Samuel Calvert, Night attack of the natives on Lake Hope [South Australia], 1866, wood engraving, State Library of Victoria. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons 11 June 2018


Some of the main sources for information about conflicts that happened in South Australia, and their locations, are included in the following publications:

Fatal Collisions: the South Australian Frontier and the violence of memory, Robert Foster, Rick Hosking and Amanda Nettelbeck, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2001

In the Name of the Law: William Willshire and the Policing of the Australian Frontier, Amanda Nettelbeck and Robert Foster, Wakefield Press, 2007

Out of the Silence: the History and Memory of South Australia’s Frontier Wars, Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2012

More references are in the Bibliography and Journal Articles. Also check sub-headings like Books, Databases, FilmsMemorials and Monuments, and Videos under Resources in the main menu.  Many thanks to readers who have emailed information about frontier conflicts not already listed. Locations will be added to the list below as new information is found and time permits. If you know of incidents that occurred, that are not included and wish to contact the author of this website, please use the form on the Contact page.

To see a map of some of the conflicts that happened in South Australia, please follow this link. All coordinates are approximate. Information on maps is being added as time permits and does not fully reflect the following list of conflict locations.

WARNING: Viewing this list may be offensive and upsetting to some readers as it contains placenames and sites where killings took place during the frontier period.

Compiled by Jane Morrison 2012–2022, Updated 3 June 2022, 2,5 October 2022.

Date


Location


1802–1836


Kangaroo Island, SA


30 April 1831


Murray River mouth, SA


1837


Encounter Bay near Victor Harbour, SA


March 1838


On the way to Port Adelaide, SA


8? March 1838


Torrens River, SA


1839


Langhornes Ferry, Victor Harbour, SA


1839


Morgan, SA


April 1839


11 miles (c. 17.7 kms) north-east of Adelaide, SA


12 June 1839


Adelaide, SA: arrest and hanging of two Kaurna men for murder


November 1839


Spring Cart Gully, two miles (c. 3.2 kms) north-east of Morgan, SA


1839–42


Port Lincoln, SA, Aboriginal resistance to colonists


1840s–50s


Salt Creek near Mt Muirhead, SA


23 August 1840


Maria Creek near the Coorong (The Coorong Massacre), SA


January 1841


Gleeson Run, Hutt River, Clare, SA


January 1841


Morphet Run, Wakefield River, 20 kms north-east of Balaklava, SA


February 1841


The Coorong, SA, two Ngarrindgeri men hanged illegally for murders of Maria shipwreck survivors


13 May 1841


Lake Bonney at Langhorn’s Crossing, Rufus River, 22 kms west of Renmark, SA


1842


Balaklava, Wakefield River district, SA


1842


Port Lincoln area, SA (see individual locations below)


1842


Dutton’s farm, Port Lincoln, SA


1842


Hindmarsh Valley c. 10 kms from Port Lincoln, SA


1842


Streaky Bay, SA


1842–??


Mt Remarkable, Melrose and Woolmington near Port Augusta, SA


3 February 1842


Bungaree Station, Clare, SA


10 February 1842


Light River, Kapunda, SA


24 April 1842


Biddle’s station, Port Lincoln, SA


24 April 1842


Coffin Bay near Piallawarta, 50 kms north-west of Port Lincoln, SA


early May 1842

Pillaworta Station, end of Arno Bay, Eyre Peninsula, SA

Unknown number of Aboriginal people killed by soldiers in retribution for the killings of colonists in the Port Lincoln district earlier in 1842.

January 1843


Broughton River near Port Pirie, SA


7 April 1843


Biddle’s station, Port Lincoln, SA: Nultia publicly executed


7 April 1843


Bungaree Station, Clare, SA


June 1843


Neighbourhood of Bungaree Station, Clare, SA


1844–45


Port Augusta War, SA


July 1844


Adelaide, SA


13–14 July 1844


Mt Bryan, 30 kms north-north-east of Burra, SA


August 1844


Mt Gambier, SA


November 1844


Lake Leake, SA


1845


Mt Remarkable, 45 kms north of Port Pirie, SA


1845


Quorn, Gawler Ranges, SA


May 1845


Near Rivoli Bay, 70 kms north-west of Mt Gambier, SA


Before 1846


Streaky Bay, SA

1846


Crystal Brook near Mt Remarkable, SA


1846


Strathalbyn on Mt Barker, 50 kms south-east of Adelaide, SA


August 1846


Sterling’s (Stirling’s?) station, south-east SA


September 1846


Rivoli Bay, 65 kms north-west of Mt Gambier, SA


11 November 1846


Near North Avenue, Guichen Bay, Robe, SA


January 1847


Robe, SA


August 1847


Mt Gambier, SA


1847–51


Aroona Station, Orroroo, SA


1848


Waterloo Bay (Elliston), SA


31 March 1848


Port Lincoln, SA


1849


Avenue Range Station, Mt Gambier area, SA


1849


Brown’s run, near Robe, SA


1849


Fowler’s Bay, SA (Public execution of Wirangu men. Public executions banned by then).


1849


Mt Wedge Station, Elliston, SA (Public execution of Nawu men. Public executions banned by then).


1849


Port Lincoln, SA


3 May 1849

Tornto Station, about 80 kms north-west of Port Lincoln, SA

Captain JR Beevor is murdered.

c. 6 or 7 May 1849

Lake Hamilton run, adjoining Tornto Station, north-west of Port Lincoln, SA

Young wife and mother, Anne Easton is murdered. Deaths of Beevor and Mrs Easton incite colonists to repay Aboriginal people for the deaths.

Yeelanna Station, north-west of Port Lincoln, SA

Five Aboriginal people die from eating poisoned flour. The killings may have been in reprisal for the deaths of Captain Beevor and Mrs Easton. Hutkeeper Patrick Dwyer arrested and charged with murder on the basis of an autopsy of the bodies. Dwyer is released, flees the district and Australia.

Late May 1849

Waterloo Bay (Elliston), SA

–a series of clashes between colonists and Aboriginal people in the 1840s initially led to the deaths of three Europeans and the deaths of six Aboriginal people. In late May 1849 a clash between Europeans and Aboriginal people resulted in the deaths of possibly ‘scores’ of Aboriginal people. Aboriginal oral history suggests that up to 260 may have perished at the Waterloo Bay cliffs.

October 1849


South-east SA


1850s


Blackfellows Creek, Barmera, SA


1850s


Cobdolgla Station, 40 kms south-west of Renmark, SA


1850s


Kingston Ferry, 10 kms west of Barmera, SA


1850s


North-east of Lake Bonney, SA


1850s


Mt Serle (Searle), 50 kms east of Leigh Creek, SA


September 1852


Mt Aden near Port Lincoln, SA


30 September 1852


Bordertown, SA


19 September 1854


Mt Brown, east of Port Pirie, SA


1855


Middlecap Station, Franklin Harbour, Cowell, SA


10 January 1856


South Australia. Four Banggarla men hanged for murder and sheep stealing.


1857


Mt Serle (Searle), SA


1858


John Jacob’s run, Arkaroola Creek, 100 kms east-north-east of Leigh Creek, SA


1860


Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay, SA (Execution of more Nawu men)


1860


Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay, SA


1862


Fowlers Bay, 140 kms west of Ceduna, SA


1862


Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay


1864


Stuckey and Elders’ run, Umberatana Station, 120 kms west of Lyndhurst, SA


December 1866


Lake Perigundie, Cooper’s Creek, Tirari Desert, 110 kms north-east of Marree, SA


1880s


Koonchera Sandhill, SA


1880s


Wiryirbi, Clifton Hills, SA


1882


Ochre Trail on Beltana Station, Leigh Creek, SA


Before 11 January 1890


Haddon Corner, 50 kms west on Cadalgo Station, far north of SA near the Transcontinental Railway


1900s


Macumba Station, 50 kms north-east of Oodnadatta, SA


1934


Tieyon (Tyonne) Station, SA


Date Unknown

Irin Irinji, SA, massacre by Europeans of local Aboriginal men on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, north-western South Australia. The massacre was in retaliation for the killing of a European dingo scalper who had defiled a water source.