On 28 March 1915,[3] between 8[2][4] and 32[5] Gija people were shot and killed, and their bodies burned, at Mistake Creek in the East Kimberley.

[3] Exactly who was responsible and why the massacre occurred have remained uncertain,[6] but the perpetrators are believed to have been an ex-policeman and telegraph linesman from Warmun (then known as Turkey Creek) called Michael[2] "Mick" Rhatigan and two of his Indigenous employees, Jim Wynne and Nipper.

[6] According to Gija oral history, the motive was the mistaken belief that one of Rhatigan's milking cows had been killed and eaten by members of the camp that was attacked.

[11] A coroner's inquest held at Turkey Creek acquitted Rhatigan of any wrongdoing, while Nipper was ordered to face trial for the murder of eight people.

According to columnist Miranda Devine, reporting on historian Keith Windschuttle's version of events, Deane personally apologised for the events at Mistake Creek and for other frontier killings by white people, mentioning Rhatigan and his employees had committed the massacre over the mistaken belief that a cow had been stolen.