| Site Name | Archer River (3), Batavia area (Wenlock) This massacre is part of a group of massacres |
| Aboriginal Place Name | |
| Language Group | Kaanjui |
| Present State/Territory | QLD |
| Colony/State/Territory at the time | QLD |
| Police District | Cooktown |
| Latitude | -12.992 |
| Longitude | 142.814 |
| Date | Between 6 Jun 1889 and 14 Jun 1889 |
| Attack Time | Day |
| Victims | Aboriginal People |
| Victim Descriptions | Aboriginal |
| Victims Killed | 20 |
| Victims Killed Notes | MWC |
| Attackers | Colonists |
| Attacker Descriptions | Native Police, Settler(s), Stockmen/Drover(s) |
| Attackers Killed | 0 |
| Attackers Killed Notes | |
| Transport | Horse |
| Motive | Dispersal |
| Weapons Used | Snider(s) |
| Narrative | Archer River 3 is the fifth campsite of Kaanjui people that was attacked by a party of at least 40 armed men on horseback, comprising three detachments of native police and men from cattle stations at Cape York. The party was conducting a two-week dispersal campaign of the Kaanjui in reprisal for their killing of Edmund Watson from Pine Tree Station in early May 1889. It is estimated that at least 20 Kaanjui were killed at each camp site. |
| Sources | Brisbane Courier, 20 May 1889, p 5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3496350; 28 May 1889, p 5 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3496688; Queenslander 1 June 1889, p 1013 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19814504; Vogan, 1890, p 137; Loos, 1982, p 61; Bottoms, 2013, p 124. (Sources PDF) |
| Corroboration Rating | *** |
Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Australia, 1788-1930
