Massacre at Hornet Bank massacre, Upper Dawson River

Date: 27 Oct 1857
Place: Hornet Bank massacre, Upper Dawson River
Event type: massacre
Direct violence: Yes
Minutes after first light appeared on 27 October 1857, a group of Yiman warriors entered the darkened homestead at Hornet Bank, and killed five brothers from the Fraser family along with three male employees, and knocked Sylvester Fraser aged 14, unconscious and left him for dead. Then they induced Mrs Fraser and her two daughters outside and after some deliberation they raped and then killed them. The eldest son, William Fraser was absent on the road to Ipswich. After sunrise, Sylvester escaped to a neighbouring station and raised the alarm (The Age, November 20, 1857, p 5). According to historian Jonathan Richards, the massacre was in reprisal for the Fraser sons' sexual abuse of Yiman women (Richards 2008, p 23). The massacre was widely reported in the Brisbane and Melbourne press. Detailed accounts of the massacre and the reprisals that followed have been sourced by historian Gordon Reid (1980, 1982).
Notes:
CorroborationRating: ***
LanguageGroup: Gungabula or Yiman
Victims: Colonists
VictimsDead: 11

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Sources

Event mentions

  • Massacre at Hornet Bank massacre, Upper Dawson River
    27 Oct 1857 — Hornet Bank massacre, Upper Dawson River — massacre
    Minutes after first light appeared on 27 October 1857, a group of Yiman warriors entered the darkened homestead at Hornet Bank, and killed five brothers from the Fraser family along with three male employees, and knocked Sylvester Fraser aged 14, unconscious and left him for dead. Then they induced Mrs Fraser and her two daughters outside and after some deliberation they raped and then killed them. The eldest son, William Fraser was absent on the road to Ipswich. After sunrise, Sylvester escaped to a neighbouring station and raised the alarm (The Age, November 20, 1857, p 5). According to historian Jonathan Richards, the massacre was in reprisal for the Fraser sons' sexual abuse of Yiman women (Richards 2008, p 23). The massacre was widely reported in the Brisbane and Melbourne press. Detailed accounts of the massacre and the reprisals that followed have been sourced by historian Gordon Reid (1980, 1982).
    Source: The Age, November 20, 1857, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/18215858; The Courier, 25 November, 1861, p 3 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4602408; Reid, 1980-1: 62-82; Reid, 1982; Richards, 2008, p 23.