Winberri

Winberri (c.1820 – 11 October 1840) was an Indigenous Australian resistance leader who, in 1840, led an armed group of Taungurung men in a campaign against British colonists in what is now called central Victoria. Also known as Winberry, Tinbury, or Windberry, he was shot dead in October 1840 by the New South Wales Mounted Police while they were arresting him.

Early life

Winberri was born around the year 1820 into the Warringilum clan of the Taungurung people from the Goulburn River region in what is now Victoria (Warring meaning Goulburn River and ilum meaning clan).

His father was Bittimi, who was also called Burregregrowel.

Campaign of armed resistance against the British

From 1838, British colonists began to take Taungurung land as pastoral leases to establish sheep stations and cattle stations. Taungurung people resisted this forced acquisition of their land through armed conflict against the British, the most notable example being the 1838 Battle of Broken River where they drove off George Faithfull's encampment at the future site of Benalla, killing seven of his men.

Winberri is first mentioned as being an active part in this resistance in January 1840 where he was part of a gang of Taungurung and Woiworrung men led by man named Jackie Jackie, also known as Worrumwullock. These Aboriginal men had acquired muskets and raided a property along the upper Yarra River. Troopers of the Border Police led by Henry Fyshe Gisborne were sent after the gang, whom they intercepted near Yarra Glen. A gunfight developed which resulted in the troopers retreating.

Later in the same month, Winberri's father, Burregregowel, was wounded after being shot near the Coliban River in a punitive expedition led by Lieutenant Frederick Russell of the NSW Mounted Police and the British colonist Henry Monro.

In March, Jackie Jackie, Winberri and their gang raided Peter Snodgrass' property along the Yea River, holding Snodgrass' stockmen at gunpoint while taking their sheep and flour. Winberri by this stage was the gang's leader and referred to his men as his soldiers. Winberri claimed the colonists' sheep should be as much his property as it was theirs because the sheep ate the same grass that his kangaroos ate, and that this was his country, not whiteman's country.

Winberri's armed gang continued the roam the region, holding up a supply cart, shooting at its driver and threatening shepherds at Murrindindi. In April, they raided John Chisholm's Myrrhee station, killing one of his shepherds and taking four guns and a stash of ammunition.

They then proceeded across to the upper Broken River, where they held up Peter Stuckey's cattle station at what is now Barjarg. A skirmish developed and Jackie Jackie was wounded by gunfire, while a Wiradjuri stockman named Yarri working for Stuckey was also wounded by a spear thrown by one of Winberri's men.

Winberri's gang retreated after this skirmish but soon held up another run in the Delatite River region, threatening to shoot the manager of the property. The gang was also implicated in shooting two shepherds dead and stealing a herd of sheep at David Waugh's run also along the Delatite River in May.

Around the same time, another armed Taungurung group led by men named Harlequin, Merriman and Mickey, were raiding properties along the upper Ovens River. In May, this group laid a "masterly" organised 2-day siege upon Dr George Mackay's Whorouly station, killing 3 horses and a number of cattle before retreating. Mickey was later shot dead by one of Mackay's relatives and Harlequin died in Melbourne jail after being arrested.

See also

• List of Indigenous Australian historical figures