The Fighting Hills massacre occurred on 8 March 1840 when Victorian Western District squatters killed 51 Aboriginal people of The Hummocks, near Wando Vale, Victoria Australia.
On 8 March, the Whytes and three convict employees, Benjamin Wardle, Daniel Turner and William Gillespie, set off to recover sheep stolen the previous day.
[2] The party found Aboriginal people cooking and eating the missing sheep; the subsequent attack killed 51 Jardwadjali men.
[1] Aboriginal protector Charles Sievwright investigated the incident but the depositions he took were disallowed by Crown prosecutor James Croke as they were not "taken in accordance to the rules of law".
[3] John Whyte went personally to report the "affray" to Superintendent Charles La Trobe, then Chief Protector George Robinson.