There is no record of other colonists in the region until overlanders Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney drove 335 cattle from Sydney to Adelaide along the Murray River in 1838.

By April 1841 at least 36 overlanding parties had travelled the track, bringing with them about 480 people; 90,000 sheep and 15,000 cattle; as well as horses, bullocks, drays and goods through the territory of the Maraura.

The Aboriginal warriors had forced McLeod's group to retreat to their drays, but after half an hour of sharp shooting, the overlanders drove the Maraura away and into the river.

[5] A month later, an overlanding group led by stockman Alexander Buchanan and conveying a herd of 18,000 sheep, battled with Maraura warriors near the Murray-Darling junction.

In the early months of that year, pastoralist James Chisholm organised a droving party to take 5,000 of his sheep from his property near Goulburn, New South Wales to the markets of Adelaide.

[9] When the news of Inman's defeat reached Adelaide, a strong party of South Australian mounted police, led by Major Thomas Shuldham O'Halloran, was sent to recover the sheep from the Maraura.

Fearing a possible scandal if the police shot large numbers of Aboriginal people, Governor George Gawler recalled O'Halloran's party before they reached the Rufus River.

[7][10] Displeased with the government's lack of action, a vigilante group of 14 armed and mounted volunteers, led by Henry Field, a member of the original party, set out on 7 May to recover the sheep.

[10] The newly appointed Governor of South Australia, George Grey, ordered the formation of a large group of police, volunteers, and special constables under the leadership of Major O’Halloran.

This group of 68 armed and mounted men was to proceed to the Rufus River to capture some Maraura and protect the overlanding party of Charles Langhorne, which was known to be travelling through the region.

In that skirmish, the overlanders had attacked the Aboriginal people blocking their path, killing five men and wounding another ten after shooting at them for around 45 minutes.

[17][19][20][21] Concerns in the colony and in England about the large number of Aboriginal people killed in the massacre, forced Governor Grey to organise an magisterial inquiry into the shootings.

[4] They also determined that the overall conflict in the region was due in part to the overlanders engaging in sexual relations with Aboriginal women without giving the food and clothing they had promised.

[20][22] Magistrate Edward John Eyre thought the punishment meted out at the Rufus River to the Maraura by Shaw and Robinson was not sufficiently harsh enough.

In his travels through the region several years later, Charles Sturt documented that thirty of the killed were interred in a mass grave on the banks of Lake Victoria, the mound of which was still visible.