| 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 17 Sep 1928 and 30 Sep 1928 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 100 |
| Victims Killed Notes | More than 60 |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| 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, p 114). The attacks led to a second reprisal expedition led by Mounted Constable George Murray probably between 17 and 30 September 1928. The expedition ranged along the Lander and Lower Hanson Rivers and visited 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, pp 123-131). Bradley estimates that more than 100 people were killed in the second expedition (Bradley, 2019, p 130). |
| 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, pp123-131. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
