Six Aborigines died in dispute

Press, 30 September 1988, Page 8

Six Aborigines died in dispute

NZPA Darwin A domestic dispute over the sale of a bark painting and batteries for a ghettoblaster portable radio cost six Aborigines their lives on a remote outstation in Arnhem . Land, Darwin C. 1.8. Detective Superintendent Terry O’Brien said yesterday. Police were now hunting for a 22-year-old man who eye witnesses have identified as the killer, he added. Superintendent O’Brien said the eye witnesses, who were found about 40 kilometres from the outs tation by field geologists, had told police they saw the man fire a single barrel shotgun into the family group as they sat under a lean-to during a bark painting session on Sunday. Those killed were Dick Ngielu Ngielu (also know as Murrumurru), aged 68, his wife Dolly, in her 30s, their daughter Cecelia, aged about 20, her two children, Preston, aged

three to four, years, Zorac, aged under two, and the tribal elder’s brother, Andrew Narraorrga, aged 40. The man police are looking for was Cecelia’s husband and the father of the two dead children. Superintendent O’Brien said police had been told that while the survivors were heading towards the Aboriginal community Oenpelli after the shooting at midday on Sunday, the man they were, seeking was walking about 90 kilometres in the other direction to an outstation where his family lived. Police had been told the man had arrived at the outstation Korlobirranda in the Cadell River region. He said there were normally nine people living at the outstation, including the man’s father, but police understood they had now gone bush for fears of reprisals from relatives of those killed, who lived at Oenpelli.