| Narrative | As reported in Clark (1995, 152), after the massacre at Fighting Hills on 8 March 1840, the Aborigines returned to the Whyte Brothers’ Konongwootong station a month later, and stole 'a number of sheep'. After unsuccessfully searching for a trail, 'to teach the Aborigines a lesson', the Whyte brothers and their stockmen separated…The Whytes rode to the nearest station to 'drown their disappointment' and the station hands, including Henry Skilton, William Fox, and two others, Henry and Bassett, 'returned to the home station. En route they passed the waterholes at which were camped some old men, women and children. They shot the entire camp' (Clark 1995, p 153). According to local historian ER Trangmar, 'the bodies of those killed at the Fighting Waterholes were buried in a mass grave on the bank of the overflow creek, below the present embankment of the Koonongwootong reservoir. In 1946, following heavy rain, a number of skulls and other bones were uncovered’ (Trangmar 1956, p 8). |
