As recently as 1928 an officially endorsed massacre of innocent Aboriginal men, women and children was perpetrated by a white policeman leading a posse of horsemen in the Northern Territory of Australia near a cattle ranch called Coniston.
Officially the killers were to capture an Aboriginal man accused of killing a white dingo hunter. All members of the mounted party shot to kill, no-one keeping a record of how many they killed, says a book about massacres and maltreatment of Aborigines since 1788, “Blood on the Wattle” (ISBN 1 86436 410 6, cover pictured).
According to historians, riders led by Constable William George Murray shot dead more than 50 men, women and children at at least six sites between August and October 1928.
But Warlpiri, Anmatyerre and Kaytetye people say that up to 170 innocent people were indiscriminately slaughtered as the horsemen roamed up and down the Lander River. The official figure stated in court was 17, all allegedly shot in ‘self-defence’ against Aborigines bearing spears and other wooden weapons. No charges were ever laid; a board of inquiry set up to investigate the killings ruled the party had “acted in self-defence”.
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