| Narrative | On 10 June 1840 the Sydney Herald reported that Mr Freer, 'traveling from New England down the bed of the Macleay River with a large flock of sheep, and having one afternoon at a crossing place missed three hundred and seventy of them, he returned to search, accompanied by a stockman and a mounted black. The latter soon discovered that the stock had been driven in the direction of the mountains by' Aboriginal warriors. 'after following the tracks for about eight miles, they came to a precipitous rock, where they turned down a creek, on the sides of which they discovered from two to three hundred' Aboriginal people 'busily engaged in roasting not kangaroos but mutton. The instant they perceived Mr. Freer and his party they took to their spears and boomerangs, retiring to the ranges, but on discovering the weakness of their pursuers, endeavoured to surround them, threatening them and abusing them in tolerable English while daring them to come on. The party being badly armed, Mr Freer prudently retreated, and traveling all night and reached next day a station of a Mr Steele's JP [evidently Towel Creek] where he was furnished with the assistance of three horsemen.' Upon returning to the place he last saw the Aboriginal people, here 'he found the remains of about sixty sheep and three stockyards most ingeniously constructed.' Following their trail, 'Mr Freer and party proceeded about twelve miles up Kundering [Coonderang Creek] Brook,' where they found the Aboriginal people 'had again turned across the Mountains.' Continuing the trail, the party ultimately found the Aboriginal people 'in the act of preparing mutton; on being fired upon they speedily decamped, and the pursuing party were rewarded for their praiseworthy conduct by the satisfaction they felt on recovering two hundred and twenty sheep alive.' (SH, June 10, 1840 p 5) It is stated that the owners of the sheep were Messrs. Betts and Panton, who were at the time occupiers of Long Flat station on the Macleay River. Henderson, 1851, Vol. 2, p 5 states that ‘two to three dozen men were slaughtered’. |
