In 1830, Midgegooroo was reported to be an older man, short in stature with long hair and a "remarkable bump" on his forehead, a physical description repeated on occasions over the next two and a half years, including in a deposition presented in evidence before his execution.
[7] Unlike some of the other named Aboriginal people of the region, including Yagan, Weeip and Yellagonga, Midgegooroo does not appear to have ever performed casual labour for colonists in any capacity, and continued to move around Beeliar with his wives and children.
His first appearance in the colonial record may have been in May 1830 when an old man, tentatively identified by Sylvia Hallam and Lois Tilbrook as Midgegooroo, was found and beaten by a military detachment plucking two turkeys which had been stolen from a farm on the Canning River.
In apparent retaliation for the killing of an Aboriginal man in the act of taking potatoes and a fowl from the farm of Archibald Butler near Point Walter, Midgegooroo and Yagan attacked Butler's homestead and killed a servant named Erin Entwhistle, whose son Ralph, then aged about ten, gave a deposition identifying Midgegooroo as the principal offender:[16] They thrust spears through the wattle wall of the house – my father was ill at the time – he went out and was instantly speared.
I saw an old women rather tall and wanting her front teeth and who I have since been told by Midgegooroo himself is his wife, break my father's legs, and cut his head to pieces with an axe – Munday was one of the natives who attacked the house, but I did not see him throw a spear.
I have heard almost every person who has known him, speak of him as a dangerous and furious ruffian.In May 1832, Yagan was arrested for the murder of William Gaze on the Canning River, an incident that lead to his declaration as an outlaw, imprisonment on Carnac Island with Lyon, and subsequent escape.
[17][b] Yagan and ten of his countrymen had met the first visitors at Lake Monger and, when the next group arrived, he was keen to present a corroboree for them in Perth before an "overflowing audience", which included the Lieutenant Governor Frederick Irwin.
[21] At noon, Yagan, Midgegooroo, Munday, Migo and "about 30 Natives", who "appeared to be friendly", encountered Mr. Phillips and four other white men, including Thomas and John Velvick, who were employed as farm labourers at the entrance of Bull's Creek on the Canning River.
I saw two of them pick up spears at a distance of about one hundred yards from Flaherty's stores; I separated from Mr Phillips and came on to Fremantle.Frederick Irwin described the episode in his dispatch to the Secretary of State for Colonies:[24] They left the place at the same time with the carts, and in a parallel, tho' distant line.
The foremost cart had proceeded four miles and was in advance of the rest a quarter of a Mile, when the Natives suddenly surrounded it and murdered with circumstances of great barbarity, the two Drivers named John and Thomas Velvick, whose cries brought up the proprietor of the Cart Mr Phillips of the Canning, who arrived in time to recognize distinctly a Native of great notoriety throughout the settlement named Yagan, while the latter was in the act of repeatedly thrusting his spear into the body of one of the deceased.
The Head or leader of this tribe, an elderly man well known by the name of Midgegooroo, is father of the above-mentioned Yagan, and the native killed at Fremantle, and has long borne a bad character as the repeated perpetrator of several acts of bloodshed and robbery.
The proclamation declared Yagan, Midgegooroo and Munday to be outlaws[25] deprived of the protection of British laws, and I do hereby authorize and command all and every His Majesty's subjects residents in any part of this colony to capture, or aid or assist in capturing the body of the said 'Egan' DEAD OR ALIVE, and to produce the said body forthwith before the nearest Justice of the Peace.Frederick Irwin rationalized his actions to the Secretary of State in the following terms:[26] This pecuniary stimulus has had the hoped for effect, by bringing forward some efficient volunteers among the Settlers whose ----- and occupations have necessarily given them a more intimate knowledge of the haunts of the natives in the neighbourhood of the settled district than is possessed by the Military, but no volunteers have received permission to act unless headed by a Magistrate or a Constable.
The whole of this hostile tribe have been harassed by the constant succession of parties sent against them, and in some instances have been hotly pursued to a considerable distance in different directions.By the time Irwin's dispatch had been received in London, Midgegooroo had been captured and executed.
Despite his efforts to convince his superiors that his actions were justified, Irwin was criticised by the Secretary of State, who would have preferred a sentence of imprisonment, believing that execution would do little to improve relationships between the Aboriginal peoples and the colonists.
They "routed" the Aboriginal people there, and pursued a group south, shooting and killing one man who was believed to be the brother of Midgegooroo and according to Moore, bringing his ears home "as a token".
[29][30] According to the Perth Gazette, throughout the period immediately after the proclamation, Midgegooroo remained near the property of the Drummonds on the Helena River "employed as he usually had been of late in taking care of the women and children of the tribe" and clearly unaware of his outlaw status and his impending doom.
[31] On Thursday 16 May, a military party led by Captain Ellis, acting on information that Midgegooroo was in the area, joined forces with a number of civilians, including Thomas Hardey and J. Hancock.
It appears likely that Irwin spent the period weighing up his alternatives, consulting with the Executive Council as well as men such as Moore who, as well as being a private colonist, held the official post of Commissioner of the Civil Court.
With the unanimous advice of the Council, I therefore decided on his execution as the only sure mode of securing the Colony from an enemy, who was doubly dangerous from his apparently implacable hostility and from his influence as an acknowledged Chief.
[35] In the absence of a Sheriff, the warrant was directed to the Magistrates of the District of Perth, the duty therefore devolved upon J. Morgan Esq., as Government Resident, who immediately proceeded to carry the Sentence into execution.
The Resident then reported to his Honor the Lieutenant Governor (who was on the spot accompanied by the Members of the Council), that all was prepared, - the warrant being declared final – he turned round and gave the signal to the party of the 63d [which had volunteered] to advance and halt at 6 paces, - they then fired – and Midgegooroo fell.
The feeling which was generally expressed was that of satisfaction at what had taken place, and in some instances loud and vehement exaltation, which the solemnity of the scene,– a fellow human being – although a native – launched into eternity – ought to have suppressed.It appears from the extant record that, while there was a crowd in attendance at the execution, few if any Aboriginal people were present.
He was removed,[37] out of sound and hearing of what was to happen to his father and has since been forwarded to the Government Schooner, Ellen, now lying off Garden Island, with particular instructions from the Magistrates to ensure him every protection and kind treatment.
[40] Two days later, Moore recorded that thefts of sheep and goats continued on the Canning River, and expressed his despair at the prospects for a people in whom he felt "a very great interest": "These things are very dispiriting.
"[41] It was not until 11 July that the colonists succeeded in killing Yagan, his death at the hands of sixteen-year-old James Keats on the Upper Swan, who duly collected his reward and left the colony.
Midgegooroo's execution, it claimed, met with "general satisfaction … his name has long rung in our ears, associated with every enormity committed by the natives; we therefore join cordially in commending this prompt and decisive measure".
Writing in England about two years after the events of 1833, he asserted that,[48] these acts of justice so completely succeeded in their object of intimidating the natives on the Swan and Canning Rivers that recent accounts from the colony represent the shepherds and others in the habit of going about the country, as having for a considerable laid aside their usual precaution of carrying firearms, so peaceable had the conduct of those tribes become.Shortly after the death of Yagan, the Perth Gazette expressed hope that the Aboriginal people of the Swan and Canning Rivers would stop harassing colonists.
[50] Remarking on the apparent desire of Aboriginal visitors to the Perth town area to "renew the friendly understanding", the newspaper nevertheless warned that[51] they ought … never to be out of the sight of some authorized persons, who should have the power of controlling the conduct of individuals towards them, at the same time as they protect the public from any aggression on the part of the natives.Early in September 1833, Munday and Migo were taken by a young colonist named Francis Armstrong, later to be appointed to manage a ration depot at Mount Eliza, to meet the Lieutenant Governor.
The rough treatment at the hands of people such as the Velvicks had been left out of the discourse of "native barbarity", and the dispositions about the role of Midgegooroo, Yagan and Munday in their deaths failed to mention that, on that day at Bull's Creek, the colonists had tried to seize and break their spears.
In Perth, the ruthless killing of Midgegooroo and Yagan certainly shocked the people of the Swan and Canning but, far from improving relationships between coloniser and colonized, violence and robbery continued for some years in the region and further afield.