| Site Name | Geike Gorge, West Kimberley (1) |
| Aboriginal Place Name | |
| Language Group | Bunuba, Nykina, Goonyiyandi |
| Present State/Territory | WA |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | WA |
| Police District | Fitzroy Crossing - West Kimberley |
| Latitude | -17.069 |
| Longitude | 125.158 |
| Date | 19 Nov 1894 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | |
| Victims Killed | 30 |
| Victims Killed Notes | 30-50 |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Police |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | |
| Weapons Used | Snider(s), Revolver(s), Winchester(s) |
| Narrative | In December 1896 Chief Protector of Aborigines George Marsden reported that PC Spong and his native assistants ‘struck a camp of eighty buck natives, in full war paint with cow tails hanging all over them' (SROWA, AN 1, Cons. 495, Item 44). These natives, each of which had one or two gins with him carrying spears, commenced throwing their spears.’ The police dispersed them, Marsden wrote, with ‘the loss of some twenty bucks. Since then they have never attempted to rush the station, but have kept well back in the hills. Since the beginning of ‘operations’ against Jandamarra in November 1894 the police parties had recorded killing at least 80 Aboriginal people (with an unknown and possibly larger number killed in ‘dispersals’) and an undisclosed number had been killed at Oobagooma and Liveringa. A survey of the police bush patrol diaries of Inspector Lawrence, Sub Inspector Ord and PCs Pilmer, Nicholson, Chisholm, Spong and Freeman show an almost complete breakdown of proper police process. The diaries of Spong and Chisholm, contain almost no information but in most of the other diaries, police report the party shooting at any Aboriginal people they came across, with their native assistants doing much of the shooting (SROWA, Cons. 430, File 3548/1897). The whole exercise appears much more like a military operation than policing (Owen, 2016, pp 326-330). |
| Sources | APB, ‘Correspondence, Report for the Secretary of the Aboriginal Protection Board of Western Australia from Mr George Marsden on Oobagooma Cattle Station, 21 December 1896’, SROWA, AN 1, Cons. 495, Item 44; WAPD, ‘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, 5 January 1895; The West Australian, January 8, 1895, p 2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3071337; Western Mail, January 12, 1895, p 13 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/33111918; Clement and Bridge, 1998, pp 47-79; McGregor, 1985, pp 100-122; Pederson, 1995, pp 132-142; Owen, 2016, pp 315-330. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
