List of massacres of Indigenous Australians

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.

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.

[6][7][8] As of October 2024[update], the number of documented massacres of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by colonists recorded as having taken place in the period between 1788 and 1930 was 417 (10,372 individuals), while there were 13 massacres of colonists by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people in the same period (160 individuals).

[6][8][10][11] The following list tallies some of the massacres (as defined above) 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.

(formerly Van Diemen's Land) Records in the early days in Port Phillip were sparse and unclear, and the level of resistance to the European settlers and other aspects of Aboriginal culture before this is a source of continuing investigation.