Colonial Frontier Massacres
in Eastern Australia 1788-1872

Timeline

The following are provisional estimates only and will be adjusted as research continues. Only sites for which there is good evidence are shown. The estimates for the amount of people massacred are conservative, indicating only the amount of people we can be reasonably sure died in an incident. In some cases the actual deaths may have been many more. To understand these figures, please read the Introduction.

The borders of the colonies and administrative areas changed over time. Australia includes hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations, represented on the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia. When the First Fleet arrived in 1788 the British regarded the entire east coast of Australia as New South Wales. This included nearby islands and New Zealand and dismissed Dutch claims to Van Diemen's Land. It did not include Western Australia. Van Diemen's Land became a separate administrative area in 1803, became a seperate colony in 1825 and changed its name to Tasmania in 1856. The Port Philip District had its own administration from its formation in 1836 and became the Colony of Victoria in 1850. New Zealand became a separate colony in 1841. The area currently known as Queensland was part of New South Wales until 1859 when it became a separate colony. In 1829 the British claimed the Swan River colony which was later renamed Western Australia. In 1836 South Australia separated from New South Wales to be come a colony. The Northern Territory was from time to time part of New South Wales and South Australia and first became the Northern Territory in 1911.