Site NameAnambah Station
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name
Language Group, Nation or PeopleGamilaraay
Present State/TerritoryNSW
Colony/State/Territory at the timeNSW
Police District
Latitude-29.564
Longitude150.369
DateBetween 1 Nov 1837 and 31 Dec 1837
Attack Time
VictimsAboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
Victim Descriptions
Victims Killed40
Victims Killed Notes
AttackersColonists
Attacker Descriptions
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
Transport
MotiveReprisal
Weapons UsedFirearm(s)
NarrativeThe massacre at Anambah Station is part of an extended conflict. Two shepherds were killed at Mr Bowman's for abducting Gomeroi women. This prompted the Gravesend massacre. In response to this Gomeroi people killed two shepherds at Cobb's Station at Anambah. Stockmen from Cobb's Station then pursued and killed Aboriginal people thought to be responsible for the murder of the shepherds (Milliss 1992, pp 158-159).
A chronology of killings of colonists records the date as November, 1837 (The Sydney Herald, 10 Dec 1838, p 2).
According to Threlkeld, 'The two shepherds of Mr Cobb, who were unfortunately murdered by the Blacks, suffered it is said, in consequence of the atrocities being committed against the Blacks by the stockmen in another part of the country, which drove them towards Mr Cobb's station, where they met the two shepherds and wreaked their vengeance, in retaliation, on the unhappy sufferers.: so I am informed by one who was there at the time of the catastrophe. Their fellow servants armed themselves, overtook or came upon the tribe, found some with clothes of the murdered shepherds on their backs, whom they hewed to pieces with their hatchets, and killed others' (Threlkeld in Gunson 1974, vol.II, p.145).
SourcesGunson, 1974, vol.1, p. 145 https://hunterlivinghistories.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/threlkeld-gunson-2vols-newscan.pdf; Milliss 1992, p 159; The Sydney Herald, 10 Dec 1838, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12859902 (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating**