Description
In the autumn of 1841, three shepherds on Frederick Eldershaw's outstation on the north eastern edge of New England were brutally murdered and 2000 sheep taken by Baanbay warriors (Eldershaw, 1854, p 63). In reprisal Eldershaw organised a 'pursuing party' of ten men (including Eldershaw, three neighbours and six stockmen), 'well mounted and accoutred' and set off with ten days provisions for the south branch of the Clarence River. According to Eldershaw the party was ambushed by fire on at least one occasion, and after several days, they found the Baanbay camp and the sheep towards evening and split their party in two. One group remained hidden near the camp, and the other, with Eldershaw in the lead, moved to a higher ground above the camp of about 200 Baanbay. When they heard a shot fired below, in reprisal for Baanbay warriors killing one of the men, the group above immediately discharged the 'contents of ten barrels' into the camp below. A second volley from below and a third from above 'dealt frightful havoc in their ranks' and 'according to Eldershaw 'some [of the Baanbay] actually dashed themselves in frantic violence to the depths beneath, in utter heedlessness of life' (Eldershaw 1854, p 73). 'Shot after shot, with curses wild and deep the excited fellows launched at their hated foes - their butchered comrades' blood was that night fearfully avenged' (Eldershaw, 1854, p 73).
It is estimated that at least 30 Baanbay people were shot. In his book Eldershaw justified the massacre on the grounds that it instilled in the local Aboriginal people 'a mysterious and superstitious fear of the stupendous power of the white man', caused them to become 'harmless, tractable and subdued' and thus the 'barbarous and inhuman secret murders [of colonists], by poison or by some violent remorseless treachery, of which in preceding times I had so frequently heard and read, were now happily abolished' (Eldershaw 1854, p 74). Eldershaw's account is reproduced in Blomfield 1981, pp 85-91 and Elder 2003, pp 105-117.
