| Site Name | Eastern Tiers |
| Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | |
| Language Group, Nation or People | Oyster Bay / Big River |
| Present State/Territory | TAS |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | VDL |
| Police District | Oatlands |
| Latitude | -42.12 |
| Longitude | 147.837 |
| Date | Between 1 Jul 1828 and 30 Jul 1828 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 16 |
| Victims Killed Notes | |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Field Police, Military |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Foot |
| Motive | Opportunity |
| Weapons Used | Musket(s), Bayonet(s), Blade(s) |
| Narrative | A settler, Robert Ayrton wrote to the Aborigines Committee on March 1, 1830 about an 'affray' between soldiers and Aboriginal warriors that took place in the Eastern Tiers in July 1828. 'On this occasion not less than sixteen of them [the Aborigines] were massacred and gathered into heaps and buried.' Two weeks later he repeated his claim in a deposition at the Launceston Police Office: 'A party of soldiers of the 40th Regiment and some constables went in quest of the Aborigines. On the return of the party (to Oatlands) I heard many of them boast, that they had killed sixteen of the natives, one man in particular boasted that he had run his bayonet through two of them, and that they gathered them into a heap and burned their bodies. I think that Constable Danvers stationed at Oatlands was one of the number, the soldiers do not recollect this.' The two guides were never questioned about this incident. By March 1830 the 40th Regiment were preparing to depart for India. This incident does not appear to have been a reprisal killing. |
| Sources | TAHO CSO 1/320, pp 152-154; TAHO CSO 1/330, p 109. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | ** |
