This is a list of massacres and mass murders that have occurred in Australia and its predecessor colonies (some historical numbers may be approximate). Many of the massacres not listed here may instead be found in the list of massacres of Indigenous Australians. There is no uniform, global standard for what constitutes a mass murder. For the purposes of this list, the Australian Institute of Criminology definition of mass murder as having a "threshold of four or more fatalities" is used. [1]
Incident | Year | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Batavia massacre | 1629 | Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia | 110+ | unknown | Massacre of survivors after the sinking of Dutch merchant ship Batavia following a mutiny. |
Shipwreck survivors of the Maria massacred | 1840 | Coorong, South Australia | 25 | 0 | Ship travelling from Port Adelaide to Hobart was shipwrecked on the SE coast of South Australia, with all surviving the wreck. The survivors were being guided to safety by the local Narrindjeri people, but were massacred by them. |
Cullin-la-ringo massacre | 17 October 1861 | Central Queensland | 19 | 0 | Massacre of newly arrived white settlers by Indigenous Australians. |
Response to the Cullin-la-ringo massacre | October 1861 | Central Queensland | 60-70~ | unknown | In response to the Cullin-la-ringo massacre, "sixty or seventy" Aboriginals were massacred by a vigilante party of eleven heavily armed white settlers accompanied by two Aboriginal trackers. [2] |
Cavanagh murders | 11 October 1896 | Peterborough, South Australia | 6 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Joseph Thyer, a sheep farmer, murdered his wife and five children before hanging himself. [3] |
Murder of the Glover family | 1 March 1898 | Triabunna, Tasmania | 6 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | A mother murdered her six children and then committed suicide. [4] |
Breelong murders | July 1900 | Breelong, New South Wales | 9 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Jimmy Governor and Jack Underwood murdered four members of the Mawbrey family and a school-teacher at Breelong near Gilgandra. Underwood was captured soon afterwards, but the Governor brothers took to the bush. During the period they were at large, ranging over a large area of north-central New South Wales, the brothers committed further murders and multiple robberies. |
Bradshaw massacre | 26 November 1905 (approx) | Victoria River, Northern Territory | 7 | 0 | Four white men and three Aboriginal boys massacred with tomahawks by Aboriginal prisoners being transported by boat to Palmerston to stand trial for the earlier murder of two white men. One Aboriginal boy survived and reported the incident. [5] [6] |
Ching family murders | 16 November 1911 | Alligator Creek, Mackay, Queensland | 6 | 0 | George David Silva murdered six members of the Ching family by shooting and bashing. Silva was hanged at Boggo Road Gaol in Brisbane on 10 June 1912. |
Battle of Broken Hill | 1 January 1915 | Broken Hill, New South Wales | 4 (plus 2 perps.) | 7 | Spree shooting by two Ghans gunmen |
Botanic garden massacre | 1924 | Melbourne | 4 (plus 1 perp.) [7] | 2 | Mass shooting; perpetrator committed suicide. |
Murder of the Archur family | 26 February 1929 | Devonport, Tasmania | 6 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Andrew Thomas Edgar Archur murdered his five children and his wife and then set fire to their house. He killed himself after the attack. [8] |
Murder of the Davies family | 21 August 1931 | Perth | 6 (plus 1. perp) | 0 | Roderick A. Davies, a 36-year-old carpenter, shot his wife and five children dead before taking his own life. [9] |
Boulder bombings | 1 February 1942 | Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia | 14 (plus 1. perp) | 15 | Bombing of a boarding house containing 30 people in Boulder, Western Australia by 45-year-old Pero Raecivich. [10] |
Glen Innes shooting | 2 July 1948 | Glen Innes, New South Wales | 6 | 0 | Frederick Charles Hall, a 48-year-old labourer shot his six children to death He was sentenced to death, [11] later commuted to life imprisonment. |
Murder of the Armanasco family | 12 October 1950 | Collie, Western Australia | 6 | 0 | 40-year-old Raymond Armanasco killed his wife and five of his children in Collie near Perth. Armanasco was later sentenced to death, [12] later commuted to life imprisonment. |
Narella Street massacre | 18 February 1957 | Brisbane, Queensland | 6 (plus 1 perp.) | 1 | Marian Ryszard Majka killed six and injured a baby in two houses on Narella Street in Brisbane before taking his own life. [13] [14] |
Warwick Farm gassing | 5–6 May 1964 | Warwick Farm, New South Wales | 7 | 0 | An entire family was found gassed to death in their Warwick Farm home. The victims were Herbert Darnley, his wife, Joyce, and their five children. A note was found on the front door of the scene, indicating a murder-suicide, although no perpetrator was reported as identified. [15] |
Crawford family murders | 1 July 1970 | Glenroy, Victoria | 4 | 0 | Elmer Crawford electrocuted and bludgeoned his pregnant wife and three children at their home, before putting the bodies into his car and pushing the car over a cliff at Loch Ard Gorge. [16] |
Hope Forest shooting | 6 September 1971 | Hope Forest, South Australia | 10 | 0 | Rampage killing by Clifford Bartholomew, who shot dead ten members of his family. [17] It is the deadliest familicide in Australian history. |
Whiskey Au Go Go fire | 8 March 1973 | Fortitude Valley, Queensland | 15 | unknown | Arson attack that killed fifteen and injured many more at a nightclub. |
Savoy Hotel fire | 5 December 1975 | Kings Cross, New South Wales | 15 | unknown | Reginald John Lyttle set fire to newspapers in a hotel. Fourteen died from carbon monoxide poisoning and one from burns as a result of the fire. [18] |
Connellan air disaster | 5 January 1977 | Alice Springs Airport, Northern Territory | 4 (plus 1 perp.) | 5 | Suicide attack on Alice Springs Airport. |
Weir family massacre | 18 January 1977 | Echuca, Victoria | 5 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Roger Bruce Weir, 32, shot and killed his five children at their home in Echuca with a .22 calibre single shot rifle before using the weapon to commit suicide. [19] |
Campsie murders | 24 September 1981 | Campsie, New South Wales | 5 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Rampage killing by Fouad Daoud, who shot dead five members of his family before killing himself. [20] |
Inland Motel murders | 18 August 1983 | Uluru, Northern Territory | 5 | 16 | Vehicular attack by Douglas Crabbe, who drove a truck into the bar of the Inland Motel after being refused service. [21] |
Wahroonga murders | 1 June 1984 | Wahroonga, New South Wales | 5 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Rampage killing by John Brandon, who shot dead five members of his family before killing himself. [22] |
Milperra massacre | 2 September 1984 | Milperra, New South Wales | 7 | 28 | Shootout between two rival motorcycle gangs. One bystander was among those killed in the incident. |
Pymble shooting | 23 January 1987 | Pymble, New South Wales | 4 | 0 | Richard Maddrell went to the family home of his former girlfriend, shot her and three others. [23] |
Top End shootings | June 1987 | Top End, Northern Territory | 5 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Spree killing by Joseph Schwab over a five-day period. Shot dead by police. |
Hoddle Street massacre | 9 August 1987 | Clifton Hill, Victoria | 7 | 19 | A spree shooting by Julian Knight. |
Huynh family murders | 10 October 1987 | Canley Vale, New South Wales | 5 | 0 | Rampage killing by John Tran, who shot dead five members of a family. [24] |
Queen Street massacre | 8 December 1987 | Melbourne | 8 (plus 1 perp.) | 5 | A spree shooting/murder–suicide by Frank Vitkovic. |
Oenpelli shootings | 25 September 1988 | Gunbalanya, Northern Territory | 5 | 0 | Rampage killing by Dennis Rostron, shooting five members of his family at Molgawo, a remote Arnhem Land outstation near Gunbalanya (formerly known as Oenpelli). [25] |
Surry Hills shootings | 30 August 1990 | Surry Hills, New South Wales | 5 | 7 | A spree shooting by Paul Anthony Evers who killed five people and injured seven with a 12 gauge pump-action shotgun at a public housing precinct in Surry Hills before surrendering to police. [26] |
Strathfield massacre | 17 August 1991 | Strathfield, New South Wales | 7 (plus 1 perp.) | 6 | A spree shooting/murder–suicide by Wade Frankum. |
Central Coast massacre | 27 October 1992 | Terrigal, New South Wales | 7 | 1 | A spree shooting by Malcolm George Baker. |
Greenough Family Massacre | 21 February 1993 | Greenough, Western Australia | 4 | 0 | William Mitchell murdered and sexually assaulted Karen MacKenzie, also murdering her three children with an axe at their remote rural property in Greenough, Western Australia. Mitchell was later convicted of the massacre and was sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years and has been denied parole in 2013 and 2016, [27] and in 2019 was banned from applying for parole for six years. [28] |
1993 Cangai siege | March 1993 | Cangai, New South Wales | 5 | 0 | Leonard Leabeater, Robert Steele and Raymond Bassett went on a nine-day rampage resulting in their taking hostages in a siege in a farmhouse at Hanging Rock Station in Cangai. |
Wollongong Knife Murders | 1994 | Wollongong, New South Wales | 4 | 0 | Ljube Velevski, used a knife to kill his wife and three children in their Berkeley home near Wollongong in 1994. [29] |
Hillcrest murders | 25 January 1996 | Hillcrest, Queensland | 6 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Mass shooting. Peter May shot dead six members of his family before killing himself. [30] |
Port Arthur massacre | 28 April 1996 | Port Arthur, Tasmania | 35 | 24 | A spree shooting by Martin Bryant. The deadliest mass shooting in Australia. Led to the National Firearms Agreement between Australia's states, territories and federal government, mandating licenses and registration for gun owners and users, and banning semi-automatic long guns in most cases. See Gun laws in Australia. |
Shoobridge family murders | 28 June 1997 | Richmond, Tasmania | 4 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Peter Shoobridge cut the throats of his four daughters whilst they slept then took his own life with a rifle after cutting off one of his hands with an axe. [31] |
Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire | 23 June 2000 | Childers, Queensland | 15 | unknown | Arson attack by Robert Paul Long, which killed fifteen international backpackers. |
Churchill Fire | 7 February 2009 | Churchill, Victoria | 10 | unknown | Arson attack by Brendan Sokaluk that killed ten people, during the Black Saturday bushfires period. |
Lin family murders | 18 July 2009 | North Epping, New South Wales | 5 | unknown | Blunt instrument attack that killed five members of the Lin family. |
Quakers Hill Nursing Home fire | 18 November 2011 | Quakers Hill, New South Wales | 11 | unknown | Arson attack by Roger Kingsley Dean, a nurse, which killed eleven people. |
Hunt family murders | 9 September 2014 | Lockhart, New South Wales | 4 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Murder–suicide, mass shooting, familicide. Geoff Hunt killed his wife and three children before turning the gun on himself. |
Cairns child killings | 19 December 2014 | Cairns, Queensland | 8 | 1 (self-inflicted by suspect) | Stabbing attack and Familicide. Eight children aged 18 months to 15 years killed. Thirty-seven-year-old woman also found injured. The woman, Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday, was later charged with the murder of the children, seven of whom were hers, plus her niece. [32] |
January 2017 Melbourne car attack | 20 January 2017 | Melbourne, Victoria | 6 | 27 | Vehicular attack. Dimitrious (James) Gargasoulas drove a Holden Commodore into Bourke St Mall, resulting in the deaths of six people and injuring 27 others. Should not be confused with the December 2017 Melbourne car attack which killed one person. |
Osmington shooting | 11 May 2018 | Osmington, Western Australia | 6 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Murder–suicide, mass shooting, familicide. A grandfather shot his four grandchildren at their home, his daughter, his wife, and then himself. [33] |
September 2018 Bedford massacre | 9 September 2018 | Bedford, Western Australia | 5 | 0 | Stabbing, familicide. Five people were fatally stabbed or bashed in a house in the suburb of Bedford near Perth. The victims were two adult women, one three year old girl, and two girls aged 18 months. [34] In April 2019, 25-year-old Anthony Harvey pleaded guilty to murdering his five family members. [35] Should not be confused with the 1879 Cape Bedford Massacre against aboriginal people. |
2019 Darwin shooting | 4 June 2019 | Darwin, Northern Territory | 4 | 1 | Spree shooting. Four people were killed and one person suffered a critical leg injury in a mass shooting allegedly carried out with a prohibited pump-action (Category C) shotgun. The shooter, 45-year-old Benjamin Glenn Hoffman, was charged with four counts of murder and later pleaded guilty to three counts. The shooter had been released from prison on parole in January 2019 and was wearing a GPS-tracked electronic monitoring bracelet at the time of the offence. [36] |
Camp Hill carjacking | 19 February 2020 | Camp Hill, Queensland | 4 (plus 1 perp.) | 0 | Domestic violence incident. Rowan Baxter set fire to his estranged wife's car, killing all four occupants, before committing suicide at the scene. |
2024 Westfield Bondi Junction stabbings | 13 April 2024 | Bondi Junction, New South Wales | 6 (plus 1 perp.) | 12 hospitalised | Mass stabbing. Joel Cauchi entered Bondi Junction Westfield shopping centre where he stabbed multiple people before being shot by police. Five victims, four women and one man, died at the scene, while a sixth victim, a woman, died in hospital. The injured victims include a young child, whose mother was the sixth victim. [37] |
Mass violent attacks which caused many injuries but few deaths.
Indigenous massacres and conflicts:
Terrorism:
Crime:
Martin John Bryant is an Australian mass murderer who shot and killed thirty-five people and injured twenty-three others in the Port Arthur massacre on 28 and 29 April 1996. He is currently serving thirty-five life sentences, and 135 years without the possibility of parole, at Risdon Prison in Hobart, Tasmania.
Roger Caleb Rogerson was an Australian detective sergeant in the New South Wales Police Force and a convicted murderer. During his career, Rogerson received at least thirteen awards for bravery, outstanding policemanship and devotion to duty, before being implicated in two killings, bribery, assault and drug dealing, and then being dismissed from the force in 1986.
This is a timeline of major crimes in Australia.
Terrorism in Australia deals with terrorist acts in Australia as well as steps taken by the Australian government to counter the threat of terrorism. In 2004 the Australian government has identified transnational terrorism as also a threat to Australia and to Australian citizens overseas. Australia has experienced acts of modern terrorism since the 1960s, while the federal parliament, since the 1970s, has enacted legislation seeking to target terrorism.
DLASTHR is an Assyrian criminal organization that is active in the south western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The group is said to have originated from another gang, called the Assyrian Kings. The crime gang was formed by Raymon Youmaran who is now serving a 17-year sentence for the murder of Dimitri DeBaz in 2002.
The Greenough family massacre was the axe murders of Karen MacKenzie (31) and her three children, Daniel (16), Amara (7), and Katrina (5), at their remote rural property in Greenough, Western Australia, on 21 February 1993. They were killed by farm hand William Patrick Mitchell, an acquaintance of MacKenzie. Details of the murders were withheld from the public as they were considered too horrific. The case led to calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty.
Ivan Robert Marko Milat, commonly referred to in media as the Backpacker Murderer, was an Australian serial killer who abducted, assaulted, robbed and murdered two men and five women in New South Wales between 1989 and 1992. His modus operandi was to approach backpackers along the Hume Highway under the guise of providing them transport to areas of southern New South Wales, then take his victims into the Belanglo State Forest where he would incapacitate and murder them. Milat is also suspected of having committed many other similar offences around Australia.
The Family Court of Australia attacks were a series of shootings and bombings in New South Wales, Australia from 1980 to 1985. They targeted judges and other people associated with the Family Court of Australia. Two people were shot dead, two killed by bombs, a court building was damaged by a bomb, and another bomb was found attached to a motor vehicle. In July 2015, Leonard John Warwick was arrested and charged with multiple offences, including four counts of murder, one of attempted murder, and 13 counts of burning or maiming with an explosive substance. In July 2020, Warwick was found guilty of the majority of the offences he was charged with, including three of the murders. He was found not guilty of the murder of Stephen Blanchard, his brother-in-law.
The murders of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and Khandalyce Pearce were initially treated as unrelated. The skeletal remains of Pearce-Stevenson were found in Belanglo State Forest, New South Wales, Australia in 2010. Her daughter Khandalyce Pearce's remains were found near Wynarka, South Australia in July 2015. The two cases were not linked until positive identification was confirmed by DNA testing in October 2015. The mother and daughter were last seen by family in 2008 in Alice Springs, Northern Territory and reported missing in 2009; however, the report was withdrawn. It was discovered Pearce-Stevenson's mobile phone was used for years following her death to send false "proof of life" messages to family and friends. The mother and child's identities were exploited by third parties to commit social security and other types of identity fraud.
Michelle Bright was a 17-year-old girl who was found raped and murdered in New South Wales, Australia.
The Osmington shooting was a familicide in Osmington, Western Australia, on 11 May 2018, in which Peter Miles, a 61-year-old retired high school farm manager, shot dead his wife, daughter, and four grandchildren, before calling police and then committing suicide. It was the worst shooting incident in Australia since the Port Arthur massacre of 1996.
Criminal activity in Victoria, Australia is combated by the Victoria Police and the Victorian court system, while statistics about crime are managed by the Crime Statistics Agency. Modern Australian states and cities, including Victoria, have some of the lowest crime rates recorded globally with Australia ranked the 13th safest nation and Melbourne ranked the 5th safest city globally. As of September 2018 the CBD of Melbourne had the highest rate of overall criminal incidents in the state (15,949.9), followed by Latrobe (12,896.1) and Yarra (11,119.2). Rural areas have comparatively high crime rates, with towns such as Mildura (9,222.0) and Greater Shepparton (9,111.8) having some of the highest crime rates in the state.
On 4 June 2019, a mass shooting occurred in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The Northern Territory Police confirmed that four people were killed in the incident and another one was injured. A 45-year-old man, Benjamin Glenn Hoffmann, was arrested and subsequently convicted for murder and manslaughter.
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club is classified as a motorcycle gang by law enforcement and intelligence agencies in numerous countries. While the club has denied being a criminal organization, Bandidos members have been convicted of partaking in criminal enterprises including theft, extortion, prostitution, drug trafficking and murder in various host nations.
Charlise Mutten, a nine-year-old Australian girl, allegedly disappeared from the Wildenstein Estate wedding venue at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains area of New South Wales, Australia on 13 January 2022 and was subsequently found murdered when her body was retrieved at a location approximately one hour's drive from where she is believed to have died.