Site NameConiston (1)
This massacre is part of a group of massacres
Aboriginal Place NameUnclear
Language GroupWarlpiri, Anmatyere, Kaytetye
Present State/TerritoryNT
Colony/State/Territory at the timeNT
Police DistrictBarrow Creek
Latitude-22.084
Longitude132.506
DateBetween 16 Aug 1928 and 31 Aug 1928
Attack TimeDay
VictimsAboriginal People
Victim DescriptionsAboriginal
Victims Killed50
Victims Killed NotesMore than 50.
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsMounted Police, Settler(s), Stockmen/Drover(s)
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed NotesDingo trapper, Fred Brooks, who was killed on 7 August, 1928.
TransportHorse, Camel
Motive
Weapons UsedFirearm(s), Spear(s)
NarrativeOn 7 August 1928 a group of Warlpiri, Anmatyere and Kaytetye men led by Kamalyarrpa Japananglea, also known as 'Bullfrog', killed dingo trapper Fred Brooks at Yurrkuru, a Warlpiri, Anmatyere and Kaytetye camp about 14 miles (22 km) from the Coniston Station homestead. The killing took place in reprisal for Brooks' kidnapping one of Bullfrog's wives. After his body was found in a rabbit hole, from 16 August, Mounted Constable George Murray, who was a veteran of the Boer War and World War I, led a punitive expedition of eight heavily armed men around the Lander River and to the west of Coniston Station. The expedition included Coniston Station owner, Randal Stafford, stockmen Alex Wilson, John Saxby, Billy Briscoe, and Aboriginal men, Dodger, Paddy and Major. The expedition returned on 31 August. The official death toll for this expedition was 17. However an estimate of 69 deaths is more likely.
SourcesWoodward, 1973, p 82; Read & Read, 1991, pp 33-37; Bell 1993, pp 67-68; Toohey 1979; Edmond, 2013, p 104 http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/534259; Morrison www.australianfrontierconflicts.com.au; Alice Springs News Online August 15 2018 https://www.alicespringsnews.com.au/2018/08/15/the-coniston-massacre-remembered; Schubert, NT News, August 25, 2018, pp 24-25 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-24/nt-police-apologise-for-state-sanctioned-coniston-massacre/10162850; Wilson & O'Brien, 2003, pp 59-78; Bradley, 2019, p 4. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating***