1844
On 5 September 1842, Trevor Winter made the following statement to J Blair, the police magistrate for the Portland Bay district.
About a month ago, one of his cousin’s shepherds, when at his supper, heard the sheep rush; he went to the yard unarmed, supposing it to be occasioned by native dogs, and found the sheep gone; and following them, found they were driven away by natives. He returned to the hut for assistance and arms, and recovered, as he thought, all the sheep; but on counting them the following morning, found 196 missing: and deponent, Mr Butcher, and a servant started immediately on the tracks of the sheep, and found the remains of 35 of them a short distance from another of his stations. Deponent then followed on the tracks again till he came to a fire, where the blacks were: he told them if they would give up the remainder of sheep, he would not be angry with them: they were principally blacks that had been residing on deponent’s station, and whom he has been feeding for the last two years. One of them asked deponent, ‘What for you sulky? sheep no belong you; come on, me no frighten; buy, buy plenty you black fellow.’ They then made preparation to surround him, and the black just alluded to poised his spear to strike him, when he fired and shot him, as he has since heard, mortally. To escape being surrounded, deponent and his party then retreated, and were pursued by the blacks. Three days after, he went out with Mr Cook, his cousin, and three men, to endeavour to recover some of the sheep, or at all events the skins; and on passing through the scrub, found 80 sheep alive, with their legs twisted out of the sockets, and the remains of about 12 sheep; and proceeding further on, found where the blacks had just been encamped, which was close to the spot where he had first fallen in with them, and where they still were. Mr Cook and one of the men rode up to them, to say where the remainder of the sheep were, when they threw their spears at him and the man. Mr Cook called to deponent, who was on the opposite side of the swamp, to come over; he did so, and as he was approaching, a black jumped from behind a tree, cried ‘Come On,’ and threw his spears at him, which stuck into a tree over his head; deponent instantly fired at, and surrounded him. The spot where they had the sheep was not above 12 miles [19 kilometres] from the stations; and they had driven them by a circuit of at least 30 or 40 miles [48–64 kilometres] to it, crossing every swamp they came to, so that horses could not follow on the track.
(signed) Trevor Winter
Given before me at Portland, this 3rd day of September 1844.
(signed) J Blair, JP. Police Magistrate
Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Sites in Western Victoria, 1803–1859, Ian Clark, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1995