Lyla Lindsey
The colonisation of Australia by Britain in 1788 was accompanied by mass killings, or massacres, of Aboriginal people by colonists, which continued for the next 140 years. The Aboriginal population is estimated to have been between 300,000 and 1 million before colonisation, and by 1901, it had fallen to just over 90,000 people, mainly due to disease, frontier violence, and the disruption of traditional society. While the number of Aboriginal people killed during colonisation is not known, estimates range from 10,000 to 24,000, with some sources claiming the numbers to be much higher.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of Aboriginal people killed | Between 11,000 and 14,000 |
| Number of colonists killed | 399 to 440 |
| Number of massacres | At least 270 |
| Number of sites where massacres took place | 415 |
| Number of Aboriginal people killed in Western Australia's largest massacre | 220+ |
| Number of Aboriginal people killed in the Selwyn Ranges massacres | 100+ |
| Number of Aboriginal people killed in the Northern Territory in 1928 | Several hundred |
| Number of Indigenous children of mixed heritage removed from their families | Thousands |
| Number of Aboriginal people in 1901 | 90,000+ |
| Number of First Nations people killed in Australia's frontier wars | More than 10,000 |
| Number of people killed in colonial frontier massacres | 10,657+ |
| Number of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people killed by colonists | 10,374 |
| Number of non-Indigenous colonists killed | 160 |
| Number of massacres of colonists by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people | 13 |
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What You'll Learn
Massacres by police and government forces
The mass killings of Aboriginal people in Australia were carried out by British soldiers, police, and settlers, sometimes acting together, and later by native police working under the command of white officers. These were state-sanctioned and organised attempts to eradicate Aboriginal people.
The first national project to record mass killings on the Australian frontier found that around half of all massacres of Aboriginal people were carried out by police and other government forces. Many others were perpetrated by settlers acting with the tacit approval of the state. The Colonial Frontier Massacres digital map project's final findings show that conflict was widespread and most massacres were planned to deliberately eradicate Aboriginal people and their resistance to colonisation.
The map now includes 415 sites, each representing a place where six or more Aboriginal people were killed. The most common excuse for a massacre was in reprisal for the killing of a colonist, and the number of people killed was heavily disproportionate. For example, in response to the death of one colonist, police-led revenge expeditions lasting weeks or months were carried out, resulting in Aboriginal deaths estimated to be 27 to 33 times higher than coloniser deaths.
In addition to the killings, the forcible removal of First Nations children by the state devastated the maintenance of First Nations culture. The intention of these removals was to "'civilise' First Nations children by prohibiting them from using their language or participating in their culture. This has been referred to as "slow genocide" or cultural genocide, resulting in the destruction of language, culture, religion, and social institutions.
The mass killings of Aboriginal people in Australia continued until at least the late 1920s, with the most recent genocidal massacre taking place in the Northern Territory in 1928, when several hundred Warlpiri, Anmatyere, and Kaytetye people were killed.
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Settler collusion in massacres
One of the earliest recorded instances of settler collusion in massacres dates back to September 1794, when British settlers in the Hawkesbury River area killed seven Bediagal people in retaliation for the theft of clothing and provisions. The surviving children from this raid were taken as farm labourers, with one boy being subjected to further atrocities, including being dragged through a fire, thrown into the river, and eventually shot dead.
In the 1800s, as colonial expansion intensified, so did the violence against Aboriginal people. The Gringai Aboriginal community, for instance, faced brutal reprisals in 1827 when 12 of their members were shot dead for killing a convict's dog. In the same year, Benjamin Singleton led a group of 17 colonists in shooting six Gamilaraay men near what is now Willow Tree on the Liverpool Plains.
The Coniston Massacre of 1928, led by Mounted Constable William George Murray, resulted in the deaths of an estimated 60 Aboriginal men, women, and children. This massacre was in retaliation for the murder of a single white man. The most recent genocidal massacre identified by researchers took place in the Northern Territory in 1928, when several hundred Warlpiri, Anmatyere, and Kaytetye people were killed in reprisal for killing a dingo trapper.
It is important to note that the true extent of settler collusion in massacres may never be fully known due to underreporting and cover-ups. Many incidents of violence were not officially recorded, and oral histories from Aboriginal communities provide additional accounts of mass shootings, rape, and body burning. The lasting trauma of these atrocities is still felt by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities today.
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Massacres after 1860
The period between 1860 and 1930 saw more massacres of Aboriginal people than the previous 72 years. Professor Lyndall Ryan, who has studied the evidence, attributes this to a variety of factors, including the acquisition of the Northern Territory by South Australia from NSW, the opening up of the Kimberley region in Western Australia, and Queensland becoming a separate colony. This led to a sense of being outnumbered among pastoralists and miners heading into Northern Australia, making them more likely to shoot first.
There was also a revolution in firearms, and a rise in the number of armed colonists, which contributed to larger massacres. The research identified an extensive native police force in Queensland, and a smaller but more expensive police force in the Kimberley region. In contrast, there were very few police in the Northern Territory, but some of them developed a fearsome reputation for killing Aboriginal people.
The data shows that the massacres after 1860 were carried out on an immense scale, with more massacres and more Aboriginal people being killed. Professor Ryan suggests that the perpetrators were learning much more about how Aboriginal people lived, which made the massacres more organised and ruthless. For instance, in western Queensland around 1900, colonists ambushed a tribe while they were conducting a ceremony, shooting as many people as possible. Another massacre in the Kimberley region in the 1890s saw Aboriginal men captured and secured with neck chains.
The final update of the Colonial Frontier Massacres digital map project identified 415 sites where six or more Aboriginal people were killed. The map includes hundreds of sources attached to the hundreds of dots marking a massacre site. The project's online map and database record the massacre site locations, details of the individual massacres, and the sources corroborating evidence of the massacres. The most common excuse for a massacre was in reprisal for the killing of a colonist, and the number of people killed was heavily disproportionate. For instance, between 11,000 and 14,000 Aboriginal people died, compared with only 399 to 440 colonists.
The research team identified 19 recorded genocidal massacres of Aboriginal people, most of which occurred after 1860. A genocidal massacre was defined as a series of massacres carried out over several weeks or months by the same group of perpetrators in reprisal for the Aboriginal killing of a colonist or colonists. The purpose was to kill every Aboriginal person in a region. For example, three massacres took place over several weeks in 1886 in reprisal for the alleged Aboriginal killing of pastoralist 'Big Johnny' Durack, resulting in more than 220 Aboriginal deaths. Several genocidal massacres also took place in far-west Queensland, including the five Selwyn Ranges massacres of February 1879, which resulted in the deaths of more than 100 Aboriginal men, women, and children.
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Genocide definitions
The term "genocide" was established as a legal term after the Holocaust, referring to certain acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, or the Genocide Convention, is an international treaty that criminalises genocide and obligates state parties to enforce its prohibition.
The definition of genocide, as outlined in Article II of the Genocide Convention, includes two main elements: a mental element and a physical element. The mental element refers to the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such". The physical element comprises five acts:
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
- Inflicting serious bodily or mental harm on the members of the group
- Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction
The inclusion of the mental element, or intent, is crucial and is what distinguishes genocide from other crimes. This intent is often associated with the existence of a state or organisational plan or policy. The victims of genocide are deliberately targeted due to their real or perceived membership in one of the protected groups under the Convention.
Genocide can be committed through a range of acts, including mass killings, cultural destruction, dispossession, dispersal, sterilisation, forced child removals, and assimilation policies. These acts do not need to result in the complete destruction of a group to be considered genocide; even the intent to disperse a group can constitute genocide.
In the context of Australia, there is evidence of colonial genocidal actions against Aboriginal peoples, including state-sanctioned massacres, forced removal of children, and assimilation policies. These actions have resulted in a significant decline in the First Nations population and the devastation of their culture and language.
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Cultural genocide
The colonisation of Australia by Britain in 1788 is widely considered to have led to acts of genocide against Indigenous Australians. The Aboriginal population at the time is estimated to have been 300,000 to over one million people, comprising about 600 tribes or nations and 250 languages with various dialects. In the 150 years that followed, the Aboriginal population fell sharply due to introduced diseases and violent conflict with the colonists. By the time the Australian colonies federated in 1901, the Aboriginal population had fallen to just over 90,000 people.
Many scholars have argued that the actions of the British and subsequent Australian governments and individuals involved acts of genocide, including cultural genocide. Cultural genocide refers to the destruction of a group's language, culture, religion, and social institutions, with the intended aim of annihilating the group. Linguist Arthur Capell wrote in 1964 that the Australian government's protection policies, which aimed to assimilate Aboriginal people, were undertaking what sociologist Christopher Powell refers to as "slow genocide" or cultural genocide. As a result of these policies, only 10% of First Nations people spoke a native language at home as of 2016.
The forcible removal of First Nations children from their families, commonly referred to as the "Stolen Generations", is another example of cultural genocide. These children were placed on state-controlled reserves run by religious missionaries and eventually adopted by white families or taken to work for them. The intention of these reserves was to "'civilise' the children, which meant prohibiting them from using their language or partaking in their culture. This has had a devastating impact on the maintenance of First Nations culture and has caused intergenerational trauma within the Stolen Generations' families and descendants.
Other policies designed to assimilate Indigenous Australians into majority Australian society have also been characterised as cultural genocide. In many schools, children were punished for speaking their native language. Additional restrictions were placed on movement, marriage, employment, and the practice of traditional ceremonies and legal systems.
While some scholars argue that these policies were not genocidal in intent but rather intended to ensure the survival of Indigenous peoples, others maintain that genocide against Indigenous Australians continues through contemporary cultural destructive policies.
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Frequently asked questions
It is estimated that between 11,000 and 14,000 Aboriginal people were killed in Australia's frontier wars.
The most intense period of massacres was from the late 1830s to the 1840s, with the Myall Creek massacre in 1838 being a pivotal point.
About half of all massacres of Aboriginal people were carried out by police and other government agents. Many others were perpetrated by settlers acting with the tacit approval of the state.
A colonial frontier massacre is defined as the deliberate killing of six or more relatively undefended people in one operation.
