This is a list of massacres of Australian Aboriginal people, for discussion of the historical arguments around these massacres see the articles on: the History Wars and the Black arm band view of history plus the section on impact of European settlement in the Indigenous Australians article.

1800s

• The Black War refers to a period of conflict between the British colonists and Aborigines in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) in the early years of the 1800s. The conflict has gained a notorious reputation as a genocide resulting in the almost complete obliteration of the Tasmanian Aboriginal population, though there are presently many thousands of individuals with degrees of Tasmanian Aboriginal background. This included the forcible removal to Flinders Island in the 1830s in the Bass Strait with terrible living conditions and many died. Later they were moved to Cape Barren Island. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website

1820s

• 1824 Bathurst massacre: Following the killing of seven Europeans by Aboriginal people around Bathurst, New South Wales, martial law was declared and around 100 Aboriginal people killed. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website National Trust account of the 1824 Bathurst war

1830s

• 1830 Fremantle, Western Australia,: 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 after the Aborigines 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 Aborigines were killed and wounded. Study guide to "My Place" by Sally Morgan Tom Stannage, (1979), The People of Perth: a social history of Western Australia’s Capital City, p. 27

• 1833-34 Convincing Ground massacre: On the shore near Portland, Victoria was one of the largest recorded massacres in Victoria. Whalers and the local Kilcarer Gunditjmara people disputed rights to a beached whale carcass.

• 1834: Battle of Pinjarra, Western Australia: Official records state 14 Aboriginal people killed, but Aborginal accounts put the figure much higher Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website Fairfax Walkabout Australian travel guide on the Pinjarra

• 1838 Myall Creek massacre - 9 June: 28 people killed at Myall Creek near Inverell, New South Wales. This was the first Aboriginal massacre for which European settlers were tried. Eleven men were charged with murder but acquitted. A new trial was held and the seven men charged with the murder of one Aboriginal child. They were found guilty and hanged.

• 1838 Waterloo Creek massacre: A Sydney mounted police detachment attacked an encampment of Kamilaroi people at a place called Waterloo Creek in remote bushland. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Frontier Education history website

• 1838 Benalla (Benalta run - musk duck): Grantville Stapylton named the river 'Broken'. In April of that year a party of some 18 men, in the employ of George Faithful and William Faithfull, were searching out new land to the south of Wangaratta. Then, in the vicinity of, or possibly on, the present townsite of Benalla, it is alleged that a large number of Aborigines attacked the party's camp. At least one Koori and somewhere between eight and thirteen Europeans died in what became known as the Faithfull Massacre. Local reprisals lasted a number of years, resulting in the deaths of up to 100 Aborigines. The reason for the attack is unclear although some sources claim that the men took shots at local Aborigines and generally provoked them. It also seems they were camping on a hunting ground

This "hunting ground" would have been a ceremonial ground probably called a 'Kangaroo ground'. Hunting grounds were all over so not something that would instigate an attack. The colonial government decided to "open up" the lands south of Yass after the Faithful Massacre and bring them under Britsh rule. This was as much to try and protect the Aboriginal people from reprisals as to open up new lands for the colonists. The Aboriginal people were (supposedly) protected under British law.

1840s-1890s

• 1841 Wonnerup Massacre: George Layman was speared by a Wardandi (from Wardan = Ocean) man, Gaywer, at Wonnerup House, Capel, Western Australia when he refused to release an aboriginal woman held at the house. This led to the Wonnerup Massacre where white settlers rode abreast through the tuart forest killing over 250 people on their tribal land. The dead are reputed to be buried at Ludlow Forest, currently being mined for mineral sands by Cable Sands. Indigenous history at Save the Tuarts

• 1864 Richmond River massacre - January: 100 people killed at Richmond River, New South Wales

• 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 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.

• 1874 Barrow Creek Massacre - February (NT): Mounted Constable Samuel Gason arrived at Barrow Creek and a police station was opened. Eight days later a group of Kaytetye men attacked the station, either in retaltiation for treatment of Kaytetye women, the closing off of their only water source, or both. Two white men were killed and one wounded. Samuel Gason mounted a large police hunt against the Kaytetye resulting in the killing of many Aboriginal men, women and children - some say up to ninety ^*.

• 1880s-90s Arnhem Land: Series of skirmishes and "wars" between Yolngu and whites. Several massacres at Florida Station Richard Trudgen[http://www.ards.com.au/whywarriors.htm also writes of several massacres in this area, including an incident where Yolngu were fed poisoned horsemeat 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 and men from the Eastern and African Cold Storage Company and shot.

• 1884 Battle Mountain: 200 Kalkadoon people killed near Mount Isa, Queensland after a Chinese shepherd had been murdered.

• 1890-1920 Kimberley region - The Killing Times - East Kimberleys: About half of the Kimberley Aboriginal people massacred as a result of a number of reprisals for cattle spearing, and payback killings of European settlers.

1900s

• Kimberley region - The Killing Times - 1890-1920

• 1906-7 Canning Stock Route: 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, Aborigines destroyed some of Canning's wells, and stole from and occasionally killed white travellers. A Royal Commission in 1908, exonerated Canning, after an appearance by Kimberley Explorer and Lord Mayor of Perth, Alexander Forrest claimed that all explorers had acted in such a fashion. Remote Area Tours - History

• 1915 Mistake Creek: Seven Kija people were alleged to have been killed by men under the control of a Constable Rhatigan, at Mistake Creek, East Kimberley. The massacre was as a reprisal for alledgedly killing Rhadigan's cow, however, the cow was found alive after the massacre had already taken place. Rhatigan was arrested for wilful murder, but the charges were dropped, for lack of "evidence". However, the historian Keith Windschuttle disputes the version put forward by former Governor-General of Australia, William Deane, including his response to innacuracies of November 2002. Windschuttle found the massacre took place on March 30, 1915, not in the 1930s, and was not a reprisal attack by whites over a cow, but "an internal feud between Aboriginal station hands" over a woman. "No Europeans were responsible. There was no dispute over a stolen cow, and it had nothing to do with theories about terra nullius or of Aborigines being subhuman."

1920s

• 1924 Bedford Downs Massacre: a group of Kija men were jailed for spearing a bullock. On release from jail they had to walk the 200 kilometers back to Bedford Downs, where 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 Strychnine, and the bodies were burned. ABC 7:30 report

• 1926 Forrest River Massacre: In May 1926 Fred Hay, a pastoralist, was speared by an Aboriginal man, Lumbia. A police patrol left Wyndham on June 1 to hunt for the killer and in the first week of July, Lumbia, the accused man, was brought into Wyndham. In the months that followed rumours circulated of a massacre by the police party. A Royal Commission conducted by Mr G.T. Wood stated that eleven people had been massacred and the bodies burned, and suggested there were grounds for prosecution. In May 1927 Constables James St Jack and Denis Regan were charged with the murder of Boondung, one of the eleven. At a preliminary hearing Magistrate Kidson found there was insufficient evidence to proceed to trial. An concerted attack on the reputation of one of the informants, Rev. Ernest Gribble led to his departure from the region. Quadrant Magazine

• 1928 Coniston massacre: Europeans shoot 32 Aborigines at Coniston in the Northern Territory after a white dingo trapper and station owner are attacked by Aborigines. A court of inquiry says the European action was ‘justified'. Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission 'Bringing Them Home' website Australian Broadcasting Corporation Frontier Education history website

After 1930

• 1932-34 Caledon Bay crisis: In 1932, five Japanese poachers, two white men, and a policeman were killed by Yolngu people in retaliation for rapes. A "punitive expedition" from Darwin was proposed, just as had happened at the Coniston massacre four years earlier, but this was averted, and the matter was settled in the courts. This event is marked as a significant turning point in the history of the treatment of Aboriginal people.

References

External links

• History Wars Special in the Sydney Morning Herald
• Who plays Stalin in our History Wars? Stuart Macintyre

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