Oombulgurri in the Kimberley remains a place of great pain and darkness almost a century on from the Forrest River killings

'A very tragic history': how the trauma of a 1926 massacre echoes through the years

Located on the banks of east Kimberley’s Forrest River, with a scenic cliff face at its entrance, Oombulgurri boasts rare natural beauty. Few would believe this peaceful, isolated spot – only accessible by boat – has experienced so much trauma, and so recently.

Until 1969 Oombulgurri was a punitive Anglican mission called Forrest River. In 1926 tensions between Aboriginal people on the mission and residents of the nearby Nulla Nulla station, on their ancestral lands, came to a bloody head.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The cliff face at the entrance to Oombulgurri. Photograph: Mareike Ceranna/Amnesty International Australia

Some of them returned to the station and speared some cattle. Then Nulla Nulla’s co-owner Frederick Hay was murdered by an Aboriginal man named Lumbia, for the rape of his wife, Anguloo.

Police constables Graham St Jack and Denis Regan led a posse of 13 police and local white people to find Hay’s killer, taking along an arsenal of Winchester rifles, 500 to 600 rounds of ammunition, 42 horses and shotguns. They inflicted ruthless reprisal attacks on Aboriginal men, women and children at Forrest River.

The mission later reported 30 Aboriginal people “missing”, while an initial police inquiry concluded that 16 people had been killed and their remains burned. A subsequent royal commission into the killings confirmed that at least 11 Aboriginal people had been killed and their remains burned – in three purpose-built stone ovens.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Children at the mission in 1920, six years before the Forrest River massacre. From the State Library of WA collection, courtesy of Wilma and Harry Venville. Photograph: Ernest Lund Mitchell

The two police officers who led the attacks were arrested and charged with murder but the case never went to trial. But Lumbia, the Aboriginal man who killed the pastoralist, was convicted in a separate proceeding.

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The Oombulgurri people returned to their country in the 1970s during the homelands movement, which was hailed as the beginning of a new era of self-determination. But by 2005, Oombulgurri had once again become a site of great pain and darkness. Five community members died, four of them by suicide.

Then, in 2007, three people were arrested and convicted of serious child sex offences uncovered by “Operation Sheepshank”.

A coronial inquest into the suicides found that there was significant alcohol abuse, domestic violence, child neglect, sexual abuse and poor leadership in the community.

Western Australia’s coroner at the time, Alastair Hope, said Oombulgurri was in a “state of crisis” and “many millions of dollars had been spent in propping up and perpetuating a community which in many respects on any objective criteria was a disgrace”.

The state’s Liberal government decided to close it down.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest In 2014 the WA government authorised the demolition of all of Oombulgurri’s buildings and infrastructure. Photograph: Mareike Ceranna/Amnesty International Australia

Over the next three years, essential services were withdrawn. Residents were denied their Centrelink benefits; the shop, medical clinic and school were closed; water and electricity were cut off.

Then, in 2011, the 10 residents who remained were given a two-day eviction notice. Each of them was only allowed to take one box of belongings.

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“Despite extensive efforts to address the issues that have plagued Oombulgurri, there remained considerable risk of further decline in community dysfunction without government action … Financial propriety also meant that the community should be closed,” Western Australia’s then-minister for Aboriginal affairs, Peter Collier, told parliament in 2014.

John Hammond, a lawyer who represented Oombulgurri families who lost relatives to suicide, says: “Massacres and their legacy certainly weren’t a theme that was developed or received any airplay.”

He adds: “It would have a long-lasting effect on people and it’s certainly worthy of more recognition.”

Tammy Solonec, of Amnesty International, sees parallels between the collective punishment of the community in the 1926 massacre and the closure of Oombulgurri.

“In the massacre you had the police coming in and killing people and, even with the forced eviction, those last 10 people, they were removed by police,” she says. “It’s sad that we see repeat situations happening to communities who have been downtrodden and disempowered.

“Oombulgurri has a very tragic history.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Oombulgurri residents wait for rations in 1958. From the State Library of WA collection, courtesy of Wilma and Harry Venville

WA’s current minister for Aboriginal affairs, Ben Wyatt, says the problems of remote communities like Oombulgurri are “complex and intergenerational”.

“As a government, we need to work with communities to find creative solutions that will empower Aboriginal people,” he says.

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The shadow minister for Aboriginal affairs, Kyran O’Donnell, acknowledges that the massacres of Aboriginal people should be better known and “would be a factor” in the development of future initiatives for the Oombulgurri people.

O’Donnell says recognition should involve “not just talking and saying, ‘Oh that happened 90 years ago, we’ll pay $10m in reparations.’ That’s not what it’s about.

“It’s about acknowledgement that it occurred, and it shouldn’t have occurred. There’s no harm in saying this did happen to our people.”

O’Donnell, who was not a member of the WA Liberal party when the community was closed, says: “The government did the right thing because of the seriousness of the situation.”

But Solonec says many of these problems have been transferred to Wyndham and Kununurra, where Oombulgurri people ended up after the evictions.

Many were left homeless, camping out in Wyndham and on a football oval in Kununurra, according to Solonec. Some moved in with relatives, causing overcrowding in houses across the Kimberley.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Horses roam through the abandoned community. Photograph: Mareike Ceranna/Amnesty International Australia

One of the last men to leave Oombulgurri took his own life in Wyndham, and there was another suicide 18 months after the closure.

“If they were so worried about the women and children then why didn’t they make it safe for them, instead of closing down the whole town and putting them into even more dire circumstances?” Solonec asks.

O’Donnell says: “Hindsight’s a very good thing. I believe that closing it helped to stop horrific offences against children. It probably also assisted in the slowing down of domestic violence against women.

“However, could we as a government and could we as a community have done more? Possibly.”

• Crisis support services can be reached 24 hours a day: Lifeline 13 11 14; Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467; Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800; MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78; Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636