Site Name Tooms Lake, source of Macquarie River, Eastern Tiers
Aboriginal Place Name
Language Group Oyster Bay / Little Swanport
Colony VDL
Present State/Territory TAS
Police District Campbell Town
Latitude -42.231
Longitude 147.792
Date 6 Dec 1828
Attack Time dawn
Victims Aboriginal People
Victims Killed 10
Victims Killed Notes Killed: M 10 unspecified, F ; Probable: M F; Possible: M F; Wounded: M F; 1 woman and 1 child taken prisoner
Attackers Colonisers: soldiers, field police
Attackers Killed 3
Attackers Killed Notes Killed: M Settler Adam Wood and 2 stock-keepers F; Wounded: M F
Transport Foot
Motive Reprisal
Weapons Used Firearms, muskets, blades, bayonets
Narrative An armed party of 9 soldiers of the 40th Regiment, two constables, and guides, John Danvers and William Holmes, surrounded an Aboriginal camp at day break. Three days later, the guide, John Danvers, reported to the police magistrate at Oatlands: “One of them getting up from a small fire to a large one, discovered us and gave the alarm to the rest, and the whole of them jumpt [sic] up immediately and attempted to take up their spears in defence, and seeing that, we immediately fired and repeated it because we saw they were on the defensive part, they were about twenty in Number and several of whom were killed, two only were, unfortunately taken alive.” The Hobart Town Courier also reported the incident: “The party of the 40th regiment which was led into the bush by John Danvers and William Holmes, is returned, bringing with them a black woman and her boy, the only prisoners made in the attack upon the Aborigines at the Great (Tooms) Lake at the source of the Macquarie River. Ten of the natives were killed on the spot and the rest fled.” This incident does not appear to have been a reprisal killing.
Sources TAHO CSO 1/320: 22; HTC December 13, 1828 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/641858. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating **