Matthew Moorhouse

{{Short description|English pioneer in Australia (1813–1876)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}} {{Use Australian English|date=November 2016}} thumb|right|Matthew Moorhouse, c.1870 '''Matthew Moorhouse''' (1813 – 29 March 1876)<ref name="parl">{{cite SA-parl |pid=3687 |name=Mr Matthew Moorhouse |former=yes |access-date=19 August 2022}}</ref> was an English pioneer in Australia, pastoralist, politician, and Protector of Aborigines in South Australia. He was in charge of the armed party that murdered 30-40 Maraura people, which may have included women and children, now known as the Rufus River massacre.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=State Library of South Australia |url=http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1322#friction|title=Friction between overlanders and Australian Aboriginals|date = 16 July 2007|access-date=28 August 2018}}</ref><ref>"Papers Relative To The Affairs Of South Australia—Aborigines", ''Accounts and Papers 1843'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=d3VbAAAAQAAJ Volume 3] (London: William Clowes and Sons), p. 267-310.</ref>

==Early life and arrival in Australia== Moorhouse studied medicine and obtained the degree of M.R.C.S. in 1836. He was practising medicine in Hanley, Staffordshire, when the Crown appointed him Protector of Aborigines in South Australia from 20 June 1839, a position he held until 1856.<ref name =poa>{{cite web|url=http://www.firstsources.info/uploads/3/4/5/4/34544232/_7._protectors_letter-books_1892-1906.pdf|title=Protector of Aborigines Out Letter-Book 7: December 8th, 1892 to September 4th, 1906: Including List of Addressees, and Subject Index|editor=Lane, Jo|others=Transcribed and indexed by Jo Lane|date=January 2013|access-date=24 November 2019|archive-date=21 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221091049/http://www.firstsources.info/uploads/3/4/5/4/34544232/_7._protectors_letter-books_1892-1906.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Colonialism and its Aftermath: A history of Aboriginal South Australia|url=https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1385|publisher=Wakefield Press|isbn=9781743054994|date=2017|editor1-first=Peggy|editor1-last=Brock|editor2-first=Tom|editor2-last=Gara|chapter=5. The Aboriginal Presence in Adelaide, 1860s–1960s|first1=Tom|last1=Gara|pages=65–81|archive-date=21 October 2022|access-date=29 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221021032937/https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1385|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He arrived in South Australia in June 1839, along with the Rev. Ridgway William Newland, on ''Sir Charles Forbes''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.familyhistorysa.org/shipping/passengerlists.html|title=Shipping & Passenger Lists South Australia|author=Barry Leadbeater|publisher=FamilyHistorySA|access-date=24 November 2019}}</ref>

==Career== ===Piltawodli=== As Protector, he lived at Piltawodli mission and camp for some years, working closely with the German missionaries, Christian Teichelmann and Clamor Schürmann (and later Samuel Klose), who learned and taught in the Kaurna language. There is only one remaining page of Moorhouse's diary, containing several Kaurna songlines not recorded elsewhere, but much information about the Kaurna people has been gleaned from his reports and official correspondence.<ref name=Griffith>{{cite web|publisher=Griffith University|website=German missionaries in Australia|url=http://missionaries.griffith.edu.au/mission/piltawodli-native-location-1838-1845|title=Piltawodli Native Location (1838-1845)|first=Rob|last=Amery|access-date=9 December 2019}}</ref> In July 1845, the whole site, including the school, was dismantled on the orders of Governor George Grey,<ref name=Griffith/> who thought it best to take the children away from their parents, and a new "Native School" run by the government, which taught only in English, was established near what is now Kintore Avenue,<ref name=Griffith/> and designated "The Location". The Aboriginal students proved to be every bit as bright and teachable as their white contemporaries,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71615597 |title=The Natives and the Native Location |newspaper=The Southern Australian |location=South Australia |date=29 October 1841 |access-date=12 April 2020 |page=3 |via=Trove }}</ref> but their number remained small and Moorhouse re-purposed the schoolhouse as temporary accommodation for the Irish orphan girls who arrived in June 1849.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article50247316 |title=Local Intelligence |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=South Australia |date=13 June 1849 |access-date=13 April 2020 |page=2 |via=Trove }}</ref> The Native School closed in 1851, and became the nucleus of the Destitute Asylum. The remaining children were taken to Poonindie Mission at Port Lincoln on the Eyre Peninsula).<ref name=sah>{{cite web|website=SA History Hub|url=https://sahistoryhub.history.sa.gov.au:443/places/pirltawardli?hh=1&|title=Pirltawadli|first=Rhondda|last=Harris|quote=...revised version of an entry first published in ''The Wakefield Companion to South Australian History'', edited by Wilfrid Prest, Kerrie Round and Carol Fort (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2001)|date=6 February 2014|edition=1 June 2017 (updated spelling)|access-date=7 December 2019}}</ref>

===Rufus River Massacre=== {{main|Rufus River Massacre}} In 1841, there was a dispute between European overlanders and the Mataura people, a sub–group of the Barkindji.<ref name="Lake Victoria A special place">{{cite web |title=Lake Victoria A special place |url=https://www.mdba.gov.au/publications/mdba-reports/lake-victoria-special-place |website=Murray Darling Basin Authority |date=30 June 2016 |publisher=Australian Government |access-date=25 November 2019}}</ref> The overlanders had been engaging in sexual relations with Barkindji women without giving the Barkindji the food and clothing that was promised in return.<ref name=Massacre/> Moorhouse led a group of armed settlers to the Rufus River near Wentworth following a report that about 150 Barkindji warriors appeared to be readying to attack. The settlers opened fire on the Barkindji before they were within spear-throwing range, claiming at least 35 killed and 16 injured, though Aboriginal oral tradition suggests this is a conservative figure.<ref name="Lake Victoria A special place"/><ref name=Massacre/> Moorhouse's official account which was sent to the Governor of South Australia, George Grey claims that "the result was, to the natives, the death of nearly 30, about 10 wounded, and four (one adult male, one boy, and two females) taken prisoners". Most of the wounded would be expected to die from their wounds, because Aboriginal medicine was ill-equipped to deal with gunshot wounds.<ref name=Massacre>Rufus River Massacre: *{{citation | title= ''Rufus River'' | date= 9 February 2015 | url= https://visitwentworth.com.au/attractions/rufus-river/ | access-date= 22 February 2019 | archive-date= 21 March 2019 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190321232258/https://visitwentworth.com.au/attractions/rufus-river/ | url-status= dead }}", Wentworth Shire Council, retrieved 26 September 2018 *[http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/whats-going-on/8024/rufus-river-massacre/ "Rufus River Massacre", Culture Victoria], retrieved 25 September 2018 *[http://users.esc.net.au/~pereilly/rufus.htm "Rufus River Massacre", Murray River Heritage] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180413120534/http://users.esc.net.au/%7epereilly/rufus.htm |date=13 April 2018 }}, retrieved 19 February 2014 *Coulthard-Clark C. (2001), "Rufus River", ''Encyclopaedia of Australia's Battles'' (Allen & Unwin) *Foster R., Nettelbeck A. (2011), ''Out of the Silence'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=r9ETLG_aKbkC&pg=PA32 p. 32-39] (Wakefield Press) *{{cite web|publisher=State Library of South Australia|url=http://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1322#friction|title=Friction between overlanders and Australian Aboriginals|date=16 July 2007|access-date=28 August 2018}} *{{cite news |url= https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27442821 |date= 25 September 1841 |newspaper= South Australian Register |pages= 3–4 |title= Inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of a number of natives on the Murray |via= Trove }} *Burke H., Roberts A., Morrison M., Sullivan V., The River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (2016), "[http://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/n2179/pdf/article06.pdf The space of conflict: Aboriginal/European interactions and frontier violence on the western Central Murray, South Australia, 1830–41]", ''Aboriginal History'', 40: 145-179 *Tolmer A. (1882), ''[https://archive.org/details/reminiscencesan01tolmgoog/page/n244 Reminiscences of an Adventurous and Chequered Career at Home and at the Antipodes—Vol. I]'', chap. 20 (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington). *[http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/rufus-river-massacre-lake-victoria-south-west-nsw The Rufus River Massacre]", Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia *[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/226509494 Fatal Affray With The Natives In South Australia: Report of Mr. Moorhouse to His Excellency the Governor]", ''Port Phillip Patriot and Melbourne Advertiser'', 14 October 1841, p. 2 - via Trove.</ref> The report of Protector Moorhouse was largely supported by James Collins Hawker.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90944184 |title=Early Experiences of Colonial Life.—No. XXXII. |newspaper=South Australian Chronicle And Weekly Mail |location=South Australia |date=15 December 1877 |access-date=21 March 2020 |page=19 |via=Trove }}</ref>

===Parliamentary career=== In January 1855 Moorhouse had the duties of comptroller of the Destitute Poor Establishment, and superintendent of the Female Immigrant Depot added to his responsibilities as Protector of Aborigines.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49302053 |title=The Government Gazette |newspaper=South Australian Register |location=South Australia |date=19 January 1855 |access-date=20 March 2020 |page=3 |via=Trove }}</ref> He retired on 31 March 1856,<ref name=poa/> and went to England, where he lectured on South Australia and promoted migration. He then visited North America, where he travelled extensively by railroad and investigated various systems of education.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

==Later life== Moorhouse purchased shares in properties near Riverton and Saddleworth, but soon sold out and with Joseph Fisher and others bought {{convert|27,700|acres}} near the Hummocks. Moorhouse managed the station until Robert Barr Smith bought it in 1870.

Moorhouse died after a short illness on his station ''Bartagunyah '' near Melrose, South Australia on 29 March 1876, leaving a widow, two sons and a daughter.

==References== {{reflist}}

===Sources=== *{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |id2=moorhouse-matthew-4239 |title=Moorhouse, Matthew (1813–1876)] |year=1974 |pages=283–284 |access-date=19 August 2022}} *{{Dictionary of Australian Biography|First=Matthew|Last=Moorhouse|shortlink=0-dict-biogMa-Mo.html#moorhouse2}} * "Four Reports from the Protector of the Aborigines in South Australia", ''Accounts and Papers 1843'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=d3VbAAAAQAAJ Volume 3] (London: William Clowes and Sons), p. 320–328. *{{citation| url= https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/90894485 | title= Saddleworth: The Story of the Rainberd murders—Memories of Matthew Moorhouse | newspaper=Chronicle (Adelaide) | date= 23 February 1933 | pages= 46–47 | via= Trove }}. *Steiner, Marie (2003), "Matthew Moorhouse: A controversial colonist", ''Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia'', 31: 55–68.

==Further reading== *[http://firstsourcesguide.com/uploads/3/4/5/4/34544232/_1._protectors_letter-books_1840-1857_2.pdf SA Protector of Aborigines: Out Letter Book I (May 21, 1840 to Jan 6, 1857)]  —First Sources *[http://australianfrontierconflicts.com.au/some-known-conflicts-in-new-south-wales/ Some Known Conflicts in New South Wales]  —Australian Frontier Conflicts *[https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/your-community/culture-history/kaurna/place-naming/sign-sites Sign Sites - Palmer Gardens / Pangki Pangki]  —City of Adelaide *[https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=1405 Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930]  —University of Newcastle (Australia) *[http://firstsourcesguide.com/uploads/3/4/5/4/34544232/_1._protectors_letter-books_1840-1857_2.pdf SA Protector of Aborigines: Out Letter Book I (May 21, 1840 to Jan 6, 1857)]  —First Sources *[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=&exactPhrase=Matthew+Moorhouse&anyWords=&notWords=&requestHandler=&dateFrom=1813-01-01&dateTo=&l-word=*ignore*%7C*ignore*&l-illustrated=*ignore*%7C*ignore*&sortby= Newspaper articles mentioning "Matthew Moorhouse"]  —Trove

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moorhouse, Matthew}} Category:1813 births Category:1876 deaths Category:Settlers of South Australia Category:Members of the South Australian House of Assembly Category:19th-century Australian politicians Category:People of the Australian frontier wars Category:Australian pastoralists Category:Perpetrators of the genocide of Indigenous Australians Category:English mass murderers Category:Politicians from the Colony of South Australia