| Site Name | Gordon Creek |
| Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | Pilinara (VRD) and Yarralin (Gordon Creek) |
| Language Group, Nation or People | Bilinara, Wardaman |
| Present State/Territory | NT |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | SA |
| Police District | Gordon Creek |
| Latitude | -16.45 |
| Longitude | 130.866 |
| Date | Between 14 Jul 1895 and 1 Feb 1896 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
| Victim Descriptions | |
| Victims Killed | 60 |
| Victims Killed Notes | |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Mounted Police |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Firearm(s), Pistol(s), Spear(s) |
| Narrative | The NTTG of June 14, 1895, p 3 reported that teamsters John Mulligan and George Ligar were attacked at TK (Tom Kilfoyle) Camp on Jasper Gorge around 8pm on 14 May 1895. Ligar survived. Mulligan died within a year.
Read and Read (1991, pp 55-62) recount the stories of Aboriginal people in the area about what followed, 'A police party that included stockmen, tried to arrest a man named Major but the stockman concerned had a gun that "accidentally fired, killing Major". It was at this time that a man named Harry was arrested and gaoled. He was later acquitted. It was probably in about February 1896 that police - notably Mounted Constable E O'Keefe - persuaded two Aboriginal women to entice a "big mob" [15-20+?] of Pilinara men to the police station to build a stock yard in return for the policeman providing tobacco and being a "good boss". When the men came to the station in the afternoon, they were chained together, which the women told them was to make them "little bit quiet. Like a dog". Police trackers, who had been hiding in the creek bed, were ordered into the station. One man was kicked in the ribs before all the men were lined up and shot. Their bodies were taken to the nearby creek bed where they were piled and burnt.
Oral histories record: "They puttem big mob of wood, there, top of him. And chuckem kerosene, strike some matches, and burnem. Lot. No anything left, eh. All ashes. Burnem finish. Lot."'
Lewis (2021, p 482) wrote that 'Back at the gorge Willshire found that Jack Watson and a large party of men had gone out into the ranges after the blacks. In the South Australian Records Office there is a newspaper cutting of this event with a hand-written annotation stating that 60 Aborigines were shot by this party. People allegedly massacred while engaged in a "corroboree" at Kanjamala, about twenty kilometres south of the gorge, may be victims of this punitive party.' |
| Sources | Austin, 1992, p 17; Read & Read, 1991, pp 55-62; NTTG, June 14, 1895, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3329713; NTTG, June 28, 1895, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3329815; NTTG, March 13, 1896, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3331518; Lewis, 2021, pp 15-16, 482; Sutton, 2019, https://www.news.com.au/news/grisly-secret-of-cattlemen-who-kept-40-pairs-of-ears-as-trophies-in-outback-horror-house/news-story/17022ba7691314b4cff5aadbf8511936; Lewis, 2012, p 98; Olney Justice Howard (1989) Kidman Springs/Jasper Gorge Land Claim, Report No 30, AGPS, Canberra ; Rose & Lewis, Oral history with Big Mick Kanginang recorded at Yarralin, VRD, 16 April 1982; Wilson, 2001, p 325; Willshire, 1895, pp 75-76. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
