It was here at the corner of Cliff Street and Croke Lane, now a parking lot for the University of Notre Dame, that relations between white Colonists and Aborigines dramatically entered a downward spiral. While violence was implicit from the start of white settlement in Australia, the root of the systematic violence that took place in Western Australia during the colonial era can be traced to events that started here. In April 1833, several sacks of flour were stolen from George Johnson’s store. An aborigine was shot dead over the theft. In revenge, Midgegooroo and other aboriginal warriors then killed two white servants travelling from Fremantle to Maddington. The colonial authorities then stepped up their use of broad and disproportion violence. Midgegooroo was captured and executed by a firing squad at Perth. His son, Yagan was betrayed and shot by pastoralists seeking a reward from the government. The violence reached its peak at the bloody massacre of the Murray River people at Pinjarra in 1834. After this point, the nasty little war in the Fremantle area ended. This series of events is only a small part of the violence of settlement, or, dispossession. It also illustrates the misunderstandings that resulted in state sanctioned and directed violence, or war, against Aboriginal People.
