At the instigation of John Brown (brother of James Brown), a group of fifteen Europeans (including Police Constable Phillips) and two Aboriginal men (Melia and Mt Brown Tommy) tracked the sheep belonging to James Brown. On the third day, Aboriginal people and the sheep were found ‘on top of a high range of hills near Lake Torrens’. According to European depositions taken by Protector Moorhouse, four Aboriginal men were shot dead after refusing arrest and throwing a boomerang, spears and stones at the Europeans. Oral histories and written reminiscences suggest the number of Aboriginal people killed was higher than reported.
(See 'The South Australian Frontier and its Legacies' for more details.)