| Site Name | Sulieman Creek, Selwyn Ranges This massacre is part of a group of massacres |
| Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Place Name | |
| Language Group, Nation or People | Yalarrnga |
| Present State/Territory | QLD |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | QLD |
| Police District | Burke River, Boulia |
| Latitude | -22.076 |
| Longitude | 139.76 |
| Date | Between 1 Feb 1879 and 28 Feb 1879 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 20 |
| Victims Killed Notes | |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Native Police, Settler(s), Stockmen/Drover(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Snider(s), Repeating Rifle(s) |
| Narrative | Between 12 and 21 January 1879, a large group of Yalarrnga and Pitta Pitta warriors who were conductng ceremonies at Sulieman Creek killed stockman Bernard Molvo and three other stockmen at Wonomo Waterhole. In reprisal, a detachment of native police led by Sub-Inspector Ernest Eglinton and assisted by settlers Alexander Kennedy and Robert Currie from Buckingham Downs pastoral station, William Paterson from Goodwood station and others, conducted five separate massacres of the Yalarrnga and Pitta Pitta people in February 1879. Sulieman Creek is the second in the series. It is estimated by descendants of the Yalarrnga survivors that more than 100 Yalarrnga and Pitta Pitta men, women and children were slaughtered. It is estimated that about 20 Aboriginal people were killed at each site. The reprisal campaign was widely reported in the press at the time. |
| Sources | Brisbane Courier, March 5, 1879, "Murders in the Far West" https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/898062/73354; Morning Bulletin, March 1, 1879, "Blackall" https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/51991181; Evening News, March 10, 1879, "Massacres by the Queensland Blacks' https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/107155604; Queenslander, January 8, 1921, "Sketcher Early Days in North West Queensland" https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/22608504; Townsville Daily Bulletin, June 29, 1917 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/62574187, January 27, 1931 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/61581906, August 16, 1948 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/63372166; Fysh 1961, p 94; Bottoms 2013, p 162-4; Davidson et. al. 2020, p 1-16. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
