In 1849 , Brown was charged with having murdered " unknown aboriginal natives " , estimated at between nine and eleven victims . The date of the massacre is unclear . Moorhouse 's original report in March 1849 stated that it had occurred some months before , and in his published report of October 1849 , he placed it " about September " of 1848 . On 19 February , the Protector of Aborigines , Matthew Moorhouse arrived in the district to investigate reports that some Aboriginal people had been murdered near Guichen Bay . An Aboriginal witness , Leandermin , took Moorhouse to the site of the alleged crime . He told Moorhouse that , on the day the killings occurred , he and a white man named Parker were walking along a road when they heard shots . He went to see what was happening and , from behind some trees , saw four or five Aboriginal women lying on the ground with fresh wounds . He also saw others on the ground , whom he presumed were dead because they were not moving . Two white men were present . Leandermin identified Brown as one of them , and stated that he had seen Brown standing over the victims with a gun in his hand . Brown 's overseer , Eastwood , was suspected of being his accomplice . Moorhouse 's party then located five holes containing human remains . Scattered nearby they found human bones and cartridge paper discharged from a firearm . Eighty paces from the graves they located the remains of a fire which contained more bones . Moorhouse concluded that the bodies had first been buried , but later exhumed and burnt in an attempt to destroy the evidence
having murdered
Avenue Range Station massacre
James Brown (Australian pastoralist)