| Site Name | Coniston (2) 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 | -22.094 |
| Longitude | 132.516 |
| Date | Between 24 Sep 1928 and 15 Oct 1928 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 60 |
| Victims Killed Notes | More than 60 |
| Attackers | Colonisers |
| Attacker Descriptions | Manager(s), Stockmen/Drover(s), Police, Pastoralist(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | William John (Nugget) Morton, co-owner of Broadmeadows Station, reported that he was attacked by 15 Warlpiri on 28 August. |
| Transport | Horse, Camel |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Firearm(s), Tomahawk(s) |
| Narrative | Following the reprisal massacres at Coniston (1) Warlpiri, Anmatyere and Kaytetye people attacked and wounded 'Nugget' Morton at Tomahawk Waterhole on the Lander River on 28 August. Morton shot one of the attackers. Harry Tilmouth was attacked on 10 and 16 September, and killed Wangaridge during the second of these (Bradley, 2019, p114). The attacks led to further reprisal expeditions led by Mounted Constable George Murray on the Lander and Lower Hanson Rivers at 19 sites including Rabbit Bore, Mt Theo, Tipinpa, White Stone, Boundary Soak, Mt Denison, Cockatoo Spring, Mission Creek, Curlew Waterhole, Dingo Waterhole, Tomahawk Waterhole, Boomerang Waterhole, two locations at Broadmeadows, two locations at Circle Well (x 2 sites), Baxter's Well and two unnamed sites on the Hanson River east of Barrow Creek (Bradley, 2019, pp123-124). Murray and Morton forced three boys to act as guides in spite of their attempt to burn their own feet and break their toes to avoid the task (Bradley, 2019, p116). Michael Bradley (2019, p 4) estimates that about 100-200 people were killed during the Coniston massacres. Morton and Tilmouth gave up on the Lander River region in 1930 (Bradley, 2019, pp228-229). |
| Sources | Woodward, 1973, p 82; Read & Read, 1991, pp 33-37; Bell, 1993, pp 67-68; Toohey 1979; Edmond, 2013, p 104; 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 | *** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
