Site NameNogoa River
This massacre is part of a group of massacres
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name
Language Group, Nation or PeopleGayiri
Present State/TerritoryQLD
Colony/State/Territory at the timeQLD
Police DistrictKennedy
Latitude-23.96
Longitude147.936
Date25 Oct 1861
Attack TimeDay
VictimsAboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
Victim Descriptions
Victims Killed30
Victims Killed Notes
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsNative Police
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
TransportHorse
MotiveOpportunity
Weapons UsedFirearm(s), Rifle(s)
NarrativeThe news of the massacre of nineteen colonists at Mr Wills's station at Cullin la Ringo first reached Mr Gregson at Rainworth station, when two shepherds who escaped the massacre arrived there. Before the native police could arrive, who were a long distance away at the time (QSA GOV/23/61/74 (DR110747) ITM17671, p124), two groups of colonists set out for the Nogoa. 'Mr Gregson's party overtook some of the miscreants at dawn one morning, revelling in their blankets and ill-gotten booty. The party managed to get one discharge at the wretches, when they all bolted up a steep range, till the sight of the white's destroying their spears and boomerangs, which were splendid in appearance, drew them down upon the little band, who wisely retreated, fearing they might be cut off from their horses, which were left a mile and a half from the scene of action' (The Courier, 11 Nov 1861, pp 2-3).
This article mentions another group led by Mr P.F. Macdonald had also gone out to 'protect the stock, and assist the survivors' (The Courier, 11 Nov 1861, pp 2-3). P.F.McDonald wrote in his account that this second group did not encounter any Aboriginal people: 'As it had been fully ascertained that the great portion of blacks implicated in the murders belonged to the Comet and Dawson Rivers, and had made off in that direction, we started on the morning of the 7th in search of them, but as they had so many days in advance of us and their foot-tracks were nearly everywhere obliterated by recent thunderstorms, our chances of finding them were very much diminished. We spent eight days searching the scrubs in the neighbourhood, but with little success.' (SMH 10 December 1861, p. 5).
Governor Bowen summarised the Cullin-la-Ringo massacre and the reprisals for it in a letter to the Lord Newcastle. He wrote that after burying the victims of the Cullin-la-Ringo massacre and prior to the arrival of the Native Police a group of armed colonists killed 30 Aboriginal people. 'And now the full extent of the dreadful sacrifice of life was ascertained; and an uncontrollable desire for vengeance took possession of every heart... About thirty of the tribe of murderers are said to have fallen in the deadly struggle which ensued when the eleven English avengers "stormed their camp" in the manner related in the enclosure' (QSA GOV/23/61/74 (DR110747) ITM17671, p124).
The body of one of the men killed in the reprisal massacres around the Nogoa River was exhibited in The Australian and South Sea Islander Museum in Melbourne: 'One of the most extraordinary curiosities in the museum is the dried body of an aboriginal of North Australia... Some 10 years ago, Nogoa, a station in the north of Queensland, was the scene of a horrible massacre by the blacks. Almost all the residents on the station, comprising some 20 men, women and children, were slaughtered, only some two or three stockmen succeeding, in effecting their escape. The neighbouring country was aroused, and a retaliatory raid was made upon the aborigines by the squatters and native police force, and it is said that the vengeance exacted was terribly severe, the lives of upwards of 200 natives being sacrificed before the wrath of the offended whites was satiated. The particular blackfellow exhibited was, it is stated, shot in a tree into which he had climbed in the hope of concealment.' (The Argus, 5 February 1872, p 6)
The location provided is an estimate based on the description but there are many steep hills near Cullin-la-Ringo that could be the location.
SourcesReid 1980-1, pp 62-82; Bowen to Newcastle, 16 Dec. 1861, QSA GOV/23/61/74 (DR110747) ITM17671 https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM3682012; SMH 10 December 1861, p. 5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13060056; SMH December 11, 1861 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/1484054; SMH December 12, 1861, p. 5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13062362; Courier (Brisbane) 11 November, 1861 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4602097; The Argus, 5 February 1872, p 6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5859420 (Sources PDF)
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