| Site Name | Calvert Downs |
| Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | |
| Language Group, Nation or People | Garawa, Mara, Yanyuwa |
| Present State/Territory | NT |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | SA |
| Police District | Borroloola |
| Latitude | -16.525 |
| Longitude | 137.575 |
| Date | Between 1 May 1885 and 31 May 1885 |
| Attack Time | Dawn |
| Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 60 |
| Victims Killed Notes | men, women and children |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Stockmen/Drover(s), Pastoralist(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | 0 |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Firearm(s), Pistol(s) |
| Narrative | The following are extracts from Letter to Mattie [Martha Earle McCracken (1811-1893)] from her brother Robert [Bob] McCracken of Calvert Downs Station, via Burketown, 1 September 1885: (1) responding to her concern that he should have cause to use pistols, he wrote: 'You have very little notion of what an exciting time a person has here to preserve his own life to say nothing of the cold lead he has to fire away in the endeavour. Of course no one ever troubles about the effect of said lead, each side buries their own and heals the wounded.' (p 3) and (2) 'Then, still more seeing the necessity for having thieves to catch thieves he [Charles Fraser Gardiner, the owner of the station] was continually talking of the matter and when he went away was going to bring some back with him but the "Myalls" in the meantime, finding we were unable to (without Black assistance, and having none) hunt them down became quite cheeky killing cattle and horses within a few miles of the camp and even getting on adjacent rocky hills and shouting and gesticulating defiance at us. Killing odd ones or even twos or threes is no good, they are never missed and nothing but wholesale slaughter will do any good. For instance some time ago one team was on the road and at night was camped with another team having about 40 horses in all. In the night the Blacks attacked the horses wounding three of ours and killing three of the other peoples. The damage was discovered at daylight in the morning and as soon as our horses could be saddled their tracks were followed from where they had cut up the horses, through the wet grass, about 8 miles to their camp on a lagoon. There were five rifles and a Blackfellow with a knife and tomahawk and the result was out of a possible 200, 90 killed and wounded in the camp besides what wounded escaped. That Black with the Tommy was a perfect artist, equal to any two guns in the quantity he polished off…' (pp 5-6). |
| Sources | Letter to Mattie, 1/9/1885, Robert Niall/Elsie Ritchie Collection; Roberts, 2009, np; Searcy, 1909, p 174. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
