MISTAKE CREEK MASSACRE – BETTY CARRINGTON
This one is a true one again. This is Mistake Creek.
They had Mistake Creek station. They went there on holiday, like a long weekend, gone walk-a-bout.
And that blackfella, they reckon his name was Olan Joe or something. He spoke a different language. He wasn’t from around here. He was working at the post office, as a Lines Man.
The Radigan family, they bin’ grow up my mother, and my mother was a good sized girl when she saw this happen.
They had a milking cow. That gardiya (whitefella) Radigan told that other blackfella to go look for that cow. But his no good blackfella, he wanted a lady who was a married Gija woman. That no good black fella was chasing after her. Well, that’s what my mother and sister reckon.
He went off and found that cow for Radigan, but he lead that cow over to la gorge, Ash Burton Gorge. He pulled the bell off that cow, and he walked back.
He saw that Gija mob on their holiday. They had jiyirriny (kangaroo), jarrambanyiny (goanna), and gonanjil (porcupine). They bin’ goon-goon there, cooking in the coals under ground.
He came back this way, towards Turkey Creek, and he bin’ tell liar. He fooled that old man. He told him that Gija lot had killed that cow of his. He showed him the bell.
He bin’ tell him liar. “Right,” that Gardiya bin’ tell him, “saddle ‘em up horses. Get a gun.” That blackfella thought I’ll show you. He just galloped right in and started shooting them. He was trying to get rid of the husband of the woman he wanted. Well the gardiya followed behind and started shooting. That black fella was the leader and he bin’ telling liar.
One fella bin’ get away. He crawled around the back of the hills. He was hurt a little bit. But he ran to tell the police.
The police man bin’ tell h – well get the horses, saddle him up. That was Sandy, Eileen Bray’s grandfather. That is the story my Mum Lola and my sister Winnie bin’ telling me.
When the police man got there, those two had already burnt all the people – kids and all. That blackfella had bin’ a trouble maker. He spoke a different language. The policeman said open that hole and they found in the goon-goon all the kangaroo and the goanna and porcupine.
That blackfella tried to gallop away. The policeman got his workers to chase him on the back road. They shot him. I think they cruelled him again and chopped his head off and put it in the fire.
That gardiya Radigan who shot them all, he grew up my mother. They punished him and made him walk to Halls Creek. My mother bin’ crying for him – but he won the court and after they found the cow coming back.
Around that place at Mistake Creek that ground was still greasy. I do this story again for the future, for the young ones.
