Samuel Calvert, Night attack of the natives on Lake Hope [South Australia], 1866, wood engraving, State Library of Victoria. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons 11 June 2018
Some of the main sources for information about conflicts that happened in South Australia, and their locations, are included in the following publications:
Fatal Collisions: the South Australian Frontier and the violence of memory, Robert Foster, Rick Hosking and Amanda Nettelbeck, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2001
In the Name of the Law: William Willshire and the Policing of the Australian Frontier, Amanda Nettelbeck and Robert Foster, Wakefield Press, 2007
Out of the Silence: the History and Memory of South Australia’s Frontier Wars, Robert Foster and Amanda Nettelbeck, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2012
More references are in the Bibliography and Journal Articles. Also check sub-headings like Books, Databases, Films, Memorials and Monuments, and Videos under Resources in the main menu. Many thanks to readers who have emailed information about frontier conflicts not already listed. Locations will be added to the list below as new information is found and time permits. If you know of incidents that occurred, that are not included and wish to contact the author of this website, please use the form on the Contact page.
To see a map of some of the conflicts that happened in South Australia, please follow this link. All coordinates are approximate. Information on maps is being added as time permits and does not fully reflect the following list of conflict locations.
WARNING: Viewing this list may be offensive and upsetting to some readers as it contains placenames and sites where killings took place during the frontier period.
Compiled by Jane Morrison 2012–2022, Updated 3 June 2022, 2,5 October 2022.
Date | Location |
|---|---|
1802–1836 | Kangaroo Island, SA |
30 April 1831 | Murray River mouth, SA |
1837 | Encounter Bay near Victor Harbour, SA |
March 1838 | On the way to Port Adelaide, SA |
8? March 1838 | Torrens River, SA |
1839 | Langhornes Ferry, Victor Harbour, SA |
1839 | Morgan, SA |
April 1839 | 11 miles (c. 17.7 kms) north-east of Adelaide, SA |
12 June 1839 | Adelaide, SA: arrest and hanging of two Kaurna men for murder |
November 1839 | Spring Cart Gully, two miles (c. 3.2 kms) north-east of Morgan, SA |
1839–42 | Port Lincoln, SA, Aboriginal resistance to colonists |
1840s–50s | Salt Creek near Mt Muirhead, SA |
23 August 1840 | Maria Creek near the Coorong (The Coorong Massacre), SA |
January 1841 | Gleeson Run, Hutt River, Clare, SA |
January 1841 | Morphet Run, Wakefield River, 20 kms north-east of Balaklava, SA |
February 1841 | The Coorong, SA, two Ngarrindgeri men hanged illegally for murders of Maria shipwreck survivors |
13 May 1841 | Lake Bonney at Langhorn’s Crossing, Rufus River, 22 kms west of Renmark, SA |
1842 | Balaklava, Wakefield River district, SA |
1842 | Port Lincoln area, SA (see individual locations below) |
1842 | Dutton’s farm, Port Lincoln, SA |
1842 | Hindmarsh Valley c. 10 kms from Port Lincoln, SA |
1842 | Streaky Bay, SA |
1842–?? | Mt Remarkable, Melrose and Woolmington near Port Augusta, SA |
3 February 1842 | Bungaree Station, Clare, SA |
10 February 1842 | Light River, Kapunda, SA |
24 April 1842 | Biddle’s station, Port Lincoln, SA |
24 April 1842 | Coffin Bay near Piallawarta, 50 kms north-west of Port Lincoln, SA |
early May 1842 | Pillaworta Station, end of Arno Bay, Eyre Peninsula, SA Unknown number of Aboriginal people killed by soldiers in retribution for the killings of colonists in the Port Lincoln district earlier in 1842. |
January 1843 | Broughton River near Port Pirie, SA |
7 April 1843 | Biddle’s station, Port Lincoln, SA: Nultia publicly executed |
7 April 1843 | Bungaree Station, Clare, SA |
June 1843 | Neighbourhood of Bungaree Station, Clare, SA |
1844–45 | Port Augusta War, SA |
July 1844 | Adelaide, SA |
13–14 July 1844 | Mt Bryan, 30 kms north-north-east of Burra, SA |
August 1844 | Mt Gambier, SA |
November 1844 | Lake Leake, SA |
1845 | Mt Remarkable, 45 kms north of Port Pirie, SA |
1845 | Quorn, Gawler Ranges, SA |
May 1845 | Near Rivoli Bay, 70 kms north-west of Mt Gambier, SA |
Before 1846 | Streaky Bay, SA |
1846 | Crystal Brook near Mt Remarkable, SA |
1846 | Strathalbyn on Mt Barker, 50 kms south-east of Adelaide, SA |
August 1846 | Sterling’s (Stirling’s?) station, south-east SA |
September 1846 | Rivoli Bay, 65 kms north-west of Mt Gambier, SA |
11 November 1846 | Near North Avenue, Guichen Bay, Robe, SA |
January 1847 | Robe, SA |
August 1847 | Mt Gambier, SA |
1847–51 | Aroona Station, Orroroo, SA |
1848 | Waterloo Bay (Elliston), SA |
31 March 1848 | Port Lincoln, SA |
1849 | Avenue Range Station, Mt Gambier area, SA |
1849 | Brown’s run, near Robe, SA |
1849 | Fowler’s Bay, SA (Public execution of Wirangu men. Public executions banned by then). |
1849 | Mt Wedge Station, Elliston, SA (Public execution of Nawu men. Public executions banned by then). |
1849 | Port Lincoln, SA |
3 May 1849 | Tornto Station, about 80 kms north-west of Port Lincoln, SA Captain JR Beevor is murdered. |
c. 6 or 7 May 1849 | Lake Hamilton run, adjoining Tornto Station, north-west of Port Lincoln, SA Young wife and mother, Anne Easton is murdered. Deaths of Beevor and Mrs Easton incite colonists to repay Aboriginal people for the deaths. |
Yeelanna Station, north-west of Port Lincoln, SA Five Aboriginal people die from eating poisoned flour. The killings may have been in reprisal for the deaths of Captain Beevor and Mrs Easton. Hutkeeper Patrick Dwyer arrested and charged with murder on the basis of an autopsy of the bodies. Dwyer is released, flees the district and Australia. |
|
Late May 1849 | Waterloo Bay (Elliston), SA –a series of clashes between colonists and Aboriginal people in the 1840s initially led to the deaths of three Europeans and the deaths of six Aboriginal people. In late May 1849 a clash between Europeans and Aboriginal people resulted in the deaths of possibly ‘scores’ of Aboriginal people. Aboriginal oral history suggests that up to 260 may have perished at the Waterloo Bay cliffs. |
October 1849 | South-east SA |
1850s | Blackfellows Creek, Barmera, SA |
1850s | Cobdolgla Station, 40 kms south-west of Renmark, SA |
1850s | Kingston Ferry, 10 kms west of Barmera, SA |
1850s | North-east of Lake Bonney, SA |
1850s | Mt Serle (Searle), 50 kms east of Leigh Creek, SA |
September 1852 | Mt Aden near Port Lincoln, SA |
30 September 1852 | Bordertown, SA |
19 September 1854 | Mt Brown, east of Port Pirie, SA |
1855 | Middlecap Station, Franklin Harbour, Cowell, SA |
10 January 1856 | South Australia. Four Banggarla men hanged for murder and sheep stealing. |
1857 | Mt Serle (Searle), SA |
1858 | John Jacob’s run, Arkaroola Creek, 100 kms east-north-east of Leigh Creek, SA |
1860 | Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay, SA (Execution of more Nawu men) |
1860 | Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay, SA |
1862 | Fowlers Bay, 140 kms west of Ceduna, SA |
1862 | Venus Bay, 60 kms south-east of Streaky Bay |
1864 | Stuckey and Elders’ run, Umberatana Station, 120 kms west of Lyndhurst, SA |
December 1866 | Lake Perigundie, Cooper’s Creek, Tirari Desert, 110 kms north-east of Marree, SA |
1880s | Koonchera Sandhill, SA |
1880s | Wiryirbi, Clifton Hills, SA |
1882 | Ochre Trail on Beltana Station, Leigh Creek, SA |
Before 11 January 1890 | Haddon Corner, 50 kms west on Cadalgo Station, far north of SA near the Transcontinental Railway |
1900s | Macumba Station, 50 kms north-east of Oodnadatta, SA |
1934 | Tieyon (Tyonne) Station, SA |
Date Unknown | Irin Irinji, SA, massacre by Europeans of local Aboriginal men on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, north-western South Australia. The massacre was in retaliation for the killing of a European dingo scalper who had defiled a water source. |