Massacre at Towel Creek, Clarence Pastoral District
'Two settlers had been scouting' Aborigines for days 'and finally located them in the upper reaches of Towel Creek. According to Stanley Murray, elder tribesman who repeated the story to Victor Shepherd about 1930, the two settlers sat up till well past midnight making lead slugs for muzzle-loading rifles.' 'The settlers had an Aboriginal servant working for them called Jimmy Taylor, who had acquired a sufficient knowledge of English to become aware of what was going to happen.' That night he went to the camp to warn his tribesmen and 'they immediately moved camp upstream and took shelter in a rain forest, some climbing to the tops of trees and laying down in the thick matted vines covering the tree tops, while others continued on towards the tableland. It would appear that Jack Scott's mother tried to hide in some bushes so fell an easy victim to the hunters. Unfortunately for those hiding in the vines, one man coughed. This at once betrayed their hiding place with disastrous results. It is doubtful if there is any record of how many lost their lives at Towel Creek. The place of the massacre is shown as being about a third of the way up to Jimmy Taylor's gully which is marked on the Comara map.' (Murray cited in Bloomfield, 1981, pp. 45-6)
Notes:
CorroborationRating: *
LanguageGroup: Dhanggati
Victims: Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
VictimsDead: 6
CorroborationRating: *
LanguageGroup: Dhanggati
Victims: Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
VictimsDead: 6
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Event mentions
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Massacre at Towel Creek, Clarence Pastoral District1 Jan 1856 – 31 Dec 1856 — Towel Creek, Clarence Pastoral District — massacre'Two settlers had been scouting' Aborigines for days 'and finally located them in the upper reaches of Towel Creek. According to Stanley Murray, elder tribesman who repeated the story to Victor Shepherd about 1930, the two settlers sat up till well past midnight making lead slugs for muzzle-loading rifles.' 'The settlers had an Aboriginal servant working for them called Jimmy Taylor, who had acquired a sufficient knowledge of English to become aware of what was going to happen.' That night he went to the camp to warn his tribesmen and 'they immediately moved camp upstream and took shelter in a rain forest, some climbing to the tops of trees and laying down in the thick matted vines covering the tree tops, while others continued on towards the tableland. It would appear that Jack Scott's mother tried to hide in some bushes so fell an easy victim to the hunters. Unfortunately for those hiding in the vines, one man coughed. This at once betrayed their hiding place with disastrous results. It is doubtful if there is any record of how many lost their lives at Towel Creek. The place of the massacre is shown as being about a third of the way up to Jimmy Taylor's gully which is marked on the Comara map.' (Murray cited in Bloomfield, 1981, pp. 45-6)