| Narrative | On 14 March 1852 stockman Robert Richardson was killed by Yura warriors at Aroona station in the Flinders Ranges. Two Yura men, 'Billy' and 'Jemmy' were arrested for the murder, but were not brought to trial for lack of evidence. In 1929, the reminiscences of Richardson's employer, Johnson Frederick Hayward, were published in the 'Proceedings' of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (South Australia Branch).
According to Foster and Nettelbeck (2001, p 102), in the aftermath of the Richardson killing, Hayward 'with several companions ascertained where the Yuras were camped, in a gorge between the Heysen and ABC ranges, about four miles from Youngoona and thirteen miles south of Aroona homestead [and in Hayward's words] "determined to attack them at dawn" and capture the males, among them those suspected of Richardson's murder'... Hayward describes "a good fusillade" on the Yura camp' (Foster and Nettelbeck, 2001, p 102). Initially Hayward insisted that most had escaped and a few were wounded but in a later account in his own hand he states '... that we had killed 40, 50 or 60 blackfellows' with the numbers crossed out and replaced with '15 or 20'. The number killed appears as 15 in the final publication of this account (Foster and Nettelbeck, 2001, p 102). |
