Conniston

'Mowed them down wholesale!' With these words, a judge summed up the last great punitive massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia. Coniston, Central Australia, 1928: the murder of an itinerant prospector at this isolated station by local Warlpiri triggered a series of police-led expeditions that ranged over vast areas for two months, as the hunting parties shot down victims by the dozen. The official death toll, declared by the whitewash federal inquiry as being all in self-defence, was 31. The real number was certainly multiples of that. Coniston has never before been fully researched and recorded; with this book that absence in Australia's history is now filled. As the last great mass killing in our country's genocidal past but an event largely unremembered, it reminds us that, without truth, there can be no reconciliation.

Coniston, Central Australia, 1928: the murder of an itinerant prospector at this isolated station by local Warlpiri triggered a series of police-led expeditions that ranged over vast areas for two months, with the 'hunting parties' shooting down victims by the dozen.The official death toll, declared by the whitewash federal inquiry as being all in self-defence, was thirty-one. The real number was certainly many times that.As the last mass killing in our country's genocidal past but an event largely unremembered, Coniston has never before been fully researched and recorded. This book fills that absence in Australia's history and reminds us that without truth, there can be no reconciliation.

Foreword Maps Author's note Prologue Central Australia, 1928 The murder of Fred Brooks The hunters August September 'A disgusting creature' October Heat on the home front The Board of Enquiry Dispersal Epilogue Notes Acknowledgements.