Massacre at Sturt Creek
Darrell Lewis (2021, p 140) wrote: "While managing Sturt Creek station in the 1920s or 1930s some desert blacks threw spears into his [Wayson Byers'] camp. He escaped unscathed and in the morning he tracked the blacks into the desert. He caught up with them and, in his own words, 'evened the score'. It may have been this event that caused him to 'disappear' into the desert��� This story was confirmed and expanded during the Tanami land claim hearing in late 1990 when elderly Aboriginal men told the hearing that several of their named relations had been shot by 'Wayzshen Pile'. An old Territory cattleman, Dick Scobie, former owner of Hidden Valley station and friend of Byers, said that Byers told him of this incident and that he had shot twenty-six blacks at Sturt Creek... Given the relative absence of hiding places on the generally flat and open desert plain, the mobility afforded by horses and the virtual certainty that Byers had modern repeating firearms, a massacre of twenty-six Aborigines would be quite possible."
Notes:
CorroborationRating: **
LanguageGroup: Ngarinman, Bilinara, Pililuna
Victims: Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
VictimsDead: 26
CorroborationRating: **
LanguageGroup: Ngarinman, Bilinara, Pililuna
Victims: Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
VictimsDead: 26
People involved
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Event mentions
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Massacre at Sturt Creek15 Jun 1925 – 16 Jun 1925 — Sturt Creek — massacreDarrell Lewis (2021, p 140) wrote: "While managing Sturt Creek station in the 1920s or 1930s some desert blacks threw spears into his [Wayson Byers'] camp. He escaped unscathed and in the morning he tracked the blacks into the desert. He caught up with them and, in his own words, 'evened the score'. It may have been this event that caused him to 'disappear' into the desert��� This story was confirmed and expanded during the Tanami land claim hearing in late 1990 when elderly Aboriginal men told the hearing that several of their named relations had been shot by 'Wayzshen Pile'. An old Territory cattleman, Dick Scobie, former owner of Hidden Valley station and friend of Byers, said that Byers told him of this incident and that he had shot twenty-six blacks at Sturt Creek... Given the relative absence of hiding places on the generally flat and open desert plain, the mobility afforded by horses and the virtual certainty that Byers had modern repeating firearms, a massacre of twenty-six Aborigines would be quite possible."