Gippsland council rejects call to tear down monuments to notorious pastoralist

A Gippsland council has voted against removing two monuments honouring a Scottish explorer linked to the massacre of Indigenous people in the area.

A Wellington Shire councillor on Tuesday night called for cairns recognising pastoralist Angus McMillan to be torn down in response to demands around the world for removal of monuments to oppressors as part of the Black Lives Matter protests.

Angus McMillan in about 1860.Credit: State Library of Victoria

Cr Carolyn Crossley's motion to remove the cairns from public land in Sale and Stratford links McMillan to seven massacres within the council borders in the 1840s.

“At this time, many local government areas around the world are taking stock and removing statues and monuments to colonial figures that had dark and ruthless histories in relation to the First Nations they encountered,” the motion says.

Cr Crossley said it was time to take the cairns as part of the Black Lives Matter protests.

“It's a global movement and we should be there as a voice to make change,” she said.

This monument to Angus McMillan was defaced recently.

The motion - defeated five votes to four - suggests the council also seek approval from the Victorian government and other land managers to remove seven other McMillan cairns on land not managed by the council.

Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation chair Troy McDonald said the McMillan cairns represent a celebration of a man arriving on Gunaikurnai land and committing forms of genocide.

"The Gunaikurnai people were dispossessed of their country, forcibly removed and often killed," he said.

But Mr McDonald said the corporation understood that in the eyes of many people McMillan "also did some good things".

"The symbolism of these cairns is significant to us. It is an issue that has been clearly on the community and our agenda for quite a while."

Mr McDonald said his organisation had been working with all arms of government to ensure more appropriate recognition of Gippsland's history, including its non-Aboriginal past.

"As a starting point, the removal of the two cairns on Wellington Shire land will be a great symbolic step towards reconciliation.

"We believe it is time to take another step forward in a cohesive Gippsland community and we look forward to taking action to achieve this. We support a process that will bring healing and greater unification to our region."

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gabrielle Williams said: "These questions are best posed and answered by Aboriginal Victorians – our job is to listen.

"While symbols are important, action is what matters – that's why we're leading the way with [a] treaty and a path to true reconciliation with our First Peoples."

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