Site NameGeike Gorge, West Kimberley (2)
Aboriginal Place Name
Language GroupBunuba
Present State/TerritoryWA
Colony/State/Territory at the timeWA
Police DistrictFitzroy Crossing - Kimberley
Latitude-18.116
Longitude125.122
DateBetween 13 Dec 1894 and 6 Jan 1895
Attack TimeDay
VictimsAboriginal People
Victim Descriptions
Victims Killed7
Victims Killed Notes7 -20
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsPolice, Aboriginal Assistant(s)
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
TransportHorse
MotiveReprisal
Weapons UsedSnider(s), Revolver(s), Winchester(s)
NarrativePolice reports state that: 'on 3 November 1894, when Jandamarra (alias Pigeon) was acting as an informal native assistant to the police at Lillamaloora police station, he killed his officer William (Bill) Richardson, released thirteen Aboriginal prisoners just arrested for stock killing, and escaped and hid in Windjana Gorge, the natural hideaway of Tunnel Creek in the Napier (or Barrier) Range. On 29 December 1894 PC Richard Pilmer led one police party and PC Cadden led another to Geikie Gorge. A guide for PC Pilmer reported that ‘... a mob of natives swam the river to meet the police, and threw several spears. The police fired on them, killing seventeen men, four being prisoners who escaped when P.C. Richardson was murdered.' (Western Mail, January 12, 1895, p 11) Between January 2 and January 6, 1895 the two parties continued, Cadden ‘in the Barker country' and Pilmer on the Upper Oscar and the Fitzroy. 'Pilmer's party shot seven natives.' (SROWA, Cons. 430, File 3548/1897)
SourcesWAPD, ‘Capture of Wild Natives in the Oscar and Barrier Ranges’, 26 January 1895, SROWA, Cons. 430, File 3548/1897. See telegram from Inspector Lawrence to Commissioner of Police, January 5, 1895; West Australian, January 8, 1895, p 2, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3071337/810682; Western Mail, January 12, 1895, p 13 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article33111918; Owen, 2016, pp 315-316. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating***