Some Known Conflicts in Australian Colonies, States and Territories

1770–1940s

H. Calvert, ‘A Deadly Encounter’, 1870s. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. (Picture digitally coloured.

 


Click here for a more detailed introduction to Australian colonial frontier conflicts.

Colonial Frontier Conflicts–Timeline
The Timeline below lists some known dates on which, and locations where, conflicts–from individual injuries and killings to large massacres and wars– occurred between colonists and First Peoples. The Timeline begins before the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 because there were earlier encounters between European explorers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that led to violence, even death. More dates and locations of conflicts will be added as information comes to hand and time permits. Also as time permits, tables including more details about each conflict, where known, will be added to the website. (A massive task under way).

TG Moyle, The Wills Tragedy, 1861. The arrival of the Neighbouring Squatters & Men collecting and burying the Dead &c. After the Attack by the Blacks on H.S. Wills Esq’s Station Leichhardt District. Queensland, October 19th 1861, painting, watercolour, 47 x 74 cm. In the collection of the State Library of Queensland. This painting depicts the aftermath of the 1861 Cullinguringa (Cullin-La-Ringo) massacre near Springsure, Queensland in which Aboriginal people killed 19 colonists–the deadliest recorded attack against Europeans in the colonial frontier period.


The main sources for this list are included under Resources in the main menu, in individual State and Territory lists (Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia), in the Bibliography, Books, and in Journal Articles. There is also more information about conflicts on the Australian frontier on the Databases, Films, Podcasts and Videos pages under Resources on the main menu. Memorials to those who gave their lives in some of the frontier conflicts are listed on the Memorials and Monuments page. Many thanks also to readers who contact the author with details of conflicts not yet included on this website. This is invaluable information. If you would like to contact Australian Frontier Conflicts, fill out the form on the Contact page. The contact form is also at the bottom of many pages.

WARNING: Some of the names of places included in the following list, derived from geographic names registers, from historical and modern-day maps and other primary and secondary sources, are offensive and may be upsetting to some readers. These placenames reflect the attitudes, racism and activities of the people who gave these places English or other European names during the frontier period.

Australia

177029 AprilBotany Bay, Sydney, NSW
Captain James Cook fires a musket twice, wounds an Aboriginal man, as First Nations people defend themselves by throwing a stone at Cook’s party. The injured man defends himself with a shield. As Cook and party land, they are met with spears.
178822 FebruaryWoolloomooloo Bay, Sydney, NSW, British marines, at the order the order of Midshipman Francis Hill, fire with birdshot on Eora people, who are taking tools.
178810 MarchSydney Cove, NSW, Eora wound convicts in the bush near the settlement.
1788MayBloody Point, (today the site of the UTS Rowers Club, Haberfield), Sydney, NSW, convicts Samuel Davis and William Okey killed in reprisal for taking Eora canoes and the transgression of Aboriginal law on Wangal land at Bloody Point. For many years the site where Davis and Okey were killed was believed to be Rushcutters Bay. More recently historians have suggested the site was at Darling Harbour or White Bay. However, a 1788 chart of Sydney Harbour drawn by William Bradley, backed up by information from diaries of the time, is now believed to be the location of their deaths, according to the author of The Sydney Wars, historian Dr Stephen Gapps. Read more in Tim Barlass's story, ‘Frontier wars: Lieutenant's log maps Haberfield as ground zero’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 March 2019: https://www.smh.com.au/national/frontier-wars-lieutenant-s-log-maps-haberfield-as-ground-zero-20190305-p511ss.html
178822 MayWoolloomooloo Bay, Sydney, NSW, convict Peter Burn speared and killed by the Eora, most likely at Woolloomooloo.
178823 MayBlackwattle Bay, Sydney, NSW, convicts attack Eora killing an Aboriginal person.
1788JulySydney, NSW, convict speared in the head.
17882 OctoberBotany Bay, NSW, Cupper Handley murdered and mutilated because of competition between colonists and Aborigines for food and other resources.
1788DecemberSydney, NSW, Arabanoo (Manly) captured.
1789Toongabbie, Sydney, NSW, two Aboriginal adults killed. Their child, later called James Bath, taken in and brought up by colonists.
1789AprilSydney Cove and vicinity, NSW, about half the Aboriginal population (possibly more than 1,000 people) die from smallpox, possibly deliberately spread by the British military through gifts to Aboriginal people of blankets and handkerchiefs. The same tactic was used against North American Indians. The smallpox epidemic spreads rapidly to other parts of the colony as Aboriginal people had no immunity to the disease. No colonists die in the outbreak.
178926 SeptemberMiddle Head, Sydney, NSW, Henry Hacking, quartermaster, HMS Sirius kills or wounds two of about 50 Aboriginal men who have attacked him.
178925 NovemberSydney, NSW, Bennelong and Colbee captured.
c. 1790Sydney, NSW, John McIntyre suspected of killing at least one Aboriginal man.
1790New South Wales, Hawkesbury and Nepean Warsbegin
1790 New South Wales, punitive expedition against Pemulwuy, Tedbury and others begins.
17907 SeptemberManly, Sydney, NSW, Wileemarin, and Eora man, spears Governor Arthur Phillip in the shoulder. Phillip survives.
1790 10 DecemberSydney, NSW,, John McIntyre, Governor Phillip’s gamekeeper, speared.
179028 DecemberSydney, NSW British marines track and kill Bangai, an Eora man, after he takes potatoes from a local garden.
1790–1800Sydney Cove War, 26 colonists and an unknown number of Aboriginal people die because of cultural clashes and the encroachment of the British on Aboriginal land and resources.
1790–1802Sydney Cove and vicinity, NSW, conflicts occur between colonists and Aboriginal people at locations such as Port Jackson, Prospect, Toongabbie, Georges River, Parramatta, Brickfield Hill, Hawkesbury River, Rosehill and Manly.
179120 JanuarySydney, NSW, McIntyre dies of spear wound.
1792Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney, NSW, colonists kill two Dharug men in reprisal for murder of Sarah Hodgkinson's husband.
1792SeptemberTorres Strait, QLD, ships under command of Captain William Bligh fire on 'native' canoes.
1792–1902Propsect, Toongabbie, Georges River, Parramatta, Brickfield Hill, Hawkesbury River, NSW: misconduct of local colonists and kidnapping of Aboriginal children, unknown if any Aboriginal people or colonists die.
1794Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney, NSW, an Aboriginal boy dragged over hot coals, thrown in the river, then shot.
1794–96 Deerubbun (Hawkesbury) Region near Sydney, NSW conflicts between colonists and Aboriginal people
1795Richmond, near Sydney, NSW, Battle of Richmond Hill, Dharug people attack colonists whose cultivation has destroyed wild yams, a major Aboriginal food source, growing on the banks of the Deerubbun (Hawkesbury) River. Aboriginal retaliation is so great that Acting Governor Paterson believes the Hawkesbury River settlement may have to be abandoned.
17957 JuneParramatta or Deerubbun (Hawkesbury) River, NSW, Lt Governor William Paterson sends troops against Aboriginal people with instructions to kill as many as possible. Unknown number killed, 10 prisoners taken.
179626 FebruaryNorthern boundary of Parramatta, NSW, Pemulwuy attacks farms. Bushrangers seen among his warriors.
1797Moruya, south coast, NSW, Yuin people kill 13 survivors of Sydney Cove wreck.
1797Port Jackson; Georges River; Toongabbie, NSW,Governor King orders reprisal against Aboriginal attacks at these locations.
1797January'Redcoat farm' (now Oatlands Gold Course), near Parramatta, NSW, Aboriginal raid on ‘redcoat farm’, possibly in retaliation for punitive expeditions by redcoats in 1796. A redcoat soldier and a woman are murdered.
1797MarchToongabbie; Parramatta, NSW, conflict involving Pemulwuy, Aboriginal clan members, armed soldiers, and colonists. Up to 50 Aboriginal people killed; one soldier speared.
179721 March'Redcoat farm' (now Oatlands Gold Course), near Parramatta, NSW, Aboriginal raid on ‘redcoat farm’. Redcoats and colonists pursue Aboriginal people into North Rocks bushland.
179722 MarchBushland north of Parramatta, NSW, Pemulwuy pursues redcoat soldiers and colonists. Battle of Parramatta ensues. Pemulwuy wounded. (See 1799 Rosehill below).
1799Newcastle, NSW, unknown number of Aboriginal men shot after asking for axes in exchange for use of their land.
1799Rose Hill, near Parramatta, NSW, troops sent out after the Aboriginal leader, Pemulwuy; five Aboriginal men killed; Pemulwuy injured in the head, taken to hospital but later escapes. (Some accounts, such as Lim in The Battle of Parramatta, suggest this incident happened in late March or April 1797, not 1799).
179916 JulyPoint Skirmish (South Point), Boorabee (Bribie) Island, QLD, Captain Matthew Flinders sails with Bongaree and crew on the Norfolk from Glass House Bay to Boorabee (Bribie) Island. After landing from a smaller craft, they encounter Aboriginal people, one of whom tries to remove Flinders' hat. The Aboriginal man throws a spear near the boat. Flinders fires his musket and wounds the Aboriginal man. Flinders names the spot Point Skirmish (now known as South Point).
1799–1805Hawkesbury–Parramatta, near Sydney, NSW, Black Wars
1800sGrafton, NSW, two Aboriginal men shot near showground.
1801Georges River, south of Sydney, NSW, Pemulwuy spears a colonist.
18022 JuneParramatta, NSW, Pemulwuy shot, decapitated, head sent to Sir Joseph Banks in England.
1802–1836Kangaroo Island, SA, whalers, sealers, runaway convicts, ships' deserters, farmers and other colonists visit or take over land on Kangaroo Island. Many of the men abduct Aboriginal women by force from the mainland and Tasmania. Lawlessness prevails. Emus wiped out on the island. Kangaroos and seals hunted to near extinction.
1803Blue Mud Bay, Arnhem Land, NT, Explorer, Matthew Flinders lands twice in Arnhem Land. The first landing is without incident. During the second landing, one Yolngu person is killed.
1803Port Phillip district, VIC
1803OctoberCorio Bay, near Melbourne, VIC
1803–1830Tasmania, Black Wars
1804Newcastle, NSW, more conflict between colonists and Aboriginal people
18043 MayRisdon Cove, TAS Large number (30 or more) of Big River people killed and wounded in River Derwent, north of Hobart, in encounters with colonists (including convicts) and the military. Soldiers and colonists use rifles, pistols, muskets and a carronade loaded with grapeshot against the Aboriginal people, armed only with spears, who were apparently hunting kangaroos.
180422 JulyJervis Bay, NSW, sailors from the Conquest kill Aboriginal people.
1805SeptemberMangrove Flat (Gentleman's Halt) opposite Spencer, NSW, two Aboriginal men, Branch Jack and Woglomigh, killed.
180527 OctoberJervis Bay, NSW, report of Europeans speared by Aboriginal people at Jervis Bay. Possible reprisal for massacre by sailors from the Conquest the previous July.
18055 DecemberJervis Bay, NSW, Aboriginal people attack survivors of Fly shipwreck. Thomas Evans killed, Rushworth, master of the Fly, speared.
180615 MarchTwofold Bay, NSW, sealers from the shipwrecked whaler, George, massacre Aboriginal people.
18066 AprilTwofold Bay, NSW, report that sealers, crew of George, have shot and killed nine Aboriginal people, hung bodies from trees.
180815 MayBatemans, Bay, NSW, three of five crew of the Fly reported murdered by Aboriginal people at Batemans Bay.
1808OctoberHawkesbury area, NSW, clash between colonists and Aborigines on Singleton's farm. Leg injury to servant, one Aboriginal person killed, others wounded.
180926 SeptemberBond Farm, George's River, NSW,Tedbury and others engage in skirmish with Meredith and other farmers, Meredith's ear grazed by a spear.
18105 FebruaryParramatta, NSW, Edward Luttrell shoots Tedbury, Pemulwuy's son.
1814May/JuneAppin area, NSW, skirmishes between colonists and Aboriginal people. In reprisal for earlier atrocities, Aboriginal people murder men on William Broughton's farm near Appin. (For more information on the conflicts that happened between 1814 and 1817 see, for example, John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars 1788–1838, UNSW Press, 2002 and Stephen Gapps, The Sydney Wars: Conflicts in the early colony 1788–1817, NewSouth, 2018).
1815Bathurst, NSW, possible killing of an escaped convict by Aboriginal people
1816March–MayCumberland Plain, NSW,Aboriginal people murder one of Rev. Thomas Hassall's shepherds, Bromley.
1816March–MayCumberland Plain, NSW
Governor Macquarie's undeclared war begins against Aboriginal people.
18169 AprilSydney, New South Wales, Governor Lachlan Macquarie issues secret orders to military regiments under his command to take punitive action against Aboriginal people in the Sydney area and to capture them as 'prisoners of war'–a de facto declaration of war by the British Crown, (Michael K. Organ, 2014, ‘Secret Service: Governor Macquarie's Aboriginal War of 1816’, University of Wollongong, Research Online> See the Bibliography on this website for a link to the paper.
181617 AprilAppin Massacre, near Cataract Gorge, west of Sydney, NSW, killing of 14 Aboriginal people, capture of two women and three children, by a military detachment from the 46th Regiment's grenadier company commanded by Captain James Wallis.
Examples of sources: John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars 1788–1838, pp. 49–51). See also: New South Wales State Archives and Records, 'Massacre at Appin', 17 April 1816: https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/stories/massacre-appin-17-april-1816
18164 MaySydney, NSW, Governor Lachlan Macquarie's Proclamation against ‘Aborigines or Black Natives’ involved in killing of colonists, ‘plundering and destroying’ grain and property etc in the Sydney vicinity and elsewhere, published in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, Saturday 4 May 1816, p. 1
1819Bathurst area, NSW, spearing of Lt William Lawson's horse.
27 October 1820Newcastle, NSW, Runaway convict, John Kirby, seriously wounds Burragong, 'King "Jack, Chief of the Newcastle tribe"', with a knife, while Aboriginal men are trying to bring in Kirby and another convict, James Thompson to British authorities. Burragong subsequently dies from his wounds. Kirby is charged and executed for Burragong's murder. Kirby was the first European in New South Wales to be executed for the murder of an Aboriginal person.
1821–39The Falls area, NSW, period of conflict between colonists and Aborigines
1821FebruaryBillyeena Station, Cudgegong River, north-east of Mudgee, NSW, George Cox leads a shooting party against Aboriginal people. Unknown number shot.
18216 FebruaryBathurst area, NSW, killing of Private James King
c. 1822Bathurst area, NSW, Aboriginal people kill convict for rape of an Aboriginal girl.
1822Near Bathurst, NSW, Windradyne leads Wiradjuri against colonists.
1822New South Wales, large-scale killings of Aboriginal people
1822"Claremont", William Lee's Farm, 10 km north-east of Bathurst, NSW, killing of a shepherd.
1822Billyeena Station, Cudgegong River, north-east of Mudgee, NSW, Aboriginal warning attack
1822Swallow Creek (government station), NSW, Aboriginal attack on station
182215 AprilIllawarra area, NSW, Seth Hawker murders an Aboriginal woman. He is tried but acquitted.
1823–24Black War of Bathurst, NSW(some individual incidents listed below).
1823October, NovemberSwallow Creek, Molong, Wellington districts, NSWAboriginal people attack stations in these districts and those of Judge Advocate John Wylde, Rev. Samuel Marsden, and Palmer's “Toulon” station west of Bathurst, NSW.
1823NovemberSwallow Creek (government station), NSW, Aboriginal attacks force abandonment of station.
1824c. JanuaryBathurst area, NSW, Windradyne captured, imprisoned at Bathurst for a month. Colonists use arsenic-laced flour and damper to poison hungry Aboriginal people.
1824Bungendore (Bungendaw) run, NSW, Captain Richard Brooks's stockmen abduct two Aboriginal girls, Weereewaa people assemble to avenge their kidnapping.
1824MarchBrymair, Capertee Valley, near Rylstone, NSW, Dabee massacre
Two shepherds coax a young Aboriginal woman into a hut where they rape and keep her for days. She escapes back to her people. In retaliation the men go to the hut, kill the shepherds, then burn down the hut. When the shepherds’ deaths are discovered, a detachment of soldiers is sent to punish the First Nations people. The soldiers shoot many First People, particularly women and children. A few Aboriginal people survive so the story is handed down to their descendants.
1824MarchKelso, near Bathurst, NSW, 'Potato Field Incident': Aborigines offered potatoes, return next day for more, fired upon while gathering potatoes. Several Aboriginal people shot dead, some wounded. Incident sparks retaliations led by Windradyne.
182419 MarchSwallow Creek (government station), NSW, , after the colonial government reoccupies the station, up to 60 Aboriginal men attack it. Privates Softly and Epslom kill two Aboriginal men, capture ‘Taylor’, Columbummero and Callalbegary.
1824MayNear Mudgee, NSW at William Lane's farm, seven colonists killed.
182424 MayWarren Gunyah Station, Wattle Flat near Bathurst, NSW, two stock keepers killed; one speared.
182424 MayWinburndale Rivulet, north of Bathurst, NSW, shepherds killed, huts destroyed, sheep killed.
182431 MayNear Mudgee, NSW at William Lane's farm, five colonists in punitive expedition against Aboriginal people, but claim not to have seen any. Later admit to killing three Aboriginal women in a 'skirmish' with 30 warriors bearing spears. Colonists tried for manslaughter but acquitted.
182431 MayMrs Hassell's station, O'Connell Plains, NSW , Aboriginal men attack a stockman, wounding him twice with spears.
1824May?Murdering Hut, Millah Murrah Station, south-west of Wattle Flat, near Bathurst, NSW, Samuel Terry builds homestead on a bora ground, poisons Aboriginal people with arsenic.
1824May?Millah Murrah Station, NSW, Windradyne leads Aboriginal revenge attack, three colonists killed.
1824JuneNorth of Bathurst, NSW, colonists' retaliation; unknown number of Aboriginal women killed.
1824Bef. JulyWilliam Lawson's Upper Station, Campbell River, NSW, four stock-keepers killed.
1824Bef. JulyNorth-east of Rockley, near Bathurst, NSW, two stock-keepers killed.
182412 AugustEmu Plains, Sidmouth Valley, Two Mile Creek near Bathurst, NSW, farm labourer speared. Colonists retaliate, three Aboriginal women shot dead. Other Aboriginal people killed.
182414 AugustGovernor Brisbane proclaims Martial Law, Bathurst area, 'westward of Mount York', NSW, a week after the acquittal of Johnston, Clark, Nicholson, Castles and Crear. Martial law was declared in the Bathurst Region of New South Wales following Wiradjuri resistance against incursions on their Country as traditional food sources were being depleted and sacred sites were destroyed. What sparked Governor Thomas Brisbane’s declaration was Wiradjuri retaliation to a massacre and injury of Aboriginal women and children, known as the ‘Potato Field Incident’, in March 1824 at Kelso near Bathurst. Hungry Aboriginal people offered potatoes but shot dead or injured when they return for more the next day. Governor Brisbane’s declaration of Martial law led to rising conflict between colonial troops of the 40th Regiment, armed colonial militias and the Wiradjuri until December 1824. For more information, see for example, John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars 1788–1838, University of New South Wales Press, 2002; ‘Windradyne and the Bathurst Wars’, Hyde Park Barracks, Sydney Living Museums: https://hydeparkbarracks.sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/story/windradyne-and-the-bathurst-wars/
182414 August–11 DecemberMartial Law in place against the Wiradjuri, Bathurst area, NSW
182426 AugustMill Post Station, Bathurst, NSW, hut keeper killed, hut destroyed in retaliation after station set up on sacred site and stock yards built on corroboree ground.
182427 AugustWarren Gunyah Station, Wattle Flat, Bathurst, NSW, three shepherds killed, huts burnt.
1824AugustMillah Murrah Station, north of Bathurst, NSW, three Aboriginal women and a boy killed in retribution for killing shepherds.
18246 SeptemberMudgee, NSW, colonists kill between five and 16 Aboriginal men in retaliation for dispersing cattle.
1824SeptemberBell Falls Gorge, NSW, massacre of Aboriginal people believed to have taken place during Major James Morisset's punitive expedition.
1824September–NovemberBattle of Bathurst, NSW, up to 1,000 Aboriginal people believed to have perished in the Battle of Bathurst (or Wiradjuri War).
1824NovemberSouth side of Yebri Creek, near Redcliffe settlement, QLD, Aboriginal people attack convicts with soldier guards as they are sawing a bloodwood tree. One Aboriginal man killed. Afterwards Aboriginal people around Redcliffe are so hostile that the settlement is moved to Brisbane.
1824Billiwillinga station, Mt Rankin area on banks of the Macquarie River near Bathurst, NSW, after the Proclamation of Martial Law, group of about 30 Aboriginal people (mostly women and children) massacred when military offer them food.
1824Capertee Valley, north of Bathurst, NSW, military party massacre unknown number of Aboriginal people.
1824Clear Creek headwaters, about 15 km north of Bathurst, NSW, shepherd killed, large numbers of Aboriginal people rounded up and killed in retaliation.
1824Cox's landholding near Mudgee, NSW, Aboriginal people, including the warrior Blucher, shot when driving cattle off this land.
1824Raineville Station, south-east of O'Connell near Bathurst, NSW, three Aboriginal men murdered in retaliation for killing stock and rushing a mob of sheep.
1825Hunter region, NSW, about five 'clashes' between colonists and Aborigines in the Hunter.
182528 OctoberMartindale, south of Denman, NSW, Robert Greig and a convict worker killed during an Aboriginal raid.
1825October/NovemberPutty, NSW, soldiers pursue Aboriginal people who attacked at Putty.
1826Bef. 6 MayInverary Park Station, Lake George (Weereewaa), NSW, stock keeper speared to death for trying to abduct an Aboriginal man's wife.
1826JuneEdinglassie, Hunter region NSW, shepherd wounded.
1826JuneRavensworth, Hunter region, NSW, hut keeper killed.
1826July/AugustFal Brook Farm, near Singleton, NSW, Aboriginal people attempt to plunder farm; two colonists wounded.
1826July–16 AugustScone, Muswellbrook, Denman and Singleton, NSW, mounted police capture Aboriginal people, execute some.
1826AugustMerton district, Hunter region, NSW, mounted police wantonly maltreat Aboriginal people, some arrested.
18261 August–1 SeptemberHunter Valley, NSW, Wonnarua people face murders and massacres. (The Plains Clan of the Wonnarua People have sought to preserve and protect a significant Aboriginal area on the Ravensworth Estate, Hunter Valley, where these atrocities took place. See Louise Nichols, Singleton Argus, 3 August 2021: https://www.singletonargus.com.au/story/7368872/frontier-wars-on-ravensworth-estate/
182628–29 AugustUpper Hunter region, NSW, 200 Aboriginal people visit Merton in response; 11 to 15 proceed to Fal Brook via Ravensworth, burn grass at several farms. Two colonists killed, two wounded.
182631 August–1 SeptemberUpper Hunter, NSW, magistrate Scott leads punitive expedition of 14 men; 18 Aboriginal people killed. More than 10 major and minor 'collisions' between colonists and Aboriginal people in the Hunter in 1826 according to magistrates.
1826DecemberBank Hill Farm, TAS
1826MarchGreat Swanport, TAS
1826AprilMount Augustus, TAS
1826MaySally Peak, TAS
1827Near Cootralanta Lake, Monaro region, NSW, Aboriginal people attack Richard Brooks Jnr and party, scattering cattle later found at "Gejizric" (Gegedzerick) Flat near Berridale.
1827JuneDairy Plains, TAS
1827JuneLaycock Plains, TAS
1827JuneQuamby Brook, TAS
1827JuneQuamby Bluff, TAS
1827JuneBlackmans River, TAS
1827DecemberSorell Valley, TAS
1827DecemberBrumby Creek, TAS
1827DecemberDairy Plains, TAS
182711 DecemberWellington, NSW, George Brown shoots Aboriginal girl, who came to the door with other children, asking for food.
1827–1828Kangaroo Point and South Brisbane, Brisbane, QLD, despite Aboriginal people being shot dead, Aborigines repeatedly raid and destroy maize (corn) fields on which colonists rely for food, in a bid to drive the intruders out of Aboriginal country.
1828Near Lake Bathurst, NSW, two of Edward Hall's stockmen killed, Aboriginal people suspected of killings.
182810 FebruaryCape Grim, TAS
1828MarchMiles Opening, TAS
1828MarchBullock Hunting Ground, TAS
1828AprilElizabeth River, TAS
1828JulyEastern Tiers, TAS
1828OctoberJordan River, TAS
1829JanuaryTooms Lake, TAS
1829JanuaryBreak O’Day Plains, TAS
1829JanuarySt Pauls River, TAS
1829FebruaryWest Tamar area, TAS
1829MarchCataract Gorge, near Launceston, TAS
1829JunePittwater, TAS
1829SeptemberBen Lomond, TAS
1829OctoberOuse River, TAS
1830sCoolac near Gundagai, NSW
1830sOvens River near Wangaratta, VIC
1830Logan Creek, Brisbane Valley, QLD, Aboriginal people, possibly with the help of convicts, allegedly murder Brisbane commandant Captain Logan.
1830FebruaryClyde/Ouse Rivers, TAS
1830MayFremantle, WA
1830s–40sMurrumbidgee River area, NSW (some locations below):
 Duck Bend, near Narrandera, NSW
 Green Swamp, near Buckinbong Homestead, near Narrandera, NSW
 Hulong (Ulong) Sandhill, near Narrandera, NSW
 Massacre (Murdering) Island, near Narrandera, NSW (see below under 1841)
 Poison(ed) Waterholes Creek, Sturt Highway, near Narrandera, NSW
1830–50Port Phillip District Wars, VIC
183130 AprilMurray River mouth, SA
Mid-1831Minjerribah (Stradbroke Island), QLD
1831–32Moorgumpin (Moreton Island), QLD
1832Perth area, WA, Yagan and others fight colonists. For more information: Yagan: https://www.noongarculture.org.au/yagan/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagan
1832 NovemberStradbroke Island, QLD
183218 DecemberMurramarang headland, north of Bateman's Bay, NSW
1832–1833Minjerribah (Stradbroke) and Moorgumpin (Moreton) Islands near Brisbane, QLD
Conflicting European accounts and Aboriginal oral history refer to a number of conflicts between staff of the Amity Point pilot station, established on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) in 1826, and Aboriginal people.
c. 1833Clontarf Hill (Hamilton Hill Swamp),south of Fremantle, WA, massacre of Aboriginal people believed to have occurred during Acting Governor Ellis's search for Yagan.
1833Moorgumpin (Moreton) Island, QLD
Massacre of Aboriginal people at the top of a large lagoon on the southern end of Moreton Island (Moorgumpin), now eroded into the sea. The attack may have been the last in a series of reprisals between Aboriginal people and soldiers stationed on Minjerribah.
183311 JulyPerth area, WA, Yagan killed. For more information: Yagan: https://www.noongarculture.org.au/yagan/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yagan
1833–34Convincing Ground, between Portland and the Surrey River, VIC
1834Acton peninsula, ACT, then in NSW. Now National Museum of Australia, Canberra site. 
183428 OctoberBattle of Pinjarra, WA
1834Fairy Bower Falls, now in Morton National Park, near Bundanoon, NSW, believed from oral history to be a site where Aboriginal people were massacred.
1835Mt Mackenzie, near the Gloucester River, NSW
183525 AprilNear Tabratong, NSW, Richard Cunningham, botanist with Thomas Mitchell's expedition, killed by Aboriginal people 84 kms south-east of Nyngan.
183511 JulyDarling River, near Menindee, NSW, Major Thomas Mitchell, and party encounter ‘hostile’ Aboriginal people. Several killed and wounded.
1836Fraser Island, QLD, Captain James Fraser, and possibly crew of the shipwrecked Stirling Castle, speared.
183627 MayMt Dispersion near Euston, NSW, between Mildura, NSW and Robinvale, VIC, Major Thomas Mitchell, and party set an ambush for ‘hostile’ Aboriginal people the party believed they had encountered on the Darling River in 1835. Seven Aboriginal people killed. On 27 April 2020, in the lead up to the 184th anniversary of the massacre, the New South Wales government gazetted the Mount Dispersion Massacre Site as a Declared Aboriginal Place. News about, and details of the declaration, are on the News page of this website under “Mount Dispersion Declared an Aboriginal Place”, posted on 4 June 2020.
1836JulyWerribee River, 35 kms south-west of Melbourne, VIC
1836JulyWilliamstown, 10 kms south-west of Melbourne, VIC
1836August?York area, WA
183617 OctoberBarwon River, Barrabool Hills, 20 kms south-east of Colac, VIC
1837Encounter Bay, near Victor Harbour, SA
1837Geelong area, VIC
1837Gravesend, west of Warialda, NSW
1837Western VIC
1837FebruaryBirregurra, near Colac, VIC
183728 MarchCowie Creek, Geelong, VIC
1837JulyVasse, WA
1837NovemberLeigh River, 60 kms west of Geelong, VIC
1837NovemberEast of Reedy Lake on the banks of the Goulburn River between today's Kirwan Bridge and the Goulburn Weir, VIC, overlander Fitzherbert Mundy and his men killed at least six Aboriginal people including women and children, wounding others. References: Waranga Dreaming, Vol. 1, 2019; Richard Broome, Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800, 2005; Rushworth Chronicle, 1953; Robert Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, Government Printer, 1878
1837–38SummerNear Golf Hill Station, Yarrowee River, north of Inverleigh, VIC
1837–1844Port Fairy area, VIC
1838Berpengary, QLD, (26 miles, (c. 42 kms) from Nundah), Aboriginal people attack Moravian missionary Pastor Gottfried Haussman. He is badly wounded but escapes.
1838Central Victoria
1838Crampton's Corner, north side of the McIntyre (Mcintyre) River (Cowbawn Coonigal), QLD
Mid-1838Gwydir River, NSW
1838Kilcoy Station, north-west of Moreton Bay, QLD
1838Perth, WA
1838Tarrone Station near Port Fairy, VIC
1838Terry Hie Hie, NSW
183826 JanuarySlaughterhouse Creek (Waterloo Creek/Millie Creek) Massacre, south-west of Moree, NSW
This famous massacre most likely happened on 26 January 1838. It was among 'clashes' that occurred between colonists (mounted police and vigilantes) and the Gamilaraay between December 1837 and January 1838. Roger Millis tells the story of how the land in this area of New South Wales was stolen from First Peoples in: Waterloo Creek: The Australia Day massacre of 1838, George Gippsland and the British conquest of New South Wales, McPhee Gribble, 1992
1838MarchOn the way to Port Adelaide, SA
183812 MarchTorrens River, Adelaide, SA, coroner finds labourer, Enoch Pegler, was speared to death by an unknown Aboriginal man or men about 8 March.
1838March/April?West of Bendigo, VIC
18384 AprilLearmonth Station, 13 kms south of Ballarat, VIC
183810 AprilBanks of the Yarra River, Hawthorn, Melbourne, (now site of Scotch College), VIC
183811 AprilBattle of Broken River (Faithfull Massacre) near Benalla, VIC, additional killings of Aboriginal people followed at Murchison and Wangaratta.More information, for example: Battle of Broken River, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Broken_River
In 1838, following this massacre and series of reprisals, 'police huts' were built along the route from Sydney to Melbourne 'to enforce law and order': Bruce Pennay, 'Nine People and a Police Hut at Bungambrawatha,' Albury & District Historical Society Bulletin, June 2022, pp. 2–4
1838After 11 AprilMurchison, Ovens River, VIC
Additional killings after Battle of Broken River
1838JuneMerino Downs Station near Henty, VIC
1838JuneNorth-east of Malmsbury near Kyneton, VIC
1838JuneWaterloo Plains, VIC
183810 JuneMyall Creek Massacre, near Inverell, NSW
(See Friends of Myall Creek: http://myallcreek.org/; Report of the Myall Creek Massacre, 10 June 1838, State Archives and Records of New South Wales; the Australian Frontier Conflicts website: Bibliography, NSW Map, News, Resources and Timeline. Also Dr Timothy Bottoms, The Frontier Series, ‘Myall Creek Massacre, Sunday 10 June 1838’: https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Myall-Creek-Massacre-Sunday-10-June-1838-TFS003.jpg)
Mid-1838Gwydir River, NSW
1838JulyConfluence of Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, NSW
1838JulyPyrenees Range above Trawalla, VIC
1838JulyThomas Learmont’s station, Addington, 20 kms north-west of Ballarat, VIC
1838WinterDarlington Station, 16 kms north-west of Lancefield, VIC
1838OctoberMerino Downs Station near Henty, VIC
1838OctoberSpring Valley (Murndal), Wannon River near Merino Station, VIC
1838?OctoberMurdering Flat, Clover Flat, Wannon River, near Casterton, VIC
1838NovemberSpring Valley (Murndal), Wannon River near Merino Station, VIC
1838–1839Central Victoria
1838/39?Tamworth, NSW
1838–1841Bathurst, NSW (Wiradjuri Wars)
c. 1839Glenormiston Station, near Terang, VIC
1839Lake Colac, 5 kms north of Colac, VIC
1839Longhorne's Ferry, Victor Harbour, SA
1839Tamworth, NSW
1839 or 1840Between Colban and Campaspe Rivers near Bendigo, VIC
1839Murdering Gully (Puuroyup), Mount Emu Creek, Camperdown district, VIC
18398 JanuaryBrewarrena (Brewarrina) Station, NSW, hut keeper, Irish convict Dennis Denay, ambushed and killed.
1839FebruaryMaiden Hills, near Lexton, VIC
183922 FebruaryNear Brillinball Station, Narrandera area, NSW, John Williams, Michael Byrne's convict servant, speared to death.
183928 FebruaryNear Billinbah, Murrumbidgee River, NSW, Aboriginal attack on two convicts, one Aboriginal man shot.
1839April11 miles (c. 17.7 kms) north-east of Adelaide, SA
1839May–JuneCampaspe Plains massacre, Campaspe Creek, VIC
183912 JuneAdelaide, SA, hanging of two Kaurna men for murder
183920 JuneLake Boga, 10 kms south-east of Swan Hill, VIC
183922 JuneMount Ida Creek, near Heathcote, VIC
1839JulyColeraine, VIC
1839JulyGerangamete, VIC
1839JulyMia Mia, VIC, bodies of murdered Aboriginal people thrown into a waterhole in the creek below the local school, according to oral history.
1839JulyMt Alexander, 30 kms south-east of Bendigo, VIC
1839AugustNorth Yanco Station at Cudgel Creek, near Narrandera, NSW, Aboriginal people attacked James Byrne, people chased across river.
1839OctoberMorgan (Great South Bend), SA, Aboriginal people attack an overlanders party. Overseer Thomas Young killed. Overlanders kill 11 Aboriginal people in retaliation.
1839OctoberMurray River, above Lake Alexandrina, SA, overlander Peter Snodgrass is attacked. Several Aboriginal people wounded. Sheep driven off.
1839NovemberDarling River, NSW, overlander Alexander Buchanan's party attacked while crossing the Darling River. A number of Aboriginal people killed, many wounded. Buchanan attacks Aboriginal camp after sheep speared.
1839NovemberSpring Cart Gully, two miles (c. 3.2 kms) north-east of Morgan, SA
1839 or 1840The Blood-hole (Bloody Creek), Middle Creek, near Glengower Creek, western VIC
1839–1840Between Coliban and Campaspe Rivers near Bendigo, VIC
1839–40Goulburn District, VIC?
1839–42/7Eumeralla War, Mount Napier Station, 20 kms south-east of Hamilton, VIC
1839–42Port Lincoln, SA, Aboriginal resistance to colonists
1839–1842Mount Rouse Station or Weerangourt Station, VIC
1840s?Blackadder/Cassons Creek-Red Rock area, NSW
1840s?Green Hills, bank of Red Rock River opposite Red Rock and Station Creek, NSW
1840sLaidley, NSW
1840sClarence River district, NSW, as the frontier expanded, initially peaceful relations between colonists and Aboriginal people broke down.
1840sAvon River, near York, WA, fighting between colonists and Aboriginal people continues.
1840sClarence River stations, NSW, in the early 1840s, Aboriginal people from the area between Dorrigo and Kangaroo Creek, launch small attacks on runs in the Clarence River district.
1840sKangaroo Creek (east of Nymboida), NSW, Aboriginal people continue attacks on colonists holding runs around Kangaroo Creek.
1840sMurdering Flat near Tintaldra, VIC
1840sMurdering Flat, Tooma River near Greg Greg, NSW
1840sPort Fairy, VIC
1840sWire Fence (Minnie Water), NSW
1840sRed Rock, NSW
"Chapter 2 of Singing the Coast, Crying-songs to remember, deals specifically with the Red Rock massacre story from the 1880s from an Aboriginal perspective. Some other sources on the Red Rock massacre are:

Wikipedia entry for Red Rock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rock,_New_South_Wales

Historical Encounters: https://www.historicalencounters.org/he/red-rock/

'(Re)membering in the Contact Zone: Telling, and Listening to, a Massacre Story Margaret Somerville', University of New England and Tony Perkins, Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation, 2008[?] https://thealtitudejournal.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/53.pdf

Red Rock, New South Wales, Fact for Kids
https://kids.kiddle.co/Red_Rock,_New_South_Wales

'There were always people here': a history of Yuraygir National Park, Department of Environment and Climate Change, New South Wales, June 2009
https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/cultureheritage/09218ynphistory.pdf
(Covers Red Rock or Red Cliff as part of the study.)
c. 1840Bogan River, NSW, William Lee's run, Aboriginal people attack stockmen while building a stockyard. Three stockmen killed, buried in stockyard.
c. 1840Hulong (Ulong) Sandhill, near Narrandera, NSW, posses of colonists battle with Aboriginal people. Many driven away, many killed.
Early 1840Near Mt Rouse, south-western VIC
Early 1840Mount Napier Station, 20 kms south of Hamilton, VIC
1840Grampians, VIC
1840Kunderang Brook, Macleay River area, NSW
Apparent massacre of two to three dozen Aboriginal men in retaliation for taking some sheep. Rodney Harrison, Shared Landscapes: Archaeologies of Attachment and the Pastoral Industry in New South Wales, UNSW Press, 2004, pp. 104–105, p. 117)
1840Long Lagoon Station, QLD
1840Mount Cole, VIC
1840Nundah, north Brisbane, QLD, Aboriginal people attack the German Mission more than once, notably in 1840 when 20 to 30 warriors sack the Reverend Schmidt's fields. The mission is forced to keep nightly armed watch over its crops. In retaliation, Schmidt shoots and wounds Aboriginal elders.
1840JanuaryColiban River, near Sutton Grange, VIC
184013 JanuaryYering Station, Yarra Glen, VIC
1840FebruaryMerino Downs Station, Wannon River, near Henty, VIC
1840FebruaryWestern Australia
1840Bef. FebruaryTahara Station, Wannon River/McLeods Creek, VIC
1840MarchMerino Downs Station, Wannon River near Henty, VIC
18408 MarchHamilton, VIC
18408 MarchFighting Hills, the Hummocks, near Wando Vale, VIC
184010 MarchKonong-Woontong Station, VIC
1840AprilMerino Downs Station, Wannon River, VIC
18401 AprilFighting Waterholes, near Konongwootong Reservoir, VIC
184031 MayNear Mt Lindesay, QLD, Aboriginal people kill surveyor Staplyton and his assistant Tuck.
1840JuneColac, VIC
1840JuneMuston’s station, east of Mount Rouse, VIC
1840JuneNangeela Station, Glenelg River, near Casterton, VIC
18409 JuneNear Bowman and Yaldwyn’s run, central VIC
1840June–SeptemberThe Grange Station, southern Grampians, 30 kms north-west of Hamilton, VIC
1840JulyWestern District, VIC
1840AugustHenry Dutton’s run, near Ararat, VIC
184023 AugustMaria Creek near the Coorong (The Coorong Massacre), SA
1840SpringMiddle Creek, Glengower (Campbelltown), VIC
1840OctoberDr Officer’s station, near Lake Bolac, 50 kms south of Ararat, western VIC
1840OctoberBoisdale and Bushy Park stations, 25 kms north of Sale, VIC
1840October–DecemberNuntin Station, Gippsland, VIC
1840NovemberMurdering Flat, Wannon River, between Sandford Bridge and Glenelg River junction, VIC
184021 DecemberPyrenees Range, VIC
184022 DecemberBoney Point, Gippsland, VIC
1840–1841Woodlands Station, Wimmera River near Crowlands, VIC
1840–1850Gippsland, VIC (see also individual locations below):
 Boole Boole, Gippsland, VIC
 Holland's Landing, VIC
 Lake's Entrance, VIC
 Medusa Point, VIC
 The Heart, VIC
1840s–50sSalt Creek near Mt Muirhead, SA
1840s–60sNorthside of Brisbane, QLD, as the Brisbane area was colonised, no allowance was made officially for Aboriginal camps. Creeks acted as de facto barriers between colonised areas and locations where Aboriginal people could live unmolested. When colonists strayed into such locations they were often harassed, robbed or subjected to violence. While Europeans allowed some traditional Aboriginal camping grounds to remain, they attacked others. Some of the incidents, that occurred on the north side of Brisbane in the 1840s–1860s period, are included individually in this timeline.
1840s–60Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD, for Aboriginal people, a 'front line' against encroaching British colonisation. The area was the location of clashes between colonists and Aboriginal groups. Aboriginal warriors such as Billy Barlow, Commandant, Dalaipi, Dundalli, Harry Pring, Tinkabed and Yilbung were all visitors to the prosperous Breakfast Creek camps.
c. 1841South-western VIC
c. 1841Piccaninny Waterhole, Springbank, Glenelg River, south of Casterton, VIC
1841Butchers (Boxes) Creek, Gippsland, VIC
1841Darkie (Darkie’s) Point, New England, NSW, colonists pursue a group of about 200 Aboriginal people, shooting at and forcing many over cliffs to their deaths.
1841Glenormiston, VIC
1841Near Lake Lonsdale, VIC
1841Lexington, VIC
1841Maffra, VIC
1841Massacre (Murdering Island), Murrumbidgee River, about 8 km south-east of Narrandera, NSW, local landholders massacre an unknown number of Aboriginal people.
1841Mt Bainbridge, VIC
1841New England Area, NSW
1841Orara River, NSW
1841Port Fairy, VIC
1841Portland, VIC
1841Junction Wannon and Glenelg Rivers, VIC
1841JanuaryGleeson Run, Hutt River, Clare, SA
1841JanuaryMorphet Run, Wakefield River, 20 kms north-east of Balaklava, SA
1841FebruarySouth Australia, two Ngarrindgeri men hanged for murders of Maria shipwreck survivors.
18417 February14 Mile Creek (Far Creek/Glenmona Station), Bet Bet Creek, west of Maryborough, VIC
18417 FebruaryLoddon River, VIC
184121, 22, 27 February
7 March
Vasse region, WA, Wonnerup massacre
For more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonnerup_massacre
https://maryblight.com/2022/03/18/the-1841-wonnerup-massacre/
1841MarchMount Cole, VIC
1841AprilRufus River, NSW, overlanders Henry Inman and Henry Field attacked after crossing the Rufus River. South Australian Governor Lawler despatches a punitive police party but recalls it. A retaliatory party of colonists encounters 300 Aboriginal people, kills eight in a fight. Colonists repulsed, return to Adelaide.
18411 AprilCentral Victoria
184122 AprilClarence River, NSW, squatter Peter Cunningham Pagan, speared to death about a mile from his hut, after an armed pursuit of Aboriginal people. They enter the hut looking for food as it becomes scarce after the arrival of colonists in the area.
1841April/MayClarence River area, NSW, colonists shoot many Aboriginal people in retribution for the spearing of Pagan. Mundi, then a child, is shot through an ear. He is one of only a few Aboriginal people to survive the attack.
184113 MayLake Bonney at Langhorn's Crossing, Rufus River, 22 kms west of Renmark, SA
1841JuneNear Mount Sturgeon Station, Wannon River, VIC
1841JuneVasse region, WA, Wonnerup Massacre
18412 JuneKonongwootong Creek, near Coleraine, VIC
1841June–JulyBurrumbeep, south of Ararat, VIC
1841JulyBurrumbeep, south of Ararat, VIC
1841JulyHall’s outstation, Hall’s Gap, VIC
1841JulyGood Morning Bill Creek, near Mount William, VIC
184131 JulyBrisbane, QLD, Merridoo and Neugavil wrongfully executed, on a cross-arm of the Brisbane windmill (observatory tower), for murders of Stapylton and Tuck.
1841July–AugustWilliam Kirk’s station, Burrumbeep, VIC
1841AugustMt Emu, VIC
1841AugustMt William, VIC
184125 AugustMurray River, VIC
184127 AugustLake Minninup, near Augusta, WA
184127 AugustRufus River Massacre, NSW
Details, for example on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_River_massacre
1841About 6 OctoberNear Harmers Haven, near Watson's Hut, about 1.5 kilometres west of Cape Paterson, VIC.
Two whalers, William Cook (possibly of Sydney), and a man known as 'Yankee" (possibly an American) are shot and killed by Tasmanians believed to have included Maulbouheenner, Tunnerminnerwait (Jack of Cape Grim), Pyterrunner, Planobeena and Truganini. Historians have suggested various theories about why the killings took place: self-defence, retribution for abuse and/or the killing of Pyterruner's husband, Probelattener, or mistaken identity? Read more about this incident in the article by Sandy Guy in Traces: ‘Uncovering the Past’, Volume 2, 2018, pp. 16–19.
184127 OctoberLeighton Station, Hopkins River, VIC
1841DecemberPort Fairy, VIC
1841–42Burrumbeep, VIC
1841–1842Barton Station, head of Mount William Creek, VIC
1841–1842Lexington, La Rose and Mokepilly Stations, VIC
1842Balaklava, Wakefield River district, SA
1842Brisbane Valley, QLD
1842Bruthen Creek, Gippsland, VIC
1842Callandoon district, McIntyre River, QLD, two hut keepers killed during a series of Aboriginal attacks. Pastoralists and police retaliate.
1842Dutton’s farm, Port Lincoln, SA
1842Evans Head (Goanna Headland) Massacre, NSW, reprisal for Pelican Creek deaths (see below). See also Richmond River massacres on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_River_massacres
1842Giggabarah Massacre, Blackall Ranges, west of Nambour and the Mary River, QLD, Fifty to 60 Giggabarah people poisoned with arsenic. Source: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History, Poisoning of Indigenous People, https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Poisoning-of-Indigenous-People-%E2%80%A81842-Giggabarah-Massacre-TFS004.jpg
1842Hindmarsh Valley c. 10 kms from Port Lincoln, SA
1842Kilcoy Station, QLD
1842Net nat uungo, near Donald McKenzie’s station, Crawford River, south-western VIC
1842Nyngan Massacre, north of Nyngan, NSW
1842Pelican Creek Tragedy, north of Coraki, NSW, five European men killed at Pelican Creek. Some details on Wikipedia under Richmond River massacres:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_River_massacres
1842Port Lincoln area, SA
1842Skull Creek, Gippsland, VIC
1842Streaky Bay, SA
1842Near Tabratong, Bogan River, NSW, severe conflict between William Lee's men and Aboriginal people. During a drought, First Nations people camped at a waterhole, attack William Lee's employees after the men tried to force the people to leave. Five of Lee's men are killed, one survivor with severe wounds. Aboriginal people slaughtered in a reprisal by Lee, his men and police. Governor Gipps cancels Lee's squatting licence because of multiple attacks on, and killings of, Aboriginal people.
1842Warndaa, Boggy Gully, near Black Swamp, west of Merrang House, south-western VIC
1842Weereangourt or Mount Rouse Station, VIC
1842Whiteside, Morton Bay, QLD
1842–??Mt Remarkable, Melrose and Woolmington, near Port Augusta, SA
18423 JanuaryEumeralla Station, south-western VIC
1842FebruaryTarrone Station, Moyne River, 19 kms north of Port Fairy, VIC
18423 FebruaryBungaree Station, Clare, SA
184210 FebruaryKapunda, Light River, SA
184224 FebruaryLubra Creek, Caramut Station, near Lubra Creek/ Penshurst-Caramut Road crossing, VIC
184224 FebruaryMuston’s Creek, VIC
184224 AprilBiddle’s station, Port Lincoln, SA
184224 AprilCoffin Bay, 50 kms north-west of Port Lincoln, SA
1842Early MayPillaworta Station, end of Arno Bay, Eyre Peninsula, SA
Unknown number of Aboriginal people killed by soldiers in retribution for the killing of colonists in the Port Lincoln district earlier in 1842.
Mid-1842Biddle’s station, Port Lincoln, SA
1842AugustTahara or Spring Valley Station, south-western VIC
1842SeptemberMount Rouse, VIC
1842OctoberMount Shadwell Station, south-west VIC
1842OctoberTarrone Station, Moyne River, 19 kms north of Port Fairy, VIC
184210 DecemberPort Fairy, VIC
Bef 1843Grampians, VIC
Bef 1843Darlot, VIC
Bef 1843Lake Colac, VIC
1842 or 1843Spring Creek Station, 16 kms south-west of Caramut, VIC
1842–1852Awamolands north of Bribie Island, Caloundra, or Marcoola, QLD, Some Aboriginal men possibly wounded.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 6–7)
1842–1852Mandandanji Land War, southern QLD
1843Fitzroy River, VIC
1843Grampians, VIC
1843Mudall Station, Bogan River, NSW, Aboriginal people attack stockmen while moving sheep on Balfour's holding. Two stockmen killed. Holdings abandoned after three more stockmen killed.
1843Portland Bay area, VIC
1843Warrigal Creek, Gippsland, VIC
1843Western district, VIC
1843–1846Rosewood Scrub, QLD, from this impenetrable area of bush, Multuggerah continues attacks on drays and travellers as far as the Darling Downs. Rosewood Homestead (now Glenore Grove) is repeatedly under siege. Colonists possibly construct a makeshift 'fort' on the property that they take turns in manning.
1843–1849Castlemaddie or Ettrick pastoral runs, VIC
1843JanuaryBroughton River, near Port Pirie, SA
18437 AprilPort Lincoln, SA, Nultia publicly executed on Biddle’s station.
18437 AprilBungaree Station, Clare, SA
1843JuneNeighbourhood of Bungaree Station, Clare, SA
1843JuneWarrigal Creek, VIC
1843AugustKoroite Station, Wannon River, VIC
1843AugustWannon River, VIC
18436 AugustVictoria Range, western VIC
184313 AugustNear Mount Zero, VIC
1843SeptemberHeadwaters, Crawford River, south-western VIC
184312 SeptLockyer Valley, QLD, Battle of Meewah (Battle of One Tree Hill) (Mount Tabletop or Table Top Mountain). Aboriginal people led by Multuggerah. See Bibliography and Books on this website and Ray Kerkhove and Frank Uhr, The Battle of One Tree Hill: The Aboriginal Resistance That Stunned Queensland, Boolarong Press, 2019
1843OctoberOn road between Portland and Kanawalla Station, Wannon River, south-west VIC
18439 NovemberGlenelg River near Harrow, VIC
1844Bluff Rock, near Tenterfield, NSW, conflicting versions of the details of Bluff Rock massacre exist. It is believed 'settlers' threw Aboriginal people from the rock in a reprisal.
1844Deepwater area, north of Glen Innes, NSW
1844Maffra, VIC
184417 OctoberNear Bolivia Station, Deepwater area, NSW
1844–45Port Augusta, SA (Port Augusta War)
184425 JanuaryMullagh Station, 11 kilometres north of Harrow, VIC
184415 AprilGrampian Range, VIC
1844MayGrampian Range, VIC
184415 May100 kilometres north of the Pyrenees Range, VIC
1844JulyAdelaide, SA
184413–14 JulyMt Bryan, 30 kms north-north-east of Burra, SA
1844AugustMt Gambier, SA
184419 October40 kilometres north of Longerenong Station, VIC
1844NovemberNear Lake Leake, SA
1845Deepwater, north of Glen Innes, NSW, possible reprisal murders of Aboriginal people in response to widespread cattle and sheep stealing in the area. (See Rodney Harrison, Shared Landscapes: Archaeologies of Attachment and the Pastoral Industry in New South Wales, UNSW Press, 2004, p. 105)
1845Douralie Creek, Macleay region, NSW
c. 1845Grampians, VIC
1845Gilbert River, far north QLD, explorer Leichhart's naturalist, Gilbert fatally speared.
1845Hendersons Creek, Macleay area, NSW
1845Kunderang Station, Upper Macleay, NSW
Two shepherds and their wives killed. Sheep stolen. Retaliatory killings of Aboriginal people. Numbers unknown. (See Rodney Harrison, Shared Landscapes: Archaeologies of Attachment and the Pastoral Industry in New South Wales, UNSW Press, 2004, pp. 105–6)
1845Mt Remarkable, 45 kms north of Port Pirie, SA
1845Quorn, Gawler Ranges, SA
1845Upper Macleay River, NSW, Aboriginal people killed under a cliff. 
1845Wivenhoe, Brisbane Valley, QLD, John Uhr killed during an Aboriginal attack.
c. 1845Henderson's Creek, Macleay area, NSW
c. 1845Sheep Station Bluff, Macleay area?, NSW
c. 1845Wabra Station, Macleay area, NSW
184515 AprilDeepwater area, NSW
1845MayNear Rivoli Bay, 70 kms north-west of Mt Gambier, SA
1845JulyMt Arapiles, VIC
1845JulyVictoria Plains, WA
184511 JulyWest of Horsham, VIC
1845September/October?Mount Lindesay, Richmond River district, QLD, Thomas Mather, resident of South Brisbane, and a man, who went by the nickname “the Bush Lawyer”, killed apparently, during an Aboriginal attack.
The Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 10 October 1845, p. 3; The Moreton Bay Courier, Saturday 6 February 1847
1845DecemberWestern Port, VIC
Bef 1846Streaky Bay, SA
Early 1846Outside Anderson's Inn, Burbank (Lexton), VIC
1846Crystal Brook, near Mt Remarkable, SA
1846"Murdering Stumps", Tabratong Station, NSW, Aboriginal reprisal attack on William Lee's station employees at night. All but one employee killed. Dates for this incident in the Tabratong area vary from 1841, 1842, 1846, or 'before 1850'. The varying dates and sometimes differing descriptions for this conflict suggest that there was more than one incident that occurred on the Bogan in the 1840s to 1850s.
1846Rosewood Scrub, QLD
In 1846 Multuggerah brings 500 warriors to Rosewood Homestead, almost starving out the occupants. Visitors and Rosewood Homestead residents form a party, storming Multuggerah's camp, killing him and many others. Other Aboriginal leaders such as Jackey, Uncle Marney and King Billy appear to operate from Rosewood Scrub in later years.
1846Strathalbyn, 22.99 kms (14.29 miles) from Mt Barker, SA
1846Victoria Park Aboriginal camp, north Brisbane, QLD, Constable Peter Murphy and party burn camp and shoot Aboriginal people.
1846FebruaryWimmera River, later site of the Ebenezer Aboriginal Station, VIC
18466 FebruaryMullagh Station, 11 kilometres north of Harrow, VIC
1846AprilPyrenees Range, VIC
184628 JuneAvoca River, near Charlton, VIC
1846AugustAire River mouth, Cape Otway, VIC
1846AugustSterling’s station, south-east SA
184620 OctoberNorth Pine, south-east QLD, Aboriginal people led by Milbong Jemmy murder Andrew McGregor and Mrs Shannon with waddies. Mr Shannon later attacked but escapes.
1846OctoberEagle Farm, Brisbane, QLD, Milbong attacks Mr Richardson, robs his house.
1846OctoberDoughboy Creek, (now part of Hemmant), Brisbane, QLD, Milbong attacks sawyers, is shot, dies almost immediately.
1846SeptemberRivoli Bay, 65 kms north-west of Mt Gambier, SA
1846NovemberGippsland, VIC
184611 NovemberNear North Avenue, Guichen Bay, Robe, SA
1846DecemberSnowy River, VIC
1846, 1847Wickham Park, north Brisbane, QLD, Yilbung took regular bags of flour for his people from millworkers at the Windmill (now a hotel and restaurant on Wickham Terrace) as a ‘monthly rent’. He was imprisoned for this ‘impertinence.’
1846–47Central Gippsland, VIC
1847Clarence River, NSW
1847Kilcoy Station, Upper Brisbane River, QLD, station hands set a trap, putting aresenic-laced flour in hut. Aboriginal people rob the hut, many die after eating the flour.
1847Mount Eccles, VIC
1847Mount Talbot, VIC
1847JanuaryRobe, SA
1847AprilEumeralla district, south-western VIC
1847Mid-AprilWhiteside Station, QLD (Established on the North Pine River)
184720 MayEuremete and Lyne Stations adjoining Branxholme, south-western VIC
1847JulyMount Napier, VIC
1847AugustMt Gambier, SA
184711 SeptemberNorth Pine, Brisbane district, QLD, Aborigines, led by Dundalli, kill William Waller and badly wound William Boller. James Smith escapes.
1847SeptemberGoodar near Callandoon, QLD, James Marks kills an Aboriginal man.
184713 OctoberMary River, Maryborough district, QLD, George Furber and friend attacked by Aboriginal assistants while building a wool shed. Furber is wounded; his friend killed. Furber later retaliates shooting the Aboriginal men who attacked him.
1847OctoberMount Talbot, VIC
184725 NovemberAt, or near, Anderson and Mills’s public house, Buninyong, VIC
1847c. 28 NovemberKangaroo Creek run, south-east of Nymboida, Clarence River district, NSW.More than 20 Aboriginal people die after eating poisoned flour given to them by run-holder Thomas Coutts.
1847–49Mt Abundance, near Roma, QLD, Aboriginal people kill seven Europeans.
c. 1847–c. 1850Bunya lands (Blackall Ranges and Bunya Mountains, QLD, Hundreds of fatalities.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier war on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 7)
1847–1851Aroona Station, Orroroo, north-west of Hawker, SA
1848Butcher's Tree, near Brewarrina, NSW , massacre of Aboriginal people. (See Rodney Harrison, Shared Landscapes: Archaeologies of Attachment and the Pastoral Industry in New South Wales, UNSW Press, 2004, p. 154)
1848Escape River, tip of Cape York, Qld, explorer Edmund Kennedy speared, dies in the arms of Aboriginal tracker, Jackey Jackey.
1848Maryborough, QLD, Aboriginal people kill George Furber and his brother-in-law in the bush.
1848Tingun Station, near Roma, QLD, Aboriginal people attack James Blythe and drive him off the station.
1848Umbercollie, QLD
1848Waterloo Bay (Elliston), SA
1848Wimmera district, VIC
1848FebruaryMurrumbidgee station, Murray area, VIC
184831 MarchPort Lincoln, SA
1849Avenue Range Station, Mount Gambier area, SA
1849Balonne and Condamine Rivers, QLD
1849Bigumbul (Bigambul), QLD
1849Brown’s run, near Robe, SA
1849Carbucky, QLD
1849Fowlers Bay, WA, public execution of Wirangu men, (public executions banned).
1849Mt Wedge Station, Elliston, SA, public execution of Nawu men (public executions banned).
1849Paddy Island (also known as Paddy's Island. Formerly known as Coodes Island), upper Burnett River, QLD
See also entry below on Gin Gin Station, 4 June 1849)
1849Port Lincoln, SA
1849Severn River, QLD
1849Victoria Park Aboriginal camp, north Brisbane, QLD, 24 soldiers of the 11th Regiment burn camp and shoot Aboriginal residents.
18494 JuneGin Gin Station (now part of the town of Gin Gin), Burnett area, QLD,
Following the establishment, by Gregory Blaxland and William Forster, of Gin Gin station in 1848, tensions grew between the newcomers and the Taribelang-Bunda people on whose Country the pastoralists intruded. Aboriginal people kill shepherds, the Pegg brothers, on 4 June 1849. More about this frontier violence is covered, for example by Arthur Laurie, ‘Early Gin Gin and the Blaxland Tragedy’,
presentation to the Historical Society of Queensland, 27 November 1952, copy available on the website of the
library of the University of Queensland, and in Renee Coffey's University of Queensland's Honours Thesis, ‘Frontier violence in Gin Gin: a history of murder, massacre and myth’, access at: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:319766

See also:

Rachael Knowles, "Suppressed stories of slaughter immortalised in public artwork, National Indigenous Times, 19 March 2020

Wikipedia entry on Paddy Island:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Island, last edited 18 January 2024
1849Aft 4 JuneThe Cedars, QLD(about 14 miles, or 22.5 kms) from Gin Gin. Gregory Blaxland, the Thompson brothers and friendly Aboriginal people kill 'scores of blacks' in a disproportionate reprisal for the Pegg brothers' deaths.
(See entry above). More about this massacre is recounted by Arthur Laurie in a paper, ‘Early Gin Gin and the Blaxland Tragedy’, presented to the Historical Society of Queensland on 27 November 1952.
(Note: some of the language used in this paper is highly offensive today). Another source for what happened at Gin Gin and vicinity in 1849, is Renee Coffey's Honours Thesis, ‘Frontier violence in Gin Gin: a history of murder, massacre and myth’, School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, The University of Queensland, 2006. Access to this thesis is at: https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:319766
184926 JuneWannon River, western VIC
1849OctoberSouth-east SA
1840s–1850sMurderers’ Flat, Darlots Creek, near site of Lake Condah Aboriginal Mission, VIC
1850Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD, colonist 'residents' living near Breakfast Creek petition the government for police protection from Aboriginal attacks.
1850Brodribb River, at the Mllly (Mille) or Cabbage Tree Creek, near Orbost, VIC
1850Gippsland, VIC
1850Murrindal near Orbost, VIC
1850Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD, colonist 'residents' living near Breakfast Creek petition the government for police protection from Aboriginal attacks.
1850Paddy Island, Burnett River, QLD, a punitive party of squatters and station hands from Gin Gin and surrounding properties kill hundreds of Aboriginal people on Paddy Island. Many escape by swimming the river and disappearing into the Woongarra Scrub.
1850Woolooga and Widgee, north-west of Gympie, QLD, At Woolooga, north of Widgee, Frank Murray was killed and 'a lot of sheep taken'. Murray was one of two (a shepherd) or more fatalities. There were also 'several' injuries and stock losses in a 'war' between colonists and Aboriginal people.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 11)
1850MarchYuleba Creek, QLD
Between January 1850 and August 1851, Commissioner Roderick Mitchell, with the help of Native Police, tried to put down resistance from the Mandandanji people against Europeans who were encroaching on, and taking, Mandandanji lands. Violence continued. Many Aboriginal people were killed in a massacre near Yuleba Creek in March 1850.
1850AugustGin Gin Station, QLD, Aborigines ambush and kill Gregory Blaxland near the station homestead.
1850sBlackfellow’s Creek, Barmera, SA
1850sCobdolgla Station, 40 kms south-west of Renmark, SA
1850sDreamtime Beach, Pooningbah (Fingal Head), NSW
The Aboriginal name for Fingal Head that separates the Tweed River from the Pacific Ocean, is 'P[B]ooingbah' or 'Mynjung Booning' meaning ‘place of the echidna’ reflecting the shape of the basalt outcrop at the top of the headland. There is a report of a massacre site on Dreamtime Beach, Fingal, dating from the 1850s: https://2011onthebench.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/every-story-tells-a-picture/
1850sKandanga/Amamoor Creek, QLD
An early Kandanga colonist recalled Aboriginal people stealing sheep from Manumbar and bringing them to Kandanga Creek. According to historian Ian Pedley, 'marauders' killed a shepherd and stole an entire flock of sheep, driving them nearly 30 miles (48 kms) east, firing the bush behind them to keep pursuers away. They were chased for several days.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020 p. 11)
1850sKandanga/Amamoor Creek, Imbil, QLD
A posse of colonists, police and a Black tracker, massacre Aboriginal people attending a feast near Amamoor Creek. Possibly many fatalities, including of innocent Aboriginal people. These killings were reprisals for the death of a shepherd and for the theft of a flock of sheep
from Manumbar.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020 p. 19)
1850sKingston Ferry, 10 kms west of Barmera, SA
1850sNorth-east of Lake Bonney, SA
1850sMt Serle (Searle), 50 kms east of Leigh Creek, SA
1850sTeewah Beach, Noosa area, QLD, a massacre of Aboriginal people is believed to have taken place on Teewah Beach. See entry for c. 1854–1860 "Near Teewah".
1850sWidgee Station, Mary Valley, QLD
Mass shooting of Aboriginal people as part of an on-going 'war' between Widgee Head Station staff and First Nations people.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 18)
1850s–1860sBoomerang Point, south of Rotamah, Lake Reeve, 20 kms s-e of Bairnsdale, VIC, massacre of Aboriginal people
1850s–1860sKandanga Range Road near Amamoor, QLD
One or more killings of Aboriginal people in this area. Aboriginal man shot while taking bark from a tree.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 20)
1851Maranoa, QLD
1851Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD
Forty Aboriginal warriors raid Bullock's property, destroying crops. Joining with another party of 200, they raid Cash's property further north. A large party of eight mounted men and colonists attack Aboriginal camps in reprisal. Despite the camps being empty the 'posse' burn down and destroy whatever they can.
1852Fraser Island, QLD
See, for example, Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 19)
1852Isla Station, Dawson River, QLD, Aborigines kill McLaren near the station homestead.
1852Rawbelle Station, QLD, an Aboriginal man named Davey kills Adolphus Trevethan.
1852Yaroomba/Coolum, Sunshine Coast, QLD
Five castaways from the Thomas King shipwreck killed by Aboriginal warriors. Only two survivors make it back to Brisbane after a marathon walk. James Smith, a survivor of a previous frontier attack, recognises warrior-leader Maki-Light (Moggy Moggy) as one of the ringleaders in the attack. It was believed to be a reprisal for a hanging his party mistakenly believed to be occurring in Brisbane at the time.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, December 2020, pp. 11–12)
1852May–JulyYamboucal Station, near Surat, QLD
185222 August'Meldrum Massacre', Bald Hills Station, Armidale district, NSW
Murders, allegedly committed by Aboriginal people, of colonists John Meldrum, Mary Mason and her two children, aged 3 and 18 months. The murders may have been in retaliation for the poisoning of Aboriginal people, with arsenic-laced flour, by other colonists.
185222 AugustQueen Street, Brisbane, QLD, Davey, an Aboriginal man, hanged for the murder of Adolphus Trevethan.
1852SeptemberMt Aden, near Port Lincoln, SA
185230 SeptemberBordertown, SA
1853Bunya lands (Blackall Ranges and Bunya Mountains), QLD, invasion
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp.7–8)
18533 DecemberSandgate, Brisbane area, QLD, Aboriginal people attack Tom Dowse and family. The Dowses escape with their lives. Incident leads to the establishment of a Native Police camp at Sandgate headed by Lt. Wheeler.
1853–54Black Head, East Ballina, NSW, Native police kill between 30 and 40 Bundjalung people near the old East Ballina Gold Course. More information:
Monument Australia: https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/conflict/indigenous/display/21079-east-ballina-massacre-site

National Library of Australia, Trove: "An East Ballina Massacre”, (From the reminiscences of James Ainsworth), The Don Dorrigo Gazette and Guy Fawkes Advocate, Saturday 14 October 1922:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/171989519

Richmond River Massacres (refers to the 'East Ballina massacre'):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_River_massacres


1853–54Imbil (Yabba Creek)/Imbil Island, QLD
Several fatalities during a ‘collision’ between Native Mounted Police and ‘warring’ Aboriginal groups who joined forces against the police.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 8)
c. 1854Miriam Vale, QLD
1854Granville, QLD
1854Nundah, north Brisbane, QLD, 60 Aboriginal warriors surround a colonist's homestead, pulling up all crops.
1854Tiereyboo, QLD
185419 SeptemberMt Brown, east of Port Pirie, SA
185425 DecemberMt Larcom Station, Port Curtis district, QLD, Aboriginal people murder five of Young's employees while he is visiting Gladstone. Native Police pursue murderers, killing many.
c. 1854–1860Near Teewah Beach, Noosa area, QLD
Teewah Massacre: ‘a number of fatalities’, possibly perpetrated by the Native Police, led by Lt John Bligh.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 19–20)
1855Middlecap Station, Franklin Harbour, Cowell, SA
18555 JanuaryQueen Street, Brisbane, QLD, Dundalli hanged.
1856Wangerriburra/Mt Wetheren, NSW
1856Werribone, QLD
1856Towel Creek, Macleay River, NSW
185610 JanuarySouth Australia, four Banggarla men hanged for murder and sheep stealing.
1856DecemberHornet Bank, Dawson River, QLD
1856–57, Aboriginal groups continually harass, raid and rob colonists. Colonists retaliate with punitive attacks.
1856–57Hornet Bank, Dawson River, QLD
1857Mt Serle (Searle), SA
185727 OctoberUpper Dawson River, QLD, Hornet Bank Massacre (Fraser family), Hornet Bank Station, Dawson River Basin
Example of sources: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Hornet Bank Massacre’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Hornet-Bank-Massacre-1857-TFS001.jpg
1857–1858Dawson River district, QLD, retaliatory massacres of hundreds of Yeeman people
Example of sources: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Hornet Bank Massacre’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Hornet-Bank-Massacre-1857-TFS001.jpg
1858John Jacob’s run, Arkaroola Creek, 100 kms east-north-east of Leigh Creek, SA
1858Fairymead, QLD
1858Maryborough, QLD
1858Nundah, north of Brisbane, QLD
Nundah colonists decide on a ‘pre-emptive strike’ against a local Aboriginal camp after becoming frightened by a war-making corroboree and threats from Aboriginal warriors. The colonists fire shots into the camp. While Aboriginal deaths and injuries are unknown, the camp is abandoned for two months. As revenge, Aboriginal survivors disperse and kill many cattle on the Pine Rivers.
1858Tibradden Station, Victoria River district, inland from Geraldton, WA
18586 AprilEurombah Station, Dawson River area, QLD, Aboriginal people kill two shepherds.
1859Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD Five police destroy Aboriginal camps near Breakfast Creek, kill and injure at least two of the 100 Aboriginal camp residents.
1859Hospital Creek, near Brewarrina, NSW, massacre of about 300 Aboriginal men, women and children. For more information search Monument Australia, the National Library of Australia's Trove, the State Library of New South Wales's Gather website, and Wikipedia
1859Lake Bolac Station, western VIC
1859c. MarchUpper Irwin River, mid-west WA
1859SeptemberNear Brisbane QLD , shooting of an Aboriginal woman and injuries to two children.
1860Bendemere, QLD, Frederick Carr's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people.
1860Fassifern, QLD, Frederick Wheeler's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people.
1860Flinders Peak, near Ipswich, QLD, Frederick Wheeler's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. Inquest or inquiry into the deaths of Tommy and an unknown Aboriginal person concludes
they were killed by the Native Police.
1860Kenilworth Station, QLD
Possibly up to 10 fatalities and/or loss of stock. Kenilworth station was established on the edge of the Bunya Bunya Reserve, so may have been attacked. Historian Ian Pedley's account of a massacre of colonists at Kenilworth in 1860 could be drawing on a distorted memory of killings at Hornet Bank in 1857, as no soldiers, who had allegedly been sent out against ‘the Blacks’, were apparently used against Aboriginal people in Queensland after 1849.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 13)
1860Kenilworth/Kenilworth Bluff, QLD
Oral traditions of Kabi Kabi, and descendants of colonists, report a massacre of Aboriginal people at Kenilworth Bluff, an important Aboriginal bora ground, signalling, spiritual and burial site.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 20–21)
1860Maryborough, QLD, John Bligh's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. February 1860 Inquest or inquiry into the death of the Aboriginal man, Darky, concludes Native Police shot him.
1860Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay, SA. Execution of more Nawu men
1860Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay, SA
186025 JuneAttack Creek (Goaranalki), Stuart Highway, 74 kms north of Tennant Creek, NT, Warumungu attack on explorer John McDouall Stuart and party. Stuart turns back. No reported deaths or injuries to Warumungu people or explorers.
1860November/DecemberRockhampton area, QLD
Native Police Troopers, Toby and Gulliver are arrested and charged with the rape and murder of Fanny Briggs. Trooper Ballantyne is also charged in December 1860 but later released. Gulliver shot dead while escaping, after admitting his part in the Briggs murder. Trooper Alma, possibly implicated but never charged, shot while trying to escape from Rockhampton Gaol.
1860sSouth Ballina, NSW
Mass attempt at poisoning of people from the Nyangbal clan of the Bundjalung Nation. About 150 adults die after eating poisoned damper. Wikipedia entry on the Richmond River Massacres refers to the South Ballina massacre:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_River_massacres
Early 1860s"Waterview", north Bundaberg, QLD
1860sDoonan, (today a rural locality between Sunshine Coast and Shire of Noosa), QLD
William Cash and Andrews Jones beat off an attack by a group of Aboriginal people. Doonan is not far from Murdering Creek. This may have been one of the incidents that provoked the massacre of Aboriginal people at Murdering Creek in mid-1864.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 15)
1860sSouth of Gympie, past Seven Mile Hotel on 'Brisbane Road', QLD
Aboriginal man lures Frank Luke into bush, where he is almost speared and robbed. Luke could hear warriors making call signals to each other as they were preparing to attack him.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 15)
Late 1860sLolworth Massacre (N*****'s Bounce), north QLD
Gudjala people shot by the Hann brothers, William and Frank.
Example of sources: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Lolworth-Massacre-Niggers-Bounce-late-1860s-TFS002.jpg
1861Albinia Downs, QLD
1861Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD
Aboriginal people drive off colonists' drays and rob travellers. Constable Griffin and two mounted police raid Aboriginal camp and make arrests.
1861Bulloo, QLD, conflict between members of the Burke and Wills expedition and Aboriginal people.
1861Dawson River, QLD
An inquest or inquiry into the death of ex-Trooper Tahiti, concludes in July 1861 that he was shot by the Native Police.
1861Near Emerald, QLD
1861Fairfield Station, QLD,William Moorhead's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people. An inquest or inquiry concludes in December 1861 that at least one Aboriginal person, name unknown, was shot by the Native Police.
1861Flinders River, QLD, Native Police kill 12 Aboriginal people in a clash over the right to camp at a fresh water spring.
1861Maranoa, QLD
1861Medway Ranges (Central Highlands), QLD
1861Manumbar, QLD, Rudolph Morisset's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1861Planet Creek, Springsure district, QLD, Native Police involved in killing Aboriginal people.
Early 1861Rockhampton area, QLD
Native Police Lieutenant Rudolph Morriset shoots an alleged Aboriginal deserter, implicated in the Briggs murder, who had escaped to the bush.
186111 April‘Bunya Bunya’ (Jimna/Maleny/Mapleton), Blackall Ranges(?), QLD
Lieutenant Wheeler of the Native Police reported that his unit had ‘dispersed’ ‘bunya bunya natives and patrolled
bunya bunya lands’.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 21)
186110 June‘Bunya Bunya’ (Jimna/Maleny/Mapleton), Blackall Ranges(?), QLD
Lieutenant Wheeler of the Native Police reported that his unit had ‘dispersed’ ‘bunya bunya natives’ and patrolled bunya bunya lands’.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 21)
186117 OctoberCullinguringa (Cullin-La-Ringo) Massacre or Wills Tragedy, north of Springsure, QLD
Up to 50 Aboriginal people attack and murder 19 of 25 colonists who are setting up a very large 260 square-kilometre (64,000-acre) property on Aboriginal country north of Springsure at Cullinguringa. Nineteen of the 25 men, women and children are killed. The huge squatting party, that included bullock waggons and more than 10,000 sheep, had attracted the attention, not only of Aboriginal people, but of other squatters. At least 300 Aboriginal people are killed in vigilante reprisals and native police patrols that occur over later days and weeks.
For sources see, e.g., Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Cullin-la-ringo’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Cullin-la-ringo-1861-TFS009.jpg
186121–24 OctoberSpringsure area, QLD
Following the Cullinguringa (Cullin-La-Ringo) massacre, eleven colonists pursue Aboriginal people they believe to be the perpetrators. The Aboriginal camp is ‘stormed on foot with success’ very early on the morning of 23 October 1861. The number of Aboriginal people injured or killed in the ensuing fight is not recorded. Tom Wills, famous sportsman and son of Horatio Wills, is alleged to have taken part in a reprisal against First Nations' people involved at the Cullinguringa killings. (For more information see the News page on this website.)
On 24 October 1861, Native Police Lieutenant William Cave commands a detachment that begins a further pursuit in reprisal against Aboriginal people. Colonists from the Leichhardt District, occupation of which is growing rapidly, call for a bigger native police presence in the district.
See also, Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Cullin-la-ringo’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series: https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Cullin-la-ringo-1861-TFS009.jpg
1861October 1861Maranoa River, QLD, in the aftermath of the Cullinguringa (Cullin-La-Ringo) massacre, Native Police kill at least 10 Aboriginal people in a ‘dispersal’ at the Maranoa River. Two Native Police injured.
1861NovemberRoxburgh (Roxborough) Downs, QLD
c. 1862Cape Upstart, QLD
1862Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD, Constable Griffin and a trooper ‘disperse’ Aboriginal people in the area.
1862Caboolture, near Brisbane, QLD
1862Coongoola, QLD
1862Dawson River (lower), QLD, Ralph Johnson's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people. An inquest or inquiry concludes in December 1862 that the Native Police shot at least one Aboriginal person.
1862Fowlers Bay, 140 kms west of Ceduna, SA
1862Tibradden Station, WA
1862Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay, SA
1862Between 1 and 30 SeptemberPigeon Creek station, on tributary of the Warrego River, QLD
Twenty five bodies [of First Nations people] found after a ‘Native police action’ on the Warrego River.
(Jonathan Richards, The Secret War: A True History of Queensland's Native Police, p. 68;
Blagden Chambers, Black and White: The story of a massacre and its aftermath, 1988.)
1863Gayndah, QLD, Joseph Harris's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. An Aboriginal man called Jemmy is one of those killed. An inquiry or inquest concludes in April 1863 that the native Police shot Jemmy. Officer Harris is suspended and dismissed for neglect of duty in ‘allowing his troopers out of his control’.
1863Meteor Creek, Springsure district, QLD, William Sharpe's Native Police detachment kill at least one Aboriginal person.
1863
Mapleton/Obi Obi area, near Mooloolah, QLD
A traveller is speared to death in rainforest between Mooloolah and Upper Obi Obi Creek.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 13)
1863Meteor Creek, Springsure district, QLD
William Sharpe's Native Police detachment involved in killing of at least one Aboriginal person.
1863Tieryboo, Dalby, QLD, Frederick Carr's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. An inquest or inquiry concludes in January 1863 that the native Police shot an Aboriginal man named Tallboy.
1863Yatton, QLD, Marmaduke Richardson's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. An inquiry or inquest concludes in September 1863 that the Native Police shot an Aboriginal man called Wallace.
Richardson is dismissed.
1863DecemberCurrimundi/Moffat Beach area, (somewhere between bunya bunya lands (Maleny/Mapleton) and north of Caboolture, QLD
Massacre of Aboriginal people near the coast in this area. Lieutenant Wheeler of the Native Mounted Police reported that his unit patrolled the bunya lands ‘to no effect’. Thereafter the unit ‘dispersed large mob of Aborigines near to seacoast’. (‘Dispersal’ was the usual term the Native Mounted Police used for a massacre. A standing battle was referred to as a ‘skirmish’.)
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 21–22)
1864Eureka near Bundaberg, QLD, Brown's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people.
1864Mullewa, WA
1864Pabaju (Albany Island), QLD
1864Stuckey and Elders’ run, Umberatana Station, 120 kms west of Lyndhurst, SA
1864Tibradden Station, WA
1864c. MarchMooloolah Plains (rural locality in the Sunshine Coast region), QLD
Lieutenant Wheeler of the Native Mounted Police reported his troops were ‘”dispersing” natives at Mooloolah’. Inter-tribal tournaments were often held on the Mooloolah Plains. After bunya feasts, large numbers of Aboriginal people went to Mooloolaba, Buderim and Alexandra Headlands to fish and to collect oysters. Wheeler's patrol may have confronted and ‘dispersed’ Aboriginal people around this time.
18644 JuneSander’s run, QLD
186410 JuneExpedition Range, QLD
1864c. Mid-Murdering Creek near Lake Wyeba, Noosa Heads area, QLD
Massacre of Aboriginal people. Many fatalities. See also entry on Lake Wyeba c. 1867–1868 and Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 26–27. This report puts the date of the massacre as c. 1868–1869. See also entry on Murdering Creek for c. 1868–1869 below.
186416 DecemberNorth of Nassau River, QLD, Frederick and Alexander Jardine kill nine Kokoberrin warriors.
Example of sources: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Jardine's Trip Up Cape York Peninsula 1864’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North
Queensland History Series: https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Jardines-Trip-Up-Cape-York-Peninsula-1864-TFS011.jpg
186418 DecemberMitchell River, Cape York Peninsula, QLD 
Battle of the Mitchell, Aboriginal warriors, hurling spears, fight a pitched battle against armed Europeans. Many warriors are killed or injured. No colonists die or injured.
In the Battle of the Mitchell, Aboriginal warriors, hurling spears, fought a pitched battle against armed Europeans. Possibly up to 72 First Nations people shot in 11 separate incidents during the Jardines' trip up Cape York.
Example of sources: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Jardine's Trip Up Cape York Peninsula 1864’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Jardines-Trip-Up-Cape-York-Peninsula-1864-TFS011.jpg
1864?DecemberAlice River, Cape York Peninsula, QLD
More than 31 First Nations people killed (up to 59 killed or wounded) when the Jardine brothers encountered a gathering of about 70 to 80 men who were probably attending a ceremony.
Example of Sources: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Jardine's Trip Up Cape York Peninsula 1864’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Jardines-Trip-Up-Cape-York-Peninsula-1864-TFS011.jpg
c. 1865Eudlo Flats, junction of Eudlo Creek and Maroochy River, QLD
1865
Aboriginal people attack two constables. Aboriginal camps in the Breakfast Creek area burnt down again in revenge.
1865Calliope, QLD, Arthur Beevor's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. An inquiry or inquest concludes in October 1865 that an unknown Aboriginal person or persons was/were killed by the Native Police
1865Dawson River district, QLD, Otto Paschen's Police detachment involved in 'numerous collisions'.
1865Glenmore, QLD
1865La Grange Bay area, Kimberley region, WA
1865Mailman's Gorge, near Aramac, QLD
Arthur Beevor's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. An inquiry or inquest concludes in October 1865 that an unknown Aboriginal person or persons was/were killed by the Native Police.
1865Maroochy River at Horseshoe Bend (Bli Bli/Yandina), QLD
Up to 200 Aboriginal warriors hold timber cutter (later Constable) George Doyle and companions under siege at his timber-getting hut on the Maroochy River. The incident sparks brutal retaliation.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 13)
Strong>1865Maroochy River at Horseshoe Bend (probably Bli Bli/Yandina), QLD
Timber-getter and later Constable George Doyle creates a booby trap from his hut, using rifles, gunpowder, slug shot, nails and a wedge that would strike matches. This lethal contraption results in the deaths of an unspecified, but large number, of Aboriginal fatalities.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 23)
1865Moola Bulla, WA
1865Thouringowa (Thuringowa) Waterhole, QLD
1865MayNear Rannes, QLD , Native Police Officer, Cecil Hill, killed during an Aboriginal attack.
18658 JuneRio Station, Dawson River, QLD, Aboriginal people ambush and kill a European police sergeant and three Aboriginal troopers. Native Police mount a revenge expedition.
Mid-1860sDoonella Lake, east of Tewantin, QLD
Kabi Kabi leader Sergeant (King) Brown and 20 warriors confront Mr Hay demanding food. Brown strikes Mr Hay on the head as he bends down. Hay manages to retrieve his revolver, fires shots on the ground around the group who then flee.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 14)
Mid-1860sWest of Rockhampton, QLD
1860s–1870sCooloothin Creek, Sunshine Coast/Noosa area, QLD
According to Kabi tradition, a massacre of Aboriginal people occurred at Cooloothin Creek, possibly in the 1860s/1870s.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 25)
c. 1865–1870Maroochy River (Bli Bli?), QLD
Puram shot on the Maroochy River, most likely at Bli Bli, while diving for kombo (shipworm), renowned in the area.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 23)
c. 1865–1870Ninderry Station, QLD
Kabi Kabi rainmaker Karal (Banjor or 'Banjo') shot at and nearly died from poisoned flour. Karal recalled poisoning of other Aboriginal people at Ninderry Station.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 24)
Mid to late 1860sBundaburra(h) Creek, near Forbes, NSW, Aboriginal people poisoned with strychnine, then 'thrown in the river near Bundaburra(h) Creek'.
c. 1866Chesterton (Pigeon Creek), QLD
1866Banana, QLD
Native Police officer, Edward Seymour, kills an Aboriginal woman. An inquiry or inquest concludes in February 1866 that the Native Police killed the woman. Seymour was discharged in 1868 after his position was abolished.
(Jonathan Richards, The Secret War: A True History of Queensland's Native Police, p. 259)
1866Imbil run, near Gympie, QLD
Large numbers of Aboriginal people gather on the Imbil run, killing two heifers and threatening local squatters with more ‘destruction’. Sub-inspector Fruedenthal and troopers visit Imbil run but take no action as their horses were ‘all knocked up’.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 14)
1866Mooloolah River (Old Daisy's Place), waterhole, Glenview area, QLD
Three Kabi Kabi men, Captain Piper, Tommy Skyring and Johnny Griffins, kill and rob botanist William Stephens while assisting him on an expedition in the Glenview area. Constable Nalty and later Sub-Inspector Frudenthal (Freudenthal?), with troopers, search for the three men without success.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 14)
1866Pearl Creek, QLD
1866Perch Creek, QLD
1866DecemberLake Perigundi, Cooper’s Creek Tirari Desert, 110 kms north-east of Marree, SA
1867Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD
Fifteen Aboriginal people steal a boat and ransack a cutter. Sub-Inspector of Police Gough burns Aboriginal camps in the Breakfast Creek area.
1867Goulbolba Hill, Central QLD
1867Kin Kin Creek, and area between Lake Cootharaba and Kin Kin, QLD
While heavy logging is happening in the area, Abraham Boyd kills up to 20 Aboriginal men with a rifle and booby-trap during a siege of his hut. Abraham Luya is also besieged at his Kin Kin hut. Whether any Aboriginal people were killed is not known.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 24–25)
1867Morinish, QLD, Myrtil Aubin's Native Police detachment kills unknown number of Aboriginal people. An inquiry or inquest concludes in March 1867 that the native Police shot an Aboriginal man named Tommy. Aubin is dismissed.
1867Paroo River, south-west QLD, William Hill's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1867Stawell River, QLD
1867The Leap, north-west of Mackay, QLD
1867Turtle Head Island, north QLD
1867Widgee Creek and Glastonbury Creek, head of, west of Gympie, QLD
Aboriginal groups use the Widgee Scrubs as a stronghold and rainforest as a cover. Reports of ‘depredations’ on colonists' cattle. Loyau claims land had to be won from First Peoples ‘acre by acre’ of bloodshed.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 16)
c. 1867Broadsound district, QLD
c. 1867Kin Kin Creek, near confluence with Lake Cootharaba, towards northern end of lake, Noosa area, QLD
Abraham Luya and Major Alexander Boyd claim to have been verbally abused, physically threatened, and held under siege for between one and three days at their timber-getting huts on Kin Kin Creek. Alexander Boyd uses this incident for creating a booby trap that killed many warriors.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 14–15)

c. 1867–1868Lake Wyeba, near Noosa, QLD
Colonists from Maryborough bring cattle to feed around Lake Wyeba. The colonists shoot at Aboriginal people after they speared some of the animals. Possibly some wounding or fatalities of Aboriginal people. The site of this incident was the lake shore where today's Noosa aerodrome is located.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 25)
1868Albert Downs, Gregory River, QLD, Aboriginal people rob station of firearms, axes, food and other supplies. 'Dispersed by the law of the carbine'. No loss of lives or injuries reported.
1868Burdekin, QLD
1868Cassidy's Station, Leichhardt River, QLD, Aboriginal people attack station, 'dispersed by the law of the carbine'. No deaths or injuries reported.
1868Gregory River, QLD
1868Grosvenor Downs, QLD
1868Inverleigh, QLD
1868Kimberleys, WA
1868Mailman's Gorge near Aramac, QLD, more than 25 Aboriginal people slaughtered.
1868Norman River, QLD
Aboriginal people kill Cannon, Manson and a number of Chinese employees on Liddie and Hetzer's station.
1868South of Burketown, QLD, Uhr massacre
Uhr's Native Police detachment slaughter Aboriginal people.
1868February–MayFlying Foam Passage, King Bay, Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula), WA, Flying Foam Massacres of Aboriginal people.
More information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonnerup_massacre
https://maryblight.com/2022/03/18/the-1841-wonnerup-massacre/
1868OctoberLake Tyers, VIC
186817 DecemberNorth Creek Station, Nebo, QLD, Aboriginal people murder JT Collins.
c. 1868–1869Murdering Creek, southern side of Lake Wyeba, near Noosa, QLD
Murdering Creek Massacre
Many Aboriginal fatalities are believed to have occurred at Murdering Creek.
See also entry on Lake Wyeba c. 1867–1868.
(Ray Gibbons 2015, ‘Deconstructing colonial myths: the massacre at Murdering Creek’, Academia online:
https://www.academia.edu/12361316/Deconstructing_colonial_myths_the_massacre_at_Murdering_Creek
Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 26–27)
c. 1868–1869Yandina Run (covered area from Dunethin to Maroochy River between Noosa and Mooloolah), QLD
Overseer speared, hundreds of stock lost.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 16–17)
1869Bowen district, QLD
1869Kourareg, on Muralag (Prince of Wales Island), QLD, Aborigines capture captain and crew of a cutter. Kill some crew and a boy. Captain Montgomerie's frigate Blanche, with police aboard, embarks on a punitive expedition against the 'Mt Ernest natives' believed responsible. Three 'chiefs' shot.
1869Nebo, QLD, Robert Johnstone's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1869Woodstock, QLD
1870Barcoo River, QLD, Edward Wheeler's Native Police detachment kills several Aboriginal people.
1870–1890Kalkadoon Wars, Mt Isa region, QLD (see also Battle Mountain below)
Early 1870sBattle Hole, Barcoo River, QLD
1870sGilbert River, QLD
1870sYandina Creek, near Coolum, QLD
Several First Nations people wounded, and some possible fatalities when colonists shoot at Aboriginal people on their way to a bora ring of spiritual significance. The shots are fired from men's quarters on Yandina cattle station, nearby which were several bora rings.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 27)
1870–1890Kalkadoon Wars, Mt Isa region, QLD (see also Battle Mountain below)
1871Cloncurry, QLD An inquest or inquiry into the death of an unknown Aboriginal person concludes that WD Uhr shot the person. Charges dismissed.
1871Gilberton, QLD, deadly clashes between Aboriginal people, miners and Native Police.
1871Somerset, QLD, Frank Jardine allegedly shoots four Native Police troopers, three apparently survive but try to escape by sea in a canoe a month later.
1871Tiaro, QLD
An inquest or inquiry concludes in June 1871 that Police Constable McMullen shot an Aboriginal man named Bungaree.
1872Aramac, Barcaldine region, QLD, Frederick Maier killed.
1872Near Cardwell, QLD, Aboriginal people kill some survivors of the Maria shipwreck, help others.
1872Near Cardwell, QLD, Native Police involved in reprisals against Aboriginal people believed to have killed Maria shipwreck survivors.
1872Cloncurry, QLD, Alexander Salmond's Native police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1872Clump Point, Mission Beach, QLD, Robert Johnstone's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1872Coast Track (the Savannah Way), Gulf Country, NT (Multiple killings)
1872Opposite Coonanglebah (Dunk) Island, QLD, Djiru massacre
1872Gladstone, QLD, Native police detachment kills Aboriginal people. Inquiries or inquests concluded in August (for and Aboriginal man called Billy) and in September 1872 for Harry and Tommy, that the Native Police under the command of Alexander Douglas
had shot them.
1872Herbert River, far north QLD, Charles Shairp's Native Police detachment kills an Aboriginal woman. An inquest or inquiry concludes in September 1872 that an Aboriginal woman called Cassey was shot by the native Police. Shairp or Sharpe is dismissed.
1872Hinchinbrook Island, QLD
1872Mt Leonard, QLD
1872Newcastle Waters area, NT
1872Sweers Island, QLD
1872Tambo, Barcoo River, central QLD, Thomas Williams's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people. An inquest or inquiry concludes in October 1872 that Billy and Chow Chow were shot by the Native Police. Williams is dismissed.
1872Near Yaamba, north of Rockhampton, QLD
1872Valley of Lagoons, QLD, Johnstone's Native Police detachment alleged to have killed Aboriginal people.
1872Wombinderry Waterhole, QLD
1872Wyandotte (Whyandot) Station, QLD
Dr Timothy Bottoms mentions Wyandotte Station in Chapter 8, ‘Dark Deeds in the Northern Rainforests––the Tully and Cairns Districts’, on p. 137 of his book, Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland’s Frontier Killing Times, Allen & Unwin, 2013. This reference relates to the activities of ‘Mr. Johnson’ (Acting Sub-Inspector Robert Johnstone) at Wyandotte (also spelt ‘Whyandot’) Station in 1872. Richard Bird Hall wrote a letter to the Editor of the Brisbane Courier from Alice River, Townsville on 27 July 1872 about the treatment of First Nations people, including at ‘Whyandot’, by Acting Sub Inspector Johnstone. Mr Hall’s letter was published in the Brisbane Courier on 10 August 1872, p. 5 (available on the National Library of Australia's Trove Newspaper database).
187224 AprilWelford Downs Station (formerly Walton Downs Station), Barcoo River area, QLD, Aborigines murder Richard Welford, squatter and Henry Hall, stockman, while they are sawing a tree.
1873Aramac, Barcaldine region, QLD, John Carroll's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1873Opposite Double Island, QLD
1873Herbert River, QLD, Johnstone's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1873Massacre Sandhill, QLD
1873Normanby, QLD, Aulaire Morisset's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1873Palm Cove, QLD, Johnstone's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1873Pearl Shellers’ Revenge, south-west of Somerset station, far north QLD
1873North of Pine Creek, NT
1873Skull Creek, near Nebo, QLD
1873St Lawrence, QLD
Native Police detachment under the command of Alexander Douglas, shoot Aboriginal men, Charley and Dickey. Inquiries or inquests conclude in July and August respectively that the Native Police shot the men.
1873AprilGreen Island, off Cairns, QLD
187310 JulyGreen Island, off Cairns, QLD
187322 NovemberGilberton goldfield, QLD, Aborigines kill two Chinese prospectors, two reported missing.
1873c. DecemberBattle Camp ‘collision’, far north QLD, European prospectors and Native Police engage in armed battle with Aboriginal tribespeople. Hundreds of Aboriginal people killed, about four Europeans speared to death.
c. 1873Elderslie station, Diamantina River, QLD
Carroll's Native Police from Aramac slaughter many Aboriginal males on the station.
1874Bloomfield River, far north QLD, while trying to find a shorter route from the coast to the Palmer goldfield, Edward Dumaresq's Native Police detachment is involved in a number of killings of Aboriginal people.
1874Breakfast Creek, Brisbane, QLD
Mounted police ‘disperse’ occupants of Aboriginal camps in the area.
1874Gilberton, QLD, Henry Finch's Native Police detachment involved in killings of Aboriginal people.
1874Herbert River, QLD
Native Police shoot Trooper Sam. An inquiry or inquest concludes in October 1874 that the Native Police shot Trooper Sam.
1874Skull Creek, 50 kms south of Barrow Creek, NT
1874Traveston Station and Cootharaba, QLD
Three Aboriginal warriors attack and rob a Chinese worker in the bush, then threaten Mr Campbell of Traveston Station, demanding money and challenging him to a fight. The warriors ‘completely sacked’ Cootharaba hut, later hiding out at Mt Cooroy.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 17)
1874JuneGreen Island, off Cairns, QLD
1874LatePalmer River area, QLD, Aboriginal people kill Straher family.
1874–75Blackfellow’s Creek, far north QLD
1875Aramac, QLD
Native Police Officer John Carroll is implicated in the shooting of Trooper Echo. An inquest or inquiry concludes in October 1875 that the Native Police killed Trooper Echo. Carroll is charged with murder of a trooper and the flogging of an Aboriginal woman but the case is dismissed. He is dismissed in 1876 for the murder of a trooper.
1875Miriam Vale, QLD, Native Police officer, Alexander Douglas involved in Aboriginal killings. An inquiry or inquest concludes in May 1875 that an Aboriginal person called Comey, was shot by the Native Police under Douglas's command.
1875Palmer River area, QLD, reprisals against Aboriginal people following Straher deaths
187530 JuneRoper Bar, near Roper River, NT, Charles Johnston killed by Aboriginal people.
1875July?Roper River (Mole Hill to mouth), NT, punitive expeditions after Johnston's murder
18757 AugustRoper Bar, near Roper River, NT, Abram Daer killed by Aboriginal people.
c. 1875Irpmankara massacre, NT
1876Banchory Station near Clermont, QLD
Native Police officer Frederick Wheeler charged with murder of an Aboriginal man named Jemmy. An inquiry or inquest concludes in January 1876 that the Native Police killed Jemmy. Wheeler charged with the Banchory murder and is dismissed. Despite charges, Wheeler is allowed to remain free. Wheeler disappears. Dies in Java 1882.
(Timothy Bottoms, Conspiracy of Silence, pp. 86, 87; Jonathan Richards, Chapter 8 ‘”Many were killed from falling over the
cliffs”: The naming of Mount Wheeler, Central Queensland’, in Ian D Clark, Luise Hercus and Laura Kostansk eds,
Indigenous and Minority Placenames: Australian and International Perspectives, ANU Press and Aboriginal History Inc., 2014, pp. 147–16.)
In 2007 Darumbul people are awarded native title on Mt Wheeler. After Darumbal lobbying, name of Mt Wheeler is changed to Gai'i in 2018. On 21 April 2022 Queensland Government grants Darumbal people freehold title
and control over a 13.5-hectare reserve where a massacre of 300 Aboriginal people took place at the foot of Gai'i.

1876Creen Creek, QLD, Native Police detachments led by Armit and Poingdestre kill Aboriginal people.
1876Kennedy River, QLD 
1876Yandina, QLD
One Aboriginal woman wounded and possibly many others in a ‘dispersal’ of Aboriginal people camped near the Yandina (Maroochie) Hotel. Police were called in to break up an inter-tribal fight that the Low family believed might have escalated into an attack on their homestead.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, p. 28)
1876 MarchMistake Creek, near Clermont, QLD
c. 1876Kangirr Creek, QLD
1877Corella Downs and vicinity, NT, Aboriginal people killed in punitive expedition after murders of Fred Jeffries and his Aboriginal assistant.
1877Townsville, QLD, an inquiry or inquest concludes in February 1877 that Constable MacNeill shot an Aboriginal man called Jackey.
1877Valley of Springs Station near Cox River, NT, Aboriginal people killed after Bird murder.
18772 DecemberCoast Track (the Savannah Way), near Nicholson River, NT, William Batten murder
1877Aft 2 DecemberCoast Track, near Nicholson River, NT, punitive expeditions after Batten killing
c. 1877Western QLD, Skull Hole Massacre
1878Douglas River, north-west of Pine Creek, NT
1878Coast Track (the Savannah Way), near Limmen Bight River, NT
1878Near Daly River, NT
1878Murray Island, QLD
1878FebruaryRange west of Cairns, QLD
1878FebruaryTuck-au-noo, far north QLD, Aboriginal people allegedly murder W Bird in retaliation for kidnapping three members of the local tribe.
187831 AugustSmithfield near Cairns, QLD
187813 DecemberNear Limmen Bight River, NT, murder of William Travers
1878Aft DecemberCoast Track near Limmen Bight River, NT, Aboriginal people killed in punitive expedition after Travers murder.
1878AugustWhitsunday Islands, QLD, Aboriginal attack on the schooner Louisa Maria and her crew. Native Police reprisals led  by George Nowlan.
Late 1878Cooktown district, far north QLD
1878?Warroo Station, St George, QLD
c. 1878–1879Skull Hole (Creek), or Bladensburg Massacre, western Queensland
Example of sources: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Skull Hole, Bladensburg Massacre, 1878–79’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Skull-Hole-Bladensburg-1878-9-TFS005.jpg
1879Cape Bedford, far North QLD
1879Near Cooktown, QLD, Stanhope O'Connor's Native Police detachment involved in killing Aboriginal people.
1879Glengyle, QLD
1879Mossman River, QLD, George Nowlan's Native Police detachment involved in killing Aboriginal people.
1879Ravine, QLD
1879Woonomo Billabong, Suleiman Creek, north-west QLD
1879Selwyn Range, QLD
1879SeptemberMulgrave River, near Cairns, QLD
1879Thursday Island, QLD
1879c. DecemberWoonamo (Wonomo) Billabong (Waterhole), Suleiman Creek, north-west QLD
Kalkadoon men kill four Russian cattlemen led by Bernard Molvo. A reprisal massacre involving the Native Police ensues.
For more details see: Dr Timothy Bottoms, ‘Woonamo (Molvo) Killings and subsequent massacre 1879’, ‘The Frontier Series’, Far North Queensland History Series:
https://cairnshistory.com.au/content/uploads/2021/07/The-Frontier-Series-Woonamo-Molvo-Killings-and-Massacre-1879-TFS006.jpg
1880Horse (Horso) Creek, Kimberley region, WA The introduction of cattle and other European animals onto Aboriginal Country caused much damage to traditional sites and waterholes, also upsetting the ecological balance. As in other colonies, as Europeans expanded their pastoral and mining interests in Western Australia, traditional food and water resources were disturbed, if not destroyed. In attempts to protect their country, Aboriginal people often had to hunt cattle from their lands, also resorting to killing them for food when traditional game was scarce or disappeared. At Horso (Horse) Creek about 1880 Europeans shoot a group of Gija people for driving off bullocks. To hide the evidence of the murders, the Gija people's bodies are burnt. Later the mother of a boy, who escapes the killings, finds him hiding in the carcass of a bullock.
1880Lake Cowal, The Bland, central-western NSW, local landholders massacre Aboriginal people. There was just one survivor, a baby, William Joseph Punch (1880–1917). He was rescued, only to give his life in World War I. Read William Punch’s story on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Punch. The Australian War Memorial devotes a page to him: https://www.awm.gov.au/learn/schools/resources/anzac-diversity/aboriginal-anzacs/william-punch. The National Archives of Australia also records aspects of Punch’s life and war service: https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/person/201425
1880Normanton district, QLD
An inquiry or inquest concludes in February 1880 that Constable Hedges shot Aboriginal Trooper Brandy.
1870s/80sMimosa Station, south-west of Temora, NSW, a hired hand shot and killed up to 1,000 Aboriginal people in this area. George Main in his book, Heartland: the regeneration of rural place, UNSW Press, p. 23 mentions Dame Mary Gilmore’s recollection as a child of hearing of a hired hand working on Mimosa Station who had tracked down and shot an Aboriginal man for taking a sheep. Gilmore also claimed that the hired hand had “slaughtered perhaps a thousand clanspeople”. Main’s source was Mary Gilmore’s poem, ‘The hunter of the black’ in The Passionate Heart and Other Poems, Angus & Robertson, 1969 [1948], pp. 66-8.
Early 1880sClohesy River, near Kuranda, QLD
Early 1880sMoonjaree, QLD
1880MarchCocanarup, Phillips River, WA
For more information: https://theaustralianlegend.wordpress.com/2016/10/03/the-cocanarup-massacre/
188020 MayCoast Track (now called the Savannah Way), Limmen Bight River, NT, murder of John Barry
c. 1880Butchers Creek area, QLD, according to Ngadjonji oral history, fighting erupts between colonists and Aboriginal people after Europeans interfere with Aboriginal women while their men are away from camp. Some colonists are speared, many Aboriginal people shot. More Aboriginal people shot in later incidents.
1880sNear Booroloola, NT
1880sCalvert Hills, NT
1880sKoonchera Point, Birdsville, central-western QLD, Mindiri Massacre
1880sKoonchera Sandhill (Dune), SA
1880sMt Drysdale, north of Cobar, NSW
More information about killings at Mt Drysdale is available on sites such as:
Mt Drysdale, New South Wales: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Drysdale,_New_South_Wales

Bonzle, Mt Drysdale, New South Wales: http://www.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=302038&d=notes&cmd=sp&c=1&x=145.8678&y=-31.1681&w=40000&mpsec=0

Erskine, J., E. Ohlsen, Brad Steadman, 1997,
Mt. Drysdale: A Report on the Aboriginal Cultural Significance, prepared for the Western Zone of the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney: Cultural Heritage Services Division.

“Special Places for Aboriginal communities–Aboriginal places which tell us stories”, Bush Matters, Summer, 2003, p. 8, https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/howyoucanhelp/BushMatters2Summer2003Pt2.pdf (Story about Aboriginal place declaration of Mt Drysdale under section 84 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974)

Jeremy Beckett, Tamsin Donaldson with Bradley Steadman and Steve Meredith, The Aboriginal World Around Mount Grenfell, 2003, p. 23. (Refers to accounts of killings at Mt Drysdale in 1884 and as late as 1934).

Oz-Ark Environmental & Heritage Management, Draft Bourke Shire Aboriginal Heritage Study, January 2019, p. 42 (Refers to anthropologist Jo Erskine’s research with the Ngiyampaa people in the 1990s and to a massacre at Mt Drysdale mentioned in George Main’s book, Gunderbooka: A ’stone country’ story, Resource Policy and Management, Kingston ACT, 2000, pp. 28–29).

Heritage NSW, Monday 14 February 2022, “Billagoe (Mount Drysdale) listed on State Heritage Register”: https://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/celebrate/latest-announcements/new-listing-on-shr/

National Indigenous Times, 17 March 2022: “Decades-long campaign sees Billagoe added to NSW heritage list”: https://www.nit.com.au/decades-long-campaign-sees-billagoe-added-to-nsw-heritage-list/

1880sPoeppels Corner, east Simpson Desert, QLD, Wardamba Massacre
1880sRed Rock (Blood Rock), NSW (See also 1840s entries for Red Rock above).
1880sTinnenburra, QLD
1880sWollogorang (at the Pocket), NT
1880sWiryirbi, Clifton Hills, SA
c. 1880sMcPherson Creek (at Kawurrungkuma), NT
c. 1880sWearyan River, near Manangoora, NT
c. 1880sSeven Emus Creek, near Manguwarruna, NT
c. 1880sCalvert Downs (at Waningirrinyi Waterhole), NT
c. 1880sCalvert Downs (at Mawurra Cave), NT
c. 1880sCalvert Downs (at Gabugabuna), NT
Late 1880sNear Cairns, QLD
1880s–90sFlorida Station, Arnhem Land, NT
1880s–90sHodgson Downs, NT
strong>c. 1880s–1900Landers Shoot/Palmwoods, Blackall Ranges?, QLD
Possible massacre of Aboriginal people between the 1880s and 1900, referred to as the ‘Dark Legacy’ tale.
(Ray Kerkhove, Mapping Frontier War on the Sunshine Coast/Noosa Region, 2020, pp. 28–29)
1880s–c. 1926‘The Killing Times’, Kimberleys, WA
The Ruby Plains Massacre that took place during 'The Killing Times' was one example of how pastoralists dealt with Aboriginal resistance to European incursions. To record Aboriginal oral history of such events that most likely were not included in official European archives, Rover Thomas painted a series of 'killing times' paintings. Among this series were paintings of the massacre at Ruby Plains Station where Aboriginal people were shot for killing a bullock and later decapitated.
1881Bibhoora near Mareeba, QLD
1881Lizard Island, north of Cooktown, QLD, Mary Watson and baby disappear from a fishing station after Chinese manservants speared. Aboriginal people blamed for killings. Native Police Inspector Harvey Fitzgerald leads punitive killing raids on the coast north of Cooktown.
1881Normanton, QLD, Aboriginal people kill sub-inspector Dyas.
1881Victoria Downs, QLD
An inquiry or inquest concludes in January 1881 that Constable Cameron shot an Aboriginal man named Jamie.
1881Woolgar, QLD, Native Police officer Henry Kaye killed during an Aboriginal attack. Native Police reprisals follow under command of William Nichols.
18812 JuneRosie Creek, Coast Track (Savannah Way), NT, Patrick McNamara killed by Aborigines.
1881SeptemberCocanarup, Phillips River, WA
1882Cloncurry, QLD, Frederick Urquhart's Native Police kill Kalkadoon people.
1882Elsey Station, near Elsey Creek, NT
1882Elsey Station, NT
1882Elsey Station, near Strangways River, NT
1882Jinparrak (Old Wave Hill Station), NT, Aboriginal man shot in the back for trying to take a bucket and some billies.
1882Leigh Creek, SA
1882McKinlay Ranges near Cloncurry, QLD, Native Police cadet, Marcus La Poer Beresford, killed in Aboriginal attack.
1882Ochre Trail on Beltana Station, Leigh Creek, SA
strong>1882Taroom, QLD, an inquiry or inquest concludes in October 1882 that Constable Wright killed an Aboriginal man named Toby.
1882Tudu (Warrior) Island, Torres Strait, QLD
188216 JuneElsey Station, NT, Aboriginal people murder Duncan Campbell
Late 1882Margaret River, eastern edge of the Fitzroy Valley, WA
1882NovemberBetween Granite Creek (later Mareeba) and Cairns, QLD
c. 1882Coast Track (the Savannah Way) at Calvert River, NT
1883Coast Track (the Savannah Way) at Skeleton Creek, NT, Aboriginal people killed in a punitive expedition after a horse is speared.
1883Cooloolah, Cloncurry district, QLD, Alfred Smart's Native Police detachment kills Kalkadoon people.
1883Massacre Hill, NT
188323 JulyRussell River near Cairns, QLD
188326 AugustNear Russell River, north QLD
1883SeptemberFrasers Creek, NT, Aboriginal murder of John Fraser and Aboriginal assistant
1883/84Warluck (Seale Gorge), NT, British pastoralists massacre Gurindji people.
1883–1910Victoria River Downs, NT, massacres of Aboriginal people
1884Battle Mountain (Mount Remarkable), near Mt Isa, QLD, Kalkadoon Wars
1884Burrundie, NT, 200 km south of Darwin, NT, Woolwonga tragedy
1884East of Angkwerl, NT, Blackfellows Bones Hill Massacre
1884Grenada, QLD
1884Irvinebank inland from Cairns, QLD, Nichols's and Garraway's Native Police detachment kill at least six Aboriginal people. Bodies burnt. Inquiries or inquests conclude in August and November 1884 that the Native Police shot Aboriginal people called Spooendyke, Toby, King Billy, Kitty and two unknown Aboriginal females. Nichols and troopers charged with murder; charges fail. Nichols dismissed.
1884McKinlay River, NT
1884Mistake Creek, Isaac region, QLD, Frederick Urquhart's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1884Mulgrave River, QLD
1884Selwyn Range, QLD
1884Skeleton Creek, NT
1884Skeleton Creek, QLD
1884Skull Pocket, QLD
1884White Hills, QLD
1884AugustAngkwerl (Anna's Reservoir), Aileron Station, NT
1884AugustRussell River, near Cairns, QLD
1884Aug–DecMulgrave River, near Cairns, QLD
1884SeptemberDaly River, NT
188421 DecemberMulgrave River, near Cairns, QLD
1884(5)?Blackall, QLD
Native Police under the command of Robert Kyle Little (?) shoot an unknown Aboriginal person. Inquiry or inquest concludes this in October 1884.
1884–1888Daly River area, NT, 'Coppermine massacre' and other reprisals
1885Alexandria Station, NT
1885Alexandria Station (at Peaker Creek), NT
1885Battle Creek, Victoria River Downs, NT
1885Blackall, QLD, Robert Little's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1885Elsey Station, NT
1885Elsey Station, near Chambers Creek, NT
1885McArthur River, near Kilgour Gorge, NT
1885Norman River, QLD, Lyndon Poingdestre's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1886Near Cairns, QLD
1886Cockatoo Bora, QLD
1886Dunganminnie Spring, NT
1886Limmen Bight River Cave, NT
1886McArthur River, NT 
1886McArthur River station, NT (various locations)
1886Malakoff Creek, McArthur River Station, NT
1886Rosewood Station, NT
188628 JulyBetween Vanderlin Island and McArthur River mouth, NT
1886AugustYulbarra, Vanderlin Island, NT
18866 SeptemberNear Cairns, QLD
1886SeptemberGregory Creek, NT
188618 OctoberBroadmere outstation, NT, Aboriginal people kill Edward Lenehan
188617 NovemberKimberleys, WA
c. 1886Yulbarra Creek, Vanderlin Island, NT
1887Amelia Spring, McArthur River station, NT
1887Corella Downs station, NT
1887Corella Downs station and surrounding area, NT
1887Hall’s Creek, WA
1887Kimberley, Normanton district, QLD, Daniel Lorigan's and Lyndon Poingdestre's Native Police detachments kill Aboriginal people. Inquiries or inquests conclude in October and November 1887 that the Native Police shot three unknown Aboriginal people.
1887Valley of Springs station, near Cox River, NT
1888Near Barron River, QLD, Native Police member John de Linden Affleck shoots Trooper Peter dead.
1888Diamantina River district, south-west QLD
1888Ingham, QLD, an inquiry or inquest concludes in January 1888 that Constable Cannon shot an Aboriginal man called Tommy.
1888Kirrima, QLD
1888Port Douglas, QLD
(see also Barron River above) an inquiry or inquest concludes in September 1888 that Native Police member Affleck shot Trooper Peter.
1888Queensland, an inquiry or inquest concludes in December 1888 that Ernest Henry T(?) Carr shot an Aboriginal male called Paddy.
1888AprilNear Calvert River, NT
188812 MayMcArthur River, NT
188831 DecemberCorella Downs, NT
1880sLateNear Cairns, QLD
1888–89Boar (Boar's) Pocket near Cairns, QLD
1889Auvergne Station, NT
1889Coen, QLD
1889Jampawurru (Red Lily Spring or Mud Creek), NT
1889Pine Tree Station, QLD
1889c. JanuaryBrunette Downs Station, NT
1889Lawn Hill, north-western QLD, Alfred Wavell killed while attempting to arrest Aboriginal man, Joe Flick.
1889Mein, north QLD, Frederick Urquhart's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1889Pine Tree Station, QLD
1889–90Haddon Corner, SA
1890Speewah, near Kuranda, far north QLD
1890Coanjula Creek, near Upper Nicholson River, NT
1890Bef 11 JanuaryCadalgo Station, near the Transcontinental Railway, 50 kms west of Haddon Corner, SA
1890West Baines River, NT
1890sEast Baines River, NT
1890s?Ganjarinjarri, upper Robinson River, NT
Mid-1890sSpeewah, near Kuranda, QLD
Mid-1890sSpring Creek Valley between Cairns and Port Douglas, QLD
Mid–1890s?Flaggy Creek, near Kuranda, QLD
Mid–1890s?Mona Mona, near Kuranda, QLD
1890JulyLower Barron River, QLD?
1890s?Ganjarinjarri, upper Robinson River, NT
1890–1896Western Australia, conflicts between pastoralists and Aboriginal people
1890–1920Warmun (Turkey Creek) district, WA
1880s–c. 1926‘The Killing Times’, Kimberleys, WA The Ruby Plains Massacre that took place during 'The Killing Times' was one example of how pastoralists dealt with Aboriginal resistance to European incursions. To record Aboriginal oral history of such events that most likely were not included in official European archives, Rover Thomas painted a series of 'killing times' paintings. Among this series were paintings of the massacre at Ruby Plains Station where Aboriginal people were shot for killing a bullock and later decapitated.
1891Adavale, QLD, an inquiry or inquest concludes in November 1891 that Tracker Tommy killed an Aboriginal person called Delta.
1891Spring Vale, QLD
189123 FebruaryTempe Downs Station, Finke River, NT
1891Maynear Albury, NSW, Dora Dora murder
1892Auvergne Station, NT
1892Coolgardie region, WA
1892Corella Downs (at Corella Creek), NT
1892Creswell Downs, NT
1892Cresswell Downs, NT (at Puzzle Creek south), NT
1892Mapoon, QLD, Native Police shoot Aboriginal people.
1892?Cresswell Downs, NT (at Kiana rockhole), NT
189231 JanuaryCresswell Downs, NT (at Bowgan Waterhole outstation)
1892AugustMyola, near Kuranda, QLD
1892October ffWilleroo Station, NT
1893SeptemberRosewood Station, NT
1894Cliffdale Creek, south of Wollogorang, NT
1894MarchMentana Station, Gulf of Carpentaria, QLD
Cumjam arrested for the murder of a 60-year-old worker, Mr Ferguson, on Mentana Station held by Donald McIntyre.
(See for example, the Norman Chronicle, The North Queensland Register and the Brisbane Courier between 1894–1895.
Whether Cumjam was guilty or not is so far unknown as is the outcome of his arrest. Interestingly, a few months before Ferguson's death, some survivors from the steamship, Kanahooka, that capsized off the Mitchell River, were able their way to Mentana Station through Kokobera country, despite fears that they might meet with ‘hostility of the blacks’.
1894 JuneBlack Gin Creek, NT
18947 JulyKalgara (Mount Margaret) district, WA, P. Mack 'tomahawked'.
189430 JulyFour miles south of Brickey's Soak, Kalgara (Mount Margaret) district, WA, 30 to 40 Aboriginal people, armed with spears and clubs, attack D'Arcy Uhr, Michael Galway and George Alexander at 3.00 pm in the afternoon. A nearby camp of six men assists Uhr's party to save their camp. An Aboriginal man kills one of the intruders on their Country, wounds another.
1894–1904Bradshaw Station, NT
1896Lakefield, QLD
1896Ranges, located in the NT, west of Lawn Hill, QLD
1896–97Cresswell Downs, NT
1896-97Irringa on Cresswell Creek, NT
1896–97Minyarrga on Cresswell Creek, NT
1896–97Radjiji, upper Nicholson River, NT
1896–97Woodawalla on Cresswell Creek, NT
189617 August Deebing Creek, QLDStudents at the local Aboriginal mission school and their teacher allegedly shot.
1897Jandamarra, Bonuba leader killed, WA
1897Proserpine, QLD, an inquiry or inquest concludes in March 1897 that Constable Burke shot Aboriginal man, Charlie Morgan.
1897JanuaryJasper Gorge, Victoria River, NT
1897Wollogorang (at Baladuna Waterhole), NT
1898Smithfield near Cairns, QLD, John Higgins's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1898–1903Barron River, Wooroora, and Mt Garnet, QLD, Heenan's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1899Wave Hill station, NT
Late 1800sSkull Hole (now in Bladensburg National Park), QLD
c. 1900Calvert River mouth, NT
190020 JulyBreelong, near Gilgandra, NSW, Mawbey and Kerz murders
190023 JulyNear Ulan, NSW, Alexander McKay murder
190024 JulyPoggie, near Merriwa, NSW, O'Brien murders
190026 JulyNear Wollar, NSW, Fitzpatrick murder
190031 OctoberNorth of Singleton, NSW, Joe Governor shot dead.
1900sEmu Lagoon, north QLD
1900sMacumba Station, SA
1900sMourne (Morn) Pool, near Mildura, VIC
1900sNear Oodnadatta, SA
190114 JanuaryDubbo Gaol, NSW, Jacky Underwood hanged for his part in Mawbey and Kerz murders.
190118 JanuaryDarlingust Gaol, Sydney, NSW, Jimmy Governor hanged for murders in 1900.
1902Ducie River, Cape York Peninsula, QLD, John Hoole's Native Police detachment kills Aboriginal people.
1902Near Mapoon, Cape York Peninsula, QLD
1903Hodgson Downs (at Bailey Creek), NT
1904Flick Yard, QLD
1904Kirrima, QLD
1905Victoria River, NT, Bradshaw massacre
1905Near Wadeye (Port Keats), NT, massacre reprisal
c. 1906Murbai, QLD
1906–07Canning Stock Route, WA
1910MarchVictoria River Downs, NT
1910sEmu Lagoon, QLD
c. 1910/11Gaargarn (Gan Gan), inland from Blue Mud Bay, Yolgnu country, Arnhem Land, NT
1911–1918Bentinck Island, QLD
Roma Kelly tells the story of what happened on Bentinck Island in the 1900s to linguist Nicholas Evans in The McKenzie Massacre on Bentinck Island, published in 2015:
‘In 1911 a man named McKenzie obtained a government lease which, according to Queensland law, gave him titlehold
over all of Sweers Island and a large portion of Bentinck Island. In the 1980s Roma Kelly told linguist Nicholas Evans about
the brutal massacre led by McKenzie in 1918 at Rukuthi, for which he was never punished.’
Between 1913–1918Pewuly (Bow Hills Police Station), NT, massacre of Gurindji people
Before 1914‘Blackfellows' Bones’ near Mount Riddock, north of Alice Springs, NT, massacre of Aboriginal people. The incident, that took place before 1914, included the killing of Charles Perkins' mother's close relatives and her escape from the murderers. Source: Charles Perkins's autobiography, A Bastard Like Me, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1975, p. 19
1915Mistake Creek, near Warmun (Turkey Creek), east Kimberley region, WA
1915–16Elsey Station, NT
1916Mowla Bluff Station, Geegully Creek, near Derby, Kimberleys, WA
1918Auvergne Station, NT
1918Bentinck Island, QLD
Bef 1920Near Ngima (Neave River Junction), NT
1920sCanning Stock Route, WA
1922 OctoberSturt Creek, south-east Kimberleys, WA
1920sTexas Downs Station, Kimberleys, WA
1921Bedford Downs, WA
1924Bedford Downs massacre, WA
c. 1924Tartarr (Blackfellows Knob), NT, massacre
192623 MayNulla Nulla Station boundary, 35 kms west of Wyndham, WA
1926JuneForrest River, east Kimberleys, WA
Fourteen people, including two police constables, kill many Aboriginal men, women and children in punitive raids. For more information: Neville Green, The Forrest River Massacres, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1995
1928On or about 15 February Wangkatjunka (Christmas Creek pastoral station), 120 kms east of Fitzroy Crossing, WA
Wangkatjunka (Christmas Creek) Massacre, WA:
Truth (Perth), Western Australia, Sunday 19 January 1930, pp. 1, 9. See also many other reports of this incident on the National Library of Australia's Trove. Station Manager, Albert Smith, denied allegations of his involvement in this killing of Aboriginal people. A jury found him not guilty after only 10 to 15 minutes' deliberation: "Derby News, March 28, Legal", Northern Times (Carnarvon, WA), Thursday 3 April 1930, p. 4
See also Jack Bohemia and William McGregor, "A massacre on Christmas Creek Station", Journal of Australian Studies, Vol. 16, 1992, Issue, 33, pp. 26–40.
19287 August?Coniston Station, NT
192814 August–18 OctoberConiston Station and vicinity, NT
The ‘Coniston Massacre’ was not one incident, but a series of conflicts between colonists and Aboriginal people that took place over a wide area of Central Australia on and around Coniston Station and nearby stations in 1928. Among the known locations of killings that occurred are: Jarrarlyku (Curlew Waterhole), Kunajarrayi (Dingo Waterhole), Tomahawk Waterhole, Janangpa (Boomerang Waterhole), Warlawurrukurlangu, Warranyirrtipa, Patilirri (Tipinba), Kurlurlu, Circle Well, Thimplengkwe (Baxter's Well), Yungarnti, Warlukurlangu, Liirlpari (Whitestone), Kakutu (Cockatoo Creek), Ngarningiri, Yurrkuru (Brooks Soak), Mawu, and west of Yuendemu. (Individual entries where dates are known appear below). In his autobiography, A Bastard Like Me, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1975, pp. 19–20, Charles Perkins mentions the incident at Brooks Soak (Yurrkuru), about 370 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.

192822 AugustKakutu (Cockatoo Creek), north-east of Yuendemu, NT
192823–30 AugustWest of Yuendemu, NT
192827 AugustJanangpa (Boomerang Waterhole), Yarlalinji (Lander River), Broadmeadows Station, west of Barrow Creek, NT
192816 SeptemberNapperby Station, NT
192824 SeptemberTomahawk Waterhole, Lander River;
Dingo Hole, Hanson River, Broadmeadows Station, NT
192825 SeptemberCircle Well, north-east of Tomahawk Waterhole, NT
192826 Sept ffTipinpa (Patirrlirr Creek), 24 kms west of Broadmeadows Station, NT
1928Cockatoo Spring, NT
1928Dingo Hole, Hanson River, NT
1928Hanson River, NT
1928Six Mile Soak, NT
1928Wajinpulungk, NT
1929NovemberVicinity of Herbert Station, near Camooweal, QLD
1931JulyNear Wadeye (Port Keats), NT
1932SeptemberCaledon Bay, Arnhem Land, NT
1933JuneWoodah Island, NT
1933NovemberBlue Mud Bay area, NT
1934Tieyon (Tyonne) Station, SA
1934Darwin, NT, Dhakiyarr Wirrpanda possibly murdered after release from gaol.
1934?Mt Drysdale (Billagoe), north of Cobar, NSW
(See 1880s entry for Mt Drysdale (Billagoe) above).
19377 AprilMcArthur River Gorge, NT
193719 MayAnningie Station, 50 kms north of Ti-Tree, NT
1940AugustDarwin Hospital, NT, Nemarluk dies
1940c. 14 December Mount Cavenagh Station, south of Kulgera, NT
1941JanuaryMount Cavenagh Station, south of Kulgera, NT, Lullilicki killed by station overseer, Herbert Kitto.
1981MarchAlice Springs, NT
Historian Dr Robyn Smyth from the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, during her research for the university's frontier massacres map project in 2022, found an unsolved crime–an attempt at a mass poisoning. Two Aboriginal people, a man and a woman, died and 14 others were admitted to hospital in Alice Springs after unwittingly sharing a poisoned bottle of sherry left deliberately in the grounds of the John Flynn memorial church.
Dates Unknown
1790s/1800s?Gadigal/Hunter River nations site, Randwick, Sydney, NSW: possible resistance site
Allandale, north QLD
Baryula (on Chastletown Station), south-western QLD
Badtjala Country, QLD
The story of this massacre is represented by Fiona Foley in her installation, Annihilation of the Blacks, 1986, National Gallery of Australia:
More information at: https://www.artmuseum.qut.edu.au/audio-pages/the-annihilation-of-the-blacks
Bauhinia Downs, NT
Blakney Creek, NSW, rises west by south of Dalton, flows north-east to Lachlan River. Aboriginal oral history of a massacre on this creek.
Blencoe Falls, north QLD
Blunder Creek, north QLD
Bone's Knob, north QLD
Bulloo Downs, south-west QLD
Cattle Creek, north-west QLD
Chastletown Station, south-west QLD
Cheviot Range, central QLD
Cooningheera Waterhole, NT
Cuppa Waterhole, NT
Currawillinghi, south central QLD
Dangeri Waterhole, NT
Donor's Hill Cave Massacre, NT
Evelyn Massacre, north QLD
Flaggy Creek, north QLD
Gilpeppee, western QLD
Granada, NT
Gray Rock, north QLD
Hodgson Downs (at Angus Spring), NT
Hodgson Downs (at Buffalo Hole), NT
Hodgson Downs (at Indi Indi Spring), NT
Hodgson Downs (at Mason Gorge), NT
Hodgson Downs (at Sandy Lagoon), NT
Horse Springs, NT (Gurinji Country)*
Isis Downs, north QLD
Janpa, NT (Gurindji Country)*
Jirin, north QLD
Jikirrijja (Campbell Springs), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Jurlakkala (Nero Yard), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Jutamiliny (Swan Yard), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Kalidawarra Waterhole, NT
Kiacatoo Station, central-western NSW, the Kiacatoo massacre is immortalised in Kevin Gilbert's poem “Kiacatoo”, published in Inside Black Australia: An Anthology of Aboriginal Poetry, Penguin Books, 1988, pp. 189–90
Kulpie Waterhole, western QLD
Kumanturru (Coomanderoo), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Kurturtu, NT (Gurindji Country)*
Lake Cowal, The Bland, central-western NSW. More than one massacre took place near Lake Cowal. Apart from the one that occurred in 1880, dates of the others are unknown.
Longton, north QLD
Malapa (Old Limbunya Homestead), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Massacre Inlet, Gulf Country, NT 
Massacre Waterfall, Gulf Country, NT
Monkira, NT
Morney Plains, western QLD
Mt Farquharson, north QLD
Ngangi, NT (Gurindji Country)*
Ngurriya (Midnight), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Nocaboorara, south-west QLD
Pandie Pandie, SA, south of the NT border
Piyirriri (Farquharson Gap), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Red Bend, near Forbes, NSW
Rifle Creek, north QLD
Seale Yard, NT (Gurindji Country)*
Skull Lagoon, north QLD
Spring Creek, Mowbray Valley, north QLD
Springfield, central QLD
Springfield, north QLD
Spring Hill Station, near Wedderburn, VIC
Tanbar, south-west QLD
The Dip, north QLD
Thunderpurty Waterhole, NT
Tinderrys, Southern Tablelands, NSW
Vine Creek, north QLD
Wambiana, north QLD
Waniyi (near Number 2 Bore), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Wattamondara, near Koorawatha, NSW, Aboriginal people killed then thrown down a well, according to oral history.
Wirrilu (Blackfella Creek), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Wulupu (Hooker Creek), NT (Gurindji Country)*
Yurruj (Burtawurta), NT (Gurindji Country)*

Compiled by Jane Morrison 2012–2023, Updated 5 October, 6, 7, 8 November 2022, 31 May 2023, 11 July 2023, 1, 5, 6 February 2024.