Coniston massacre
On 24 August, Murray captured an Aboriginal person named Arkirkra and returned to Coniston, where he collected Padygar (Woolingar had died that night still chained to the tree) and then marched the two to Alice Springs. Arriving on 1 September, Arkirkra and Padygar were charged with the murder of Brooks while Murray was hailed as a hero. On 3 September, Murray set off for Pine Hill station to investigate complaints of cattle spearing. Nothing has been recorded about this patrol, but he returned on 13 September with two prisoners. On 16 September, Henry Tilmouth of Napperby station shot and killed an Aboriginal he was chasing away from the homestead; this incident was included in the later enquiry. On the 19th, Murray again departed, this time under orders to investigate a non-fatal attack on the person of a settler, William "Nuggett" Morton, at Broadmeadows Station, by what Morton described as a group of 15 Myall Warlpiri people who were also in the same area.
Rory O'More
On New Year's Day 1577, a brutal massacre of the Irish gentry by Sir Henry Sidney's troops took place at Mullaghmast in County Kildare. Sidney invited all of the Gaelic leaders of Laois and Offaly to a peace conference at Mullaghmast. They arrived unarmed and were slaughtered with their families by the English soldiers surrounding the castle. Estimates of the dead range from 40 (the number of Gaelic lords there) to hundreds. O Mordha vowed to avenge the deaths of his countrymen. He kidnapped two men called Harrington and Cosby, relatives of important people.