| Site Name | Goanna Headland, Evans Head |
| Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | Dirawong |
| Language Group, Nation or People | Bundjalung, Birihn |
| Present State/Territory | NSW |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | NSW |
| Police District | Grafton |
| Latitude | -29.113 |
| Longitude | 153.445 |
| Date | Between 1 Jan 1843 and 31 Dec 1843 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 100 |
| Victims Killed Notes | |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Settler(s), Stockmen/Drover(s), Sailor(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Firearm(s), Musket(s), Pistol(s), Sword(s), Blade(s) |
| Narrative | Rory Medcalf interviewed people in the Bundjuling community at Box Ridge and drew on the reminiscences of J T Olive of Woodburn whose father had been 'a squatter on the lower Richmond in the 1840s and took part in the Evans Head massacre' (Medcalf, 1993, p 5) to give a detailed account of a massacre at Goanna Headland.
According to Medcalf's narrative based on these sources, after Bundjuling people killed five white men at Pelican Creek in 1843, a group of 11 stockmen attacked a Bundjalung camp at Evans River and drove the Aboriginal people towards Goanna Headland where two schooners were sheltering from the southerly gale. The sailors on board joined in the shooting: 'Once within striking distance of the blacks a volley was poured into their ranks. Then the men aboard the schooners rushed for their guns and also opened fire on the tribe, who were mown down, the survivors fleeing in the distance. Altogether 100 darkies were killed on that headland, and for years afterwards the skulls could be picked up on the spot' (Olive in Medcalf, 1993, p 6). Elder Mrs Mary Cowlan of Box Ridge said, 'Then the white men, they came along and shoot people ... I don't know the reasons ... they (the whites) didn't know blackfeller rules ... they had no pity, they killed women, men, children, babies' (Cowlan in Medcalf, 1993, p 6). Elder Janet Gomes, said, 'Whitefellers started firing shots. There was no way out ... they (the Aborigines) were chased across the river from the Bundjalung Reserve' (Gomes in Medcalf, 1993, p 6). Summarising the Bundjuling narratives, which are similar in many details to the colonist version, Medcalf wrote, 'It says the killings started at the riverbank campsite, and that the Aborigines were chased east to the headland, where at least one boatload of armed sailors was waiting. The tribal group was all but annihilated, it says. They were the Birihn clans ... According to Douglas Cook, an Aboriginal elder from the Cabbage Tree Island community, who died in 1987, only two Birihn children survived the massacre' (Medcalf, 1993, p 6). |
| Sources | Medcalf 1993, p 5-7. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | ** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
