| Site Name | Hornet Bank massacre, Upper Dawson River This massacre is part of a group of massacres |
| Aboriginal Place Name | |
| Language Group | Gungabula or Yiman |
| Present State/Territory | QLD |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | NSW |
| Police District | Taroom |
| Latitude | -25.757 |
| Longitude | 149.407 |
| Date | 27 Oct 1857 |
| Attack Time | Dawn |
| Victims | Colonisers |
| Victim Descriptions | Settler(s) |
| Victims Killed | 11 |
| Victims Killed Notes | Killed: M 8 , F3; |
| Attackers | Aboriginal People |
| Attacker Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | Killed: M F; Probable: M F; Possible: M F; Wounded: M F |
| Transport | Foot |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Tomahawk(s), Club(s) |
| Narrative | Minutes after first light appeared on 27 October 1857, a group of Yiman warriors entered the darkened homestead at Hornet Bank, and killed five men from the Fraser family along with three 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 Age, November 20, 1857, p 5). The massacre was in reprisal for the Fraser sons' sexual abuse of Aboriginal women (Richards 2008, p23). |
| Sources | Age, The, November 20, 1857, p5 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/18215858; The Courier, 25 November, 1861, p 3 |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
