Massacre at Mt Augusta, Ross

Date: 12 Apr 1827
Place: Mt Augusta, Ross
Event type: massacre
Direct violence: Yes
On May 4 1827 on page 3, the Colonial Times reported that three weeks earlier, Thomas Rawling [Rawlins] and Edward Green, servants of settler Walter Davidson on the Elizabeth River, had been killed by a party of Aborigines led by Black Tom (Kickerterpoller) and "Several persons assisted by a small party of soldiers made immediate pursuit." The incident was also reported in the Hobart Town Gazette. While both newspapers reported the finding of the bodies of Green and Rawlins, accounts of fatalities in the reprisal varied from a tally of 'not less than thirty' (Colonial Times, 11 May 1827, p 2) to the claim that 'not a single Native was killed' (Colonial Times, 25 May 1827, p 4). . Further information appeared in 2002, p 13 in a published memoir of settler James George, who recorded the aftermath: "Having seen their fires in a gully near the River Macquarie, some score of armed men, Constables, Soldiers and Civilians, and Prisoners (convicts) or assigned Servants, who fell in with the Natives when they was going to their Breakfast. They fired volley after volley in among the Blackfellows, they reported killing some two score".
Notes:
CorroborationRating: **
LanguageGroup: Oyster Bay
Victims: Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People
VictimsDead: 40

People involved

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Sources

Event mentions

  • Massacre at Mt Augusta, Ross
    12 Apr 1827 — Mt Augusta, Ross — massacre
    On May 4 1827 on page 3, the Colonial Times reported that three weeks earlier, Thomas Rawling [Rawlins] and Edward Green, servants of settler Walter Davidson on the Elizabeth River, had been killed by a party of Aborigines led by Black Tom (Kickerterpoller) and "Several persons assisted by a small party of soldiers made immediate pursuit." The incident was also reported in the Hobart Town Gazette. While both newspapers reported the finding of the bodies of Green and Rawlins, accounts of fatalities in the reprisal varied from a tally of 'not less than thirty' (Colonial Times, 11 May 1827, p 2) to the claim that 'not a single Native was killed' (Colonial Times, 25 May 1827, p 4). . Further information appeared in 2002, p 13 in a published memoir of settler James George, who recorded the aftermath: "Having seen their fires in a gully near the River Macquarie, some score of armed men, Constables, Soldiers and Civilians, and Prisoners (convicts) or assigned Servants, who fell in with the Natives when they was going to their Breakfast. They fired volley after volley in among the Blackfellows, they reported killing some two score".
    Source: HTG May 5,1827 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/679817; CTTA May 4, 1827 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/679292, CTTA May 11, 1827 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/679295, CTTAMay 25, 1827 - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/679305; BPP 1831, pp 48-49; George, 2002, p 13; Ryan, 2012, p 90.