| Site Name | Crawford River |
| Aboriginal Place Name | |
| Language Group | Dhauwurd wurrung or Wulluwurrung |
| Colony | PPD |
| Present State/Territory | VIC |
| Police District | Portland |
| Latitude | -37.929 |
| Longitude | 141.54 |
| Date | Between 1 Sep 1843 and 30 Sep 1843 |
| Attack Time | day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victims Killed | 9 |
| Victims Killed Notes | Killed: M F; Probable: M at least 9 F; Possible: M F; Wounded: M F |
| Attackers | Colonisers: Native Police |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | Killed:M F;Wounded:M F |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Firearms |
| Narrative | In September 1843, H.E.P. Dana, Commandant of the Native Police Corps (NPC), followed up the murder of Christopher Bassett a month earlier at his station at the head of the Crawford River. Accompanied by David Edgar of the Bush Tavern and the adjoining Fitzroy River run, Dana and the NPC came upon a party of Aborigines near the edge of the swamp while searching for Martha Ward, two year old daughter of Abraham Ward, the licensee of the Travellers' Rest Hotel in Branxholme. In two separate encounters with the Aborigines, they shot at least nine. |
| Sources | Critchett 1990: 252; Clark 1995: 46-7; Shaw 1996: 132 (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
