Frontier Justice: An execution in Melbourne CBD

12/10/24 • 37 min

It’s 1839, and Melbourne is a fledgling frontier, rife with tension between British invaders and First Australians.
The arrival of two Palawa men, Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheener, sparks a chain of events leading to a brutal execution witnessed by thousands in the heart of the city.
Were they criminals, or resistance fighters opposing colonial invasion? This is the untold story of rebellion, violence, and injustice that shaped the early days of Melbourne — and it’s a story that most Australians have never heard.
Guest: Professor Lynette Russell AM, Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, Monash University
Case: The trial and execution of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner (Melbourne, 1842)
Further Reading: Auty, K., & Russell, L. (2016). Hunt Them, Hang Them: 'The Tasmanians' in Port Phillip 1841-42. (1 ed.) Justice Press.

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www.lifedeathandlaw.com

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* * * * *

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Case In Point - Frontier Justice: An execution in Melbourne CBD

Transcript

James Pattison: It's 1839 and the town that we now know as Melbourne is still in its infancy, just four years into British occupation.
Melissa Castan: The huge area around Melbourne, the Port Phillip District, has become a raw and volatile frontier where British settlers carve out farms and fortunes. On lands that have belonged to Aboriginal people, the Kulin Nations, for tens of thousands of years.
Melissa Castan: Tensions are simmering and violence between the first Australians and th