Places/pinjarra.html
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Pinjarra/Binjareb
Wikipedia:
Pinjarra is a town in the Peel region of Western Australia along the South Western Highway, 82 kilometres from the state capital, Perth and 21 kilometres south-east of the coastal city of Mandurah. Its local government area is the Shire of Murray.
It is near the site of the Pinjarra massacre, where between 14 and 80 Noongar people were killed by British colonists in 1834.
The name was often shown spelt "Pinjarrup" on early maps, while the accepted spelling for many years was "Pinjarrah". There are conflicting theories regarding the meaning of the name, and it is usually said to mean "place of a swamp", as a corruption of the Aboriginal word "beenjarrup". However, Pinjarra is more likely to have been named after the Pindjarup people who frequented the area.
Pinjarra is one of the earliest European settlements to occur in Western Australia; one of the first settlers in the area was Thomas Peel, who established a settlement at the mouth of the Murray River in 1830. In 1831, land was reserved for a townsite near a ford over the river. By 1834, word had spread about the rich loamy soils and pastures, bringing more Europeans to the area. In 1834, at the insistence of Thomas Peel, a group was organised and led by Governor James Stirling to do something about the Aboriginals; this group attacked the village consisting of over 20 mia-mias just after dawn. They approached from both sides of the river, forcing the people into the river where they caught the victims, mostly women and children, in a crossfire. Many bodies were left to float down stream. Official reports referred to it as a battle; it was not until over 150 years later that it was recognised as one of many massacres by colonialists in Australia. Surveys were carried out in 1836 and land allocated to settlers in 1837.
A British child migration scheme run by Kingsley Fairbridge established a farm school in the area in the early 1900s. Hundreds of orphaned children were educated at Fairbridge Farm between 1913 and 1981. Fairbridge Chapel was built at Pinjarra, in 1924 to Herbert Baker's design.
van den Berg [?]:
Pinjarra is steeped in history. Long before the first Europeans ever saw the area, it was a meeting place for the Aborigines who inhabited the south-west corner of this land mass, the Nyoongah people. Their territory ranged from the north, where the township of Geraldton was established by early settlers, to boundaries east of Albany on the south coast and, diagonally, encompassing the country beyond where Merredin now stands. Between the Nyoongah lands and their neighbours, the Wangkis to the east and the Yammitjis to the north, was a corridor where people could communicate without being accused of trespassing on others' lands. Land ownership was recognised between the Aboriginal people and permission was needed to enter another's territory. The corridor was like a "no man's land" where negotiations could take place without fear of being thought of as intruders. The different groups respected territorial ownership and bartering for commodities from distant areas was conducted at meetings held for this purpose. Pinjarra was one such place.
... The Murray River region was always rich in wildlife and edible vegetation, which is why the Aborigines of the region gathered there. According to Green, the Binjareb was the name of the local group of Aborigines who inhabited this area. One of the leaders was Calyute, a fierce and warlike warrior who disliked the whites coming to his territory and taking over ownership of the land. His resistance caused terror to the settlers. However, before colonisation began, the Nyoongah people of the Pinjarra area adhered to the traditional lifestyle they practised. They were semi-nomadic, yet kept to their own haunts. As they moved from area to area, they built mia mias for shelter from inclement weather or for privacy. Their needs were simple as they roamed the waterways or bush in search of food, which was in plentiful supply for most of the year. They were lucky; the country comprising the Murray River basin was rich in food sources. ... Rosemary Van den Berg, 'Changing Years', Span, Journal of the South Pacific Assoc for Cwlth Lit and Language Studies, Number 37, 1993. [This mysterious document was written by a man, and not the 'author' mentioned above the article.]
References and Links
Green, Neville 1984, Broken Spears: Aboriginals and Europeans in the Southwest of Australia, Focus Education Services, Cottesloe, WA.
Hasluck, Alexandra 1965, Thomas Peel of Swan River, OUP, Melbourne.
Richards, Ronald 1978, The Murray District of Western Australia: A History, Shire of Murray.
Richards, Ronald 1980, Mandurah and the Murray: A Short History of the Old Murray District of Western Australia 1829-1900, privately published.
Richards, Ronald 1993, Murray and Mandurah: A Sequel History of the Old Murray District of Western Australia, Shire of Murray and City of Mandurah.
Smart W. C. 1956, Mandurah and Pinjarrah: History of Thomas Peel and the Peel Estate, 1829-1865, Paterson Brokensha, Perth. (Violent conflict between settlers and Aborigines in Western Australia 1838; Battle of Pinjarrah; Appendix has account of 'Customs of the Murray tribe'.)
See also: Pinjarra massacre.
The Battle [sic] of Pinjarra, 1834:
1. Ilbery, Mrs E. S. 1927, 'The passing of the Bibbulmun', Early Days, vol. 1, part 1: 24-30.
2. Grose, Mrs J. E. 1927, 'The background to the encounter', Early Days, vol. 1, part 1: 30-35.
3. Battye, Dr. J. S. 1927, 'The official records of the encounter', Early Days, vol. 1, part 1: 35-37.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 26 August, 2021 and hosted at freotopia.org/places/pinjarra.html (it was last updated on 12 May, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.