Bay of Martyrs

Back in the car and a little further down the road we found Bay of Martyrs. Apparently there is fascinating history surrounding this area, which is alluded to in the place names of other bays and lookout points. Massacre Bay, Massacre Point, Bay of Martyrs.

According to stories that have spanned generations, Europeans killed a large group of Karrae-Wurrong Aboriginal men here. They did so by running them off the cliffs, whilst the women and children were supposedly killed in a swamp that is close by.

However, there are many contradicting stories and, more importantly, no written evidence of what happened. All that is known is that the population of Aboriginal people dropped from a few thousand to almost none. Some theories believe this was caused by mass migration, but local folklore has other ideas.Read more