46860

Source document

# Frontier conflict event: Possible attack on Aboriginal people - Wilmot Lagoon, near Mt Larcomb (after 27 December 1855) Source dataset: University of Newcastle, "Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia 1788-1930" (c21ch.newcastle.edu.au), entry 46860. Coordinates: latitude -23.85, longitude 150.983333. Day/month: After 27 December Year: 1855 Nature of event: Attack on Aboriginal people Location type: Lagoon/waterhole Location: Wilmot Lagoon Note that Murray just says this happened "in a dense scrub about 15 miles from Mr Youngs" - Wilmot's lagoon is not far enough away to qualify Pastoral run/station: Mount Larcomb Run landowner/lessee: William Young Location notes: Location of Wilmot Lagoon Number of people killed: 100 Names of people killed / details: 'over 100' (all unnamed Aboriginal people) Perpetrators: NMP;Settlers/Squatters;Shepherds/Farm labourers/Servants Cause / reason: Reprisal for the Mt Larcomb killings of the Forans, Smelt, Murray and an Aboriginal man Associated Native Mounted Police camps: Gladstone (Port Curtis) Associated Native Mounted Police officers: Murray, John;Boles (sometimes Bowles), James Associated events: Attack on Europeans/others - George Smelt, John Murray, James Foran, Margaret Foran and Peter Blackboy at Mt Larcomb station (27 December 1855);Attack on Aboriginal people - Nankin Creek, or Broadmount/Broadmeadows, across the Fitzroy beyond Archer's Crossing (28? December 1855);Attack on Aboriginal people - Sneaker Creek, near Mt Larcomb (after 27 December 1855) Related language group: Bayali Related pastoral district: Port Curtis Contemporary reference: QSL 1856 Letter from John Murray to Inspector General of Police 18 January, NSW Colonial Secretary Letters Relating to Moreton Bay and Queensland 1822–1860, Reel A2.36 Date first reported: 1925 Reliability of sources: Not reliable (see notes). James Boles Jnr's version of events presumably came from his father, who was in the NMP but not at the time of the Mt Larcomb killings Other sources: Capricornian 5 September 1925, p60 Capricornian 19 September 1925, p59 Notes / comments: The details of Wilmot Lagoon as a massacre site are provided by James Boles (Jnr), who was the son of James Boles Snr, who was camp sergeant for both Murray brothers and stationed at Rockhampton and Gladstone. Note, however, that JB Jnr's account says that his father was involved in his capacity of NMP Sergeant, but other accounts say he did not join the NMP until two years after this event. JB Jnr's account is also one of the ones that confuses the day of the Mt Larcomb killings - see separate entry for MOUNT LARCOMB - and is therefore not particularly reliable. Description of event: Of the 11 men killed and 3 wounded described by Murray it is not clear whether they were all associated with the second reprisal (see separate entry for Nankin Ck) or with both. All Murray says about the first is that: "On the 30th I came up with a party of Blacks in a dense scrub about 15 miles from Mr Youngs a and [sic] succeeded in retaking 300 sheep together with a large quantity of Blankets Clothing &c" (QSL 1856 Letter from John Murray to Inspector General of Police 18 January, NSW Colonial Secretary Letters Relating to Moreton Bay and Queensland 1822–1860, Reel A2.36) ‘Rosebank has a frontage to the main Rockhampton – Gladstone road of four and a-half miles, running from about a mile out of Mount Larcom township right to Mount Larcombe Creek, to which it has a frontage of a mile, besides which there is a frontage to another good water supply, namely, Wilmot Lagoon, which, even in the disastrous drought of 1902, had 23 ft. of water on its deepest part. It was here, on the bank of this fine lagoon bounding the property, that a large number of the black murderers of the unfortunate Mount Larcombe Station folk were shot down on Christmas Day, 1855, whilst getting ready for a barbaric feast of mutton roasted in the wool from a large number of the squatter's sheep which had been thrown into huge bonfires made for the purpose.’ (Capricornian 19 September 1925, p59). 'A big party was soon organised to go out and bury the victims and punish the offenders. It included Captain O'Connell, Lieutenant John Murray, Orderly-sergeant Boles (Mr. Bole's father), Sergeant Horrigan, and Constables Donald M'Donald, Thribble, and several other constables besides a white sergeant of the Native Police and about a dozen black troopers and some civilians. ... One party was easily followed, as it had taken with it a flock of sheep, and besides leaving a broad trail, could only advance slowly. It was overtaken about four miles away, on the bank of a big lagoon afterwards known as Wilmot Lagoon, called after Mr. Wilmot, one of the very early hotelkeepers of Gladstone, who had a big flock of sheep depasturing close to it. The blacks were very busily engaged in preparing for a huge banquet, the chief item of which was to be roast mutton, for they had made a number of very large bonfires into which they had cast a great many sheep, wool and all. There was no difficulty in surrounding the revellers, and not many escaped from the weapons of the avengers. Over 100 blacks paid the penalty out of this contingent, and others were shot down elsewhere, notably near Sneaker's Creek, on the slopes of Mount Larcombe.' (Capricornian 5 September 1925, p60)