| Site Name | Lakefield, Far North Queensland |
| Aboriginal Place Name | |
| Language Group | |
| Present State/Territory | QLD |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | QLD |
| Police District | Cooktown |
| Latitude | -14.514 |
| Longitude | 144.166 |
| Date | Between 1 May 1896 and 31 May 1896 |
| Attack Time | |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 6 |
| Victims Killed Notes | Poison |
| Attackers | Other |
| Attacker Descriptions | |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | |
| Motive | Reprisal |
| Weapons Used | Poison, Arsenic |
| Narrative | Following the Aboriginal killing of Macdonald (or Donald) Mackenzie, owner of Lakefield station at the head of the saltwater on the Normanby River, 75 km north east of Laura, a special train transported detachments of native police from Cooktown, Musgrave, and Maytown to Deighton and then by track to Lakefield station (Queenslander, May 9, 1896, p 871). On the track they 'came across the dead bodies of some blacks who had evidently died of poison.' Constable David Hardie surmised that they had 'used the arsenic stolen after the murder from Mackenzie's house, believing it to be baking powder' (Queenslander, June 6, 1896, p 1063). |
| Sources | Queenslander, May 9, 1896, p 871 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/2577663; May 16, 1896, p 917 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/2577709; June 6, 1896, p 1063 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/20448781/2577856. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | * |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
