One of the deadliest colonial massacres in Australian history, killing up to 500 Aboriginal people and nearly wiping out the Mindiri people.
Key Facts
- Estimated death toll
- 200–500 Aboriginal people killed
- Peoples affected
- Ngameni, Yawarrawarrka, Yandruwandha, Bugadji
- Number of survivors
- 5
- Reported to linguist
- 1971, by an Arabana elder
- Trigger incident
- Killing and eating of a bullock by Aboriginal people
- Location
- Mindiri Hole, near Lake Howitt, far north South Australia
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Colonial police responded to the killing and eating of a bullock by Aboriginal people in far north South Australia. This act, likely driven by subsistence need, was treated as a criminal offence under the colonial order, prompting an armed police response against the local Aboriginal population at Mindiri Hole near Lake Howitt.
Colonial police attacked a large gathering of Aboriginal Australians at Mindiri Hole near Lake Howitt in the 1880s. The assault, part of the broader Australian frontier wars, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 200 to 500 Ngameni, Yawarrawarrka, Yandruwandha, and Bugadji people. Only five individuals survived the massacre.
The massacre was never reported by the police and remained largely unknown outside survivors and oral memory. Decades later, one survivor recounted events to an Arabana elder, who in 1971 relayed the account to linguist Luise Hercus. The elder characterised the massacre as 'the end of the Mindiri people', reflecting the near-total destruction of those communities.