| Site Name | Buckingham Downs, Selwyn Ranges (1) This massacre is part of a group of massacres |
| Aboriginal Place Name | |
| Language Group | Yalarrnga |
| Present State/Territory | QLD |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | QLD |
| Police District | Burke River, Boulia |
| Latitude | -22.538 |
| Longitude | 140.253 |
| Date | Between 1 Feb 1879 and 28 Feb 1879 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 20 |
| Victims Killed Notes | |
| Attackers | Colonisers |
| Attacker Descriptions | Native Police, Settler(s), Stockmen/Drover(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Snider(s), Repeating Rifle(s) |
| Narrative | Between 12 and 21 January 1879, a large group of Yalarrnga a Pita warriors who were conducting major ceremonies at Wonomo Waterhole, killed stockman Bernard Molvo and three other stockmen at Wonomo Waterhole on Sulieman Creek. In reprisal Sub-Inspector Ernest Eglington led a detachment of native police, as well as 'a white vigilante group' (Bottoms, 2013 p162) of settlers including Alexander Kennedy and Robert Currie from Buckingham Downs Station, William Paterson from Goodwood Station in at least five reprisal massacres of the Yalarrnga and Pitta Pitta people in February 1879. The massacre sites included Buckingham Downs; Sulieman Creek; Goodwood Station; Monastery Creek: and The Monument. It is estimated by the Yalarrnga descendants of the massacre survivors that more than 100 men, women and children were killed. This would suggest that about 20 Aboriginal people were killed at each of the five sites. |
| Sources | Brisbane Courier, March 5, p. 3, 1879, 'Murders in the Far West" |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
