Site NameIvanhoe Station (1) East Kimberley
Aboriginal Place Name
Language GroupKitja, Mirrawong
Present State/TerritoryWA
Colony/State/Territory at the timeWA
Police DistrictWyndham - East Kimberley
Latitude-15.69
Longitude128.683
Date11 Nov 1895
Attack TimeDay
VictimsAboriginal People
Victim Descriptions
Victims Killed20
Victims Killed Notes20
AttackersColonists
Attacker DescriptionsPolice, Aboriginal Assistant(s)
Attackers Killed0
Attackers Killed Notes
Transport
MotiveReprisal
Weapons UsedSnider(s), Revolver(s), Winchester(s)
NarrativeOfficial Records Missing. 'The occurrence book for Wyndham Station states that in November 1895 a large police party was ordered to undertake a bush patrol in the East Kimberley [to locate alleged cattle killers]. The police party consisted of PC Rhatigan, Sergeant Wheatley, four native assistants (Mickey, Willy, Joe and Bubby) and thirteen horses. Sergeant Wheatley’s private notebook, curiously the only surviving record of this event, describes how the police party left Wyndham on 6 November [1895], arrived at Ivanhoe Station on 9 November [1895] and, after tracking until 11 November, found a group of Aboriginal people deemed responsible for cattle killing' (Wheatley). Sergeant Wheatley described the scene: ‘Left camp at 6.30am and followed the tracks and came upon the natives in a large lagoon, the assistants told them to come out of the water and reeds, two of them came which we arrested. The rest of them tried to escape but in doing so we fired on them killing twenty men, the women and children making good their escape. The two we arrested shewed [sic] us where they killed the cattle and told us they had killed plenty; the following are the names of the two we arrested[:] Ginnare, Cunbiliger.’
Sources‘Private diary of Sergeant Thomas Wheatley during police patrols from Wyndham from 6 November to 23 December 1895’, [Wheatley Manuscript], 11 November 1895, Battye Library, Cons.1266A, Manuscript; Owen 2016, pp 361-362. (Sources PDF)
Corroboration Rating***