Perth Festival to showcase hidden massacre of Noongar people at Lake Monger

When Ian Wilkes was a child, his father would point out the window at Lake Monger whenever they drove past and say “something bad happened there”.

The popular lake in Perth’s western suburbs, which is flanked by the Mitchell Freeway, attracts thousands of visitors every week to use the walking track and see the bevy of black swans on the shore.

But few people know the full history of the place the Whadjuk Noongar people call Galup — place of fire.

Now, an interactive walking tour created for the Perth Festival will offer a window into Galup’s past, including the little-known massacre that took place in the early months of the Swan River Colony.