Site NameKangaroo Creek, Clarence Pastoral District
Aboriginal Place Name
Language GroupGumbaynggnir
Present State/TerritoryNSW
Colony/State/Territory at the timeNSW
Police DistrictGrafton
Latitude-29.932
Longitude152.868
Date29 Nov 1847
Attack TimeDay
VictimsAboriginal People
Victim DescriptionsAboriginal
Victims Killed23
Victims Killed NotesKilled: M 23, F; Probable: M F; Possible: M F; Wounded: M F
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsSettler(s)
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed NotesKilled: M F; Wounded: M F
TransportFoot
MotiveOpportunity
Weapons UsedPoisoned Flour Laced with Strychnine
NarrativeIn December 1847, Crown Lands Commissioner, Oliver Fry, based at Grafton, was told by a stockman and at least one Aboriginal man that on 29 November 1847, squatter Thomas Coutts had poisoned 23 Aboriginal people by offering them damper laced with arsenic at his station at Kangaroo Creek. In January 1848 Fry set off for Kangaroo Creek Station to investigate. He found human remains at the Aboriginal camp on the station but they were too decomposed for analysis. He ordered the arrest of Coutts, charged him with murder and sent him to Sydney on the ship Phoenix under armed guard. In the Sydney magistrate's court he was bailed for 1,000 pounds to appear in the Supreme Court in May 1848. In May however, he was discharged for lack of evidence. The stockman who reported the crime was under arrest for another crime and the Aboriginal witnesses were prevented by law from presenting evidence in court (MMHRGA, February 2, 1848, p 3). However, the Attorney General, J.H. Plunkett, was 'in no moral doubt' that Coutts had poisoned the Aboriginal people and caused their deaths (Lydon, 1996, pp 159-60).
SourcesHRA I, xxvi, p 392, 396 https://opal.latrobe.edu.au/articles/book/Historical_records_of_Australia_Series_I_Governors_despatches_to_and_from_England_Volume_XXVI_October_1847-December_1848_edited_by_Frederick_Watson_/22300309; Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, February 2, 1848, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article713447; Lydon 1996, p 151-175. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating***