The Bussell family were a family of early settlers in colonial Western Australia. The four brothers John, Joseph Vernon, Alfred and Charles emigrated from England on Warrior, arriving at Fremantle on 12 March 1830. Lenox, Frances and Elizabeth arrived at Fremantle on Cygnet on 27 January 1833, and Mrs Frances Louisa and Mary arrived at Albany on 19 June 1834. On arriving in Western Australia, the Bussells found that all of the good farm land around Perth and Fremantle had already been granted, and were advised by the Governor, Sir James Stirling, to form a sub-colony in the vicinity of Cape Leeuwin. The Bussells first settled in the Augusta area in May 1830, but met with little success. After a number of exploring expeditions, John Bussell discovered good farm land in Busselton in December 1831, and by 1834 the family had established a property named "Cattle Chosen". The town of Busselton, surveyed in 1837, along with the Bussell Highway, are named in their honour. Massacres and shootings of Noongar people in the Vasse area During the early years of their settlement in the Vasse area the Bussell family were involved in several massacres and many other shootings of Wardandi Noongar people. On 27 June 1837 Bessie Bussell wrote a diary entry about the first massacre at Vasse. The trigger was the disappearance on 23 June of a calf of the Chapmans', fellow settlers in the area. The two Chapmans, Alfred Bussell, a corporal, Moloney and Constable Elijah Dawson were led by Bobingroot, a local Noongar man to where those who stole the calf would be. The place was called Yulijoogarup. Another Noongar man called Nungandung refused and ran away. Kenny and Jim, two Noongar men, escaped and nine Noongar Wardandi people were killed and two wounded, including women and children. A second massacre followed in July 1837. On 13 July Dawson was speared in the arm by a Wardandi warrior, and Mrs Dawson had a spear thrown at her. This would have been in retaliation to the massacre on 27 June. The Bussell brothers Charles, Lenox and Alfred then got together with the Chapmans and took various steps to retaliate and locate the suspected perpetrator, a Noongar warrior called Gaywal; including taking four Noongar women and a child hostage for a day. The young warrior who threw the spears was Knockindon, a Wardandi man whose land the Bussells were occupying.