C Eight Mile Swamp Creek

Placename

Eight Mile Swamp Creek

Type

Other

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Description

Extended Data

single_DATE

1 June 1824

PLACE

8-mile Swamp.

ANPS ID

61a1

EVENTS

Three women killed

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

After the attack on Hollingshead on 31 May, according to Grant, consternation among the men on the estate increased, and the Hassalls overseer William Lane and some men arrived equipped for an expedition after the natives. Lane ordered Grant to accompany them as he had so lately seen a party. Some of the other convict stockworkers apparently begged to be allowed arms, that they might go in pursuit of the natives, else they would all be murdered. Of Lanes scratch force, only four of the party had muskets, and the fifth (Henry Castles) could only obtain a sword. They went out to where Hollingshead had been pursued (the southeast direction, close to the main road leading from OConnel-plains) and apparently returned that night after a fruitless expedition, failing to fall in with any of the natives. Grant said that when they were scouring the woods he became separated from the others, so he went to ascertain the safety of the flocks, and the stock-keepers. Then at a place called the 8-mile swamp, 7 miles from the main road, he espied the same tribe he had seen in the morning. Grant called out to Joe, one of the chiefs, who replied in an abusive and insolent way. He called to another man he obviously recognised, Simon, and in reply was answered with a shower of spears. The three womens bodies were later found by Henry Trickey, a crown servant in the employ of merchant and whaling entrepreneur Captain Thomas Raine. Trickey said he lived on his masters estate at the two-mile creek, distant five miles from OConnel-plains, and eighteen from Bathurst, called Rainville. While he was travelling between Sidmouth Valley and the two-mile creek, a trifling distance from the main road to Bathurst, Trickeys attention was arrested by a large quantity of crows, eaglehawks, and other birds of prey. He was then surprised to find the bodies of three black women, on ground called the Government reserve. William Lawson Junior was to write two weeks after the event that the women were killed in sheer frustration at not finding any warriors. He believed Lanes party fell in with a horde of their women and despatched them in return for the men.

EXACT LOCATION

YES. 'The Government Reserve' at 8-mile swamp.

CASUALTIES

Three Wiradyuri women killed

REFERENCES

Gazette, 10 June 1824, p. 2, Gazette, 12 August 1824, p. 2; Salisbury and Gresser, Windradyne of the Wiradjuri, pp. 25, 48. William Lawson Junior to Nelson Lawson, 14 June 1824, in Beard (ed.), Old Ironbark, p. 37.

LEGEND

Sources

C Millah Murrah

Placename

Millah Murrah

Type

Other

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Description

Extended Data

single_DATE

25 May 1824

PLACE

Milla-Murrah

ANPS ID

b4ea

EVENTS

Raid and attack on 'Milla-Murrah'

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

At absentee landlord Samuel Terry's station "Milla-Murrah", George Cheshire and William Lee found "two shepherds and one hut-keeper killed by the natives". The Wiradyjuri warriors had "proceeded to break up and destroy every article of convenience about the place; 12 sheep were killed and eaten at their camp [and] Several other sheep were also killed, and many wounded". The Gazette newspaper later reported "that the natives have in their possession 7 stands of arms, with plenty of ammunition". If "Milla-Murrah" was the "Murdering Hut" it may well have been targetted. Salisbury and Gresser, Windradyne of the Wiradjuri, pp. 22-3. Salisbury and Gresser noted that "Millah-Murrah" was nearby "Tanawarra", a "native cemetery", and that it was also "the location of the Murdering Hut", where it seems poison had been laid out for unsuspecting Wiradyjuri. According to Gresser, it was "nearby" (not on) "Tanawarra", the "native cemetery". Gresser notes that "Mullah-murrah" meant "many eyes".

EXACT LOCATION

YES. Terry's 'Milla-Murrah' station

CASUALTIES

3x convict workers killed

REFERENCES

Reverend William Horton, Wesleyan Missionary Papers, 3 June 1823, ML BT 52, V4, p. 1268; Gazette, 10 June 1824, p. 2; Depositions re bodies of men killed by Aborigines, 29 May 1824, SRNSW, NRS 897, 6065, 4/1799, pp. 5558; Gresser Papers, BDHSMA, pp. 2453; Salisbury and Gresser, Windradyne of the Wiradjuri, pp. 22-3

LEGEND

Sources

C Millpost Creek

Placename

Millpost Creek

Type

Other

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Extended Data

single_DATE

25 May 1824

PLACE

Mill Post

ANPS ID

ab91

EVENTS

Raid and attack on the 'Mill post'

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As William Henry Suttor Junior described it, "after this [the Bathurst Massacre], the blacks commenced general depredations". James Lowe was a "shepherd in the employ of a settler up the country" (Richard Lewis). On Tuesday 25 May (Lowe later wrote), he was "very much surprised" on his "return home at sunset" when he "found the hut stripped of everything but a hammock and the hut-keeper killed at the mill". According to Richard Lewis, the owner of the "Mill Post", Lowe and another convict stockworker raced to inform him that they had made the gruesome discovery of "a man lying dead close by the Mills". Tuesday 25 May 1824 was a dark night, with a waning crescent moon. Undoubtedly hastily gathering lanterns, arms and convicts as well as his neighbour, John Tindale (variously Tindall, Tyndall, Tindle) Lewis rushed out to the hut "close by the Mills". He found the dead man as Lowe had reported, as well as "the Hut Robbed of all its contents". On "looking around" he also saw "the footsteps of a great number of Blacks".

EXACT LOCATION

YES. The 'Mill Post' hut

CASUALTIES

1x convict stockworker killed

REFERENCES

Reverend William Horton, Wesleyan Missionary Papers, 3 June 1823, ML BT 52, V4, p. 1268; Deposition re death of James Buckley, suspected murdered by Aborigines, 29 May 1824, SRNSW, NRS 897, 6065, 4/1799, pp. 4750.

LEGEND

Sources

C Wattle Flat

Placename

Wattle Flat

Type

Other

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Extended Data

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25 May 1824

PLACE

Warren Gunyah

ANPS ID

12bc0

EVENTS

Raid and attack on 'Warren Gunyah'

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The next morning (26th), Lewis "proceeded with Tindale to his station, distant about Four Miles". At Tindale"s "Warren-Gunyah" they came across an even more gruesome find. There they "saw the Hut with a quantity of Brush drew around it, and the Hut burnt down". When they looked inside the remains of the hut, they "saw the bodies of two men parts of which had been Burnt away". A more detailed investigation of Tindale's property led to the discovery of another dead man. In the daylight, as Lewis later told Commandant Morisset, "on looking around we found the body of James Buckley one of Mr Tindall's Servants as Corpse about Fifty yards from the Hut".

EXACT LOCATION

YES. John Tindale's 'Warren Gunyah'

CASUALTIES

3x convict stockworkers killed, hut burnt down.

REFERENCES

Deposition re death of James Buckley, suspected murdered by Aborigines, 29 May 1824, SRNSW, NRS 897, 6065, 4/1799, pp. 4750; Gazette, 12 August 1824, p. 2.

LEGEND

Sources