Koonchera Point massacre

Koonchera Point massacre
Part of Australian frontier wars
Location	Mindiri Hole, near Lake Howitt in far north South Australia
Date	1880s
Target	Aboriginal Australians
Deaths	200–500
Perpetrators	Colonial police, Aboriginal Police
Motive	Punitive

The Koonchera Point massacre was an attack by colonial police on Aboriginal Australians that took place at Mindiri Hole near Lake Howitt in far north South Australia in the 1880s. Part of the Australian frontier wars, sources indicate that it resulted in the deaths of between 200 and 500 Ngameni, Yawarrawarrka, Yandruwandha and Bugadji people. The event that led to the attack was the killing and eating of a bullock by Aboriginal people. The massacre was unreported by the police, but one of the five survivors related what occurred to an Arabana elder, and in 1971 he reported it to the linguist Luise Hercus. The elder described the massacre as "the end of the Mindiri people".

References

• Elder, Bruce (2003). Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians since 1788 (3 ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW: New Holland. ISBN 978-1-74110-008-2.
• Evans, Raymond (1999). Fighting Words: Writing About Race. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0-7022-3109-6.
• Haines, Timothy K. (April 2017). European Settler-Indigenous Relations: A Short History of Massacres in South Australia (PDF) (Report). Emu Link Migration and Intercultural Consultancies. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
• Headon, David (1988). ""The Coming of the Dingoes"—Black/White Interaction in the Literature of the Northern Territory". Connections: Essays on Black Literatures. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Aboriginal Studies Press. ISBN 978-0-85575-186-9.
• Hercus, Luise; Sutton, Peter (1986). This Is What Happened: Historical Narratives by Aborigines. Canberra, Australian Capital Territory: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. ISBN 978-0-85575-144-9.