A memorial to coloniser and explorer Sir Thomas Mitchell, who was involved in the Mount Dispersion massacre, has been vandalised in regional Victoria, according to images posted on social media.
Situated in Castlemaine in Central Victoria, the memorial to Mr Mitchell, often referred to as Major Mitchell, was reportedly defaced with a sign reading: "We don't commemorate other mass murderers in Victoria".
According to images posted to social media, the memorial has been covered in red paint - with the appearance of blood - and a sign placed on it.
The sign reads: "On this day on May 27th 1836, a group led by Major Mitchell murdered 7 people in the Mt. Dispersion Massacre … We don't commemorate other mass murderers in Victoria".
"Except Major Mitchell.
"We call for all monuments to Major Mitchell to be removed or alternatively a plaque that states the full history of what this man was responsible for including the murder of at least seven Aboriginal people on the Dhungala (Murray) River on May 27th, 1836."
Memorial near Castlemaine commemorating Major Mitchell covered with 'blood' this morning.
Sign says 'we don't commemorate other mass murderers in Victoria'. pic.twitter.com/FzvP3m7SSq
— Miki Perkins (@perkinsmiki) May 26, 2024
Major Mitchell was intimately involved in the Mount Dispersion massacre.
He led a surveying party of colonists who decided against negotiation with a group of Barkindji men who had been following their expedition at Lake Benanee, near the present-day town of Euston in 1836.
According to historians, the party instead decided on an ambush, and fired on the Barkindji men.
Heritage NSW officer Harvey Johnston told the ABC in 2020: "The people who were following fled across the Murray and swam over the river onto the Victorian side [of the Murray River]".
"And Mitchell's men continued to shoot people as they swam across the river and climbed across the other side of the bank and ran into the bushes."
Major Mitchell later described the massacre as an "encounter".
On May 27, 2020, on the 184th anniversary of the killings, the NSW government officially gazetted Mount Dispersion as an Aboriginal place. This gave it legal recognition and protection as a significant site.
The sign erected at Major Mitchell's memorial comes in the wake of an appearance by Suzannah Henty, a sixth-generation descendant of coloniser James Henty, who appeared before the Yoorrook Justice Commission and labelled the memorials to her relatives as "embarrassing".
A number of memorials and celebratory statues for colonists have been vandalised across the country in recent months, with some having their heads removed.
