Hi Poirot,

Yes, of course, that battle is well known. 1829, i think ? Whether it was some sort of unprovoked massacre of innocent, defenceless people, rather than an all-out battle between two groups of armed people, should be thoroughly investigated.

As we know from all of the TV shows we've watched, a massacre leaves traces. If remains could be found, and they are of an entire population, young, old, men, women, babies - then maybe we can begin to talk about an unprovoked massacre. If the remains turn out to be all of young men, then perhaps we can begin to suspect a battle, unequal as it may have been.

There was a similar battle here up on the Murray in 1841 - a large group of men had ambushed a party of overlanders, killing some, wounding others, and stealing around a thousand cattle, the remains of which were followed for some months across the landscape by the party of police sent to retrieve them. Finally, the two sides met at Lake Bonney, thirty police on one side, around three hundred warriors on the other, and the warriors lost. A couple of Aboriginal women were brutally treated afterwards on the way back to Adelaide, by both black and white men.

The only other documented massacre would have been of the crew and passengers of the shipwrecked 'Maria' on the Coorong in 1840, when twenty eight people were killed by the Milmenroora (Milmendjuri) clan of the Tangane.

If something actually happened, then there should be evidence, either in the form of written accounts and/or in the form of concrete evidence. Obviously, the more the better, on the whole. Otherwise it's just blather and hearsay, and God knows, there's enough of that in Indigenous 'history'.

Thanks for showing an interest, Poirot :)

Cheers,

Joe