Site Name | Bellinger River |
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | |
Language Group, Nation or People | Gumbaynggirr |
Present State/Territory | NSW |
Colony/State/Territory at the time | NSW |
Police District | Kempsey |
Latitude | -30.413 |
Longitude | 152.914 |
Date | Between 1 Jun 1841 and 10 Jun 1841 |
Attack Time | |
Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
Victims Killed | 20 |
Victims Killed Notes | |
Attackers | Colonists |
Attacker Descriptions | Border Police, Crowns Land Commissioner |
Attackers Killed | 0 |
Attackers Killed Notes | |
Transport | Horse |
Motive | Unknown |
Weapons Used | Musket(s) |
Narrative | When Major Oakes, Crown Lands Commissioner for the Clarence McLeay Pastoral District, and a party of mounted field police were returning from the Clarence River to Head Quarters at Kempsey in June 1841, they reported that they were attacked by a large group of Aboriginal people (Bundjalung) and, in self-defence, they killed and wounded 20 of them. A Government Inquiry was proposed (Sydney Herald, 19 July, 1841, p 2), but if it was held, there is no extant report. |
Sources | Sydney Herald, July 19, 1841, 2.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/12870072 (Sources PDF) |
Corroboration Rating | * |