Restoration project for site of brutal Convincing Ground Massacre, near Portland

THE site of one of south-west Victoria's most brutal historic massacres will be the focus of a restoration project.

Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation has received state funding to restore the health of a Convincing Ground near Portland.

The tract of land was traditionally the clan lands of the Kilcarer Gunditj where the Convincing Ground Massacre took place following conflict with whalers.

From Portland's beginning as a whaling station in 1829, relations between whalers and the Aboriginal community were tense, but erupted around 1833 when almost the entire Kilcarer Gundidj tribe was massacred after a dispute over the ownership of a beached whale

In his book Scars in the Landscape, historian Ian D. Clark includes an extract from the journal of Port Phillip's first chief protector for Aboriginal people, George Robinson, who wrote about the massacre.

"Among the remarkable places on the coast is the 'Convincing Ground' (where) a severe conflict took place . . . between the Aborigines and the whalers on which occasion a large number of the former were slain," Robinson wrote.

Historian Jan Critchett, who prepared a 1995 report on the Convincing Ground for the Land Conservation Council, said it was "an important early contact place" of state significance. Accounts vary, but the number of Aboriginal people killed is believed to be between 60 and 200.

The restoration project will involve removing rubbish, identifying possible cultural heritage sites, invasive weed removal and re-vegetation.

The funding is part of the Coastcare Victoria Community Grants Program.

Grants of up to $30,000 have been allocated to 24 non-profit and volunteer-based organisations from Mallacoota to Portland.

Other recipients include the Australian Plants Society Warrnambool and District Group, who will use the funding for the production and printing of a third edition of the popular book Plants of the Great South West, which contains photographs and full descriptions of plants in south west Victoria.

The new edition will include 116 extra species and in total 130 rare and endangered plants along with over 50 environmental weeds.

The Barwon South West branch of Birdlife Australia also received a grant for a shorebird monitoring citizen science program that raises awareness of shorebirds and their habitat and encourages the community to participate in gathering information needed to conserve shorebirds across Victoria.

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