Details

Latitude

-28.731

Longitude

150.951

Start Date

1849-05-01

End Date

1849-05-01

State

NSW

Locating the site of the Beebo massacre is difficult. There are two river Severns close to each other on either side of the NSW-QLD border, to the north and to the south of Beebo. One is a tributary of the Dumeresq River and the other of the Macintyre River. The narrative says the Capt. Walker recruited native police from the Murray River, so they were coming up to the Severn from the South. Though it's not clear if by river ways, such as up the Darling and Barwon, and so approaching from the west and downstream or overland and so approaching from the SW and upstream. Smiler was going by land, as and arrived at Beebo heading for the McIntyre River. Beebo pastoral station and the town is marked in TLCMap as just north of the border. There is also a 'Beebo Crossing' on the Severn below the border closer to the McIntyre. He heard an ambush was waiting for him about 10 miles away where he usually camped, but that the native police were arriving soon so he waited for them and they went on together. They told him to camp as usual and they would counter the ambush. The Aboriginal people came down from and retreated into scrub. So the massacre occured at that camp. Beebo Crossing, must be so named for an old crossing point of the McIntyre, and a river crossing is a likely place for a bullock train driver to camp. It is roughly 10 mile SE from Beebo station, and on the way from the NSW Severn River going to the McIntyre, and there are low hills there which may have been the scrub. This then is the most likely point. Other candidates might be at nearby Yetman, where there looks to be a good ford from satellite images, but rivers change a lot; or up along the Dumeresq River approach to the McIntyre which would be an alternative route from Beebo station to the McIntyre River. This is described in the Colonial Frontier Massacres website as a slightly different place. I haven't read the Skinner source, which may have more detail. This was one among a series of violent events in the area, including violent murders on both sides of innocent women and children, and cattle rustling. The account can be read in 'Personal Reminiscences by John Watts, 1901'.

Sources