A Kyneton resident who believes his street name is tarnished with the blood of slaughtered Indigenous people has begun a campaign to have it changed.
Harry Byass, 21, has lived in Hutton Street his whole life but recently learned the street was named after Charles Hutton, a station owner in the Campaspe region in the early 1800s.
“He was the leader of the Campaspe Plains Massacre, a group of settlers who set out to avenge the deaths of a shepherd and a hut keeper who the Daung Wurrung had killed in revenge for the unprovoked murders of five of their own people,” Harry said.
“Hutton killed nearly 40 Daung Wurrung in a slaughter in 1839 and later led police to kill five of a different family group, the Dja Dja Wurrung, all shot in the back while fleeing.
“I don’t particularly want to live in a shire that tolerates place names being given to these people or once brought to light not being removed and renamed to something more appropriate.”
Kyneton Historical Society secretary Larina Strauch confirmed many of the original streets of Kyneton were named after squatters and overlanders but said the history books were peppered with conflicting reports of events.
“The incident that occurred with Hutton, it was actually Yaldwyn and his men who sought retribution on behalf of Charles Hutton,” Ms Strauch said.
“To me, you can’t single out one person and say he was responsible for it, the incident is part of a much broader area from the Soldiers Settlement at Langley and further towards Heathcote and beyond.
“What we must do is learn from history, not rewrite it.”
Aunty Julie McHale, cultural education coordinator at Nalderun in Mount Alexander Shire, said Hutton was one of a huge number of pastoralists involved in massacres right across the land.
“The local Aboriginal people had been exposed to so many things like theft of land, rape, being blocked from access to water… I don’t condone anybody killing anybody but the scales were very much unbalanced,” she said.
“The pastoralists would send out their workers to often kill the Aboriginal people as a warning.”
Ms McHale said there were many streets, towns, creeks and rivers named after pastoralists like Hutton. She congratulated Harry for starting the conversation.
“I personally would like to see as many names changed as possible,” she said.
“At the round table in Mount Alexander we have talked about dual naming to include Indigenous names as well.
“The councils and the local Aboriginal community would then have the responsibility to explain why the names have been changed, and that would be learning from history.”
Harry said that in response to the 2012 Victorian Local Government Aboriginal Engagement and Reconciliation Survey, Macedon Ranges Shire Council stated it would be using Aboriginal language to name places or projects in the future.
“It’s my hope they’d do that in this case too,” he said.
Harry has written to the council and is awaiting a response.
