Midgegooroo (died 22 May 1833) was an Australian Aboriginal elder of the Nyungar nation, who played a key role in Aboriginal resistance to white settlement in the area of Perth, Western Australia. Everything documented about Midgegooroo (variously spelled in records as "Midgeegaroo", "Midgegarew", "Midgegoorong", Midgegoroo", Midjegoorong", "Midjigoroo", "Midgigeroo", Midjigeroo", "Migegaroo", "Migegaroom", "Migegooroo", "Midgecarro", "Widgegooroo") is mediated through the eyes of colonisers, some of whom, notably George Fletcher Moore, Robert Menli Lyon and Francis Armstrong, derived their information from discussions with contemporary Noongar people, in particular the son of Midgegooroo, Yagan. Largely due to his exploits in opposing colonisation and his relationship with Lyon and Moore, Yagan has a much sharper historical profile than his father. Midgegooroo was executed by firing squad without trial under the authority of Lieutenant Governor Frederick Irwin in 1833.
Early life Nothing is known of Midgegooroo's life prior to the arrival of white settlers in 1829. At the time, Midgegooroo was the leader of his home country, Beeliar, which stretched from the Indian Ocean to the Canning River, south of the Swan River. Robert Menli Lyon reported that the northernmost land in Beeliar adjoined "Melville Water and the Canning", and was bordered "by the mountains on the east; by the sea on the west; and by a line, due east, from Mangles Bay, on the south". Midgegooroo's main camp ("headquarters") was known as "Mendyarrup, situated somewhere in Gaudoo", suggesting that it was in the vicinity of Blackwall Reach and Point Walter. However, Midgegooroo's family had some rights to use resources on a large part of what is now metropolitan Perth, and were able to move freely about an even larger area, presumably due to kinship ties with neighbours. For example, he was seen on some occasions as far afield as Galup and the Helena River.
In 1830, Midgegooroo was reported to be an older man, short in stature with long hair and a "remarkable bump" on his forehead, a physical description repeated on occasion over the next two and a half years, including in a deposition presented in evidence before his execution. Midgegooroo appears to have remained aloof from the colonists. There is evidence that he occasionally engaged in friendly communications with some local farmers, including Erin Entwhistle, a man he speared in 1831. Unlike some other named Aboriginal people of the region, including Yagan, Weeip and Yellagonga, Midgegooroo does not appear to have ever performed casual labour for colonists in any capacity, and continued to move around Beeliar with his wives and children. He was described as consistently hostile to the presence of Europeans on his country; "a dangerous and furious ruffian". He had at least two wives, the older described as "rather tall and wanting her front teeth", the younger of whom was named Ganiup, and at least four sons, Yagan, Narral, Billy and Willim, and at least one brother. He appears to have spent much of his time "taking care of the women and children of the tribe".
Conflicts with white settlers Early relationships between Noongars and colonists at the Swan River Colony have been documented, demonstrating the existing occupants of the Swan and Canning River area's opposition to colonisation, initially manifested by shouted warnings and aggressive postures, but increasingly through hostility and violence. Lieutenant Governor James Stirling, in his proclamation of the colony in June 1829, warned that Aboriginal people were protected by British laws and any colonist convicted of "behaving in a fraudulent, cruel or felonious Manner towards the Aborigines of the Country" would be dealt with "as if the same had been committed against any other of His Majesty's subjects". Nonetheless, the first ten years of colonisation witnessed a significant level of violence in which a number of Europeans and Aboriginal people died. The actual death toll is unknown, but the number of Aboriginal dead far exceeds the losses in the European community.
Swan River colonisers in the first four years of the settlement initially failed to record the names of the Aboriginal people of the Swan River region, but it is highly likely that Midgegooroo would have been one of those who observed the first British explorations in 1827 and the subsequent establishment in June 1829 of the port of Fremantle, the capital at Perth, satellite settlements at Guildford and further inland at York, and the network of small farms around the area. His first appearance in the colonial record may have been in May 1830 when an old man, tentatively identified by Sylvia Hallam and Lois Tilbrook as Midgegooroo, was found plucking two turkeys which had been stolen from a farm on the Canning River and subsequently beaten by a military detachment. The next day, a group of eight Aboriginal men, including "Dencil", attacked a farm near Kelmscott and injured a settler named J.R. Phillips "with whom they had always been friendly". If Hallam and Tilbrook are correct that the old man was Midgegooroo, he would have been subjected to European violence in retaliation for actions he did not fully comprehend quite early in their colonisation.
In December 1830, Midgegooroo was camping by Galup when two white labourers, who were passing by, stopped to shake hands with a group of Aboriginal women. When the two men returned later that day, Midgegooroo scared them off by threatening to spear one of them.
In approximately February 1831, Midgegooroo was reported to have come to Lionel Samson's store in Fremantle and was given biscuits by a servant James Lacey.
A few weeks later, Midgegooroo was involved in an incident that came to play a crucial part in his eventual execution. In apparent retaliation for the killing of an Aboriginal man who was taking potatoes and a fowl from the farm of Archibald Butler near Point Walter, Midgegooroo and Yagan attacked Butler's homestead and killed a servant named Erin Entwhistle, whose son Ralph, then aged about ten, gave a deposition identifying Midgegooroo as the principal offender:
In May 1833, colonist Charles Bourne recalled having sat on a jury inquiring into the death of Entwhistle which heard the evidence of Ralph Entwhistle and his younger brother.
Charles Bourne figured again in the story when, in about May 1832, Midgegooroo and his wife attempted to break into their house in Fremantle. "My wife told me", he recalled, "that they had thrown two spears at her, and I saw the spears laying on the floor. Their violence was such that my wife was obliged to take a sword to them." Later he was reported as having tried to take provisions from Thomas Hunt at his sawpit on the Canning River. Finally, he was reported as having set his dingos on a settler's pigs.
A police constable Thomas Hunt reported that he had known Midgegooroo for three years:
In May 1832, Yagan was arrested for the murder of William Gaze on the Canning River, an incident that lead to his declaration as an outlaw, imprisonment on Carnac Island with Lyon, and subsequent escape. In March 1833, a number of Noongar men from King George Sound visited Perth at the instigation of the government. This was the second visit of King George Sound people that year, apparently for the purpose of encouraging "amicable relationships on the Swan like those at the Sound". Yagan and ten of his countrymen had met the first visitors at Galup and, when the next group arrived, he was keen to present a corroboree for them in Perth before an "overflowing audience", which included the Lieutenant Governor Frederick Irwin. Yagan acted as "master of ceremonies, and acquitted himself with infinite dignity and grace". Although Yagan's group was referred to as "Midgegooroo's group", it is unclear whether the old man also attended.
In April 1833, an incident occurred in Fremantle that led to the declaration of Midgegooroo and Yagan as outlaws. A group of Aboriginal people, including a classificatory brother of Yagan named Domjun, broke into stores occupied by Mr. Downing. William Chidlow, who lived nearby:
The next morning, Yagan and a number of others crossed the Swan River near Preston Point and told Mr. Weavell's servant they were going to the Canning River to "spear 'white man', and fixing his spear into a throwing stick, he rushed into the bush, followed by his infuriated tribe". At noon, Yagan, Midgegooroo, Munday, Migo and "about 30 Natives", who "appeared to be friendly", encountered Mr. Phillips and four other white men, including Thomas and John Velvick, who were employed as farm labourers at the entrance of Bull's Creek on the Canning River. The white men were loading a quantity of provisions for Phillips' farm at Maddington, onto carts when Midgegooroo inquired about the number of men in the first cart which had already left the scene. According to a witness, Thomas Yule:
Frederick Irwin described the episode in his dispatch to the Secretary of State for Colonies:
According to his account, Irwin immediately conferred with his Executive Council "to take such steps for a prompt and summary retaliation, as the means at my disposal admitted". A proclamation was issued and published in the Perth Gazette offering a reward of £30 for the capture "dead or alive" of Yagan, and £20 of Midgigooroo and Munday, equivalent to and respectively in . The proclamation declared Yagan, Midgegooroo and Munday to be outlaws;
Frederick Irwin rationalized his actions to the Secretary of State in the following terms:
Capture and execution By the time Irwin's dispatch had been received in London, Midgegooroo had been captured and executed. Despite his efforts to convince his superiors that his actions were justified, Irwin was criticised by the Secretary of State, who would have preferred a sentence of imprisonment, believing that execution would do little to improve relationships between the Aboriginal peoples and the colonists. As Irwin had intended, the search for Midgegooroo, Yagan and Munday proceeded quickly as the military and private settlers combed the region. One volunteer party led by a colonist named Thomas Hunt (according to Moore, "a most appropriate name" who had previously been a constable in London) headed south "in the direction of the Murray" and came across a number of "native huts" not far from the south shore of the Swan. They "routed" the Aboriginal people there, and pursued a group south, shooting and killing one man who was believed to be the brother of Midgegooroo and according to Moore, bringing his ears home "as a token". According to the Perth Gazette, throughout the period immediately after the proclamation, Midgegooroo remained near the property of the Drummonds on the Helena River "employed as he usually had been of late in taking care of the women and children of the tribe" and clearly unaware of his outlaw status and his impending doom. On Thursday 16 May, a military party led by Captain Ellis, acting on information that Midgegooroo was in the area, joined forces with a number of civilians, including Thomas Hardey and J. Hancock. After camping overnight, the next morning they came across Midgegooroo and his young son.
In the same issue, the Perth Gazette went on to invite citizens to "forward the ends of justice" by coming forward with their evidence of Midgegooroo's wrongdoings, indicative of the close relationship between the early colonial media, the Government and the nascent system of justice.