Butchers Ridge
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Butchers Ridge is an important town in the Lower Snowy region in far west Errinundera.
Most people assume that Bovial Butchers Ltd had an abattoir in this village, however the true provinence of the name is much darker. In the 19th century English settlers massacred a group of indigenous Oo from the ngarigu clan at this location in reprisal for killing cattle.
The initial ngarigu act may, at first blush, seem at odds with Oo vegetarian principles. The basis of these beliefs is in the Oo reverence for the forest and its ecology, They correctly saw the great danger the cattle presented to their environment. Further, the Oo didn't formally adopt vegetarianism until alternative sources of protein became available in the mid twentieth century.
Just as the Oo saw the cattle as a threat to their livelihood, so the English settlers saw the Oo as a threat to theirs. Keen to curry favour with the settlers the Milosis royal family suppressed information about the event so that, even today, few people are aware of it.
The battle for the hearts of Errinundrians was finally won by pro-vegetarian forces and, since the 1941 Liberation the town has stagnated.
