Angus McMillan

Australian explorer and politician

Angus McMillan (14 August 1810 – 18 May 1865) was a Scottish-born explorer, pioneer pastoralist, and perpetrator of several of the Gippsland massacres of Gunai people.

Arriving first in New South Wales in 1838, McMillan rose swiftly in Australian colonial society as a skilled explorer.His explorations led to the opening of the Gippsland region for pastoralism, displacing the Gunai Aboriginal people who were the traditional owners of the land.

Relations between McMillan and the Gunai reached their nadir in 1843 when, in retribution for the murder of a fellow pastoralist and the killing of livestock, McMillan led the first of several armed assaults culminating in the massacre of between 60 and 150 people at Warrigal Creek.

The massacre had no impact on McMillan's relations with other colonists and he went on to become a successful Gippsland pastoralist himself, with more than 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) of property.

However a series of poor financial decisions brought him to near-bankruptcy in the 1860s.Forced to return to exploration and surveying, he was badly injured in an accident near Dargo, Victoria, and died on 18 May 1865.

McMillan is commemorated in public art and place names in Gippsland, including, until 2018, the Division of McMillan in Australia's Federal Parliament.

In 2018, the Australian Electoral Commission announced the Division would be renamed, following a community campaign against honouring a man involved in massacring Gunai people.