| Site Name | Mistake Creek - East Kimberley |
| Aboriginal Place Name | |
| Language Group | Kitja, Worla |
| Present State/Territory | WA |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | WA |
| Police District | East Kimberley |
| Latitude | -16.927 |
| Longitude | 128.242 |
| Date | Between 1 May 1915 and 30 Jun 1915 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | |
| Victims Killed | 7 |
| Victims Killed Notes | 7-10 |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Snider(s), Revolver(s), Winchester(s) |
| Narrative | In 1915 Constable John Franklin Flinders reported to Inspector Drewry (who in turn reported it to the Colonial Secretary) that Mick Rhatigan, who was a telegraph linesman and former East Kimberley Policeman, with his two Aboriginal workers, Nipper and Wyne, had ‘shot and burned five or six Aborigines’. The ‘charred remains’ of two bodies were found at Mistake Creek and the bodies of five others named ‘Hopples, Nellie, Mona, Gypsy and Nittie’ were found some distance away. (The Advertiser, April 2, 1915, p 8.) This massacre was in reprisal for the killing of Rhatigan’s cow (Owen, 2016, p 438). The Sisters of St Joseph erected a small monument at the foot of the old boab tree at Mistake Creek to mark the place where the massacre occurred (Monument Australia). |
| Sources | WAPD, Aboriginal Native Tracker 'Nipper'. From C. of P. SROWA, Cons. 430, Item 1854/1915; Western Mail, April 2, 1915, p18 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44758490; The Advertiser, April 2, 1915, p 8 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5455967/970938; Clement, 2003(a), pp 199-214; Clement, 1989(b), pp 17-18; Owen, 2016, p 438; Ross and Bray, 1989, pp 73-75; Monument Australia https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/indigenous/display/93363-mistake-creek-massacre (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
