Aborigines vow to wipe pioneer Scot off the map

A SCOTTISH pioneer revered as one of Australia's foremost explorers faces being erased from maps amid accusations that he was responsible for the cold-blooded murder of hundreds of aborigines.

The aborigines are calling for the electoral district of McMillan in the southern state of Victoria to be renamed out of respect for the men, women and children they say were slaughtered by Angus McMillan and his 'Highland Brigade' in the massacre of Warrigal Creek.

The 1843 massacre was one of several attributed to McMillan, originally from Glenbrittle, Skye, and his band of Scottish settlers, who styled themselves the 'Highland Brigade'. They are accused of carrying out a genocidal campaign against the aborigines for a decade.

Generations of Australian schoolchildren have been taught that McMillan was a trailblazing settler, the first to cross the Snowy Mountains, opening up the fertile lands beyond. In 1841, McMillan founded Port Albert, Victoria's oldest sea port and the first European settlement in Gippsland, the rich agricultural territory he discovered.

The official Clan MacMillan society, which boasts thousands of members throughout the world, hails Angus McMillan as a famous son. Australia's Presbyterian community have also voted the devout Christian one of the nation's "greatest Presbyterians".

But the Koori aboriginal people of East Gippsland in southern Victoria have altogether different views on the Scottish explorer.

The Koori Heritage Trust says that the number of aborigines slaughtered by McMillan and his colleagues is thought to be in excess of 300, with evidence of 14 separate massacres, including women and children. The most notorious was at the remote settlement of Warrigal Creek, where up to 180 aborigine adults and children were shot after a native reportedly murdered Ranald Macalister, nephew of Lachlan Macalister, the Scottish sponsor of McMillan's expeditions.

An account of the massacre from George Dunderdale, who collected local stories and published them in The Book of the Bush in 1898, said: "The blacks were found encamped near a waterhole at Gammon Creek, and those who were shot were thrown into it."

Richard Frankland, founding member of Australia's pro-indigenous political party, Your Voice, has called on Prime Minister John Howard to launch an investigation into McMillan's shrouded past.

Last night, Frankland said: "Australia has a nursery version of history in its head. All of these people who committed these war crimes, including McMillan, should be outed publicly and I urge our prime minister to set up a select committee to make a judicial investigation into these atrocities.

"If there are statues or commemorations pronouncing them as wonderful men, then they should be torn down or renamed to reflect what they commonly are. There also needs to be a massive renaming of any town or area that is named after these explorers, who in some cases were drunks, rapists and murderers.

"You can't go on ignoring history and making heroes of someone like McMillan, it is blatantly wrong."

Greta Jubb, research officer for the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, said: "We're not going to stand by and let these events in history go past without notice. We're going to kick up a fuss."

Last night, Clan MacMillan International Centre refused to comment.