join us next year.
AUSTRALIAN RADICAL HISTORY WHO? (from Anarchist Age No 643)
Every Australian knows about the Ned Kelly gang, how many Australians are familiar with the story of PLANOBEENA, PYTERRUNNER, TRUCANNINI, TUNNERMINNERWAIT and PEEVAY - Fanny, Matilda, Truganni, Jack and Robert - 5 indigenous Tasmanians who fought an effective campaign against the invading European settlers on the Eastern outskirts of Melbourne in the late 1841.
Their exploits rival those of the Ned Kelly gang. One group has been ignored and forgotten, the other immortalised in Australia folklore Three military expeditions were launched against 5 of the 17 Tasmanian Aborigines that had been brought across from Tasmania by the Aboriginal "protector" Robinson - for the purpose of aiding in the civilisation of the Aborigines of Australia Felix-the remnants of the Tasmania tribes who had fought a 34 year battle against the invasion of Tasmania by European settlers were once again conducting war against the invaders, this time in Victoria.
All 5 were familiar with firearms and the ways of European settlers. The invaders held no fear for them and they were able to evade 3 military expeditions that were sent to kill them.
They raided station after station from Dandenong to Cape Paterson. They stole firearms and burnt down stations, trying to avoid unnecessary deaths and gunfights. They killed 2 whalers, Cook and Yankee, wounded 5 settlers, burnt down numerous farmhouses and evaded capture for 8 weeks. Although they set out to drive the settlers from the bush, they didn't harm women or children and only fired at those that fired at them. Considering the outrages that had been perpetrated on them and their families in Tasmania, it's extraordinary that they didn't kill many more settlers when they had the opportunity to even up the score.
They were finally captured near Anderson's Inlet, not far from Cape Patterson, after an exchange of gunfire with an overwhelming party of soldiers, police, settlers and black trackers, who were used to pinpoint their position in the bush. In 8 weeks, this small band had sent a shiver down the spine of the 15,000 Europeans who were living in Melbourne and its environs in late 1841.
The Aboriginal prisoners arrived in Melbourne 6 days after they were captured in chains and under military escort on the 21st November 1841. All the defendants were charged with murder, they appeared in court on the 20th December 1841. Mr. Redmond Barry, the standing Defence Counsel for Aborigines who represented the 5 in court, was the same man who presided over the trial of some of the miners who were involved in the Eureka rebellion in 1854 and the judge who sentenced Ned Kelly to hang in 1880.
Barry conducted a very skilful defence, Robinson gave character evidence for the fire, and later the same evening the jury took half an hour to reach a verdict. The men were found guilty of murder, the women were found not guilty. The jury made a very strong plea for clemency for the men "on account of general good character and the peculiar circumstances under which they are placed".
The next day Judge Willis sentenced the 2 men to death and the 3 women were discharged into Robinson's care. The jury's plea for mercy was rejected by the Executive Council of New South Wales. There had never been an execution in Melbourne since it was founded in 1836.
It's ironic that the first 2 executions were of indigenous resistance fighters. The execution was carried out on the site of the current Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology on the 20th January 1842. 5000 people, a quarter of Victoria's white population turned up for Melbourne's first public executions.
Tunnerminnerwait faced the execution calmly, Peevy was terror struck and had to be dragged up to the gallows. The gallows were poorly built, the execution had no previous experience, the trap doors opened, both men only partially fell, "the 2 twisted and writhed convulsively in a manner that horrified even the most hardened". A spectator kicked the piece of timber holding the trapdoor partially opened, Robert slowly choked to death.
Jack and Robert were buried outside the Melbourne cemetery (under the current Victoria Market). Aboriginal armed resistance continued in Victoria till the 1850's.
SOURCE OF MATERIAL FOR ARTICLE: Jack of Cape Grim by Jan Roberts, Greenhouse Publications 1986, ISBN 086436007X
