| Site Name | Boney Point, Gippsland |
| Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | |
| Language Group, Nation or People | Gunnai or Tatungalung or Braiakaulung |
| Present State/Territory | VIC |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | PPD |
| Police District | Melbourne |
| Latitude | -38.044 |
| Longitude | 147.267 |
| Date | Between 1 Oct 1840 and 31 Oct 1840 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 15 |
| Victims Killed Notes | |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Settler(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Firearm(s) |
| Narrative | In October 1840, according to Pepper and de Araugo, 1985, p 18, squatter Angus McMillan 'brought down cattle from Numblamungie to the stock run at Nuntin' in Gippsland. 'He left his men in charge there and on his return some weeks later they told him that the Kurnai had scattered the stock and attacked them. McMillan gathered his stockmen together, and massacred any Kurnai' [possibly Gunnai or Tatungalung or Braiakaulung speakers] at Boney Point on the confluence of the Avon and Perry Rivers. When GA Robinson traveled through this area on 2 June 1844, he saw an Aboriginal cranium on the shore of Lake Wellington just below the entry of the Avon River into the lake (Robinson in Clark, 1998d, p 89). In a letter to Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe on August 25, 1853, McMillan acknowledged that two attacks by Aboriginal warriors on his stockmen had taken place in October and November 1840 but did not reveal the aftermath (Sayers, 1983, p 218). In 2001 historian PD Gardner considered that at least 15-20 Aborigines were killed in a massacre in reprisal for the Aboriginal killing of two stockmen (Gardner, 2001, pp 44-49). |
| Sources | Pepper and de Araugo, 1985, p 18; Sayers, 1983, p 218; Gardner, 2001, pp 44-49. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | ** |
