Site NameTuron River
Aboriginal Place Name
Language GroupWiradjuri
Present State/TerritoryNSW
Colony/State/Territory at the timeNSW
Police DistrictBathurst
Latitude-33.12
Longitude149.849
Date1 Sep 1824
Attack TimeDay
VictimsAboriginal People
Victim DescriptionsAboriginal
Victims Killed45
Victims Killed Notes
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsFoot Soldier(s)
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
TransportFoot
MotiveOpportunity
Weapons UsedMusket(s), Pistol(s), Sword(s)
NarrativeAccording to military historian John Connor (Connor 2002, p59-61), following the declaration of martial law in the Bathurst District in August 1824, about forty soldiers from the 40th Regiment led by the Commandant at Bathurst, Major Morisset, three magistrates and three mounted settlers and some Aboriginal guides set off for the region north of Bathurst. According to missionary LE Threlkeld, a detachment of soldiers led by Major Morisset drove a large number of Wiradjuri people, men, women and children, into a swamp and 'all were destroyed'. In the aftermath, 'forty-five heads were collected and boiled down for the sake of the skulls! My informant, a Magistrate, saw the skulls packed for exportation in a case at Bathurst ready for shipment to accompany the commanding Officer on his voyage shortly afterwards taken to England' (Threlkeld cited in Gunson 1974, p 49). Military historian John Connor (2002, p59) acknowledges that Morisset made no report of the entire Bathurst operation.
SourcesGunson 1974, p 48-9, 74n.43; Connor 2002, p59-61. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating**