1880
Ravensthorpe massacre: In 1880, a group of Noongar was massacred a few kilometres from the town of Ravensthorpe in the area known to Noongar as Cocanarup. John Dunn, a farm worker, attacked and violated a young Noongar girl. He was subsequently killed – according to the Noongar lore of payback – by Yandawulla Dibbs and a group of local Noongar men. Dunn’s overseer sent out word of the killing, and returned with a large group of armed settlers. Up to 30 Noongar men, women and children in the area were killed.
Noongar to this day still find it hard to visit the place where our ancestors were killed and suffered such injustice.
To find out more, see Roni Forrest’s Kukenarup – Two Stories: A Report on Historical Accounts of a Massacre Site at Cocanarup Near Ravensthorpe WA.