Site Name Hornet Bank Station, Upper Burnett Pastoral District
Aboriginal Place Name
Language Group Gungabula or Yiman
Colony NSW
Present State/Territory QLD
Police District
Latitude -25.757
Longitude 149.407
Date 27 Oct 1857
Attack Time dawn
Victims Colonisers
Victims Killed 11
Victims Killed Notes Killed: M 8 , F3;
Attackers Aboriginal People
Attackers Killed 0
Attackers Killed Notes Killed: M F; Probable: M F; Possible: M F; Wounded: M F
Transport Foot
Motive Reprisal
Weapons Used tomahawks, clubs
Narrative Minutes after first light appeared on 27 October 1857, a group of Aboriginal men entered the darkened homestead at Hornet Bank, and killed 5 men from the Fraser family along with 3 male employees, and knocked Sylvester aged 14, unconscious and left him for dead. Then they induced Mrs Fraser and her two daughters outside and after some deliberation they raped them all and then killed them. The eldest son, William Fraser was absent on the road to Ipswich. After sunrise, Sylvester escaped to a neighbouring station and raised the alarm. The massacre was in reprisal for the Fraser sons' sexual abuse of Aboriginal women.
Sources Age, November 20,1857 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/18215858; The Courier http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4602408; Reid 1980-1: 62-82; Reid 1981. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating ***