Not long after, on 27 October 1857, a combined Aboriginal offensive on neighbouring Hornet Bank station resulted in the death of eleven settlers. This was, at the time, the largest loss of life suffering by European settlers in conflicts on the Australian frontier and with the concurrent Indian Rebellion being brutally suppressed, the military response was merciless. Officer W. D. T. Powell was the first Native Police officer to arrive and immediately tracked down and killed at least eight Aboriginal people. Multiple punitive missions conducted in the subsequent months under Powell, Carr and Moorhead killed at least 70 Aboriginal people. These shootings were blantantly indiscriminate with W. D. T. Powell reporting shooting down three unarmed Aboriginal women while they were running away.