Colonial settlers frequently clashed with Indigenous people (on continental Australia) during and after the wave of mass immigration of Europeans into the continent, which began in the late 18th century and lasted until the early 20th. Throughout this period, settlers attacked and displaced Indigenous Australians, resulting in significant numbers of Indigenous deaths. These attacks are considered to be a direct and indirect (through displacement and hunger) cause of the decline of the Indigenous population, during an ongoing colonising process of mass immigration and land clearing for agricultural and mining purposes.
There are over 400 known massacres of Indigenous people on the continent. There are at least 26 recorded instances of mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians.
A project headed by historian Lyndall Ryan from the University of Newcastle and funded by the Australian Research Council has been researching and mapping the sites of these massacres. A massacre is defined as "the deliberate and unlawful killing of six or more undefended people in one operation", and an interactive map has been developed. , an estimated 304 massacres had been recorded as having taken place in the period between 1788 and 1930. As of 2022 the number of documented massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had risen to 412.
The following list tallies some of the massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by colonial authorities and settlers (or their descendants), most of which took place during the mass-immigration period.
1790s – 1920s
New South Wales
1790s
April 1794. At Toongabbie an armed party of settlers pursued a group of Aboriginal Australians who were taking corn from the settlers' farms. They killed four, bringing back the severed head of one as proof of their exploits. September 1794. British settlers in the Hawkesbury River area killed seven Bediagal people in reprisal for the theft of clothing and provisions. Some of the surviving children of this raid were taken by the settlers and detained as farm labourers. One boy, who was considered a spy, was later dragged through a fire, thrown into the river and shot dead. May 1795. Conflict in the Hawkesbury region continued and following the alleged killing of two settlers, Lieutenant Governor William Paterson ordered two officers and 66 soldiers to "destroy as many as they could meet with ... in the hope of striking terror, to erect gibbets in different places, whereon the bodies of all they might kill were to be hung". Seven or eight Bediagal people were killed. A crippled man, some children and five women (one being heavily pregnant) were taken to Sydney as prisoners. One of the women and her baby had serious gunshot wounds. The child died not long after, as did the newborn baby of the pregnant woman. September 1795. In the lower parts of the Hawkesbury, British settlers conducted an armed expedition against local Aboriginal Australians, killing five and taking a number prisoner, again including a badly wounded child. March 1797. After Aboriginal Australians killed two British settlers, a large punitive expedition was organised which surprised and dispersed a native camp of about 100 people, killing an unknown number. The armed group then returned to Parramatta to rest. Pemulwuy, a noted Aboriginal resistance leader of the early frontier, followed them into the town, demanding vengeance for the dispersal. A skirmish (known as the Battle of Parramatta) then occurred between Pemulwuy's group and a collection of British soldiers and settlers. One of the settlers was injured, but at least five Aboriginal Australians were shot dead with many more wounded, including Pemulwuy. March 1799. Henry Hacking was ordered by Governor John Hunter to investigate claims of British sailors being trapped by Aboriginal Australians at the mouth of the Hunter River to the north of the colony. Hacking encountered a group of Awabakal people on the south side of the river who informed him that the sailors had left earlier on foot, endeavouring to walk back to Sydney. Hacking did not believe them and became agitated, shooting dead four Awabakal men. The sailors later arrived in Sydney having walked the distance to return.
1800s
March 1806. A group of Yuin people, resident to what the British named Twofold Bay, attempted to forcibly remove a gang of eleven sealers encamped on their land. After spears had been thrown, the sealers opened fire on them with muskets, killing nine, with the remainder fleeing. The bodies were hung overnight from nearby trees, in an attempt to intimidate the other Yuin.