An Unlikely Massacre

Sir: Some thoughts on Keith Windschuttle’s article on an alleged “Hospital Creek Massacre” (November 2017) and also on Jan Cooper’s subsequent letter (December 2017).

Given the type of weapons available in 1859, two years before the US Civil War in which muzzle loaders were still in common use on both sides, it doesn’t seem credible that a party of ten or so mounted settlers and Aboriginal employees would be likely to kill outright forty times their own number in a single “massacre”.

Rifles with magazines were not in common use in 1859. Weapons such as the US-made Sharps Combine or the British Snider used in the Crimean War (1853–1856) were typical for the day—single shot, large calibre. The B. Tyler “Henry” model (Winchester) repeating rifle was still some years away. Revolvers were available but were in most cases notoriously inaccurate except at very close range.

The Aborigines were not only armed (according to Con Bride, quoted by Cooper) but would have…