| Site Name | Coniston (1) This massacre is part of a group of massacres |
| Aboriginal Place Name | Unclear |
| Language Group | Warlpiri, Anmatyere, Kaytetye |
| Present State/Territory | NT |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | NT |
| Police District | Barrow Creek |
| Latitude | -22.084 |
| Longitude | 132.506 |
| Date | Between 1 Aug 1928 and 31 Oct 1928 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | |
| Victims Killed | 50 |
| Victims Killed Notes | More than 50. |
| Attackers | Colonisers |
| Attacker Descriptions | Mounted Police, Settler(s), Stockmen/Drover(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | Dingo trapper, Fred Brooks, who was killed on 7 August, 1928. |
| Transport | Camel |
| Motive | |
| Weapons Used | Firearm(s), Spear(s) |
| Narrative | See also Coniston #2. As noted in a number of documents, including the Woodward Royal Commission report (Vol 1, p 82) and Bradley (2019), following the killing of Fred Brooks (committed by a man named Nugget or Bullfrog for stealing Nugget's/Bullfrog's wife) by Warlpiri at Yurrguru on Coniston, a number (more than 50) of Aboriginal people (Warlpiri and Yanmatjiri) were killed in punitive expeditions by a police party comprising Mounted Constable George Murray, Alex Wilson, Stafford, John Saxby, Billy Briscoe, Dodger and trackers Paddy and Major, in the next few weeks around the Lander River and to the west of Coniston Station. The official death toll for the Coniston Massacre was 17. Bradley (2019, p 4) put the figure at 100-200 and records that people were massacred at the following locations: Rabbit Bore, Mt Theo, Tipinpa, White Stone, Boundary Soak, Mt Denison, Cockatoo Spring, Mission Creek, Curlew Waterhole, Dingo Waterhole, Tomahawk Waterhole, Boomerang Waterhole, Broadmeadows (x 2 sites), Circle Well (x 2 sites), Baxter's Well and two unnamed sites on the Hanson River east of Barrow Creek. |
| Sources | Woodward, 1973; Read & Read 1991; Bell 1993; Toohey 1979; Edmond 2013 |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
