Massacres Of Indigenous Australians
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Colonial settlers frequently clashed with Indigenous people (on continental Australia) during and after the wave of mass immigration of Europeans into the continent, which began in the late 18th century and lasted until the early 20th. Throughout this period, settlers attacked and displaced Indigenous Australians, resulting in significant numbers of Indigenous deaths. These attacks are considered to be a direct and indirect (through displacement and hunger) cause of the decline of the
Indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...
population, during an ongoing colonising process of mass immigration and land clearing for agricultural and mining purposes. There are over 400 known massacres of Indigenous people on the continent. A project headed by historian
Lyndall Ryan Lyndall Ryan, (14 April 1943 – 30 April 2024) was an Australian academic and historian. She held positions in Australian studies and women's studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was the foundation professor of Australian ...
from the University of Newcastle and funded by the
Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...
has been researching and mapping the sites of these massacres. A massacre is defined as "the deliberate and unlawful killing of six or more undefended people in one operation", and an interactive map has been developed. , the number of documented massacres of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
people by colonists recorded as having taken place in the period between 1788 and 1930 was 417 (10,372 individuals), while there were 13 massacres of colonists by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people in the same period (160 individuals). There are also at least 26 recorded instances of
mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians Several recorded instances of mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians occurred during the History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation of Australia. Aboriginal resistance to colonisation led settlers to look for ways to kill or dr ...
. The following list tallies some of the massacres (as defined above) of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
people by colonial authorities and settlers (or their descendants), most of which took place during the mass-immigration period.


1790s – 1890s


New South Wales


1790s

* September 1794. British settlers in the
Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River (Dharug language, Dharug: Dyarubbin) is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle ...
area killed seven
Bediagal The Bidjigal (also spelt Bediagal, Bejigal, Bedegal or Biddegal) people are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are modern-day western, north-western, south-eastern, and southern Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. The ...
people in reprisal for the theft of clothing and provisions. Some of the surviving children of this raid were taken by the settlers and detained as farm labourers. One boy, who was considered a spy, was later dragged through a fire, thrown into the river and shot dead. * May 1795. Conflict in the Hawkesbury region continued and following the alleged killing of two settlers, Lieutenant Governor William Paterson ordered two officers and 66 soldiers to "destroy as many as they could meet with ... in the hope of striking terror, to erect gibbets in different places, whereon the bodies of all they might kill were to be hung". Seven or eight
Bediagal The Bidjigal (also spelt Bediagal, Bejigal, Bedegal or Biddegal) people are an Aboriginal Australian people whose traditional lands are modern-day western, north-western, south-eastern, and southern Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. The ...
people were killed. A crippled man, some children and five women (one being heavily pregnant) were taken to Sydney as prisoners. One of the women and her baby had serious gunshot wounds. The child died not long after, as did the newborn baby of the pregnant woman. * September 1795. In the lower parts of Hawkesbury, British settlers conducted an armed expedition against local Aboriginal Australians, killing five and taking a number of prisoners, again including a badly wounded child. * March 1797. After Aboriginal Australians killed two British settlers, a large punitive expedition was organised which surprised and dispersed a native camp of about 100 people, killing an unknown number. The armed group then returned to Parramatta to rest.
Pemulwuy Pemulwuy ( /pɛməlwɔɪ/ ''PEM-əl-woy''; 1750 – 2 June 1802) was a Bidjigal warrior of the Dharug, an Aboriginal Australian people from New South Wales. One of the most famous Aboriginal resistance fighters in the colonial era, he is n ...
, a noted Aboriginal resistance leader of the early frontier, followed them into the town, demanding vengeance for the dispersal. A skirmish (known as the
Battle of Parramatta The Battle of Parramatta was a battle of the Australian Frontier Wars which occurred at Parramatta in March 1797. In the conflict, Aboriginal resistance leader Pemulwuy led a group of Bidjigal warriors, estimated to be up to 100, against armed ...
) then occurred between Pemulwuy's group and a collection of British soldiers and settlers. One of the settlers was injured, but at least five Aboriginal Australians were shot dead with many more wounded, including Pemulwuy. * March 1799.
Henry Hacking Henry Hacking (1750 – 21 July 1831) was an English-born sailor and explorer who was one of the first British colonists in New South Wales. He is generally regarded as being the person responsible for shooting and killing the Aboriginal war ...
was ordered by Governor
John Hunter John Hunter may refer to: Politics *John Hunter (British politician) (1724–1802), British Member of Parliament for Leominster * John Hunter (Canadian politician) (1909–1993), Canadian Liberal MP for Parkdale, 1949–1957 *Sir John Hunter ( ...
to investigate claims of British sailors being trapped by Aboriginal Australians at the mouth of the
Hunter River Hunter River may refer to: *Hunter River (New South Wales), Australia *Hunter River (Western Australia) *Hunter River, New Zealand *Hunter River (Prince Edward Island), Canada **Hunter River, Prince Edward Island, community on Hunter River, Canada ...
to the north of the colony. Hacking encountered a group of
Awabakal The Awabakal people , are those Aboriginal Australians who identify with or are descended from the Awabakal tribe and its clans, Indigenous to the coastal area of what is now known as the Hunter Region of New South Wales. Their traditional te ...
people on the south side of the river who informed him that the sailors had left earlier on foot, endeavouring to walk back to Sydney. Hacking did not believe them and became agitated, shooting dead four Awabakal men. The sailors later arrived in Sydney having walked the distance to return.


1800s

* March 1806. A group of
Yuin people The Yuin nation, also spelt Djuwin, is a group of Australian Aboriginal peoples from the South Coast of New South Wales. All Yuin people share ancestors who spoke, as their first language, one or more of the Yuin language dialects. Sub-group ...
, resident to what the British named
Twofold Bay Twofold Bay is an open oceanic embayment that is located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The bay was named by George Bass, for its shape of two bights. The northern bight is called Calle Calle Bay; while the southern ...
, attempted to forcibly remove a gang of eleven
sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 1800 ...
encamped on their land. After spears had been thrown, the sealers opened fire on them with
musket A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually dis ...
s, killing nine, with the remainder fleeing. The bodies were hung overnight from nearby trees, in an attempt to intimidate the other Yuin.


1810s

* 1816.
Appin Massacre The Appin Massacre was the mass murder of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal men, women and children in the New South Wales settlement of Appin, New South Wales, Appin, South Western Sydney, on 17 April 1816 by members of the 46th (South Devonshir ...
.
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
Governor Macquarie Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB (; ; 31 January 1762 – 1 July 1824) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role ...
sent soldiers against the
Gundungurra The Gandangara people, also spelled Gundungara, Gandangarra, Gundungurra and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people in south-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Their traditional lands include present day Goulburn, Wollondilly Sh ...
and
Dharawal The Tharawal people and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people, identified by the Yuin language. Traditionally, they lived as hunter–fisher–gatherers in family groups or clans with ties of kinship, scattered along the coasta ...
people on their lands along the Cataract River just south of Sydney, in reprisal for violent conflicts with white settlers (in which several died) in the adjoining Nepean and Cowpastures districts. On 17 April, at around , the group of soldiers arrived at a camp of Dharawal people, killing at least 16 indigenes by shooting. Many others, including women and children, were driven to fall from the cliffs of the gorge to their deaths below. *1818. Minnamurra River massacre. Local settlers attacked and killed at least six members of the
Wodiwodi The Wodiwodi or Wodi Wodi, also pronounced Whardi Whardi (according to an interview with Joan Mc Grady- nee Kearney in the early 1990s), are a sub-group of the Dharawal people, an Indigenous Australian people of the east coast of the continent. ...
people camped on the banks of the
Minnamurra River The Minnamurra River, an open mature wave dominated barrier estuary, is located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The village of Minnamurra is near the mouth of the river, where it flows into the Pacific Ocean. Location ...
on the pretext that they were retrieving two muskets lent to a group of Aboriginal people living on the river.


1820s

* 1824. Bathurst massacre. Following the killing of seven Europeans by Aboriginal people around
Bathurst, New South Wales Bathurst () is a city in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia. Bathurst is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) west-northwest of Sydney and is the seat of the Bathurst Region, Bathurst Regional Council. Founded in 1815, Bathurst is ...
, and a battle between three stockmen and a warband over stolen cattle which left 16 Aboriginal Australians dead, Governor Brisbane declared
martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
to restore order and was able to report a cessation of hostilities in which 'not one outrage was committed under it, neither was a life sacrificed or even Blood spilt'. Part of the tribe trekked down to Parramatta to attend the Governor's annual Reconciliation Day. * 1826. Around 20 Birpai men, women and children at Blackmans Point. There is no single written account, but the diary of Henry Lewis Wilson, who oversaw convicts in the area, relates that after two convicts sent to work at Blackmans Point were killed by Indigenous men, a party of soldiers "got round the blacks and shot a great many of them, captured a lot of women and used them for a immoral purpose and then shot them. The offending soldiers were sent to
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
to be tried, but managed to escape punishment.". Historian
Lyndall Ryan Lyndall Ryan, (14 April 1943 – 30 April 2024) was an Australian academic and historian. She held positions in Australian studies and women's studies at Griffith University and Flinders University and was the foundation professor of Australian ...
, after studying other evidence, thinks that the Blackmans Point event referred to by Wilson involved around 20 people, but other massacres in the area may have caused the deaths of up to 300 people. *1827. 12
Gringai Gringai otherwise known as ''Guringay'', is the name for one of the Australian Aboriginal people who were recorded as inhabiting an area of the Hunter Valley in eastern New South Wales, north of Sydney. They were united by a common language, stro ...
Aboriginal Australians were shot dead for killing in reprisal a convict who had shot one of their camp dogs dead. *1827. A group of 17 colonists led by Benjamin Singleton shot dead 6
Gamilaraay The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Austr ...
men near what is now
Willow Tree Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known ...
on the
Liverpool Plains The Liverpool Plains are an extensive agricultural area covering about of the north-western slopes of New South Wales in Australia. These plains are a region of prime agricultural land bounded to the east by the Great Dividing Range, to the s ...
.


1830s

*18 December 1832. Joseph Berryman, overseer at Sydney Stephen's Murramarang land acquisition near
Bawley Point Bawley Point is a small coastal hamlet in New South Wales, Australia, in the Shoalhaven with a population of 698 people at the . It is located 30 minutes south of Ulladulla, New South Wales, and 30 minutes north of Batemans Bay on the South Coa ...
, shot dead four Aboriginal Australians in retaliation for the spearing of some cattle. Of those shot, two were an elderly couple and another was a pregnant woman. *1835. Settlers from the Williams Valley are said in a late report (1922) to have surrounded a Gringai camp and forced them all over a cliff at Mount McKenzie near Gloucester Tops. The group of Aboriginal people were massacred in retaliation for the killing of five convict shepherds. A group of local residents, assisted by settlers from Port Stephens, set out to find the Aboriginal people responsible. They found a group of Aboriginal men, women and children camped on the edge of a cliff near the Gloucester River. It was reported that the Aboriginal people leapt to their deaths after being surrounded by settlers. However oral evidence suggests they were shot and thrown over the cliff edge by the settlers. The Mount McKenzie Aboriginal Place was gazetted in 2002 in recognition of the special significance of this site to the local Aboriginal community. A surviving band of the same group was hunted down and killed at the Bowman River. Unburied, their bones could be seen there for years. * 11 July 1835. The expedition team of Thomas Mitchell, during their journey to the
Darling River The Darling River (or River Darling; Paakantyi: ''Baaka'' or ''Barka''), is the third-longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth. Including its long ...
, fatally shot two Aboriginal Australians after fight over a kettle. Additional shots were fired at the fleeing tribe as they swam across the creek. Mitchell said that the shooting occurred "without much or any effect". * 27 May 1836. Mount Dispersion massacre. Major Thomas Mitchell felt threatened by a group of around 150 Aboriginal people and divided his expedition team into two groups with about eight men in each group. The first group drove the Aboriginal people into the
Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...
, forcing them with gunfire to enter the water to attempt escape. The second group of armed men then reunited with the first and commenced firing at the Aboriginal Australians as they swam across the river. For around five minutes, 16 men fired approximately eighty rounds of ammunition at the fleeing Aboriginal Australians. A government inquiry was organised into the incident after Mitchell published his account of it, but little of consequence resulted. Mitchell subsequently named the area where the shootings occurred Mount Dispersion. * 26 January 1838. The
Waterloo Creek massacre The Waterloo Creek massacre (also Slaughterhouse Creek massacre) refers to a series of violent clashes between mounted settlers, civilians and Indigenous peoples, Indigenous Gamilaraay people, which occurred southwest of Moree, New South Wales, ...
, also known as the Australia Day massacre. A
New South Wales Mounted Police The New South Wales Mounted Police Unit is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force. Founded by Governor of New South Wales, Governor Thomas Brisbane, Sir Thomas Brisbane on 7 September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from ...
detachment, despatched by acting
Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales The lieutenant-governor of New South Wales is a government position in the state of New South Wales, Australia, acting as a deputy to the governor of New South Wales. The office was first created in October 1786, before the arrival of the First ...
Colonel
Kenneth Snodgrass Kenneth Snodgrass (1784 – 14 October 1853) was a Scottish-born soldier and colonial administrator. He acted as lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land and governor of New South Wales for brief periods. Early life Snodgrass was born in ...
, attacked an encampment of
Kamilaroi The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous Australians, Indi ...
people at a place called Waterloo Creek in remote bushland. Official reports spoke of between 8 and 50 killed. The missionary
Lancelot Threlkeld Lancelot Edward Threlkeld (20 October 1788 – 10 October 1859) was an English missionary, primarily based in Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of ...
set the number at 120 as part of his campaign to garner support for his Mission. Threlkeld later claimed Major Nunn boasted they had killed 200 to 300 black Australians, a statement endorsed by historian Roger Milliss. Other estimates range from 40 to 70. * 1838.
Myall Creek massacre The Myall Creek massacre was the killing of at least 28 unarmed Aboriginal people in the Colony of New South Wales by eight colonists on 10 June 1838 at the Myall Creek in the north of the colony. Seven perpetrators were convicted of murder ...
– 10 June: 28 people killed at Myall Creek near Bingara, New South Wales. This was the first and only Aboriginal massacre for which settlers were successfully prosecuted. Eleven men were charged with murder but were initially acquitted by a jury. On the orders of the Governor, a new trial was held using the same evidence and seven of the eleven men were found guilty of the murder of one Aboriginal child and hanged. In his book ''Blood on the Wattle'', journalist Bruce Elder says that the successful prosecutions resulted in pacts of silence becoming a common practice to avoid sufficient evidence becoming available for future prosecutions. Another effect, as one contemporary Sydney newspaper reported, was that poisoning Aboriginal people became more common as "a safer practice". Many massacres were to go unpunished due to these practices, as what is variously called a "conspiracy", "pact" or "code of silence" fell over the killings of Aboriginal people. *1838. In about the middle of the year at
Gwydir River Gwydir River (locally Australian English phonology, wɑe̯də, a major inland perennial stream, perennial river of the Barwon River (New South Wales), Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tableland ...
. A "war of extirpation", according to local magistrate Edward Denny Day, was waged all along the
Gwydir River Gwydir River (locally Australian English phonology, wɑe̯də, a major inland perennial stream, perennial river of the Barwon River (New South Wales), Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the Northern Tableland ...
in mid-1838. "Aborigines in the district were repeatedly pursued by parties of mounted and armed stockmen, assembled for the purpose, and that great numbers of them had been killed at various spots". * 28 November 1838. Charles Eyles, William Allen and James Dunn (employees of Gwydir River squatter Robert Crawford) shot dead nine
Gamilaraay The Gamilaroi, also known as Gomeroi, Kamilaroi, Kamillaroi and other variations, are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands extend from New South Wales to southern Queensland. They form one of the four largest Indigenous nations in Austr ...
people just east of present-day Moree. They attempted to burn and bury the remains but these were found a couple of months later. All three men had warrants out for their arrest but the Attorney-General, John Hubert Plunkett, elected not to take the case to trial, ending any possibility of prosecution. * 1838. In July 1838 men from the Bowman, Ebden and Yaldwyn stations in search of stolen sheep shot and killed 14 Aboriginal people at a campsite near the confluence of the Murrumbidgee and
Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...
s in
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. (extracts from ''Australian dictionary of dates and men of the time: containing the history of Australasia from 1542 to May 1879'' Published 1879)


1840s

*June 1841. Major Henry Robert Oakes, the Crown Lands Commissioner for the
Macleay River The Macleay River is a river that spans the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast districts of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Formed by the confluence of the Gara River, Salisbury Waters and Bakers Creek, the Macleay River ...
District was returning from an overland expedition to the Clarence River with his
Border Police A border guard of a country is a national security agency that ensures border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard (as in Federal Police (Germany), Germany, Guardia di Finanza, Italy or State Border Guar ...
troopers, when they encountered some strong Aboriginal resistance. Around 20 Aboriginal people were killed and a Government enquiry was proposed. Oakes' paramilitary brigade had previously shot dead at least three Aboriginal people at William Forster's nearby pastoral run in the preceding year. *27 August 1841. The
Rufus River massacre The Rufus River Massacre was a massacre of at least 30–40 Aboriginal people that took place in 1841 along the Rufus River, in the Central Murray River region of New South Wales (now Australia). The massacre was conducted by a large group of ...
, various estimates – between 20 and 40 deaths. *24 October 1841. British pastoralists William Lee, Joseph Moulder and Andrew Kerr, together with troopers of the
New South Wales Mounted Police The New South Wales Mounted Police Unit is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force. Founded by Governor of New South Wales, Governor Thomas Brisbane, Sir Thomas Brisbane on 7 September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from ...
conducted a massacre of at least twelve Aboriginal people at Duck Creek on the
Bogan River Bogan River, a perennial river that is part of the Macquarie– Barwon catchment within the Murray–Darling basin, is located in the central west and Orana regions of New South Wales, Australia. From its origin near Parkes, the Bogan River ...
after local Aboriginal men killed three stockmen there. *1842. Evans Head massacre or "Goanna Headland massacre", the 1842/1843 European squatters & sawyers massacre of 100 Bundjalung nation tribes people at Evans Head, was variously said to have been in retaliation for the killing of "a few sheep", or the killing of "five European men" from the 1842 "Pelican Creek tragedy". *From 1838 to 1851. during the spread of pastoral stations along the
Macleay River The Macleay River is a river that spans the Northern Tablelands and Mid North Coast districts of New South Wales, Australia. Course and features Formed by the confluence of the Gara River, Salisbury Waters and Bakers Creek, the Macleay River ...
, it is estimated that some 15 massacres took place of the Indigenous peoples of this Djangadi area. *29 November 1847. Kangaroo Creek poisoning.
Thomas Coutts Thomas Coutts (7 September 1735 – 24 February 1822) was a British banker. He was a founder of the banking house Coutts & Co. Early life Coutts was the fourth son of Jean (née Steuart) Coutts and John Coutts (1699–1751), whose business i ...
deliberately gave poisoned flour to Aboriginal people living at Kangaroo Creek, south of Grafton. Twenty-three people died in agony and Coutts was sent for trial in Sydney, but the strong evidence against him was deemed insufficient for the trial to proceed. *April 1849. Frederick Walker and his newly formed
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
troopers shot dead five Aboriginal people on the Darling River 100 km south of Bourke. *1849. Massacre of Muruwari people at Hospital Creek in
Brewarrina Brewarrina (pronounced ''bree-warren-ah''; locally known as "Bre") is a town in north-west New South Wales, Australia on the banks of the Barwon River in Brewarrina Shire. It is east of Bourke and west of Walgett on the Kamilaroi Highway, a ...
district. There are differing accounts of this event, but one alleges that, a white stockman at Walcha Hut (now called Brewarrina), abducted an Aboriginal woman. The stockman was warned by the woman's fellow tribe members to release her. When the stockman refused to release the woman, they were both killed. *1849. Massacre of Aboriginal people at Butchers Tree near Brewarrina, along the Barwon River, and on the Narran River.


1850s

* 1854. East Ballina massacre. Around 40 Aboriginal people were killed with many more wounded during an early morning
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
raid.


Tasmania

(formerly
Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania during the European exploration of Australia, European exploration and colonisation of Australia in the 19th century. The Aboriginal Tasmanians, Aboriginal-inhabited island wa ...
)


1800s

*1804. Risdon Cove massacre. Conflicting evidence of eyewitnesses indicated that either three Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed or "a great many were slaughtered and wounded" on 3 May 1804 at
Risdon Cove Risdon Cove is a cove located on the east bank of the Derwent River, Tasmania, Derwent River, approximately north of Hobart, Tasmania. It was the site of the first United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, British settlement in Van Diemen's La ...
when a large number came upon the 75–80 colonists there.


1820s

* 1827. Near Hadspen on the property of Thomas Beams, Aboriginal people surrounded his hut. In response to his firing at the Aboriginal people Beams' neighbours arrived on foot and horseback. A "war party" was organised and a search conducted. At 10 o'clock at night the glow of a fire was seen and the war party surrounded the Aboriginal encampment. At 3am fourteen muskets opened fire, the camp was rushed and eleven Aboriginal people were killed. Only one escaped. *1828. At Circular Head in Northwest Tasmania the Van Diemen's Land Company dispatched the cutter ''Fanny'' in response to the spearing of sheep. The company's Chief Agent, Edward Curr, sent four shepherds along with the cutter's captain and crew in response. A resident of Curr's homestead, Rosalie Hare, described in her journal "...while we remained at Circular Head there were several accounts of considerable amounts of Natives having been shot by them (the Company's men), they wishing to extirpate them entirely, if possible. The master of the Company's cutter ''Fanny,'' assisted by four shepherds and his crew, surprised a party and killed ''12.''" *1828. On 10 February –
Cape Grim massacre The Cape Grim massacre was an attack on 10 February 1828 in which a group of Aboriginal Tasmanians gathering food at a beach in the north-west of Tasmania is said to have been ambushed and shot by four Van Diemen's Land Company (VDLC) workers, w ...
,
Cape Grim Cape Grim, officially Kennaook / Cape Grim, is the northwestern point of Tasmania, Australia. The Peerapper name for the cape is recorded as ''Kennaook''. It is the location of the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station and of the Cape Gri ...
, Van Diemen's Land. Four shepherds of the substantial
Van Diemen's Land Company The Van Diemen's Land Company (also known as Van Dieman Land Company) is a farming corporation in the Australian state of Tasmania. It was founded in 1825 and received a royal charter the same year, and was granted 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) ...
ambushed and killed 30 Pennemukeer Aboriginal people. Company men had killed another 12 Aboriginal people only days earlier.Jan Roberts, pp1-9, ''Jack of Cape Grim'', Greenhouse Publications, 1986 Lyndall Ryan, pp135-137, ''The Aboriginal Tasmanians'', Allen & Unwin, 1996, Historian
Keith Windschuttle Keith Windschuttle (1942 – 8 April 2025) was an Australian historian. He was appointed to the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 2006 to 2011. He was editor of '' Quadrant'' from 2007 to 2015 when he became chair of the bo ...
has disputed the numbers and other aspects of the event. *1828. On 6 December elements of the 40th Regiment together with two constables, Danvers and Holmes, surrounded a group of Aboriginal people during the night at Tooms Lake. In a dawn attack they killed a number of Aboriginal people variously described as 'several' or ten or sixteen. The bodies were then placed in a pile and burned. Attacking at first light and burning the corpses was to become standard procedure as the frontier moved across Australia. *In August 1829. John Batman was one of several groups conducting roving sweeps for Aboriginal people. He employed Aboriginal men from the Sydney area to help track and attack the local clans, a system that had proven successful on the mainland and that would continue and eventually evolve into the Native Mounted Police. Batman's patrol came across a large Aboriginal camp of men, women and children at night. Their approach was disturbed by the camp dogs whereupon they opened fire and rushed the camp. They captured a woman and a child but the rest fled into the darkness. The next morning Batman's party found two badly wounded men and many blood trails. The wounded men informed them that ten others had been seriously wounded and were dead or dying and that two women had also been severely wounded and had crawled away. The wounded Aboriginal men were subsequently executed by Batman. * 1828–1832. The
Black War The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832 that precipitated the near-extermination of the indigenous population. The conflict was fought largely as ...
in Van Diemen's Land refers to a period of intermittent conflict between the British colonists, whalers and sealers (including those of the American sealing fleet) and
Aboriginal people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
in the early years of the 19th century. The conflict has been described as a
genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
resulting in the elimination of the full-blood Tasmanian Aboriginal population which had numbered somewhere between 1,500 and 22,000 prior to colonisation. On New Year's Eve 1831 the last of the eastern tribes surrendered. Settlers, who had imagined they were fighting an implacable foe numbering in the hundreds or thousands were shocked to discover that all that remained of the eastern tribes was 16 men, nine women and one child. They were removed to Flinders Island never to see their home again. Most died of disease. By 1830 the number of Tasmanians in the north-east was 74, with a further 70 or so women who had been taken as slaves by sealers. While greater north-western Tasmania had been home to more than a dozen tribes, by 1834 when Robinson contacted the final known remnants, these dozen tribes had been virtually exterminated. There are currently some 20,000 individuals who are of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent.


Victoria

Records in the early days in
Port Phillip Port Phillip (Kulin languages, Kulin: ''Narm-Narm'') or Port Phillip Bay is a horsehead-shaped bay#Types, enclosed bay on the central coast of southern Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The bay opens into the Bass Strait via a short, ...
were sparse and unclear, and the level of resistance to the European settlers and other aspects of Aboriginal culture before this is a source of continuing investigation. It is estimated that massacres by white settlers resulted in the death of approximately 11% of the Aboriginal population between 1836 and 1851.


1830s

* 1833–1834.
Convincing Ground massacre The Convincing Ground Massacre was a massacre of the Kilcarer gundidj clan of the Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Gunditjmara people, by British whaling, whalers based at Portland, Victoria, Portland Bay in south-eastern Australia. The mass ...
of
Gunditjmara The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal people of southwestern Victoria in Australia. They are the Traditional Owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. ...
: On the shore near
Portland, Victoria Portland ( ) is a city in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, and is the oldest European settlement in the state. It is also the main urban centre in the Shire of Glenelg and is located on Portland Bay. As of the 2021 Australian census, 20 ...
was one of the largest recorded
massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
s in Victoria. Whalers and the local Kilcarer clan of the Gunditjmara people disputed rights to a beached whale carcass. Reports vary with from 60 to 200 Aboriginal Australians killed, including women and children.Martin Boulton,
Anger over plans to build on massacre site
',
The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
, 28 January 2005. Accessed 26 November 2008
An 1842 report on the incident notes that the Gunditjmara people believed that only two members of the Kilcarer clan survived.Ian D. Clark, pp17-22, ''Scars on the Landscape. A Register of Massacre sites in Western Victoria 1803–1859'', Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995 Excerpt also published o
Museum Victoria website
, accessed 26 November 2008
* 1838. Up to 100 Aboriginal people were killed in reprisals carried out in response to the Faithfull Massacre, also known as the Battle of Broken River and according to historian Chris Clark "a battle which the Aborigines won". On 11 April, by the Broken River at
Benalla Benalla is a small city in the Hume (region), Hume region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The town sits on the Broken River (Victoria), Broken River, about north east of the state capital Melbourne. As of the , the population wa ...
, a party of some 18 men, employees of George and William Faithfull, were searching out new land to the south of
Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census. The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...
for their livestock, when they were attacked by about 20
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
(possibly as a reprisal for the killing of several Aboriginal people at
Ovens file:Double oven.jpg, upA double oven file:Four à céramique - Japan Auréa - 2011-0403- P1070446.JPG, A ceramic oven An oven is a tool that is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means o ...
earlier by the same stockmen). At least one
Koori Koori (also spelt koorie, goori or goorie) is a demonym for Aboriginal Australians from a region that approximately corresponds to southern New South Wales and Victoria. The word derives from the Indigenous language Awabakal. For some people ...
and eight
Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common ancestry, language, faith, historical continuity, etc. There are ...
died. There were reports of reprisals at
Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had a population of 29,808 per the 2021 Australian Census. The city is located at the confluence, junction of the Ovens River, ...
and at Murchison (led by the native police under
Henry Dana Henry Edmund Pulteney Dana (1820–1852) established the Native Police Corps in the Port Phillip District (later Victoria) in 1842, he was responsible for two massacres of Aboriginal people one at Barmah Lake in 1843 and the other at Snowy Rive ...
and in the company of the young
Edward Curr Edward Curr (1 July 1798 – 16 November 1850) was an Australian settler and politician. Curr was born in Sheffield, England. He travelled to Hobart Town, arriving in February 1820. In 1823 he returned to England. In 1824 he was appointed m ...
, who said that he took issue with the official reports). Other incidents were recorded at Mitchelton and
Toolamba Toolamba is a town in the Goulburn Valley region of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is in the City of Greater Shepparton Local government in Australia, local government area, north of the state capital, Melbourne. At the , Toola ...
. *1838. The Mount Cottrell massacre of around 10
Wathaurong The Wadawurrung nation, also called the Wathaurong, or Wathaurung, are an Aboriginal Australian people living in the area near Melbourne, Geelong, and the Bellarine Peninsula in the state of Victoria. They are part of the Kulin alliance. The ...
people was carried out in retaliation for the killing of squatter Charles Franks and his convict shepherd Thomas Flinders. *1838. The Waterloo Plains massacre of between 8 and 23
Dja Dja Wurrung The Djadjawurrung or Dja Dja Wurrung, also known as the Djaara or Jajowrong people and Loddon River tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people who are the traditional owners of lands including the water catchment areas of the Loddon and Avoca ...
people was a reprisal raid for the killing of two station hands and the theft of sheep. * 1839. In about May–June of that year the
Campaspe Plains massacre The Campaspe Plains massacre in 1839 in Central Victoria, Australia was as a reprisal raid against Aboriginal resistance to the invasion and occupation of the Dja Dja Wurrung and Taungurung lands.Ian D. Clark, ''Scars in the Landscape. A Register ...
, Campaspe Creek, Central Victoria, killing
Taungurung The Taungurung people, also spelled ''Daung Wurrung'', are Aboriginal people who are one of the Kulin nations in present-day Victoria, Australia. They consist of nine clans whose traditional language is the Taungurung language. Their Country ...
and
Dja Dja Wurrung The Djadjawurrung or Dja Dja Wurrung, also known as the Djaara or Jajowrong people and Loddon River tribe, are an Aboriginal Australian people who are the traditional owners of lands including the water catchment areas of the Loddon and Avoca ...
people. In May 1839, Taungurung killed two shepherds in reprisal for the murder of three Taungurung the previous month. An armed party of settlers led by station owner Charles Hutton killed up to 40 Taungurung at a campsite near Campaspe Creek. The following month, Hutton led an armed party of police who killed six Dja Dja Wurrung at another camp. All six had been shot in the back while fleeing. The Assistant Protector of Aborigines for the region, described the massacre as "a deliberately planned illegal reprisal." * 1839. In about the middle of the year, the
Murdering Gully massacre Murdering Gully, formerly known as ''Puuroyup'' to the Djargurd Wurrung people, is the site of an 1839 massacre of 35–40 people of the Tarnbeere Gundidj clan of the Djargurd Wurrung in the Camperdown district of Victoria, Australia. It is ...
near Camperdown, Victoria was carried out by Frederick Taylor and others in retaliation for some sheep being killed on his station by two unidentified Aboriginal Australians. The ''Tarnbeere Gundidj'' clan of the
Djargurd Wurrung The Djargurd Wurrong (also spelt Djargurd Wurrung) are Aboriginal Australian people of the Western district of the State of Victoria, and traditionally occupied the territory between Mount Emu Creek and Lake Corangamite. Language The Djargu ...
people, around 35–40 people, was wiped out. Public censure led to Taylor's River being renamed Mount Emu Creek and, fearing prosecution for the massacre, in late 1839 or early 1840 Taylor fled to India. Of particular note for this massacre is the extent of oral history, first hand accounts of the incident, the detail in settler diaries, records of
Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...
missionaries, and Aboriginal Protectorate records. *1 December 1839. The Blood Hole massacre at Middle Creek, from Glengower Station between Clunes and Newstead, Victoria. Up to ten Aboriginal people were killed.


1840s

*1840–1850. The
Gippsland massacres The Gippsland massacres were a series of mass murders of Gunai Kurnai people, an Aboriginal Australian people living in East Gippsland, Victoria, committed by European settlers and the Aboriginal Police during the Australian frontier wars ...
, many led by the Scots pastoralist
Angus McMillan Angus McMillan (14 August 1810 – 18 May 1865) was a Scottish-born explorer, pioneer pastoralism, pastoralist, and perpetrator of several of the Gippsland massacres of Gunai people. Arriving first in New South Wales in 1838, McMillan rose sw ...
, saw between 300 and 1,000 Gunai (or Kurnai) people murdered.Gardner, P.D.. (2001), ''Gippsland massacres: the destruction of the Kurnai tribes, 1800–1860'', Ngarak Press, Essay, Victoria *1840–1860. The
Eumeralla Wars The Eumeralla Wars were the violent encounters over the possession of land between British colonists and Gunditjmara Aboriginal people in what is now called the Western District (Victoria), Western District area of south-west Victoria (Australia ...
between European settlers and
Gunditjmara The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal people of southwestern Victoria in Australia. They are the Traditional Owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. ...
people in south west Victoria included a number of massacres resulting in over 442 Aboriginal deaths. *1840. On 8 March. Known as the Fighting Hills massacre, the Whyte brothers massacred, according to various estimates, from 20 to 51
Jardwadjali The Jardwadjali (Yartwatjali), also known as the Jaadwa, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the state of Victoria, whose traditional lands occupy the lands in the upper Wimmera River watershed east to Gariwerd ( Grampians) and west to Lake ...
men, women, and children on the Konongwootong run near
Hamilton, Victoria Hamilton is a city in south-western Victoria, Australia, Victoria, Australia, at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway. The Hamilton Highway connects it to Geelong. Hamilton is in the Australian House of Representatives, ...
. Aboriginal tradition puts the death toll as high as 80. *1840. The Fighting Waterholes massacre was the second massacre by the Whyte brothers, coming only months after the Fighting Hills Massacre. Over 40 Konongwootong Gunditj Aboriginal people killed near Konongwootong Reservoir (then Denhills Creek). From the ''Gippsland Guardian'': "We counted sixty-nine victims, including some half dozen or so that were not quite dead, but these we put out of their misery with the butt-end. The blacks carried off a few wounded ones but as we fired at the body we pretty well spoilt them all as we hit". *1842. The Lubra Creek massacre of five
Dhauwurd wurrung The Gunditjmara or Gunditjamara, also known as Dhauwurd Wurrung, are an Aboriginal people of southwestern Victoria in Australia. They are the Traditional Owners of the areas now encompassing Warrnambool, Port Fairy, Woolsthorpe and Portland. T ...
people took place on the
Caramut Caramut is a town in the Western District of Victoria, Australia on the Hamilton Highway. It is in the Shire of Moyne local government area and the federal Division of Wannon. The name "Caramut" is believed to be derived from an Aboriginal w ...
run, leased by Thomas Osbrey and Sidney Smith at the time. *1843. The Warrigal Creek massacre, which left 100–150 Aboriginal people dead. *1846. George Smythe's surveying party shot in cold blood from 7 to 9 Aboriginal people, all but one women and children, near
Cape Otway Cape Otway is a cape and a bounded locality of the Colac Otway Shire in southern Victoria, Australia on the Great Ocean Road; much of the area is enclosed in the Great Otway National Park. The cape marks the boundary between the Southern Ocea ...
. Known as the Blanket Bay massacre


Western Australia


1830s

* 1830.
Fremantle Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...
: The first official "punishment raid" on Aboriginal people in Western Australia, led by Captain Irwin, took place in May 1830. A detachment of soldiers led by Irwin attacked an Aboriginal encampment north of Fremantle in the belief that it contained men who had "broken into and plundered the house of a man called Paton" and killed some poultry. Paton had called together a number of settlers who, armed with muskets, set out after the Aboriginal people and came upon them not far from the home. "The tall savage who appeared the chief showed unequivocal gestures of defiance and contempt" and was accordingly shot. Irwin stated, "This daring and hostile conduct of the natives induced me to seize the opportunity to make them sensible to our superiority, by showing how severely we could retaliate their aggression." In actions that followed over the next few days, more Aboriginal people were killed and wounded. * 1834. Pinjarra: Conflict with the Murray tribe – official records state that 14 Aboriginal people were killed, but other accounts put the figure much higher, at 25 or more. *1836. August, Henry William St Pierre Bunbury after killings in the York area, tracked one wounded Aboriginal man into the bush and shot him through the head. Bunbury also recorded the names of another 11 Aboriginal men he killed during this period. Settlers to the district collected ears of Aboriginal men slain.


1840s

*1841. On 27 February, an extensive massacre at Lake Minninup in Western Australia, led by Captain John Molloy who "gave special instructions that no woman or child should be killed, but that no mercy should be offered the men. A strong and final lesson must be taught the blacks. ... Native after native was shot, and the survivors, knowing that orders had been given not to shoot the women, crouched on their knees, covered their bodies with their bokas, and cried, "Me yokah" (woman). The white men had no mercy. The black men were killed by dozens, and their corpses lined the route of march of the avengers." Also known as the
Wonnerup massacre The Wonnerup massacre, also known as the Wonnerup "Minninup" massacre, was the killing of dozens of Wardandi Noongar people by European settlers in the vicinity of Wonnerup, Western Australia in February 1841. The massacre on Wardandi-Doonan lan ...
.


1850s

* 5 June 1854. The commanding officer of the Western Australian
native police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
, John Nicol Drummond, together with a large group of station hands from nearby property holdings conducted a massacre of the Aboriginal people from the Greenough area, with Drummond and his force attacking their refuge at Bootenal swamp, The Naaguja word for this traditional campsite is Wula Bulangu, which translates to Pelican Spring. Follow up raids occurred on the Aboriginal people living on the Irwin, Bowes and Chapman Rivers around
Geraldton Geraldton (Wajarri language, Wajarri: ''Jambinu'', Wilunyu language, Wilunyu: ''Jambinbirri'') is a coastal city in the Mid West (Western Australia), Mid West region of Western Australia, north of the state capital, Perth. As of the , Geraldt ...
.


1860s

* 1865. The La Grange expedition was a search expedition carried out in the vicinity of La Grange Bay in the
Kimberley region of Western Australia The Kimberley is the northernmost of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami deserts in the region of the Pilbara, and on ...
led by Maitland Brown that led to the death of up to 20 Aboriginal people. The expedition has been celebrated with the Explorers' Monument in
Fremantle, Western Australia Fremantle () () is a port city in Western Australia located at the mouth of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River in the metropolitan area of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth. The Western Australi ...
. * 1867. The ''Battle of Minderoo'' at
Minderoo Station Minderoo Station, commonly referred to as Minderoo, is a pastoral lease that once operated as a sheep station but now operates as a cattle station in Western Australia. Description It is situated about south of Onslow, Western Australia, Onsl ...
, led by Farquhar MacRae and E. T. Hooley. * 1868. Flying Foam Massacre,
Dampier Archipelago The Dampier Archipelago is a group of 42 islands near the town of Dampier, Western Australia, Dampier in Pilbara, Western Australia. The archipelago is also made up of reefs, shoals, channels and straits and is the traditional home of five Ab ...
. Following the killing of two police and two settlers by local Yaburara people, two parties of settlers from the Roebourne area, led by prominent
pastoralists Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anima ...
Alexander McRae and John Withnell, killed an unknown number of Yaburara. Estimates of the number of dead range from 20 to 150.


1870s

*1872. Governor
Frederick Weld Sir Frederick Aloysius Weld (9 May 1823 – 20 July 1891), was an English-born New Zealand politician and colonial administrator of various British colonies and territories located in Oceania and Southeast Asia. He was the sixth Prime Minis ...
dismissed Perth Police magistrate E. W. Landor for failing to charge Geraldton drover Mr.
Lockier Burges (1841–1929) :''Two people named Lockier Clere Burges have been prominent in Western Australia. For the Lockier Clere Burges born in 1814, see Lockier Burges (Australian politician)'' Lockier Clere Burges (1841 – 6 January 1929), also known as L. C. Burg ...
with murder although he admitted shooting a "wild native" in cold blood. Mr Burges was convicted of the lesser charge of unlawful harm instead. The dismissal was appealed to the Home Office in London.


1880s

* 1887.
Halls Creek Halls is a plural of the word hall. Halls may also refer to: People * Walter Halls (1871–1953), British trade unionist and politician * Ethel May Halls (1882–1967), American actress * Julian Halls (born 1967), British field hockey player * ...
. Mary Durack suggests there was a conspiracy of silence about the massacres of Djara, Konejandi and Walmadjari peoples, and about attacks on Aboriginal people by white gold-miners, Aboriginal reprisals and consequent massacres at this time.
John Durack John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...
was speared, which led to a local massacre in the Kimberley. * 1888. When a prospector named George Barnett from the Panton River was killed by a small group of Aboriginal people, a punitive party set out to "disperse the blacks". During the three week expedition, the group had "dispersed" over 600 men, women and children, with a newspaper reporting "only six niggers butchered". They also brought back two small Aboriginal boys with them as "trophies". One of the punitive expedition's leaders, Augustus Lucanus, remembers dispersing around 200 Aboriginal people in this incident while
Mary Durack Mary Durack (20 February 1913 – 16 December 1994) was an Australian author and historian. She wrote '' Kings in Grass Castles'' and ''Keep Him My Country''. Childhood Mary Durack, born in Adelaide, South Australia, to Michael Patrick Dura ...
wrote that it was one of the most sweeping massacres in the region's history with one participant alone killing 35 Aboriginal people. The Government Resident of Roebourne stated that 70 were killed.


1890s

* 1890–1926.
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
regionThe Killing TimesEast Kimberleys: During what the colonial government called "pacification", recalled as "The Killing Times", a quarter of Western Australia's police force was deployed in the Kimberley where only 1% of the white population dwelt. Violent means were used to drive off the Aboriginal tribes, who were hounded by police and pastoralists alike without judicial protection. The Indigenous peoples reacted with payback killings. Possibly hundreds were killed in the
Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
,
Fitzroy Crossing Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People Given name * Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: ** FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort (Henry Charles ...
and
Margaret River The Margaret River is a river in southwest Australia, southwest Western Australia. In a small catchment, it is the eponym of the town and tourist region of Margaret River, Western Australia, Margaret River. The river arises from a catchment ...
area, while
Jandamarra Jandamarra or Tjandamurra ( 1873–1 April 1897), known to British settlers as Pigeon,
in: Taylor (2004)
was ...
was being hunted down. Reprisals, and the "villainous effects" of settler policy left the Kimberley Aboriginal people decimated. Massacres in retaliation for attacks on livestock are recorded as late as 1926. The Gija people alone recall ten mass killings for this period. * 1893.
Behn River The Behn River or Behm River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river rises on the Northern Territory and Western Australia border. The river then flows in a north-easterly direction through Behn Gorge and discharges ...
. After an affray in which 23 Aboriginal people were shot and a policeman speared, a punitive expedition was launched in which another 30 Aboriginal people were shot to "teach them a lesson" and instill fear of the white man into the Indigenous population as a whole. * 11 November 1895. Ivanhoe Station. A group of police and trackers followed a group of Aboriginal people to a camp-site after they were alleged to have stolen cattle. About 20 Aboriginal people were shot and killed after they tried to flee. One of the participants in this massacre, Constable Mick Rhatigan, was later implicated in the 1915
Mistake Creek massacre The Mistake Creek massacre was a massacre of Indigenous Australians that took place in Western Australia in 1915. Massacre On 28 March 1915, between 8 and 32 Gija people were shot and killed, and their bodies burned, at Mistake Creek in the ...
.


South Australia


1840s

*1842. Pillaworta Station, end of Arno Bay,
Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Earlier called Eyre's Peninsula, it was named after e ...
– unknown number of Aboriginal people killed by soldiers in retribution for the killings of colonists in the Port Lincoln district earlier in 1842. * 1848.
Avenue Range Station massacre The Avenue Range Station massacre was a murder of a group of Aboriginal Australians by white settlers during the Australian frontier wars. It occurred in about September 1848 at Avenue Range, a sheep station in the southeast of the Colony of ...
(near Guichen Bay on the state's
Limestone Coast The Limestone Coast is a name used since the early 21st century for a Regions of South Australia#South Australian Government regions, South Australian government region located in the south east of South Australia which immediately adjoins ...
) – at least 9 indigenous Buandig Wattatonga clan people allegedly murdered by the station owner
James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...
who was subsequently charged with the crime. The case was dropped by the Crown for lack of (European) witnesses. Christina Smith's source from the Wattatonga tribe refers to 11 people killed in this incident by two white men. * 1849. Waterloo Bay massacre ( Elliston on the west coast of
Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Earlier called Eyre's Peninsula, it was named after e ...
) – tens of Aboriginal Nauo people were killed in retribution for the killing of two settlers and theft of food.


1850s

*1852. Massacre at Brachina Gorge by a party of men led by Johnson Frederick Hayward, who ran Aroona Station, a
sheep station A sheep station is a large property ( station, the equivalent of a ranch) in Australia or New Zealand, whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and/or meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or sout ...
in the
Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhab ...
– at least 15
Adnyamathanha The Adnyamathanha (Pronounced: ) are a contemporarily formed grouping of several distinct Aboriginal Australian peoples of the northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. The ethnonym Adnyamathanha was an alternative name for the Wailpi but th ...
people killed in a dawn attack on 17 March 1852, in retaliation for the murder of stockman Robert Richardson on 14 March. *1852. Uro Bluff Massacre, a reprisal killing for the murder of a shepherd, James Brown, near Mount Arden in the
Flinders Ranges The Flinders Ranges are the largest mountain ranges in South Australia, which starts about north of Adelaide. The ranges stretch for over from Port Pirie to Lake Callabonna. The Adnyamathanha people are the Aboriginal group who have inhab ...
near
Quorn Quorn is a brand of meat substitute products. Quorn originated in the UK and is sold primarily in Europe, but is available in 11 countries. The brand is owned by parent company Monde Nissin. Quorn is sold as both a cooking ingredient and as ...
, on 19 September 1852. The eight men said to be involved in the killings reported to the
Protector of Aborigines The Australian colonies in the nineteenth century created offices involved in managing the affairs of Indigenous people in their jurisdictions. The role of Protector of Aborigines was first established in South Australia in 1836. The role beca ...
, Matthew Moorhouse, afterwards that four men had been killed on 23 September, but an Aboriginal man named Melaia told a different version of the events, another witness called Staniford named a lot more than eight men, and later reports and oral histories suggest that the number of Aboriginal deaths was greater. The men named by Staniford were never questioned, and Moorhouse recommended more police protection in the district in his report.


1880s

* Koonchera Point massacre, near Lake Howitt in the far north of the state, just off the
Birdsville Track The Birdsville Track is an outback road in Australia. The track runs between Birdsville in south-western Queensland and Marree, a small town in the north-eastern part of South Australia. It traverses three deserts along the route, the Strzel ...
. Hundreds of Ngameni,
Yawarrawarrka The Yawarrawarrka (also written Yawarawarka, Jauraworka) were an in Indigenous people of South Australia. Country According to the calculations of Norman Tindale the Yauraworka's tribal lands encompassed some , running north of Cooper Creek to ...
, Yandruwandha, and Bugadji people were meeting for a
corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the ...
when police and their
Aboriginal tracker Aboriginal trackers were enlisted by Europeans in the years following History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation of Australia, to assist them in exploring the Australian landscape. The excellent tracking skills of these Aboriginal ...
s arrived in response to the killing and eating of a bullock by Aboriginal people. No warning was given and the police and trackers opened fire, killing between 200 and 500 people, with only five survivors.


Queensland


1840s

*1842. 30–60 or more killed in the ''Kilcoy'' poisoning. On the outskirts of Kilcoy Station owned by Sir Evan MacKenzie, 30–60 people of the
Kabi Kabi The Kabi Kabi people, also spelt Gubbi Gubbi, Gabi Gabi, and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people native to South Eastern Queensland. During the Australian frontier wars of the 19th century, there were several mass killings of ...
died from eating flour laced with strychnine and arsenic. In an 1861 enquiry into Aboriginal people and the
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
, Captain John Coley referred to this poisoning and claimed that further action against these local Aboriginal people also included shooting which resulted in more deaths. He also confirmed that "strychnine goes by the name of Mackenzie among the blacks". Evan MacKenzie received only a caution from
John Plunkett John Hubert Plunkett (June 1802 – 9 May 1869) was Attorney-General of New South Wales, an appointed member of the Legislative Council 1836–41, 1843–56, 1857–58 and 1861–69. He was also elected as a member of the Legislative Asse ...
, the Attorney-General of
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, for this well reported massacre. The
Battle of One Tree Hill The Battle of One Tree Hill was one of a series of conflicts that took place between European settlers and a group of men of the Jagera and other Aboriginal groups in the Darling Downs area in the Colony of New South Wales in the 1840s, as pa ...
, in which
Multuggerah Multuggerah was an Aboriginal Australian leader and resistance fighter of the Ugarapul nation from the Lockyer Valley in Queensland. He was an important warrior and negotiator, bringing numerous Aboriginal clans together in an armed resistance ag ...
and his band of warriors prevailed, followed the poisoning. Note: Dr Ray Kerkhove, owner of this site, is a reputable historian. See her

and her

*1847. 50–60 individuals killed in a poisoning at the Whiteside, Queensland, ''Whiteside'' sheep station of Captain Francis Griffin. In April 1847 flour laced with arsenic was left in a hut with the expectation that Aboriginal people "would visit the hut and make use of the mixture"; the act was reportedly in revenge for an Aboriginal attack on a hutkeeper, who had been blinded by a blow to the head with a waddy. Some twenty years later a white pioneer "saw scores of bleached bones including a complete skeleton" while riding in the vicinity, and heard that "fifty or sixty" Aboriginal people had lost their lives there by poisoning. *26 November 1848. 3 Aboriginal women and one child were murdered at Canning Creek by a posse of seven white men. *1849. Perhaps more than 100 killed in the Upper Burnett. The murder of the Pegg brothers, two adolescent employees at Foster and Blaxland Gin Gin station in June, was avenged in a large-scale punitive expedition with 'over 50 station-hands and squatters' catching up with 'more than a 100 myals' camped at the mouth of Burnett River allegedly on the ground of the later 'Cedar' sugar plantation or Gibson's Cedars Estate. No numbers were made but the 'affray' was later described as 'one of the bloodiest in Queensland frontier history'. *1849. Unknown numbers killed on the Balonne and Condamine. By 1849 clashes between Aboriginal people and settlers occurred on the Balonne and Condamine Rivers of Queensland.Heathcoate 1965.


1850s

*1850s. Several reprisal killings and at least one massacre (on the
Nerang River The Nerang River is a perennial river in South East Queensland, Australia. Its drainage basin, catchment lies within the City of Gold Coast, Gold Coast Local government in Queensland, local government area and covers an area of . The river is app ...
in 1857) of the
Yugambeh people The Yugambeh ( ''(see alternative spellings)''), also known as the Minyangbal ( ), or Nganduwal ( ), are an Aboriginal Australian people of South East Queensland and the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, their territory lies between the L ...
. * 1850. Hundreds killed near Paddy Island in the Burnett River. A large-scale punitive expedition was formed following the murder of
Gregory Blaxland Gregory Blaxland (17 June 1778 – 1 January 1853) was an English pioneer farmer and explorer in Australia, noted especially for initiating and co-leading the first successful crossing of the Blue Mountains by European settlers. Early life ...
junior at Gin Gin station in August of that year – by settlers from Walla, Tenningering, Yenda, Wetheron, Monduran, Kolonne, Eureka, Ideraway, Baramba, Boonara and Boubyjan stations. Both
William Henry Walsh William Henry Walsh (18 December 1823 – 5 April 1888) was an Australian pioneer pastoralist or squatter and politician in early Queensland. He was a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly 1859-1859, Member of the Queensland Legi ...
and Sir Maurice Charles O'Connell are known to have participated in this expedition and Walsh later revealed some details during a parliamentary debate in Queensland some two decades later. They caught up with a large party of Aboriginal people near Paddy's Island at the mouth of the Burnett River and a major assault took place resulting in "hundreds" of Aboriginal people being shot down. The number 200 has been mentioned, as has 2,000. *January 1856. After local Aboriginal people had killed five station-hands at Mount Larcombe on Boxing Day 1855, several punitive missions were conducted by
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
augmented with armed settlers. Lieutenant John Murray of the Native Police led these reprisals. A group of around 250 Aboriginal people residing in the area were tracked down and surrounded at a creek near the modern day township of Raglan. At dawn, just as the group of men, women and children were awakening, they were ambushed and many shot dead. Hourigan's Creek at Raglan is named after the trooper who fired the first shots. Those who survived were again hunted down to the coast at
Keppel Bay Keppel Bay is a bay in Central Queensland, Australia, at the mouth of the Fitzroy River on the coast of the Coral Sea. Extent Keppel Bay extends from Station Point on Curtis Island () in the Gladstone Region to Zilzie Point at Zilzie () ...
and either shot or driven into the sea. A third group of Aboriginal people crossed the Fitzroy river with Murray in pursuit. To cross the river, the troopers borrowed a boat belonging to Charles Archer of Gracemere. A group of Aboriginal people encamped near Gracemere provided Murray with information about the fugitives, and from this group a number of men (described as "fighting men") then accompanied him, and assisted in tracking the fugitives and participated in the ensuing attack, during which a further fourteen Aboriginal people were indiscriminately killed. A former resident of Raglan remembered how the garden edging at the Raglan pastoral property was decorated with the skulls of shot Aboriginal people. * 1857–1858. Hundreds killed (including Juandah (Wandoan) massacre) in retaliation for the
Hornet Bank massacre The Hornet Bank massacre was the killing of eleven British settlers, which included eight members of the Fraser family, by a group of mostly Yiman people, Yiman Indigenous Australians. The massacre occurred at about one or two o'clock in the mor ...
. Massacre of the Yeeman tribe and numerous attacks on many others following the attack on the Fraser family and their employees at Hornet Bank station. In the early hours of 27 October 1857, members of the Yeeman tribe attacked the Fraser's Hornet Bank Station in the Dawson River Basin in
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
killing 11 men, women and children in retaliation for the deaths of 12 members shot for spearing some cattle and the deaths of an unknown number of Yeeman nine months earlier who had been given
strychnine Strychnine (, , American English, US chiefly ) is a highly toxicity, toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine, when inhaled, swallowed, ...
-laced Christmas puddings by the Fraser family. Following the deaths of his parents and siblings, William Fraser, who had been away on business, began a campaign of extermination that eventually saw the extinction of the Yeeman tribe and language group. Fraser is credited with killing more than 100 members of the tribe with many more killed by sympathetic squatters and policemen. By March 1858 up to 300 Yeeman had been killed. Public and police sympathy for Fraser was high, and he gained a reputation as a folk hero throughout Queensland.


1860s

* Early 1860s. "Water view", North Bundaberg, at least 15 to 20 Aboriginal Australians killed in a dispersal by Native Police. The co-founder and proprietor of Colanne Station (Kolan) Nicholas Edward Nelson Tooth (1843–1913) in 1895 wrote about finding of numerous remains from Native Police dispersal: "Two or three of us were one day looking for ebony wood (for stockwhip handles) when we suddenly came on a heap of human bones, among which were 15 or 20 skulls ... At first we thought it was an old burying place of the blacks, but I afterwards learnt from a black that it was the spot where the native police had come upon a large camp of blacks and dispersed them." * 7 March 1860. Lieutenant Carr and his troopers of the
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
shot dead 15 Aboriginal people at Bendemere just north of
Yuleba Yuleba ( ) is a rural town and Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality in the Maranoa Region, in the south-west of Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Yuleba had a population of 271 people. Geography Yuleba is located east of ...
. Carr had tracked down and surrounded their camp containing around 100 people because the local squatter, William Sim, complained that they were "annoying the shepherds and demanding rations." Upon seeing the troopers they threw their nulla-nullas at them, to which Carr responded with sustained gunfire for over an hour. * January 1861. In response to a letter from settler John Hardie, a
native police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
detachment led by Lieutenant Frederick Wheeler was dispatched to Dugandan to "disperse" the local Aboriginal people. The native police ambushed their camp during the night, killing at least two men, possibly as many as 40. * 10 February 1861. Lieutenant Rudolph Morisset led a
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
squad which shot dead six to eight Aboriginal people, including old men, at Manumbar. * October–November 1861. Central Highlands. Between October and November 1861, police and settlers killed an estimated 170 Aboriginal people in what was then known as the Medway Ranges following the killing of the Wills family. Native Police shooting into an Aboriginal camp at the Nogoa River on 26 October 1861, estimated they shot from 60 to 70 dead before running out of ammunition. * January 1863. Fifteen members of an Aboriginal group resident to the area around Mount Elliot shot dead. * 16 December 1864. Nassau River Massacre. A party of four armed Europeans and four Aboriginal employees, led by Frank and Alexander Jardine, massacred 8 or 9 members of the Kokoberrin people. The Jardine Brothers claimed to have been attacked by the Kokoberrin while droving approximately 250 cattle on the first attempt by British colonisers to take cattle up the west coast of Cape York Peninsula A first hand account from Frederick Byerley records that "...seeing eight or nine of their companions drop, made them think better of it, and they were finally hunted back across the river, leaving their friends behind them. The question here is, who was trespassing on whose land? Surely the Kokoberrin warriors were merely protecting their families and their traditional lands". * July 1865. Native troopers ambushed a Darumbal ceremonial gathering outside
Rockhampton Rockhampton is a city in the Rockhampton Region of Central Queensland, Australia. In the , the population of Rockhampton was 79,293. A common nickname for Rockhampton is "Rocky", and the demonym of Rockhampton is Rockhamptonite. The Scottish- ...
and shot dead 18 Aboriginal Australians, and then set fire to their corpses. *1867. Goulbolba Hill Massacre, on John Arthur Macartney's ''St Helens'' Station
Central Queensland Central Queensland is an imprecisely-defined geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Cap ...
: large massacre in 1866 or early 1867 involving men, women and children. This was claimed to be the result of settlers pushing Aboriginal people out of their hunting grounds and the Aboriginal people being forced to hunt livestock for food. A party of Native Police, allegedly under Frederick Wheeler, who had a reputation for violent repressions, was sent to "disperse" this group of Aboriginal people, who were "resisting the invasion". He is supposed to have also mustered up a force of 100 local whites. Alerted to Wheeler's presence by a native stockman, the district's Aboriginal people hid in caves on Goulbolba Hill. According to eyewitness testimony taken down from one local white in 1899 (thirty years after the event), that day some 300 Aboriginal people, including all the women and children, were shot dead or killed by being herded into the nearby lake for drowning. Goulbolba Hill is now known as Mount Gobulba on the north side of Lake Maraboon near the town of
Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York ...
; however the present Lake Maraboon was created in 1968 by the construction of the
Fairbairn Dam The Fairbairn Dam is an earth-filled embankment dam across the Nogoa River, located southwest of in Central Queensland, Australia. Constructed in 1972 for the primary purpose of irrigation, the impoundment created by the dam serves as one of ...
. * April 1867. The Leap Massacre at Mt Mandarana, near Mackay. The massacre of large group of 200 Aboriginal men, women and children from the north side of the
Pioneer River The Pioneer River is a river in North Queensland, Australia. The long river flows through the city of . History Captain John Mackay and his party were the first Europeans to discover the river in 1860. Mackay named it Mackay River after his ...
, took place after being pursued by a Queensland Native Police Force, led by Sub-Inspector Johnstone, in April 1867. The group was camping on ''Balnagowan'' pastoral lease (just to the south of The Leap), where cattle had been speared in February 1867 and had sought refuge in caves at the top of the mountain. They were forced to jump off a cliff on Mount Mandarana of several hundred feet, rather than be face the carbines of the Native Police Force. * 12 July 1867. A
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
detachment under the command of Sub-Inspector Aubin conducted an early morning shooting raid upon a peaceful camp of Aboriginal people located at the Morinish goldfields. Seven people were killed, including children and an old man, with others severely wounded. Although Sub-Inspector Aubin was forced to resign, he faced no public inquiry or any further legal action. * 1869. Kaurareg killings on
Torres Strait Islands The Torres Strait Islands are an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait, a waterway separating far northern continental Australia's Cape York Peninsula and the island of New Guinea. They span an area of , but their tot ...
. District police magistrate in
Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, Far North Queensland,
Henry Chester Henry Marjoribanks Chester (30 December 1832 – 3 October 1914) was a public servant and police magistrate in colonial Queensland. Chester was born in London, England, son of William Chester, and educated at Christ's Hospital, the London School ...
, and his successor, Frank Jardine, send
native police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
out to punish
Kaurareg Kaurareg (alt. Kauraraiga, plural Kauraraigalai, Kauraregale) is the name for one of the Indigenous Australian and Papuan groups collectively known as Torres Strait Islander peoples, although some identify as Aboriginal Australians. They are t ...
people on Muralag (Prince of Wales Island), who were wrongly thought to have killed the crew of a schooner called ''Sperwer''. A massacre is reported to have taken place, and reprisals against the Kaurareg continued.


1870s

* c. 1872. Bladensburg massacre. Over 200 killed by Native Police at Skull Hole on the head of Mistake Creek,
Bladensburg Station Bladensburg is a national park in Shire of Winton, Queensland, Australia. It includes an area once occupied by a sheep station called Bladensburg Station. History Bladensburg lies in the area of what was once Koa tribal territory and, on white se ...
(near Winton) Central Queensland. In 1888, the visiting Norwegian scientist Carl Lumholtz recalled how, at Bladensburg in about 1882–84, he "was shown" "a large number of skulls of natives who had been shot by the black police" some years earlier. In 1901, P. H. F Mackay wrote an article to ''
The Queenslander ''The Queenslander'' was the weekly summary and literary edition of the ''Brisbane Courier'', the leading journal in the colony (later state) of Queensland since the 1850s. ''The Queenslander'' was launched by the Brisbane Newspaper Company in ...
'' citing one witness and participant in this dispersalthe later property manager Hazelton Brockwho classified the incident as "the Massacre of the Blacks" and stated that it took place at the Skull Hole on Mistake Creek. Thus two unrelated sources give evidence and details (notably with reports of forensic evidence in both cases) of at least one large-scale dispersal at Bladensburg some time about 1877–1879. It was "one of the most blood curdling sights I ever saw", Hazelton Brock is supposed to have stated. Both sources describe it as connected to an Aboriginal attack on a bullock wagon during which one man was "murdered". The dispersal was headed by Acting Sub-inspector Robert Wilfred Moran (1846–1911) and his troopers and a group of settlers headed by George Fraser14 men in alland the target was a large camp with hundreds of blacks in the "Skull Hole" in "the Forsyth Ranges on the head of Mistake Creek". Hazelton Brock is cited for the statement that over 200 blacks were killed. * 1872. Mogool, Mount Coliseum, Miriam Vale station, the Goreng Goreng tribe had killed a bullock and were feasting on it at base of Moogool, and the native troopers under Acting Sub-inspector Douglas were called in. The troopers rounded the tribe into a circle and massacred almost all of them; only Gimmie escaped with his young nephew Nyralung on his shoulders and ran to the mountain. * 1873. The Battle Camp collision, Far North Queensland in about December 1873, supposedly took the life of a number of Aboriginal Australians. The event took place during the first rush of miners travelling from the Endeavour River to the Palmer river in about November or December 1873. In an article in the ''Queenslander''s Sketcher in December 1875, one digger recalled the Palmer rush two years earlier. One morning he and his party had, he told: ...passed 'Battle camp' ... It was here the blacks of the interior first re-ceived their 'baptism of fire;' where they first became acquainted with the death-dealing properties of the mysterious weapon of the white man;...Here and there a skull, bleached to the whiteness of snow, with a round bullet-hole to show the cause of its present location... * 1874–1875. Blackfellow's Creek,
Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...
. A letter from a miner dated "Upper Palmer River April 16, 1876" describes his camp at a place known locally as "Blackfellows creek". He explained, leaving very little doubt as to its appearance, that: "...To my enquiry as to why it was so named, the answer is that not long since 'the niggers got a dressing there'whatever that may mean; possibly a bright coloured shirt apiece, for decency's sake. There have been, certainly, 'dressings' of another sort dealt out in this part of the country to the blacks,.... Be that as it may, however, the
Golgotha Calvary ( or ) or Golgotha () was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified. Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. ...
on which we are at present camped would well repay a visit from any number of phrenological students in search of a skull, or of anatomical professors in want of a 'subject.'" * 1878. "Dispersing the mob". A total of 75 dead or dying was counted after just one Native Police "dispersal", most likely somewhere in the Cook district in Far North Queensland. In the January 1879 issue of Brisbane ''Daily News'', the highly acclaimed editor
Carl Feilberg Carl Adolph Feilberg (21 August 1844 – 25 October 1887), also spelt Carl Adolf Feilberg, was a Danish-born Australian journalist, newspaper editor, general political commentator, and Indigenous rights activist. He lived and worked mainly in ...
recorded the numbers of killed during a dispersal in the far north (most likely Cook district), saying "A gentleman, on whose words reliance can be placed, has stated that after one of these raids he has counted as many as seventy-five natives dead or dying upon the ground. Of course the official returns will report the aboriginal race to be fast dying out." * 1879. Selwyn Range, North-West Queensland. It has been alleged that an estimated total of 300 Aboriginal Australians (supposedly of the Kalkadoon tribe) were shot in a series of Native Police and settler "dispersals" ending in the Selwyn Ranges. It has been described as alleged retaliationsupposedly on the Kalkadoon tribe, following the alleged "murder" of the squatter Bernard Molvo and his men James Kelly, "Harry" or Henry Butler and "Tommy" or Thomas Holmeswho were killed at Suleiman Creek (this event was called the 'Woonamo massacre' as the bodies of the victims were found in the 'Wonomo billabong' at Sulieman Creek). Luke Russell, the manager of Stanbook station, Alexander Kennedy and later Sub-inspector Ernest Eglinton and his troopers were allegedly involved in a series of retaliations culminating in the Selwyn Range. Robert Clarke, 22 years after the alleged events, estimated (in 1901) that a total of 300 were shot. * 1879. 28 Aboriginal men shot and drowned at Cape Bedford, Cook district
Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns, Queensland, Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stret ...
: Cape Bedford massacre on 20 February 1879taking the lives of 28 Aboriginal Australians of the Guugu Yimidhirr people north of
Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...
. Cooktown-based Native Police Sub-inspector Stanhope O'Connor with his troopers Barney, Jack, Corporal Hero, Johnny and Jimmy hunted down and subsequently "hemmed in" a group of Guugu-Yimidhirr Aboriginal Australians in "a narrow gorge", north of Cooktown, "of which both outlets were secured by the troopers. There were twenty-eight men and thirteen
gins Gin () is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients. Gin originated as a medicinal liquor made by monks and alchemists across Europe. The modern gin was modified in Flanders and the Netherlands ...
thus enclosed, of whom none of the former escaped. Twenty-four were shot down on the beach, and four swam out to the sea" never to be seen again.


1880s

*1882. There were retributive attacks against mainland Cape York coastal Aboriginal people (mostly Guugu Yimithirr) after it was wrongly assumed that Mary Watson (who became a folk hero to Queenslanders) had been murdered after an attack on
Lizard Island Lizard Island, also known as Jiigurru or Dyiigurra, is an island on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia, northwest of Brisbane. It is part of the Lizard Island Group that also includes Palfrey Island, Queensland, Palfrey Island, and ...
, in which one of her Chinese servants was killed. It was later found that she, her son, and another servant had escaped the island but later died of thirst on an island near
Howick Island The Howick Island is the southernmost and a now uninhabited island in the Howick group that is part of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in Far North Queensland, Australia. It fell within the territory of the Ithu people in pre-colonial times ...
. Mounted police and native troopers from
Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...
under Hervey Fitzgerald (who had just recently reinstated after disciplinary action for whipping an Aboriginal woman, and promoted to Inspector) shot a number of coastal Cape York people from three mainland groups in retaliation. The number of victims went unrecorded, but it has since been estimated as up to 150 innocent victims.pdf
Police trashed Aboriginal camps and managed to elicit several
false confession A false confession is an admission of guilt for a crime which the individual did not commit. Although such confessions seem counterintuitive, they can be made voluntarily, perhaps to protect a third party, or induced through coercive interrogatio ...
s to her murder. The killings devastated Aboriginal communities and their traditional economies in the region. * 1884. 21st-century allegations regarding Battle Mountain: That more than 200 Kalkadoon people were killed near
Kajabbi Kajabbi is a rural town in the Suburbs and localities (Australia), locality of Three Rivers, Queensland, Three Rivers, Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. Geography The town is on the Leichhardt River in the remote north-west of Queens ...
, near
Cloncurry Cloncurry is a rural town and locality in the Shire of Cloncurry, Queensland, Australia. It is informally known by local people as The Curry. Cloncurry is the administrative centre of the Shire of Cloncurry. Cloncurry is known as the ''Friendl ...
after a Chinese shepherd had been "murdered." Over 9 weeks, settlers and Urquhart's Native Mounted Police tracked the Kalkadoons. At Battle Mountain an estimated 600 Kalkatungu warriors gathered on a rocky outlook. Note this allegation has been made without any newspaper reports of the time confirming this. *1884. Queensland police and native troopers encircled a Yidindji camp at what became known as Skull Pocket, several miles north of
Yungaburra Yungaburra is a rural town and locality in the Tablelands Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Yungaburra had a population of 1,272 people. Geography Yungaburra is on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland. The ...
. At dawn, a shot was fired from one side into the camp to make the Yidindji scatter, and then as they rushed into the ambushing forces elsewhere, they were shot down. * September 1884. Following the fatal spearing of Sub-inspector Henry Pollock Kaye of the Native Mounted Police on the Woolgar gold fields when driving out some 40 indigenous persons from the town, it is indicated a retaliatory massacre occurred. * 1884–1885. The Coppermine massacres in the hinterland of Darwin, around the Daly River. * 1888.
Diamantina River The Diamantina River is a major river in Central West Queensland and the far north of South Australia. The river was named by William Landsborough in 1866 for Lady Diamantina Bowen (née Roma), wife of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of Qu ...
district in south west
Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
. A killing of a station cook near Durrie on the Diamantina in 1888 led to a reported attack by a party of the Queensland Native Police led by sub-inspector Robert Little. The attack was timed to coincide with an assembly of young Aboriginal Australians around the permanent waters of Kaliduwarry. Great gatherings of Aboriginal youth were held at Kaliduwarry on the Eyre Creek on a regular basis and attracted youths from as far away as the Gulf of Carpentaria to below the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Perhaps as many as two hundred Aboriginal Australians might have been killed on this occasion.


Northern Territory


1820s

''(then part of New South Wales)'' * 29 December 1827. Captain Henry Smyth of the 39th Regiment of the
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
, Commandant of the British military outpost at
Fort Wellington Fort Wellington National Historic Site is a historic military fortification located on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River at Prescott, Ontario. The military fortification was used by the British Army, and the Canadian militia for most of t ...
on the
Cobourg Peninsula The Cobourg Peninsula is a peninsula located east of Darwin in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is deeply indented with coves and bays, covers a land area of about , and is virtually uninhabited with a population ranging from about 20 ...
ordered a punitive mission against the local Iwaidja. A party of three armed convicts and three soldiers conducted an early morning raid on the native camp near to a beach on the Bowen's Straits. Many were wounded and at least five Aboriginal people were killed, including a child and her mother, who was bayoneted as she was fleeing to the beach. Smyth had previously utilised one of the three 18-pound carronades mounted at Fort Wellington against the Iwaidja on 30 July. The reports of casualties from this cannon attack range from zero to thirty dead. The use of cannon against Aboriginal people by the British in this area was not new as
Phillip Parker King Phillip Parker King (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Josepha King ''née'' Coo ...
had fired a 6-pound carronade mounted to his survey ship, the ''Mermaid'', against the local people of the nearby
Goulburn Islands The Goulburn Islands are a group of small islands and islets in the Arafura Sea off the coast of Arnhem Land in Northern Territory of Australia. The largest islands are Weyirra (North Goulburn Island) and Warruwi (South Goulburn Island), where t ...
on 30 March 1819.


1870s

''(then part of South Australia)'' * 1874.
Barrow Creek Barrow Creek is a very small town, with a current population of 11, in the southern Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the Stuart Highway, about 280 km north of Alice Springs, about halfway from there to Tennant Creek. The ...
. In February Mounted Constable Samuel Gason arrived at Barrow Creek and a telegraph station was established. Eight days later a group of Kaytetye men attacked the station, killing two whites, Stapleton and Franks, while some others were injured. The motivation for the assault is unclear, various reasons suggest either failure to provide sufficient goods in exchange for the occupation of territory, retaliation for treatment of Kaytetye women, the closing off of their only water source, or, according to a later memory, revenge for setting up the station on one of the most sacred Kaytetye sites. According to T. G. H. Strehlow's information, obtained from elders, the tribe couldn't take out revenge on white criminals who had abducted and raped their women, and so decided to punish the only whites in their vicinity. :Samuel Gason mounted a large police hunt against the Kaytetye, with patrols out scouring the land for 6 weeks. 'Skipper' Partridge recalled in 1918 that the patrols shot every black they laid eyes on. The official report stated 10 Kaytetye had been killed by the punitive expedition. Other estimates go up to 40 or more. Skull Creek, where the massacre took place, 50 miles south of Barrow Creek, takes its name from the bleached bones found there long after, the remains of a camp of Aboriginal Australians shot by one of the patrols, though, according to an old settler, Alex Ross, "They were just blacks sitting in their camp, and the party was looking around for blacks to shoot." * 1875. Corporal George Montagu led a punitive expedition resulting in up to 150 Aboriginal people being shot dead around the Roper River. * 1878. Constable William George Stretton led a punitive expedition resulting in at least 17 Aboriginal people being shot dead near the Daly River.


1880s

* 1882. Constable Augustus Lucanus and Corporal George Montagu led a punitive expedition where a number of Aboriginal people were shot dead. * 1884. In August Constable William Willshire led a punitive expedition resulting in around 50 Aboriginal people being shot dead. :In September, Constable William Willshire shot dead at least 3 Aboriginal people, and ex-Constable Augustus Lucanus led a punitive expedition which "dispersed" two large "mobs" of Aboriginal people. :In October, Corporal George Montagu led a punitive expedition resulting in around 150 Aboriginal people being shot dead, and Constable Allan MacDonald shot dead 14 Aboriginal people. :In November, Constable Erwein Wurmbrand shot dead 7 Aboriginal people. * 1885. In June, Constable Erwein Wurmbrand led a punitive expedition which resulted in at least 17 Aboriginal people being shot dead and in October, Constable Cornelius Power shot dead at least four Aboriginal people. * 1886. Constable William Curtis led a punitive expedition which resulted in 52 Aboriginal people being shot dead and another 12 falling to their deaths. * 1880s–1890s.
Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territorial capital, Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compa ...
. Series of skirmishes and "wars" between
Yolngu The Yolngu or Yolŋu ( or ) are an aggregation of Aboriginal Australian people inhabiting north-eastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. ''Yolngu'' means "person" in the Yolŋu languages. The terms Murngin, Wulamba, Yalnuma ...
and whites. Several massacres at Florida Station. Richard Trudgen also writes of several massacres in this area, including an incident where Yolngu were fed poisoned horse meat after they killed and ate some cattle (under their law, it was their land and they had an inalienable right to eat animals on their land). Many people died as a result of that incident. Trudgen also talks of a massacre ten years later after some Yolngu took a small amount of barbed wire from a huge roll to build fishing spears. Men, women and children were chased by
mounted police Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in th ...
and men from the
Eastern and African Cold Storage Supply Company The Eastern and African Cold Storage Supply Co. Ltd. was an Anglo-Australian consortium that existed in the early 1900s which was involved in the commercial business of mass production and cold storage of beef. It was based in London and South Austr ...
and shot.


1890s

* 1890. Mistake Creek massacre: Sixty Aboriginal men were being taken to Wyndham jail under police guard, on suspicion of cattle theft. A message was received stating that the actual perpetrator had been found, and the police were ordered to release the detainees. However, instead they shot and killed all 60 of them and then burned their bodies. * 1895. Stapleton Siding massacre: This massacre killed approximately 80 Kungarakany and Warray peoples through the use of poisoned rations.


Massacres after federation (1901)


Western Australia

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
region – The Killing Times – 1890–1920: The massacres listed below have been depicted in modern
Australian Aboriginal art Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving, ro ...
from the Warmun/Turkey Creek community who were members of the tribes affected. Oral histories of the massacres were passed down and artists such as
Rover Thomas Rover Thomas Joolama (1926 – 11 April 1998), commonly known as simply Rover Thomas, was a Wangkajunga and Kukatja Aboriginal Australian artist. Early life Rover Thomas was born in 1925 near Gunawaggii, at Well 33 on the Canning Stock Rout ...
have depicted the massacres.


1910s

* 1906–1907.
Canning Stock Route The Canning Stock Route is a track that runs from Halls Creek, Western Australia, Halls Creek in the Kimberley (Western Australia), Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna, Western Australia, Wiluna in the Mid West (Western Australia), ...
: an unrecorded number of Aboriginal men and women were raped and massacred when Mardu people were captured and tortured to serve as "guides" and reveal the sources of water in the area after being run down by men on horseback, restrained by heavy chains 24 hours a day, and tied to trees at night. In retaliation for this treatment, plus the party's interference with traditional wells and the theft of cultural artefacts, Aboriginal people destroyed some of Canning's wells, and stole from and occasionally killed white travellers. A
Royal Commission A royal commission is a major ad-hoc formal public inquiry into a defined issue in some monarchies. They have been held in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Malaysia, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia. In republics an equi ...
in 1908, exonerated Canning, after an appearance by
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
Explorer and Lord Mayor of
Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
,
Alexander Forrest Alexander Forrest CMG (22 September 1849 – 20 June 1901) was an explorer and surveyor of Western Australia, and later also a member of parliament. As a government surveyor, Forrest explored many areas of remote Western Australia, particula ...
claimed that all explorers had acted in such a fashion. * 1911. Sergeant Richard Henry Pilmer of the Western Australia Police Force led a punitive expedition along the Canning Stock Route after three drovers were killed near Well 37. Pilmer's party, labelled as a "nigger hunting expedition" in the local press, shot dead at least 10 Aboriginal people at Wells 31, 35 and 46. * 1915.
Mistake Creek massacre The Mistake Creek massacre was a massacre of Indigenous Australians that took place in Western Australia in 1915. Massacre On 28 March 1915, between 8 and 32 Gija people were shot and killed, and their bodies burned, at Mistake Creek in the ...
: In March 1915, telegraph linesman at Turkey Creek, Michael Rhatigan, together with his two Aboriginal employees, Joe Wynne and Nipper, shot dead a number of
Gija people Gija, also spelt Gidja and Kija, alternatively known as the Lungga, refers to Aboriginal Australians from the East Kimberley area of Western Australia, about south of Kununurra. In the late 19th century pastoralists were fiercely resisted by G ...
at Mistake Creek in the East Kimberley. Rhatigan and Nipper were arrested and Wynne was shot dead by police. Rhatigan was acquitted of any wrongdoing, while Nipper was ordered to face trial for murder, but found not guilty and was released.


1920s

* 1922. Sturt Creek massacre: of more than a dozen people occurred in October 1922 when policemen were sent out to investigate the murders of two white stockmen, Joseph Condren and Tim O'Sullivan, at Billiluna Station. For many years the only record of the massacre was the oral histories of local Aboriginal elders who described the police shooting a group of Aboriginal people near Sturt Creek, but forensic evidence has confirmed the deaths. * 1924. Bedford Downs massacre: a group of Gija and Worla men were tried in Wyndham for spearing a milking cow on the
Bedford Downs Station Bedford Downs, or Bedford Downs Station, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia. It is situated about west of Warmun and north of Halls Creek in the Kimberley region. Both the station and nearby Mount Be ...
. When released from the court they were given
dog tags "Dog Tags" is the tenth episode of the fifth season of ''The Ren & Stimpy Show''. It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on October 28, 1995. Plot Ren and Stimpy (characters), Ren and Stimpy live in a house built over a cliff ...
to wear and told to walk the 200 kilometres back to Bedford Downs. On arrival they were set to work to cut the wood that was later used to burn their bodies. Once the work was finished they were fed food laced with strychnine by white station hands and their writhing bodies were then either shot or they were clubbed to death. The bodies were subsequently burned by the local police. This massacre has been depicted in artworks by members of the Gija tribe, the identities of the alleged perpetrators passed down and the events re-enacted in a traditional
corroboree A corroboree is a generic word for a meeting of Australian Aboriginal peoples. It may be a sacred ceremony, a festive celebration, or of a warlike character. A word coined by the first British settlers in the Sydney area from a word in the ...
that has been performed since the massacre allegedly occurred. The accounts became widely known after oral histories collected for the 1989 East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project (EKIAP) were published in 1999. As is customary for Indigenous reports, the EKIAP did not name anyone who was dead. Moran was unaware that several of the original written accounts did name not only the eyewitnesses and survivors but also the killers and other whites who were present but did not participate. * June 1926. Forrest River massacre: Western Australian police constables, James Graham St Jack and Dennis Hastings Regan led a month long punitive expedition against Aboriginal people living in the
Forrest River The Forrest River is a river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The river rises just east of Pseudomys Hill in the Drysdale River National Park and flows in an easterly direction until discharging into the western arm of the Cambri ...
region. After the local mission station reported around 30 people missing, a police investigation was organised. This investigation found that at least 16 Aboriginal people were killed and their remains burnt in three purpose-built stone ovens. The police investigation led to a Royal Commission the following year. During the proceedings of this commission, the suggestion of the evidence of a native being equal to that of a white man was openly mocked. Despite this overt attempt to protect the perpetrators, the Commissioner still found that somewhere between 11 and 20 people were killed and St Jack and Regan were subsequently arrested for murder. Instead of going to trial, the men were brought before police magistrate Kidson who, in spite of the findings of the two previous investigations, deemed that the evidence was insufficient to go before a jury. Regan and St Jack were released and the Premier,
Philip Collier Philip Collier (21 April 1873 – 18 October 1948) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th Premier of Western Australia from 1924 to 1930 and from 1933 to 1936. He was leader of the Labor Party from 1917 to 1936, and is Western Aus ...
, even re-instated them to their previous positions in the
Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...
.


Queensland


1910s

* 1918. Bentinck Island: Part of the
Wellesley Islands The Wellesley Islands, also known as the North Wellesley Islands, is a group of islands off the coast of Far North Queensland, Australia, in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is a locality within the Shire of Mornington local government area. The t ...
group, which includes
Mornington Island Mornington Island, also known as Kunhanhaa, is an island in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Shire of Mornington, Queensland, Australia. It is the northernmost and, at , the largest of 22 islands that form the Wellesley Islands group. The larg ...
, Bentinck Island was home to the
Kaiadilt The Kaiadilt are an Aboriginal Australian people of the South Wellesley group in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Australia. They are native to Bentinck Island, but also made nomadic fishing and hunting forays to both Sweers and Allen Is ...
clan of just over 100 people. In 1911, a man by the name of McKenzie (other names unknown) was given a government lease for nearby
Sweers Island Sweers Island is an island in the South Wellesley Islands in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, Australia. Most of the island is Aboriginal Freehold Land, held in trust by the Kaiadilt Aboriginal Land Trust (KALT) on behalf of the tradition ...
that also covered the eastern portion of the much larger Bentinck Island. Arriving on Bentinck with an Aboriginal woman plus a flock of sheep, he built a hut near the Kurumbali estuary. Although the Kaiadilt avoided contact and refrained from approaching McKenzie's property he is alleged to have often explored the island, shooting any males he found while raping the women. In 1918, McKenzie organised a hunt with an unknown number of settlers from the mainland and, beginning from the northern tip of the island, herded the Indigenous inhabitants to the beach on its southern shore. The majority of the Kaiadilt fled into the sea where those that were not shot from the shore drowned. Those that tried to escape along the beach were hunted down and shot, with the exception of a small number who reached nearby mangroves where the settlers' horses could not follow. Several young women were raped on the beach, then held prisoner in McKenzie's hut for three days before being released. As the Kaiadilt remained isolated throughout much of the 20th century, the massacre remained unknown to the authorities until researchers recorded accounts given by survivors in the 1980s.


Northern Territory


1910s

*1911. Gan Gan massacre, when over 30 men, women and children were killed by colonial police and settlers; a fictionalised version is presented in
Stephen Maxwell Johnson Stephen Maxwell Johnson is an Australian filmmaker, best known for his films '' Yolngu Boy'' (2001) and ''High Ground'' (2020). He is also known for directing Yothu Yindi's music videos in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Early life and educati ...
's 2020 film ''
High Ground High ground is an area of elevated terrain, which can be useful in combat. The military importance of the high ground has been recognized for over 2,000 years, citing early examples from China and other early-dynastic cultures who regularly eng ...
.'' * 1918. Constable O'Connor led a punitive expedition which resulted in seven Aboriginal people being shot dead.


1920s

* 1928.
Coniston massacre The Coniston massacre, which took place in the region around the Coniston (Northern Territory), Coniston cattle station in the territory of Central Australia (territory), Central Australia (now the Northern Territory) from 14 August to 18 Octo ...
: In August 1928, a
Northern Territory Police The Northern Territory Police Force is the police body that has legal jurisdiction over the Northern Territory of Australia. This police service has 1,607 police members (2021-22 financial year) made up of 83 senior sergeants, 228 sergeants, 912 ...
constable, William George Murray, was ordered to investigate the killing of a white man named Fred Brooks by several Aboriginal people at a waterhole to the west of Coniston cattle station. Murray led a series of
punitive expedition A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a political entity or any group of people outside the borders of the punishing state or union. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong beha ...
s from August until October 1928 which officially resulted in the deaths of 31 mostly Warlpiri and
Kaytetye people The Kaytetye, also written Kaititya, and pronounced ''kay-ditch'', are an Aboriginal Australian people who live around Barrow Creek and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Their neighbours to the east are the Alyawarre, to the south the ...
. Other men who participated with Murray in the mass killings included local landholders William "Nugget" Morton and Randall Stafford; cattlemen John Saxby, William Briscoe and Alex Wilson; and three Aboriginal trackers who went by the names of Paddy, Dodger and Major. Analysis of the existing documentation and surviving Aboriginal testimonies indicate that somewhere between 100 and 200 people were shot dead during this police operation, a number far higher than the official bodycount. Murray later escorted two Aboriginal prisoners to Darwin to face trial for the killing of Fred Brooks. At this trial Murray freely gave evidence to the presiding judge that he shot a large number of Aboriginal people during the operation, that he shot to kill and shot dead wounded men and women. The judge noted that Murray "mowed them down wholesale." Murray's admissions in court led to widespread publicity about the massacres and a governmental Board of Enquiry was set up to investigate the incident. The Board of Enquiry was a
whitewash Whitewash, calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, asbestis or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk (calcium carbonate, CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes ...
set up to protect the colonial system in the Northern Territory and it found that the shootings were justified. No charges were laid against any of the perpetrators and Murray continued to serve in the Northern Territory Police until the 1940s. A survivor of the massacre,
Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri __NOTOC__ Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri ( – 5 September 2015) was an Anmatyerr Australian artist. Biography He was born at Ilpitirri near Mount Denison, was one of Australia's best-known artists of the Western Desert Art Movement, Papunya T ...
, later became part of the first generation of
Papunya Papunya ( Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian ar ...
painting men. Billy Stockman was saved by his mother, who put him in a coolamon.Jo-Anne Birnie Danzker ''Dreamings—Tjukurrpa: aboriginal art of the Western Desert, the Donald Kahn Collection'', Prestel, 1994


See also

* Aboriginal deaths in custody *
Australian frontier wars The Australian frontier wars were the violent conflicts between Indigenous Australians (including both Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders) and mostly British settlers during the colonial period of Australia. The first conflic ...
* Australian genocide debate *
Black War The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832 that precipitated the near-extermination of the indigenous population. The conflict was fought largely as ...
(Tasmania) * Genocides in history in Australia * Genocide of Indigenous Australians *
History of Indigenous Australians The history of Indigenous Australians began 50,000 to 65,000 years ago when humans first populated the Australia (continent), Australian continent. This article covers the history of Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ...
*
Mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians Several recorded instances of mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians occurred during the History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation of Australia. Aboriginal resistance to colonisation led settlers to look for ways to kill or dr ...
*
Native Police Australian native police were specialised mounted military units consisting of detachments of Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal troopers under the command of European officers appointed by British colonial governments. The units existed in va ...
* Removal of Aboriginal people in Tasmania


Footnotes


References


Cited works

* * * * * *


Further reading

* * * in William Logan, William Stewart Logan, Keir Reeves (eds.) ''Places of pain and shame: dealing with 'difficult heritage * (citing ''Aboriginal history'', Volumes 6–8) * * * * * * * * * * * * * (D Byrne's A Critique of unfeeling heritage) *


External links


Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930
Centre for 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle
The South Australian Frontier and its Legacies
with interactive map {{DEFAULTSORT:Massacres of Indigenous Australians Australian crime-related lists Indigenous Australia-related lists Australian Aboriginal massacres
Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...