page_title: Forrest River massacre: Investigations and Royal Commission
section_title: Wood Royal Commission
hierarchical_section_title: Forrest River massacre: Investigations and Royal Commission / Wood Royal Commission
caption_attribution_description: English: "Dala, where four prisoners alleged to have been chained and shot. Left lower limb marked as if by bullet. Exhibit C, page 9." Wood Royal Commission 1927
context_page_description: The Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a law enforcement party in the wake of the killing of pastoralist Fred Hay, which took place in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1926. The massacre was investigated by the Woods Royal Commission in 1927 which subsequently determined that 11 people had been killed. Charges were brought against two officers but dismissed for lack of evidence. The Commissions findings have been disputed by journalist Rod Moran, whose analysis has received some academic support while most academic historians accept that a massacre did take place but disagree over the number of victims.
context_section_description: On the recommendation of the police commissioner a Royal Commission, conducted by G. T. Wood, sent an evidence-gathering party and heard evidence regarding Gribble's allegations.
  The 1927 Wood Royal Commission was tasked with investigating the disappearance of Tommy, one of the patrols trackers and a key witness, who had vanished after meeting with Leopold Overheu and the investigation of three particular sites (Gotegotemerrie, Mowerie and Dala) in the vicinity of the Forrest River Mission (now Oombulgurii) where it was alleged the massacres had taken place. It did not include Camp 3 where Police Inspector Douglas had discovered thousands of fragments of bone that he believed to be human, nor any other locations where police camped. Leopold Overheu hired W.N. Nairn to represent the parties under investigation and requested members of the police patrol donate to the defence in proportion to their involvement. The Crown declined to provide any legal representation for the Aborigines Department and Gribble was obliged to act in the capacity of a bush lawyer and handle the entire case on their behalf.
  Sergeant Buckland had given evidence on 3 March that he had investigated Dala and his evidence was so disparaging to Gribble's claims for the site that Commissioner Wood visited Dala on the 14th to see for himself. From what he found, Wood had no hesitation in declaring Buckland unreliable and less than candid with the commission and confirmed Gribble's account. The rainy season was late and the ash and footprints were still present and clearly visible (the first rain of the season fell the day after the Commission left). Sergeant Buckland had claimed that when he visited the site he found no evidence of a police camp, Wood found the site strewn with empty food cans and tobacco tins which he regarded as evidence of a police camp. A partially burnt tree surrounded by ash was peppered with what Gribble claimed were bullet scars but which Buckland had testified were marks made by stones or other blunt objects. Recalled by Wood, Buckland admitted that one of the marks had been a bullet scar and that Quartpot, a police tracker, had later dug a bullet from it which Wood asked to be produced. Constable Donegan, who had taken possession of the bullet, had said that he was not certain if he could find it, however it was found and given to Wood. Later, Inspector Douglas said that the bullet looked like a .44, the same caliber as the police issue Winchester although lighter in weight, but stated that it would be impossible for a bullet to pass through a human body and lodge in a tree behind it. Green noted that the Winchester rifle was a popular model carried by travelers in the area and that bullets extracted from trees in the Kimberley did not necessarily come from police rifles. At the subsequent trial of Regan and St Jack, Buckland repeated his testimony that there was no police camp at Dala, the tree scars had been made by a stone and the recovery of the bullet was never brought up.
  The resident magistrate and medical officer at Wyndham, Dr A. R. Adams, was reported by Inspector Mitchell as having said that the charred bones he was given to examine, mostly parts of ribs and long bones, were "probably human remains". Wood requested these bones but Adams refused to hand them over on the grounds that the Chief Medical Officer of the WA Health Department in Perth, McGillivray, was not qualified to make an analysis. Shown the material collected by Douglas, McGillivray, testified that apart from some human teeth the bones were either not human or not definitely human. At the Royal Commission, allegations of murder and the burning of bodies were made principally by the Rev. Ernest Gribble. Under questioning by the Commissioner and by the lawyer representing those accused, Gribble did not identify any Aborigine as having been a witness or as having made a report of the alleged crimes. Although he recorded several such reports as having been made to him, he denied having any record or knowledge of who made the reports.
  Patrol trackers Suliema
caption: The bullet scarred tree at Dala.
  Exhibit C, Wood Royal Commission
exif: {}