The Convincing Ground is a historic site in Australia on the coast of Portland, Victoria.
It is believed to be the site of one of Victoria’s first whaling stations. George Augustus Robinson (1791 - 1866), Chief Protector of Aborigines, and others have recorded the Convincing Ground as the site of a massacre, perhaps the first major conflict between Europeans and an indigenous clan, in what would become Victoria. Robinson claims the massacre occurred in 1833 or 1834 and involved a dispute over a whale carcass. Contemporary historians estimate the number of fatalities to be somewhere between 30 to 200 men, women and children. Other historians claim the massacre is a myth.
'Convincing Ground', an interactive painting by Rebecca Young, re-creates the scene of the Convincing Ground massacre, from a range of viewpoints: the oral historians (the aboriginal people of the Portland area), the 'black armband' (the massacre believers) and the 'white blindfold' historians (the massacre deniers).