Bowman shot at every black person he saw on his run, while Hutton believed in punishing the tribes wholesale and exterminating them completely.

The upsurge in violence spread to the Barfold region where in May 1838, two of Coppock's convict workers, a hut keeper and watchman, were found dead, and 1200 sheep missing.

[3]When Melbourne police magistrate William Lonsdale was informed about the killings, he passed the report on to the Governor in Sydney, and Coppock and his party were summoned there to explain.

[3] In January 1840, Robinson travelled to Monro's station and crossed the Coliban River, locating the site of the Waterloo Plains massacre on small hill behind an abandoned hut.

While Robinson was present, Monro again summoned a detachment of Mounted Police to conduct a punitive expedition against the resident Indigenous people on his property for stealing sheep.

One prisoner, a Djadjawurrung man named Munnangabumbum, was captured, beaten, chained by the legs and hands, and transported to Melbourne.