Timeline of major crimes in Australia
Encyclopedia
Timeline of major crimes in Australia
1966 The Keith Ryrie murdered Maureen Ferrari 18 of Homesglen , Victoria and also murdered Rhonda Irwin 5 of Melbourne
Timeline of major crimes in Australia
1966 The Keith Ryrie murdered Maureen Ferrari 18 of Homesglen , Victoria and also murdered Rhonda Irwin 5 of Melbourne
Timeline of major crimes in Australia
1966 The Keith Ryrie murdered Maureen Ferrari 18 of Homesglen , Victoria and also murdered Rhonda Irwin 5 of Melbourne M.A.K.O Registry
Poo
1800s
- 26 January 1808 - George JohnstonGeorge Johnston (New South Wales)Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston was briefly Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, Australia after leading the rebellion later known as the Rum Rebellion....
played a key role in the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history, the Rum RebellionRum RebellionThe Rum Rebellion of 1808 was the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's history. The Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, was deposed by the New South Wales Corps under the command of Major George Johnston, working closely with John Macarthur, on 26 January 1808, 20...
. Johnston later sailed for England and was found guilty of mutiny.
1850s
- 28 November - 3 December 1854 - Eureka StockadeEureka StockadeThe Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
Gold prospecters staged an uprising against government leading to armed conflict; 22 miners and 6 soldiers were killed
1860s
- 30 June 1861 - Lambing Flat riotsLambing Flat riotsThe Lambing Flat riots were a series of violent anti-Chinese demonstrations that took place in the Burrangong region, in New South Wales, Australia...
White miners riot against Chinese immigrants. - 17 October 1861 - Cullin La Ringo massacre in Central QueenslandCentral QueenslandCentral Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast and the area extends west to the Central Highlands at Emerald, north to the Mackay Regional...
. Nineteen white settlerSettlerA settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s killed, one of the largest massacre of whites by AboriginesIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
in Australian history. - 9 April 1865 - Daniel MorganDan Morgan (bushranger)John Fuller was an Australian bushranger.Fuller was born in Appin, New South Wales, Australia around 1830 to George Fuller and Mary Owen. He was their illigitimate son and from the ages of 2 to 17 he lived with an adoptive father, John Roberts...
, a prominent bushranger who had been raiding banks in VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
and New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
for more than a decade, is killed. - 1869 - Bushranger Andrew "Captain Moonlite" Scott robbed the London Chartered Bank in Mount Egerton, VictoriaMount Egerton, VictoriaMount Egerton is a town in Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the Shire of Moorabool Local Government Area, north west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Mount Egerton had a population of 215....
escaping with £1,000.
1870s
- 1877 - ₤5000 worth of gold sovereigns are stolen from the P&OPeninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation CompanyThe Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
steamer Avoca, en route from Sydney to Melbourne. - 1878 - Bushranger Ned KellyNed KellyEdward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
raids a bank in Euroa and, at a nearby sheep station, hosts a party for his 22 hostages shortly afterwards. - October 1878 - Stringybark Creek Massacre - Victorian bushrangerBushrangerBushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
s, the Kelly Gang, ambush and kill three police officers at Stringybark Creek.
1880s
- 26 June 1880 - Joe ByrneJoe ByrneJoe Byrne was an Australian bushranger born in Victoria to an Irish immigrant. A friend of Ned Kelly, he was a member of the Kelly Gang, who were declared outlaws after the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek...
shot dead Aaron SherrittAaron SherrittAustralian police informer Aaron Sherritt was an associate of the gang of outlaws led by Ned Kelly. He grew up in the same area as them and was especially close to gang member Joe Byrne. At one stage he became engaged to Byrne's sister....
for giving the police information about the Kelly Gang in exchange for money. - 27 June 1880 - Ned KellyNed KellyEdward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
's Last Stand - The Kelly Gang held the town of Glenrowan, VictoriaGlenrowan, VictoriaGlenrowan is a small town located in the Wangaratta Local Government Area of Victoria, Australia. It is 184 kilometres north-east of Melbourne and 14 kilometres from Wangaratta and located near the Warby Ranges and Mount Glenrowan...
hostage at the town's inn in an attempt to ambush police. The attempt failed and a siege ensued on the 28th, during which three members of the gang and at least one young boy were killed, and Ned Kelly was captured. - 11 November 1880 - Ned Kelly hanged at the Melbourne GaolMelbourne GaolThe Old Melbourne Gaol is a museum and former prison located in Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard, and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings...
. - 16 May 1881 - Police Trooper Harry Pearce was viciously attacked by a prisoner, Robert JohnsonRobert JohnsonRobert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given...
, with a knife while on escort to Kingston SEKingston SE, South AustraliaKingston SE is a town approximately 297 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and 44 km from the town of Robe. It is at the southeastern end of Encounter Bay and the Coorong. At the 2006 census, Kingston SE had a population of 1,443.-History:The town was named after...
. Pearce died of his injuries on 19 May, the second South Australian policeman to die while on duty. Johnson was executed at Mount Gambier GaolMount Gambier GaolThere are two correctional institutions with the name Mount Gambier.* Mount Gambier Gaol, the original gaol, which is now a museum.* Mount Gambier Prison, the privately run facility, built in the 1990s....
on 18 November the same year.
1890s
- 24 December 1891 - The Windsor murder - English gasfitter, confidence trickster and career criminal Frederick Bailey DeemingFrederick Bailey DeemingFrederick Bailey Deeming was an English-born Australian gasfitter and murderer.Deeming was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England, son of Thomas Deeming, brazier, and his wife Ann, née Bailey. He was a "difficult child" according to writers Maurice Gurvich and Christopher Wray...
murdered his new wife Emily (née Mather) at a newly rented house in Andrew Street, Windsor, MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, burying her body under the hearth. He had previously murdered his first wife Marie Deeming and their four children and buried them beneath the floor of a house at RainhillRainhillRainhill is a large village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby...
, England in July or August 1891. Their bodies were not discovered until after the Windsor murder. Deeming was arrested at Southern Cross, Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, and after a trial at Melbourne, he was executed in June 1892. His notoriety in Australia was such that he was widely believed to be Jack the RipperJack the Ripper"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
. - 15 January 1894 - The baby farming murderess Frances Lydia Alice KnorrFrances Lydia Alice KnorrFrances Lydia Alice Knorr was known as the baby farming Murderess. She was found guilty of strangling two infants and hanged on Monday 15 January 1894....
is hanged. - 26 December 1898 - Gatton murdersGatton murdersThe Gatton Murders is the name given to a still unsolved triple homicide that occurred from the town of Gatton, Queensland. Michael Murphy and his younger sisters Norah and Ellen had been beaten to death between 10pm and 4am on 26-27 December 1898 while returning home from a dance...
- Three members of the same family are sexually molested and murdered near the town of Gatton, QueenslandGatton, QueenslandGatton is a town and the administrative centre of the Lockyer Valley Local Government Area situated in the Lockyer Valley of South East Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Gatton had a population of 5,295....
(unsolved)
1900s
- 2 January 1902 - Bertha Schippan is found murdered at Towitta, South Australia, two weeks before of her 14th birthday. After an inquest, her 24 year old sister, Mary stands trial in Adelaide, but is acquitted.
- 6 October 1909 - Martha RendellMartha RendellMartha Rendell was the last of three women to be hanged in Western Australia. She was convicted of murdering her de facto husband's son, Arthur Morris, in 1908. She was also suspected of killing his two daughters, Annie and Olive by swabbing their throats with hydrochloric acid...
is hanged in Western Australia for the murder of three of her stepchildren.
1910s
- 16 July 1911 — Scott Street Tragedy - Timothy DalyTimothy DalyJames Timothy "Tim" Daly is an American stage, screen and voice actor, director and producer. He is best known for his television role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and for his voice role as Superman/Clark Kent in Superman: The Animated Series, as well as his recurring role of the...
is gunned down on a street in Newcastle, New South WalesNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
. A policeman on a passing streetcar is first to the scene. - 16 November 1911 - George David SilvaGeorge David SilvaGeorge David Silva who was of Cingalese descent, worked as a farmhand on a property owned by Charles Ching at Alligator Creek, about 20 miles from Mackay, Queensland....
shot and bashed six members of the Ching family near Mackay, QueenslandMackay, QueenslandMackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
. - 8 June 1913 - 11-year-old Ivy Mitchell was raped and murdered on her way home from school near SamfordSamford, QueenslandSamford is a valley community located in South East Queensland, Australia. It is roughly 21 km north west of Brisbane. The hilly area was first settled in the mid 1850s. The community is well catered for, with a number of sporting facilities, parks and museums.-Location:Samford is one of the...
, QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
by Ernest AustinErnest Austin (murderer)Ernest Austin was the last person executed by Queensland.Austin was convicted of raping and murdering 12-year-old Ivy Mitchell at Cedar Creek road near Samford...
; he was the last person in Queensland to be hanged. - 1 January 1915 — Two men flying a Turkish flag attacked a picnic train near Broken Hill, in what is known as The Battle of Broken HillThe Battle of Broken HillThe Battle of Broken Hill otherwise known as the Broken Hill Massacre, was a fatal incident which took place near Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia on 1 January 1915. Two Muslim men shot dead four people and wounded seven more, before being killed by police and military officers...
. Both attackers were shot dead by police; four other people were killed and seven wounded. - 14 February 1916 — Liverpool riotLiverpool riot of 1916The Liverpool Riot of 1916 also known as the Battle of Central Station was an event in Sydney, Australia where a large group of Australian soldiers rioted through the streets of Sydney and surrounding areas....
— An initial mutiny/strike by 5000 AIFAustralian Imperial ForceThe Australian Imperial Force was the name given to all-volunteer Australian Army forces dispatched to fight overseas during World War I and World War II.* First Australian Imperial Force * Second Australian Imperial Force...
soldiers from CasulaCasula, New South WalesCasula is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Casula is located 35 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool....
near LiverpoolLiverpool, New South WalesLiverpool is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool is located 32 km south-west of the Sydney central business district, and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Liverpool...
became a three day riot and pub crawlPub crawlA pub crawl is the act of one or more people drinking in multiple pubs or bars in a single night, normally walking or busing to each one between drinking.-Origin of the term:...
ending at CentralCentral railway station, SydneyCentral Railway Station, the largest railway station in Australia, is at the southern end of the Sydney CBD. It services almost all the lines on the CityRail network, and is the major terminus for interurban and interstate rail services...
and East Sydney, involving commandeered trains, destruction of property, and confrontations with police and military guards. NSW Premier William HolmanWilliam HolmanWilliam Arthur Holman was an Australian Labor Party Premier of New South Wales, Australia, who split with the party on the conscription issue in 1916 during World War I, and immediately became Premier of a conservative Nationalist Party Government.-Early life:Holman was born in St Pancras, London,...
called a state of emergencyState of emergencyA state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
and closed SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's pubs. About 1000 soldiers were court-martialled and gaoled or discharged from the army. One consequence was the introduction of six o'clock closingSix o'clock swillThe six o'clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed. During a significant part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public bars at 6 p.m. A culture developed of heavy drinking...
, already present in South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, following a June 1916 referendum. The NSW "six o'clock swill" saw the rise of sly-grog shopSly-grog shopA sly grog shop is an Australian term for an unlicensed hotel or liquor-store, often with the added suggestion of selling poor-quality liquor; a place where alcoholic beverages are sold by an unlicensed vendor....
s, and lasted until 1955 when the closing time was changed to 10pm following another referendum. - December 1917 - early 1918 - Wonnangatta murdersWonnangatta murdersThe Wonnangatta murders occurred in late 1917 and in 1918, in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. The victims were Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, and John Bamford, a cook and general hand...
- in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East GippslandEast GippslandEast Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114....
, VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
; the badly decomposed body of Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, was found near the station homestead on 23 February 1918. He had been shot from behind with a shotgun, and John Bamford, a cook and general hand was assumed to be the culprit. However, Bamford's body was found late in 1918 on the Howitt Plains after a state wide search when the winter snows had melted. He had also been shot from close range. No arrests were ever made, despite the State Government offering a £200 reward.
1920s
- 21 December 1921 - The Gun Alley MurderThe Gun Alley MurderThe Gun Alley Murder was the rape and murder of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke in Melbourne, in 1921. She was a schoolgirl and had last been seen alive close to a drinking establishment, the Australian Wine Saloon; under these circumstances her murder caused a sensation...
- 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke was found raped and murdered in Gun Alley, Melbourne. 28-year-old Colin RossColin Campbell RossColin Campbell Eadie Ross was an Australian wine-bar owner executed for the rape and murder of a child which became known as The Gun Alley Murder, despite there being evidence that he was innocent...
was hanged for the crime, but in 1992 re-assessment stated Ross was probably innocent. After DNA testing cleared Ross he was pardoned posthumously on 27 May 2008. - May 1926 - Forrest River massacreForrest River massacreThe Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a law enforcement party in the wake of the killing of a pastoralist, which took place in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1926. The massacre was investigated by a Royal Commission in...
- Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
- 11 people were murdered in a series of punitive raids after the murder of a pastoralist in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. - April 1927 - Newcastle Tragedy - Mary Buckley was slain by her husband at their NewcastleNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
townhouse while she slept in the same bed as their 16-year-old daughter. - August 1928 - Coniston massacreConiston massacreThe Coniston massacre, which took place from 14 August to 18 October 1928 near the Coniston cattle station, Northern Territory, Australia, was the last known massacre of Indigenous Australians. People of the Warlpiri, Anmatyerre and Kaytetye groups were killed...
- Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
police constable William MurrayWilliam Murray-Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield , British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield , British nobleman*William Murray, 8th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield -Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705–1793), British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of...
leads a series of raids on Aboriginal tribes in response to the murder of a local dingoDingoThe Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
trapper. The official death toll was 31, but some experts believe it to be much higher. - 23 February 1929 - Constable John Holeman was shot in Grenfell St, Adelaide by John Stanley McGrath while taking McGrath's motorcycle and sidecar to the City Watchhouse. Holeman died an hour and a half later; McGrath was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, and served 15 years.
- December 1929 - May 1930 - The Murchison MurdersThe Murchison MurdersThe Murchison Murders were a series of three murders, committed by an itinerant stockman named Snowy Rowles, near the Rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia during the early 1930s...
- Snowy Rowles murdered three men in Outback Western Australia.
1930s
- 1 September 1934 - Pyjama Girl murder - The body of a woman found beaten and half burnt in a culvert near Albury, New South WalesAlbury, New South WalesAlbury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
. - 1932-1934 - Caledon Bay crisisCaledon Bay crisisThe Caledon Bay crisis refers to a series of killings at Caledon Bay in the Northern Territory of Australia during 1932–34. These events are widely seen as a turning point in relations between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians....
- A series of rapes, murders and retaliatory violence involving Japanese, Aboriginals and white Australians in the Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
. - 1935 - The Shark Arm CaseThe Shark Arm caseThe Shark Arm case refers to a series of incidents that began in Sydney, Australia on 25 April 1935 when a human arm was regurgitated by a captive 3.5-metre tiger shark. The tiger shark had been caught 3 kilometres from the beach suburb of Coogee in mid-April and transferred to the Coogee Aquarium...
- The arm of murdered man James Smith is disgorged by a tiger sharkTiger sharkThe tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, is a species of requiem shark and the only member of the genus Galeocerdo. Commonly known as sea tigers, tiger sharks are relatively large macropredators, capable of attaining a length of over . It is found in many tropical and temperate waters, and is...
being held in a public exhibit in SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
(unsolved).
1940s
- 3 May-4 November 1942 - Eddie LeonskiEddie LeonskiEdward Joseph Leonski was an American spree killer who committed his crimes in Australia. Leonski is known as the "Brownout Strangler", given Melbourne's wartime status of keeping low lighting .-Early life:Born in New York, Leonski grew up in an abusive, alcoholic family, and one of his brothers...
, an American soldier, murdered three women in MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria, in the Brownout murders. - 1 December 1948 - The Taman Shud CaseTaman Shud CaseThe Taman Shud Case,While the words that end The Rubaiyat are "Tamam Shud", it has always been referred to as "Taman Shud" in the media, presumably due to a spelling error that persisted. In Persian "tamam" is a noun that means "the end". "shud" is an auxiliary verb indicating past tense, so "tamam...
. A middle-aged man is found dead, presumably poisonPoisonIn the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ed, at Somerton BeachSomerton Park, South AustraliaSomerton Park is a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia. The mainly residential seaside suburb is home to the Somerton Park Beach, and also to Sacred Heart College.Somerton Park Post Office opened on 1 July 1947 and closed in 1988.-References:...
near Glenelg, South AustraliaGlenelg, South AustraliaGlenelg is a popular beach-side suburb of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Located on the shore of Holdfast Bay in Gulf St Vincent, it has become a popular tourist destination due to its beach and many attractions, home to several hotels and dozens of restaurants.Established in 1836, it is...
. His identity and how he died remains a mystery.
1950s
- 19 September 1952 - Betty ShanksBetty Shanks MurderThe Betty Shanks murder is one of the oldest and most notorious unsolved murder cases. in Queensland, Australia.-Overview:On the night of 19 September 1952, 22 year old Betty Shanks got off a tram at Days Rd. Terminus in the Grange, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, and started her short walk home...
was murdered; she was found the following morning in the front yard of a house on the corner of Thomas and Carberry Streets The Grange. This is one of the classic unsolved Queensland cases
1960s
- 7 July 1960 - 8-year old Graeme ThorneGraeme Thorne kidnappingThe Graeme Thorne kidnapping is the name given to the 1960 kidnapping and murder of Graeme Thorne for money that his father, Bazil Thorne, had won in a lottery. A crime which caused massive shock at the time and gathered huge publicity, it was the first known kidnapping for ransom in Australian...
is kidnapped and murdered days after his parents win the Opera HouseSydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
Lottery. - 19 July 1960 - The First skyjacking/hijacking in the world occurred on Trans Australia Airlines Flight 408.
- 1964 - The Nedlands MonsterEric Edgar CookeEric Edgar Cooke nicknamed The Night Caller was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia, by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths....
- Eric Edgar Cooke murdered eight people and assaulted 20 more during a crime spree in PerthPerth, Western AustraliaPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. - 11 January 1965 - Wanda Beach MurdersWanda Beach MurdersThe Wanda Beach Murders refers to the case of the unsolved murders of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock at Sydney's Wanda Beach on 11 January 1965. Their partially buried bodies were discovered the next day....
- Two teenage girls were murdered on a southern Sydney beach (unsolved). - 26 January 1966 - Beaumont children disappearanceBeaumont children disappearanceJane Nartare Beaumont , Arnna Kathleen Beaumont , and Grant Ellis Beaumont were three siblings collectively known as The Beaumont Children who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia on Australia Day 1966.Their case resulted in one of the largest police investigations in...
- Three young children disappear from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia (unsolved). - 8 May 1969 - 15-year-old Alfred James Jessop strangled eight-year-old Vicki Barton after she refused to have sex with him at a vacant block in Lawson, NSW. He then used his bicycle trailer to carry her body to bushland where he buried her; he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1978 and was paroled in 2003.
1966 The Keith Ryrie murdered Maureen Ferrari 18 of Homesglen , Victoria and also murdered Rhonda Irwin 5 of Melbourne
Timeline of major crimes in Australia
1800s
- 26 January 1808 - George JohnstonGeorge Johnston (New South Wales)Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston was briefly Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, Australia after leading the rebellion later known as the Rum Rebellion....
played a key role in the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history, the Rum RebellionRum RebellionThe Rum Rebellion of 1808 was the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's history. The Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, was deposed by the New South Wales Corps under the command of Major George Johnston, working closely with John Macarthur, on 26 January 1808, 20...
. Johnston later sailed for England and was found guilty of mutiny.
1820s
- 14 September 1828 - Bank of Australia robberyBank of Australia robberyThe Bank of Australia robbery was the first bank robbery in Australia. On 14 September 1828 a gang of five robbers - William Blackstone, George Farrell, James Dingle, John Wilford alias Creighton and Valentine Rourke - tunnelled through a sewage drain into the vault of the Bank of Australia and...
Baxter, Carol Breaking the Bank: An Extraordinary Colonial Robbery, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2008 ISBN 978 1 74175 449 0
1850s
- 28 November - 3 December 1854 - Eureka StockadeEureka StockadeThe Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
Gold prospecters staged an uprising against government leading to armed conflict; 22 miners and 6 soldiers were killedCorfield, Justin, Wickham, Dorothy, Gervasoni, ClareClare GervasoniClare Gervasoni, author, publisher and curator was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1962.-Education:Gervasoni was educated at Genazzano FCJ College, Melbourne College of Advanced Education and Deakin University Clare Gervasoni, author, publisher and curator was born in Melbourne, Australia in...
, Ballarat Heritage ServicesBallarat Heritage ServicesBallarat Heritage Services, publisher, also known as BHS Publishing was formed in 1998 by Clare Gervasoni, Dr Dorothy Wickham and Wayne Phillipson....
, The Eureka Encyclopaedia, 2004 ISBN 1-876478-61-6
1860s
- 30 June 1861 - Lambing Flat riotsLambing Flat riotsThe Lambing Flat riots were a series of violent anti-Chinese demonstrations that took place in the Burrangong region, in New South Wales, Australia...
White miners riot against Chinese immigrants. - 17 October 1861 - Cullin La Ringo massacre in Central QueenslandCentral QueenslandCentral Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast and the area extends west to the Central Highlands at Emerald, north to the Mackay Regional...
. Nineteen white settlerSettlerA settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s killed, one of the largest massacre of whites by AboriginesIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
in Australian history.Note: Massacre - 9 April 1865 - Daniel MorganDan Morgan (bushranger)John Fuller was an Australian bushranger.Fuller was born in Appin, New South Wales, Australia around 1830 to George Fuller and Mary Owen. He was their illigitimate son and from the ages of 2 to 17 he lived with an adoptive father, John Roberts...
, a prominent bushranger who had been raiding banks in VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
and New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
for more than a decade, is killed. - 1869 - Bushranger Andrew "Captain Moonlite" Scott robbed the London Chartered Bank in Mount Egerton, VictoriaMount Egerton, VictoriaMount Egerton is a town in Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the Shire of Moorabool Local Government Area, north west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Mount Egerton had a population of 215....
escaping with £1,000.
1870s
- 1877 - ₤5000 worth of gold sovereigns are stolen from the P&OPeninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation CompanyThe Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
steamer Avoca, en route from Sydney to Melbourne. - 1878 - Bushranger Ned KellyNed KellyEdward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
raids a bank in Euroa and, at a nearby sheep station, hosts a party for his 22 hostages shortly afterwards. - October 1878 - Stringybark Creek Massacre - Victorian bushrangerBushrangerBushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
s, the Kelly Gang, ambush and kill three police officers at Stringybark Creek.
1880s
- 26 June 1880 - Joe ByrneJoe ByrneJoe Byrne was an Australian bushranger born in Victoria to an Irish immigrant. A friend of Ned Kelly, he was a member of the Kelly Gang, who were declared outlaws after the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek...
shot dead Aaron SherrittAaron SherrittAustralian police informer Aaron Sherritt was an associate of the gang of outlaws led by Ned Kelly. He grew up in the same area as them and was especially close to gang member Joe Byrne. At one stage he became engaged to Byrne's sister....
for giving the police information about the Kelly Gang in exchange for money. - 27 June 1880 - Ned KellyNed KellyEdward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
's Last Stand - The Kelly Gang held the town of Glenrowan, VictoriaGlenrowan, VictoriaGlenrowan is a small town located in the Wangaratta Local Government Area of Victoria, Australia. It is 184 kilometres north-east of Melbourne and 14 kilometres from Wangaratta and located near the Warby Ranges and Mount Glenrowan...
hostage at the town's inn in an attempt to ambush police. The attempt failed and a siege ensued on the 28th, during which three members of the gang and at least one young boy were killed, and Ned Kelly was captured. - 11 November 1880 - Ned Kelly hanged at the Melbourne GaolMelbourne GaolThe Old Melbourne Gaol is a museum and former prison located in Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard, and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings...
. - 16 May 1881 - Police Trooper Harry Pearce was viciously attacked by a prisoner, Robert JohnsonRobert JohnsonRobert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given...
, with a knife while on escort to Kingston SEKingston SE, South AustraliaKingston SE is a town approximately 297 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and 44 km from the town of Robe. It is at the southeastern end of Encounter Bay and the Coorong. At the 2006 census, Kingston SE had a population of 1,443.-History:The town was named after...
. Pearce died of his injuries on 19 May, the second South Australian policeman to die while on duty. Johnson was executed at Mount Gambier GaolMount Gambier GaolThere are two correctional institutions with the name Mount Gambier.* Mount Gambier Gaol, the original gaol, which is now a museum.* Mount Gambier Prison, the privately run facility, built in the 1990s....
on 18 November the same year.NLA Australian Newspapers - article display
1890s
- 24 December 1891 - The Windsor murder - English gasfitter, confidence trickster and career criminal Frederick Bailey DeemingFrederick Bailey DeemingFrederick Bailey Deeming was an English-born Australian gasfitter and murderer.Deeming was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England, son of Thomas Deeming, brazier, and his wife Ann, née Bailey. He was a "difficult child" according to writers Maurice Gurvich and Christopher Wray...
murdered his new wife Emily (née Mather) at a newly rented house in Andrew Street, Windsor, MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, burying her body under the hearth. He had previously murdered his first wife Marie Deeming and their four children and buried them beneath the floor of a house at RainhillRainhillRainhill is a large village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby...
, England in July or August 1891. Their bodies were not discovered until after the Windsor murder. Deeming was arrested at Southern Cross, Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, and after a trial at Melbourne, he was executed in June 1892. His notoriety in Australia was such that he was widely believed to be Jack the RipperJack the Ripper"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
.Maurice Gurvich and Christopher Wray (2007) The Scarlet Thread: Australia's Jack the Ripper, A True Crime Story. Fairfax Books, Sydney. ISBN 978 1 921190 42 1 - 15 January 1894 - The baby farming murderess Frances Lydia Alice KnorrFrances Lydia Alice KnorrFrances Lydia Alice Knorr was known as the baby farming Murderess. She was found guilty of strangling two infants and hanged on Monday 15 January 1894....
is hanged. - 26 December 1898 - Gatton murdersGatton murdersThe Gatton Murders is the name given to a still unsolved triple homicide that occurred from the town of Gatton, Queensland. Michael Murphy and his younger sisters Norah and Ellen had been beaten to death between 10pm and 4am on 26-27 December 1898 while returning home from a dance...
- Three members of the same family are sexually molested and murdered near the town of Gatton, QueenslandGatton, QueenslandGatton is a town and the administrative centre of the Lockyer Valley Local Government Area situated in the Lockyer Valley of South East Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Gatton had a population of 5,295....
(unsolved)Whiticker. pp12 - 25
1900s
- 2 January 1902 - Bertha Schippan is found murdered at Towitta, South Australia, two weeks before of her 14th birthday. After an inquest, her 24 year old sister, Mary stands trial in Adelaide, but is acquitted.
- 6 October 1909 - Martha RendellMartha RendellMartha Rendell was the last of three women to be hanged in Western Australia. She was convicted of murdering her de facto husband's son, Arthur Morris, in 1908. She was also suspected of killing his two daughters, Annie and Olive by swabbing their throats with hydrochloric acid...
is hanged in Western Australia for the murder of three of her stepchildren.
1910s
- 16 July 1911 — Scott Street Tragedy - Timothy DalyTimothy DalyJames Timothy "Tim" Daly is an American stage, screen and voice actor, director and producer. He is best known for his television role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and for his voice role as Superman/Clark Kent in Superman: The Animated Series, as well as his recurring role of the...
is gunned down on a street in Newcastle, New South WalesNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
. A policeman on a passing streetcar is first to the scene. - 16 November 1911 - George David SilvaGeorge David SilvaGeorge David Silva who was of Cingalese descent, worked as a farmhand on a property owned by Charles Ching at Alligator Creek, about 20 miles from Mackay, Queensland....
shot and bashed six members of the Ching family near Mackay, QueenslandMackay, QueenslandMackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
. - 8 June 1913 - 11-year-old Ivy Mitchell was raped and murdered on her way home from school near SamfordSamford, QueenslandSamford is a valley community located in South East Queensland, Australia. It is roughly 21 km north west of Brisbane. The hilly area was first settled in the mid 1850s. The community is well catered for, with a number of sporting facilities, parks and museums.-Location:Samford is one of the...
, QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
by Ernest AustinErnest Austin (murderer)Ernest Austin was the last person executed by Queensland.Austin was convicted of raping and murdering 12-year-old Ivy Mitchell at Cedar Creek road near Samford...
; he was the last person in Queensland to be hanged. - 1 January 1915 — Two men flying a Turkish flag attacked a picnic train near Broken Hill, in what is known as The Battle of Broken HillThe Battle of Broken HillThe Battle of Broken Hill otherwise known as the Broken Hill Massacre, was a fatal incident which took place near Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia on 1 January 1915. Two Muslim men shot dead four people and wounded seven more, before being killed by police and military officers...
. Both attackers were shot dead by police; four other people were killed and seven wounded. - 14 February 1916 — Liverpool riotLiverpool riot of 1916The Liverpool Riot of 1916 also known as the Battle of Central Station was an event in Sydney, Australia where a large group of Australian soldiers rioted through the streets of Sydney and surrounding areas....
— An initial mutiny/strike by 5000 AIFAustralian Imperial ForceThe Australian Imperial Force was the name given to all-volunteer Australian Army forces dispatched to fight overseas during World War I and World War II.* First Australian Imperial Force * Second Australian Imperial Force...
soldiers from CasulaCasula, New South WalesCasula is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Casula is located 35 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool....
near LiverpoolLiverpool, New South WalesLiverpool is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool is located 32 km south-west of the Sydney central business district, and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Liverpool...
became a three day riot and pub crawlPub crawlA pub crawl is the act of one or more people drinking in multiple pubs or bars in a single night, normally walking or busing to each one between drinking.-Origin of the term:...
ending at CentralCentral railway station, SydneyCentral Railway Station, the largest railway station in Australia, is at the southern end of the Sydney CBD. It services almost all the lines on the CityRail network, and is the major terminus for interurban and interstate rail services...
and East Sydney, involving commandeered trains, destruction of property, and confrontations with police and military guards. NSW Premier William HolmanWilliam HolmanWilliam Arthur Holman was an Australian Labor Party Premier of New South Wales, Australia, who split with the party on the conscription issue in 1916 during World War I, and immediately became Premier of a conservative Nationalist Party Government.-Early life:Holman was born in St Pancras, London,...
called a state of emergencyState of emergencyA state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
and closed SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's pubs. About 1000 soldiers were court-martialled and gaoled or discharged from the army. One consequence was the introduction of six o'clock closingSix o'clock swillThe six o'clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed. During a significant part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public bars at 6 p.m. A culture developed of heavy drinking...
, already present in South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, following a June 1916 referendum. The NSW "six o'clock swill" saw the rise of sly-grog shopSly-grog shopA sly grog shop is an Australian term for an unlicensed hotel or liquor-store, often with the added suggestion of selling poor-quality liquor; a place where alcoholic beverages are sold by an unlicensed vendor....
s, and lasted until 1955 when the closing time was changed to 10pm following another referendum."Razor Gang Feuds – Tilly Devine vs Kate Leigh", Dimensions In Time, ABC"The Six O'Clock Swill" - December 1917 - early 1918 - Wonnangatta murdersWonnangatta murdersThe Wonnangatta murders occurred in late 1917 and in 1918, in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. The victims were Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, and John Bamford, a cook and general hand...
- in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East GippslandEast GippslandEast Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114....
, VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
; the badly decomposed body of Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, was found near the station homestead on 23 February 1918. He had been shot from behind with a shotgun, and John Bamford, a cook and general hand was assumed to be the culprit. However, Bamford's body was found late in 1918 on the Howitt Plains after a state wide search when the winter snows had melted. He had also been shot from close range. No arrests were ever made, despite the State Government offering a £200 reward.See Page 6 of the Victorian Government Gazette, 5 June 1918
1920s
- 21 December 1921 - The Gun Alley MurderThe Gun Alley MurderThe Gun Alley Murder was the rape and murder of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke in Melbourne, in 1921. She was a schoolgirl and had last been seen alive close to a drinking establishment, the Australian Wine Saloon; under these circumstances her murder caused a sensation...
- 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke was found raped and murdered in Gun Alley, Melbourne. 28-year-old Colin RossColin Campbell RossColin Campbell Eadie Ross was an Australian wine-bar owner executed for the rape and murder of a child which became known as The Gun Alley Murder, despite there being evidence that he was innocent...
was hanged for the crime, but in 1992 re-assessment stated Ross was probably innocent. After DNA testing cleared Ross he was pardoned posthumously on 27 May 2008. - May 1926 - Forrest River massacreForrest River massacreThe Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a law enforcement party in the wake of the killing of a pastoralist, which took place in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1926. The massacre was investigated by a Royal Commission in...
- Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
- 11 people were murdered in a series of punitive raids after the murder of a pastoralist in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. - April 1927 - Newcastle Tragedy - Mary Buckley was slain by her husband at their NewcastleNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
townhouse while she slept in the same bed as their 16-year-old daughter. - August 1928 - Coniston massacreConiston massacreThe Coniston massacre, which took place from 14 August to 18 October 1928 near the Coniston cattle station, Northern Territory, Australia, was the last known massacre of Indigenous Australians. People of the Warlpiri, Anmatyerre and Kaytetye groups were killed...
- Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
police constable William MurrayWilliam Murray-Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield , British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield , British nobleman*William Murray, 8th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield -Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705–1793), British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of...
leads a series of raids on Aboriginal tribes in response to the murder of a local dingoDingoThe Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
trapper. The official death toll was 31, but some experts believe it to be much higher. - 23 February 1929 - Constable John Holeman was shot in Grenfell St, Adelaide by John Stanley McGrath while taking McGrath's motorcycle and sidecar to the City Watchhouse. Holeman died an hour and a half later; McGrath was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, and served 15 years.http://www.sapolicehistory.org/July08.html
- December 1929 - May 1930 - The Murchison MurdersThe Murchison MurdersThe Murchison Murders were a series of three murders, committed by an itinerant stockman named Snowy Rowles, near the Rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia during the early 1930s...
- Snowy Rowles murdered three men in Outback Western Australia.
1930s
- 1 September 1934 - Pyjama Girl murder - The body of a woman found beaten and half burnt in a culvert near Albury, New South WalesAlbury, New South WalesAlbury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
.Whiticker. pp 26 - 41 - 1932-1934 - Caledon Bay crisisCaledon Bay crisisThe Caledon Bay crisis refers to a series of killings at Caledon Bay in the Northern Territory of Australia during 1932–34. These events are widely seen as a turning point in relations between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians....
- A series of rapes, murders and retaliatory violence involving Japanese, Aboriginals and white Australians in the Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
. - 1935 - The Shark Arm CaseThe Shark Arm caseThe Shark Arm case refers to a series of incidents that began in Sydney, Australia on 25 April 1935 when a human arm was regurgitated by a captive 3.5-metre tiger shark. The tiger shark had been caught 3 kilometres from the beach suburb of Coogee in mid-April and transferred to the Coogee Aquarium...
- The arm of murdered man James Smith is disgorged by a tiger sharkTiger sharkThe tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, is a species of requiem shark and the only member of the genus Galeocerdo. Commonly known as sea tigers, tiger sharks are relatively large macropredators, capable of attaining a length of over . It is found in many tropical and temperate waters, and is...
being held in a public exhibit in SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
(unsolved).Whiticker. pp 42 - 55
1940s
- 3 May-4 November 1942 - Eddie LeonskiEddie LeonskiEdward Joseph Leonski was an American spree killer who committed his crimes in Australia. Leonski is known as the "Brownout Strangler", given Melbourne's wartime status of keeping low lighting .-Early life:Born in New York, Leonski grew up in an abusive, alcoholic family, and one of his brothers...
, an American soldier, murdered three women in MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria, in the Brownout murders. - 1 December 1948 - The Taman Shud CaseTaman Shud CaseThe Taman Shud Case,While the words that end The Rubaiyat are "Tamam Shud", it has always been referred to as "Taman Shud" in the media, presumably due to a spelling error that persisted. In Persian "tamam" is a noun that means "the end". "shud" is an auxiliary verb indicating past tense, so "tamam...
. A middle-aged man is found dead, presumably poisonPoisonIn the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ed, at Somerton BeachSomerton Park, South AustraliaSomerton Park is a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia. The mainly residential seaside suburb is home to the Somerton Park Beach, and also to Sacred Heart College.Somerton Park Post Office opened on 1 July 1947 and closed in 1988.-References:...
near Glenelg, South AustraliaGlenelg, South AustraliaGlenelg is a popular beach-side suburb of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Located on the shore of Holdfast Bay in Gulf St Vincent, it has become a popular tourist destination due to its beach and many attractions, home to several hotels and dozens of restaurants.Established in 1836, it is...
. His identity and how he died remains a mystery.The Advertiser, "Taman Shud", 10 June 1949, p. 2
1950s
- 19 September 1952 - Betty ShanksBetty Shanks MurderThe Betty Shanks murder is one of the oldest and most notorious unsolved murder cases. in Queensland, Australia.-Overview:On the night of 19 September 1952, 22 year old Betty Shanks got off a tram at Days Rd. Terminus in the Grange, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, and started her short walk home...
was murdered; she was found the following morning in the front yard of a house on the corner of Thomas and Carberry Streets The Grange. This is one of the classic unsolved Queensland cases
1960s
- 7 July 1960 - 8-year old Graeme ThorneGraeme Thorne kidnappingThe Graeme Thorne kidnapping is the name given to the 1960 kidnapping and murder of Graeme Thorne for money that his father, Bazil Thorne, had won in a lottery. A crime which caused massive shock at the time and gathered huge publicity, it was the first known kidnapping for ransom in Australian...
is kidnapped and murdered days after his parents win the Opera HouseSydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
Lottery. - 19 July 1960 - The First skyjacking/hijacking in the world occurred on Trans Australia Airlines Flight 408.
- 1964 - The Nedlands MonsterEric Edgar CookeEric Edgar Cooke nicknamed The Night Caller was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia, by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths....
- Eric Edgar Cooke murdered eight people and assaulted 20 more during a crime spree in PerthPerth, Western AustraliaPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. - 11 January 1965 - Wanda Beach MurdersWanda Beach MurdersThe Wanda Beach Murders refers to the case of the unsolved murders of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock at Sydney's Wanda Beach on 11 January 1965. Their partially buried bodies were discovered the next day....
- Two teenage girls were murdered on a southern Sydney beach (unsolved). - 26 January 1966 - Beaumont children disappearanceBeaumont children disappearanceJane Nartare Beaumont , Arnna Kathleen Beaumont , and Grant Ellis Beaumont were three siblings collectively known as The Beaumont Children who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia on Australia Day 1966.Their case resulted in one of the largest police investigations in...
- Three young children disappear from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia (unsolved). - 8 May 1969 - 15-year-old Alfred James Jessop strangled eight-year-old Vicki Barton after she refused to have sex with him at a vacant block in Lawson, NSW. He then used his bicycle trailer to carry her body to bushland where he buried her; he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1978 and was paroled in 2003.http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25623142-5001021,00.html Akerman, PiersPiers AkermanPiers Akerman is a right-wing commentator and columnist for The Daily Telegraph.-Brief biography:Born in Wewak, Papua New Guinea, Piers Akerman was raised in Perth by his parents, John, an Australian Government doctor, and Eve Akerman , a newspaper columnist and reviewer in Western Australia. He...
, Daily Telegraph, Vicki Barton's murder is seared in my memory forever" 12 June 2009 . Retrieved 1 July 2009.
1966 The Keith Ryrie murdered Maureen Ferrari 18 of Homesglen , Victoria and also murdered Rhonda Irwin 5 of Melbourne
Timeline of major crimes in Australia
1800s
- 26 January 1808 - George JohnstonGeorge Johnston (New South Wales)Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston was briefly Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, Australia after leading the rebellion later known as the Rum Rebellion....
played a key role in the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history, the Rum RebellionRum RebellionThe Rum Rebellion of 1808 was the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's history. The Governor of New South Wales, William Bligh, was deposed by the New South Wales Corps under the command of Major George Johnston, working closely with John Macarthur, on 26 January 1808, 20...
. Johnston later sailed for England and was found guilty of mutiny.
1820s
- 14 September 1828 - Bank of Australia robberyBank of Australia robberyThe Bank of Australia robbery was the first bank robbery in Australia. On 14 September 1828 a gang of five robbers - William Blackstone, George Farrell, James Dingle, John Wilford alias Creighton and Valentine Rourke - tunnelled through a sewage drain into the vault of the Bank of Australia and...
Baxter, Carol Breaking the Bank: An Extraordinary Colonial Robbery, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2008 ISBN 978 1 74175 449 0
1850s
- 28 November - 3 December 1854 - Eureka StockadeEureka StockadeThe Eureka Rebellion of 1854 was an organised rebellion by gold miners which occurred at Eureka Lead in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. The Battle of Eureka Stockade was fought on 3 December 1854 and named for the stockade structure erected by miners during the conflict...
Gold prospecters staged an uprising against government leading to armed conflict; 22 miners and 6 soldiers were killedCorfield, Justin, Wickham, Dorothy, Gervasoni, ClareClare GervasoniClare Gervasoni, author, publisher and curator was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1962.-Education:Gervasoni was educated at Genazzano FCJ College, Melbourne College of Advanced Education and Deakin University Clare Gervasoni, author, publisher and curator was born in Melbourne, Australia in...
, Ballarat Heritage ServicesBallarat Heritage ServicesBallarat Heritage Services, publisher, also known as BHS Publishing was formed in 1998 by Clare Gervasoni, Dr Dorothy Wickham and Wayne Phillipson....
, The Eureka Encyclopaedia, 2004 ISBN 1-876478-61-6
1860s
- 30 June 1861 - Lambing Flat riotsLambing Flat riotsThe Lambing Flat riots were a series of violent anti-Chinese demonstrations that took place in the Burrangong region, in New South Wales, Australia...
White miners riot against Chinese immigrants. - 17 October 1861 - Cullin La Ringo massacre in Central QueenslandCentral QueenslandCentral Queensland is an ambiguous geographical division of Queensland that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton and the Capricorn Coast and the area extends west to the Central Highlands at Emerald, north to the Mackay Regional...
. Nineteen white settlerSettlerA settler is a person who has migrated to an area and established permanent residence there, often to colonize the area. Settlers are generally people who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads...
s killed, one of the largest massacre of whites by AboriginesIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
in Australian history.Note: Massacre - 9 April 1865 - Daniel MorganDan Morgan (bushranger)John Fuller was an Australian bushranger.Fuller was born in Appin, New South Wales, Australia around 1830 to George Fuller and Mary Owen. He was their illigitimate son and from the ages of 2 to 17 he lived with an adoptive father, John Roberts...
, a prominent bushranger who had been raiding banks in VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
and New South WalesNew South WalesNew South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
for more than a decade, is killed. - 1869 - Bushranger Andrew "Captain Moonlite" Scott robbed the London Chartered Bank in Mount Egerton, VictoriaMount Egerton, VictoriaMount Egerton is a town in Victoria, Australia. The town is located in the Shire of Moorabool Local Government Area, north west of the state capital, Melbourne. At the 2006 census, Mount Egerton had a population of 215....
escaping with £1,000.
1870s
- 1877 - ₤5000 worth of gold sovereigns are stolen from the P&OPeninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation CompanyThe Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which is usually known as P&O, is a British shipping and logistics company which dated from the early 19th century. Following its sale in March 2006 to Dubai Ports World for £3.9 billion, it became a subsidiary of DP World; however, the P&O...
steamer Avoca, en route from Sydney to Melbourne. - 1878 - Bushranger Ned KellyNed KellyEdward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
raids a bank in Euroa and, at a nearby sheep station, hosts a party for his 22 hostages shortly afterwards. - October 1878 - Stringybark Creek Massacre - Victorian bushrangerBushrangerBushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
s, the Kelly Gang, ambush and kill three police officers at Stringybark Creek.
1880s
- 26 June 1880 - Joe ByrneJoe ByrneJoe Byrne was an Australian bushranger born in Victoria to an Irish immigrant. A friend of Ned Kelly, he was a member of the Kelly Gang, who were declared outlaws after the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek...
shot dead Aaron SherrittAaron SherrittAustralian police informer Aaron Sherritt was an associate of the gang of outlaws led by Ned Kelly. He grew up in the same area as them and was especially close to gang member Joe Byrne. At one stage he became engaged to Byrne's sister....
for giving the police information about the Kelly Gang in exchange for money. - 27 June 1880 - Ned KellyNed KellyEdward "Ned" Kelly was an Irish Australian bushranger. He is considered by some to be merely a cold-blooded cop killer — others, however, consider him to be a folk hero and symbol of Irish Australian resistance against the Anglo-Australian ruling class.Kelly was born in Victoria to an Irish...
's Last Stand - The Kelly Gang held the town of Glenrowan, VictoriaGlenrowan, VictoriaGlenrowan is a small town located in the Wangaratta Local Government Area of Victoria, Australia. It is 184 kilometres north-east of Melbourne and 14 kilometres from Wangaratta and located near the Warby Ranges and Mount Glenrowan...
hostage at the town's inn in an attempt to ambush police. The attempt failed and a siege ensued on the 28th, during which three members of the gang and at least one young boy were killed, and Ned Kelly was captured. - 11 November 1880 - Ned Kelly hanged at the Melbourne GaolMelbourne GaolThe Old Melbourne Gaol is a museum and former prison located in Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It consists of a bluestone building and courtyard, and is located next to the old City Police Watch House and City Courts buildings...
. - 16 May 1881 - Police Trooper Harry Pearce was viciously attacked by a prisoner, Robert JohnsonRobert JohnsonRobert Leroy Johnson was an American blues singer and musician. His landmark recordings from 1936–37 display a combination of singing, guitar skills, and songwriting talent that have influenced later generations of musicians. Johnson's shadowy, poorly documented life and death at age 27 have given...
, with a knife while on escort to Kingston SEKingston SE, South AustraliaKingston SE is a town approximately 297 km southeast of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, and 44 km from the town of Robe. It is at the southeastern end of Encounter Bay and the Coorong. At the 2006 census, Kingston SE had a population of 1,443.-History:The town was named after...
. Pearce died of his injuries on 19 May, the second South Australian policeman to die while on duty. Johnson was executed at Mount Gambier GaolMount Gambier GaolThere are two correctional institutions with the name Mount Gambier.* Mount Gambier Gaol, the original gaol, which is now a museum.* Mount Gambier Prison, the privately run facility, built in the 1990s....
on 18 November the same year.NLA Australian Newspapers - article display
1890s
- 24 December 1891 - The Windsor murder - English gasfitter, confidence trickster and career criminal Frederick Bailey DeemingFrederick Bailey DeemingFrederick Bailey Deeming was an English-born Australian gasfitter and murderer.Deeming was born in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England, son of Thomas Deeming, brazier, and his wife Ann, née Bailey. He was a "difficult child" according to writers Maurice Gurvich and Christopher Wray...
murdered his new wife Emily (née Mather) at a newly rented house in Andrew Street, Windsor, MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, burying her body under the hearth. He had previously murdered his first wife Marie Deeming and their four children and buried them beneath the floor of a house at RainhillRainhillRainhill is a large village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby...
, England in July or August 1891. Their bodies were not discovered until after the Windsor murder. Deeming was arrested at Southern Cross, Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
, and after a trial at Melbourne, he was executed in June 1892. His notoriety in Australia was such that he was widely believed to be Jack the RipperJack the Ripper"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
.Maurice Gurvich and Christopher Wray (2007) The Scarlet Thread: Australia's Jack the Ripper, A True Crime Story. Fairfax Books, Sydney. ISBN 978 1 921190 42 1 - 15 January 1894 - The baby farming murderess Frances Lydia Alice KnorrFrances Lydia Alice KnorrFrances Lydia Alice Knorr was known as the baby farming Murderess. She was found guilty of strangling two infants and hanged on Monday 15 January 1894....
is hanged. - 26 December 1898 - Gatton murdersGatton murdersThe Gatton Murders is the name given to a still unsolved triple homicide that occurred from the town of Gatton, Queensland. Michael Murphy and his younger sisters Norah and Ellen had been beaten to death between 10pm and 4am on 26-27 December 1898 while returning home from a dance...
- Three members of the same family are sexually molested and murdered near the town of Gatton, QueenslandGatton, QueenslandGatton is a town and the administrative centre of the Lockyer Valley Local Government Area situated in the Lockyer Valley of South East Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Gatton had a population of 5,295....
(unsolved)Whiticker. pp12 - 25
1900s
- 2 January 1902 - Bertha Schippan is found murdered at Towitta, South Australia, two weeks before of her 14th birthday. After an inquest, her 24 year old sister, Mary stands trial in Adelaide, but is acquitted.
- 6 October 1909 - Martha RendellMartha RendellMartha Rendell was the last of three women to be hanged in Western Australia. She was convicted of murdering her de facto husband's son, Arthur Morris, in 1908. She was also suspected of killing his two daughters, Annie and Olive by swabbing their throats with hydrochloric acid...
is hanged in Western Australia for the murder of three of her stepchildren.
1910s
- 16 July 1911 — Scott Street Tragedy - Timothy DalyTimothy DalyJames Timothy "Tim" Daly is an American stage, screen and voice actor, director and producer. He is best known for his television role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and for his voice role as Superman/Clark Kent in Superman: The Animated Series, as well as his recurring role of the...
is gunned down on a street in Newcastle, New South WalesNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
. A policeman on a passing streetcar is first to the scene. - 16 November 1911 - George David SilvaGeorge David SilvaGeorge David Silva who was of Cingalese descent, worked as a farmhand on a property owned by Charles Ching at Alligator Creek, about 20 miles from Mackay, Queensland....
shot and bashed six members of the Ching family near Mackay, QueenslandMackay, QueenslandMackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
. - 8 June 1913 - 11-year-old Ivy Mitchell was raped and murdered on her way home from school near SamfordSamford, QueenslandSamford is a valley community located in South East Queensland, Australia. It is roughly 21 km north west of Brisbane. The hilly area was first settled in the mid 1850s. The community is well catered for, with a number of sporting facilities, parks and museums.-Location:Samford is one of the...
, QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
by Ernest AustinErnest Austin (murderer)Ernest Austin was the last person executed by Queensland.Austin was convicted of raping and murdering 12-year-old Ivy Mitchell at Cedar Creek road near Samford...
; he was the last person in Queensland to be hanged. - 1 January 1915 — Two men flying a Turkish flag attacked a picnic train near Broken Hill, in what is known as The Battle of Broken HillThe Battle of Broken HillThe Battle of Broken Hill otherwise known as the Broken Hill Massacre, was a fatal incident which took place near Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia on 1 January 1915. Two Muslim men shot dead four people and wounded seven more, before being killed by police and military officers...
. Both attackers were shot dead by police; four other people were killed and seven wounded. - 14 February 1916 — Liverpool riotLiverpool riot of 1916The Liverpool Riot of 1916 also known as the Battle of Central Station was an event in Sydney, Australia where a large group of Australian soldiers rioted through the streets of Sydney and surrounding areas....
— An initial mutiny/strike by 5000 AIFAustralian Imperial ForceThe Australian Imperial Force was the name given to all-volunteer Australian Army forces dispatched to fight overseas during World War I and World War II.* First Australian Imperial Force * Second Australian Imperial Force...
soldiers from CasulaCasula, New South WalesCasula is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Casula is located 35 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Liverpool....
near LiverpoolLiverpool, New South WalesLiverpool is a suburb in south-western Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool is located 32 km south-west of the Sydney central business district, and is the administrative centre of the local government area of the City of Liverpool...
became a three day riot and pub crawlPub crawlA pub crawl is the act of one or more people drinking in multiple pubs or bars in a single night, normally walking or busing to each one between drinking.-Origin of the term:...
ending at CentralCentral railway station, SydneyCentral Railway Station, the largest railway station in Australia, is at the southern end of the Sydney CBD. It services almost all the lines on the CityRail network, and is the major terminus for interurban and interstate rail services...
and East Sydney, involving commandeered trains, destruction of property, and confrontations with police and military guards. NSW Premier William HolmanWilliam HolmanWilliam Arthur Holman was an Australian Labor Party Premier of New South Wales, Australia, who split with the party on the conscription issue in 1916 during World War I, and immediately became Premier of a conservative Nationalist Party Government.-Early life:Holman was born in St Pancras, London,...
called a state of emergencyState of emergencyA state of emergency is a governmental declaration that may suspend some normal functions of the executive, legislative and judicial powers, alert citizens to change their normal behaviours, or order government agencies to implement emergency preparedness plans. It can also be used as a rationale...
and closed SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's pubs. About 1000 soldiers were court-martialled and gaoled or discharged from the army. One consequence was the introduction of six o'clock closingSix o'clock swillThe six o'clock swill was an Australian and New Zealand slang term for the last-minute rush to buy drinks at a hotel bar before it closed. During a significant part of the 20th century, most Australian and New Zealand hotels shut their public bars at 6 p.m. A culture developed of heavy drinking...
, already present in South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, following a June 1916 referendum. The NSW "six o'clock swill" saw the rise of sly-grog shopSly-grog shopA sly grog shop is an Australian term for an unlicensed hotel or liquor-store, often with the added suggestion of selling poor-quality liquor; a place where alcoholic beverages are sold by an unlicensed vendor....
s, and lasted until 1955 when the closing time was changed to 10pm following another referendum."Razor Gang Feuds – Tilly Devine vs Kate Leigh", Dimensions In Time, ABC"The Six O'Clock Swill" - December 1917 - early 1918 - Wonnangatta murdersWonnangatta murdersThe Wonnangatta murders occurred in late 1917 and in 1918, in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. The victims were Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, and John Bamford, a cook and general hand...
- in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East GippslandEast GippslandEast Gippsland is the eastern region of Gippsland, Australia covering 31,740 square kilometres of Victoria. It has a population of 80,114....
, VictoriaVictoria (Australia)Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
; the badly decomposed body of Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, was found near the station homestead on 23 February 1918. He had been shot from behind with a shotgun, and John Bamford, a cook and general hand was assumed to be the culprit. However, Bamford's body was found late in 1918 on the Howitt Plains after a state wide search when the winter snows had melted. He had also been shot from close range. No arrests were ever made, despite the State Government offering a £200 reward.See Page 6 of the Victorian Government Gazette, 5 June 1918
1920s
- 21 December 1921 - The Gun Alley MurderThe Gun Alley MurderThe Gun Alley Murder was the rape and murder of 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke in Melbourne, in 1921. She was a schoolgirl and had last been seen alive close to a drinking establishment, the Australian Wine Saloon; under these circumstances her murder caused a sensation...
- 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke was found raped and murdered in Gun Alley, Melbourne. 28-year-old Colin RossColin Campbell RossColin Campbell Eadie Ross was an Australian wine-bar owner executed for the rape and murder of a child which became known as The Gun Alley Murder, despite there being evidence that he was innocent...
was hanged for the crime, but in 1992 re-assessment stated Ross was probably innocent. After DNA testing cleared Ross he was pardoned posthumously on 27 May 2008. - May 1926 - Forrest River massacreForrest River massacreThe Forrest River massacre, or Oombulgurri massacre, was a massacre of Indigenous Australian people by a law enforcement party in the wake of the killing of a pastoralist, which took place in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in 1926. The massacre was investigated by a Royal Commission in...
- Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
- 11 people were murdered in a series of punitive raids after the murder of a pastoralist in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. - April 1927 - Newcastle Tragedy - Mary Buckley was slain by her husband at their NewcastleNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
townhouse while she slept in the same bed as their 16-year-old daughter. - August 1928 - Coniston massacreConiston massacreThe Coniston massacre, which took place from 14 August to 18 October 1928 near the Coniston cattle station, Northern Territory, Australia, was the last known massacre of Indigenous Australians. People of the Warlpiri, Anmatyerre and Kaytetye groups were killed...
- Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
police constable William MurrayWilliam Murray-Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield , British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield , British nobleman*William Murray, 8th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield -Nobility:*William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705–1793), British jurist*William Murray, 4th Earl of...
leads a series of raids on Aboriginal tribes in response to the murder of a local dingoDingoThe Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
trapper. The official death toll was 31, but some experts believe it to be much higher. - 23 February 1929 - Constable John Holeman was shot in Grenfell St, Adelaide by John Stanley McGrath while taking McGrath's motorcycle and sidecar to the City Watchhouse. Holeman died an hour and a half later; McGrath was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, and served 15 years.http://www.sapolicehistory.org/July08.html
- December 1929 - May 1930 - The Murchison MurdersThe Murchison MurdersThe Murchison Murders were a series of three murders, committed by an itinerant stockman named Snowy Rowles, near the Rabbit-proof fence in Western Australia during the early 1930s...
- Snowy Rowles murdered three men in Outback Western Australia.
1930s
- 1 September 1934 - Pyjama Girl murder - The body of a woman found beaten and half burnt in a culvert near Albury, New South WalesAlbury, New South WalesAlbury is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Hume Highway on the northern side of the Murray River. It is located wholly within the boundaries of the City of Albury Local Government Area...
.Whiticker. pp 26 - 41 - 1932-1934 - Caledon Bay crisisCaledon Bay crisisThe Caledon Bay crisis refers to a series of killings at Caledon Bay in the Northern Territory of Australia during 1932–34. These events are widely seen as a turning point in relations between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians....
- A series of rapes, murders and retaliatory violence involving Japanese, Aboriginals and white Australians in the Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
. - 1935 - The Shark Arm CaseThe Shark Arm caseThe Shark Arm case refers to a series of incidents that began in Sydney, Australia on 25 April 1935 when a human arm was regurgitated by a captive 3.5-metre tiger shark. The tiger shark had been caught 3 kilometres from the beach suburb of Coogee in mid-April and transferred to the Coogee Aquarium...
- The arm of murdered man James Smith is disgorged by a tiger sharkTiger sharkThe tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier, is a species of requiem shark and the only member of the genus Galeocerdo. Commonly known as sea tigers, tiger sharks are relatively large macropredators, capable of attaining a length of over . It is found in many tropical and temperate waters, and is...
being held in a public exhibit in SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
(unsolved).Whiticker. pp 42 - 55
1940s
- 3 May-4 November 1942 - Eddie LeonskiEddie LeonskiEdward Joseph Leonski was an American spree killer who committed his crimes in Australia. Leonski is known as the "Brownout Strangler", given Melbourne's wartime status of keeping low lighting .-Early life:Born in New York, Leonski grew up in an abusive, alcoholic family, and one of his brothers...
, an American soldier, murdered three women in MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Victoria, in the Brownout murders. - 1 December 1948 - The Taman Shud CaseTaman Shud CaseThe Taman Shud Case,While the words that end The Rubaiyat are "Tamam Shud", it has always been referred to as "Taman Shud" in the media, presumably due to a spelling error that persisted. In Persian "tamam" is a noun that means "the end". "shud" is an auxiliary verb indicating past tense, so "tamam...
. A middle-aged man is found dead, presumably poisonPoisonIn the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
ed, at Somerton BeachSomerton Park, South AustraliaSomerton Park is a suburb of Adelaide in South Australia. The mainly residential seaside suburb is home to the Somerton Park Beach, and also to Sacred Heart College.Somerton Park Post Office opened on 1 July 1947 and closed in 1988.-References:...
near Glenelg, South AustraliaGlenelg, South AustraliaGlenelg is a popular beach-side suburb of the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Located on the shore of Holdfast Bay in Gulf St Vincent, it has become a popular tourist destination due to its beach and many attractions, home to several hotels and dozens of restaurants.Established in 1836, it is...
. His identity and how he died remains a mystery.The Advertiser, "Taman Shud", 10 June 1949, p. 2
1950s
- 19 September 1952 - Betty ShanksBetty Shanks MurderThe Betty Shanks murder is one of the oldest and most notorious unsolved murder cases. in Queensland, Australia.-Overview:On the night of 19 September 1952, 22 year old Betty Shanks got off a tram at Days Rd. Terminus in the Grange, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, and started her short walk home...
was murdered; she was found the following morning in the front yard of a house on the corner of Thomas and Carberry Streets The Grange. This is one of the classic unsolved Queensland cases
1960s
- 7 July 1960 - 8-year old Graeme ThorneGraeme Thorne kidnappingThe Graeme Thorne kidnapping is the name given to the 1960 kidnapping and murder of Graeme Thorne for money that his father, Bazil Thorne, had won in a lottery. A crime which caused massive shock at the time and gathered huge publicity, it was the first known kidnapping for ransom in Australian...
is kidnapped and murdered days after his parents win the Opera HouseSydney Opera HouseThe Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
Lottery. - 19 July 1960 - The First skyjacking/hijacking in the world occurred on Trans Australia Airlines Flight 408.
- 1964 - The Nedlands MonsterEric Edgar CookeEric Edgar Cooke nicknamed The Night Caller was an Australian serial killer. From 1959 to 1963, he terrorised the city of Perth, Western Australia, by committing 22 violent crimes, eight of which resulted in deaths....
- Eric Edgar Cooke murdered eight people and assaulted 20 more during a crime spree in PerthPerth, Western AustraliaPerth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
. - 11 January 1965 - Wanda Beach MurdersWanda Beach MurdersThe Wanda Beach Murders refers to the case of the unsolved murders of Marianne Schmidt and Christine Sharrock at Sydney's Wanda Beach on 11 January 1965. Their partially buried bodies were discovered the next day....
- Two teenage girls were murdered on a southern Sydney beach (unsolved). - 26 January 1966 - Beaumont children disappearanceBeaumont children disappearanceJane Nartare Beaumont , Arnna Kathleen Beaumont , and Grant Ellis Beaumont were three siblings collectively known as The Beaumont Children who disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia on Australia Day 1966.Their case resulted in one of the largest police investigations in...
- Three young children disappear from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia (unsolved). - 8 May 1969 - 15-year-old Alfred James Jessop strangled eight-year-old Vicki Barton after she refused to have sex with him at a vacant block in Lawson, NSW. He then used his bicycle trailer to carry her body to bushland where he buried her; he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1978 and was paroled in 2003.http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25623142-5001021,00.html Akerman, PiersPiers AkermanPiers Akerman is a right-wing commentator and columnist for The Daily Telegraph.-Brief biography:Born in Wewak, Papua New Guinea, Piers Akerman was raised in Perth by his parents, John, an Australian Government doctor, and Eve Akerman , a newspaper columnist and reviewer in Western Australia. He...
, Daily Telegraph, Vicki Barton's murder is seared in my memory forever" 12 June 2009 . Retrieved 1 July 2009.
1966 The Keith Ryrie murdered Maureen Ferrari 18 of Homesglen , Victoria and also murdered Rhonda Irwin 5 of Melbourne M.A.K.O Registry
1970s
- 6 September 1971- Clifford Cecil Bartholomew shot dead his wife Heather, their seven children, his sister-in-law and his nephew with a .22-caliber rifle at their dairy farm in Hope Forest, South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
. - 6 October 1972 - Faraday School kidnappingFaraday School kidnappingThe Faraday School kidnapping occurred on 6 October 1972 at a one-teacher school in the village of Faraday in Victoria, Australia.- Incident :...
- a teacher and her six female pupils were kidnapped for $1 million ransom in rural Victoria by unemployed friends Edwin John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland. - 15 November 1972 - Ansett Airlines Flight 232Ansett Airlines Flight 232Ansett Airlines Flight 232 was an attempted hijacking of a Fokker Friendship bound for Alice Springs from Adelaide on Wednesday, 15 November 1972. It was the first aircraft hijacking in Australia. The would-be hijacker died in the incident....
- aircraft hijackingAircraft hijackingAircraft hijacking is the unlawful seizure of an aircraft by an individual or a group. In most cases, the pilot is forced to fly according to the orders of the hijackers. Occasionally, however, the hijackers have flown the aircraft themselves, such as the September 11 attacks of 2001...
in Australia. Ansett Airlines flight 232 from AdelaideAdelaideAdelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
to Alice SpringsAlice Springs, Northern TerritoryAlice Springs is the second largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Popularly known as "the Alice" or simply "Alice", Alice Springs is situated in the geographic centre of Australia near the southern border of the Northern Territory...
with 28 passengers and a crew of 4, followed by a gun battle at Alice Springs AirportAlice Springs AirportAlice Springs Airport is a small regional airport 14 kilometres south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.The airport has two runways, the largest of which can accommodate a Boeing 747 or 777 landing...
where the hijacker, Miloslav Hrabinec, shot himself. He died later that day. - 8 March 1973 - Whiskey Au Go Go fireWhiskey Au Go Go fireThe Whiskey Au Go Go fire was a fire that occurred at 2.10 a.m. on Thursday 8 March 1973, in the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Australia that killed 15 people...
: 15 people were killed in an arson attack on a BrisbaneBrisbaneBrisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
nightclub. - 4 July 1975 - Juanita Nielsen DisappearanceJuanita NielsenJuanita Joan Nielsen was an Australian publisher and heiress.She was born Juanita Joan Smith in New Lambton, NSW to parents: Neil Donovan Smith and Vilma Grace Smith nee Meares . Her parents separated soon after her birth and she was raised by her mother at Killara, Sydney...
- Kings CrossKings Cross, New South WalesKings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
newspaper publisher Juanita Nielsen disappears after running a campaign against local development and investigating links between developers and criminal activity (unsolved). - 25 December 1975 - Savoy Hotel Fire: Reginald John Lyttle set fire to newspapers in a hotel in Kings CrossKings Cross, New South WalesKings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
. 14 died from carbon monoxide poisoning and one from burns in the fire.25.12.75 - 21 April 1976 - Great Bookie RobberyGreat Bookie RobberyThe Great Bookie Robbery was a crime committed in Melbourne, Australia on 21 April 1976.A well-organized gang of six stole between $6 million and $12 million from the Victoria Club, which was located on the second floor of a building in Queen Street...
- A gang of six men stole an undetermined sum (between $6 and $12 million) from the Victoria Club in Queen StreetQueen Street, MelbourneQueen Street is a street in the Melbourne central business district, forming part of the famous Hoddle Grid. It runs roughly from north to south. The northern end of Queen Street intersects with Victoria Street, while its southern end intersects with Flinders Street...
, Melbourne. One man, Norman LeeNorman Lee-Selected filmography:Director* The Streets of London * Strip, Strip, Hooray * The Pride of the Force * The Outcast * Doctor's Orders * Spring in the Air * A Political Party...
, is charged along with two others but all three were acquitted (technically unsolved). - 17 July 1977 - Donald Mackay disappearance - Anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay from Griffith, New South WalesGriffith, New South WalesGriffith is a city in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is also the seat of the City of Griffith local government area. Like the Australian capital, Canberra and the nearby town of Leeton, Griffith was designed by Walter Burley Griffin. Griffith was named after Sir Arthur Griffith the...
disappeared, presumed murdered. James Frederick Bazley was sentenced to three consecutive terms of life imprisonment plus 12 years without the possibility of parole in 1986 for the murder of Mackay, the murders of Crown witnesses Douglas and Isabel Wilson and the armed robbery of $260,000 from a security van in 1978; he died of cancer in 2001. Mackay, Donald Bruce (1933 - 1977), Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian National University - 13 February 1978 - Sydney Hilton bombingSydney Hilton bombingThe Sydney Hilton bombing occurred on 13 February 1978, when a bomb exploded outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. At the time the hotel was the site of the first Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting , a regional off-shoot of the biennial meetings of the heads...
- Three men killed by a bomb blast outside Commonwealth Heads of Government Regional Meeting in Sydney. Ananda MargaAnanda MargaAnanda Marga, organizationally known as Ananda Marga Pracaraka Samgha , meaning the samgha for the propagation of the marga of ananda , is a social and spiritual movement founded in Jamalpur, Bihar, India in 1955 by Shrii Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar .Ánanda Márga followers describe Ánanda Márga as a...
members were imprisoned but later pardoned and releasedBehind the Hilton Bombing - 22 April 1978 - discovery of the Truro murdersTruro murdersThe Truro murders is the name given to a series of murders uncovered with the discovery in 1978 and 1979 of the remains of two young women in bushland near the town of Truro, South Australia. After police searches, the remains of seven women were discovered in total: five at Truro, one at...
. - 11 August 1978 - John Ernest CribbJohn CribbJohn Ernest Cribb is an Australian triple murderer from Sydney, New South Wales, currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment plus 45 years for the rape and murder of Valda Connell and the murder of her children Sally and Damien and numerous other offences at Swansea on 11...
raped Valda Connell before stabbing her and two of her children, Sally and Damien Connell, at Swansea, NSW. - 22 November 1978 - The Magnetic drill gang stole $1.7 million from a Murwillumbah bank.Australian Crimes - AustralianCrimes.com
1980s
- 26 April 1980 - Louise and Charmian Faulkner disappearanceLouise and Charmian Faulkner disappearanceLouise Yvonne Faulkner and Charmian Christabel Alexis Faulkner were a mother and daughter who disappeared without a trace from outside their residence at 39 Acland St, St Kilda, Victoria, Australia in 1980...
- A mother and her two and a half year old daughter disappeared from outside their St Kilda, VictoriaSt Kilda, VictoriaSt Kilda is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip...
residence and are presumed murdered (unsolved). - 23 June 1980 - Family Court judge Justice David Opas was shot dead at his home by an unknown gunman.
- 23 June 1983 - Martin LeachMartin Leach (Australian murderer)Martin Leach , is a convicted rapist and double murderer, and has been described as one of, if not the Northern Territory's worst killer....
bound, gagged and stabbed Charmaine Ariet and bound, gagged, stabbed, raped and slit the throat of her cousin Janice Carnegie before burying their bodies in a gully at Berry SpringsBerry Springs, Northern TerritoryBerry Springs is an outer suburban area in Darwin. The name "Berry Springs" derived from "Berry Creek", named by Goyder in 1870, after his Chief Draftsman, Edwin S Berry....
. - 18 August 1983 - Douglas CrabbeDouglas CrabbeDouglas John Edward Crabbe is an Australian murderer currently imprisoned in Perth for a multiple murder which occurred when he drove his 25-tonne Mack truck into the crowded bar of a motel at the base of Uluru, on 18 August 1983...
rammed his 25 ton Mack truck into a motel bar at the base of UluruUluruUluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....
, Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
, killing 5 people and injuring 16. - 31 January 1984 - Sydney's 1984 'Dog Day Afternoon'Sydney's 1984 'Dog Day Afternoon'The 1984 "Dog Day Afternoon" hostage crisis was an incident that took place between the hours of 10:30am and 4:30pm on Tuesday 31st January 1984 in George Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia when a 35 year old male went on a bank robbery spree, taking 11 people hostage, before holding police...
- 35 year old Hakki Bahadir Atahan went on a bank robbery spree, taking 11 people hostage, and holding police at bay for several hours before finally being shot dead. - 14 August 1984 - Fine Cotton AffairFine CottonFine Cotton was a brown Australian Thoroughbred gelding which was at the centre of a substitution scam which occurred on 18 August 1984, in the Commerce Novice Handicap over 1,500 metres at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Brisbane, Queensland...
- A syndicate of trainers and bookmakers substituted one horse for another at a Brisbane horse race. - 2 September 1984 - Milperra massacreMilperra massacreThe Milperra Massacre was a firearm battle between rival motorcycle gang members on September 2 1984, in Milperra, a south-western suburb of Sydney...
- Two rival bikie gangs staged a shoot-out in a car park of a south-western Sydney hotel. 7 people were shot dead and 15 others injured. - 9 May 1985 - Christopher Flannery disappearanceChristopher Dale FlanneryChristopher Dale Flannery, aka Mr. Rent-A-Kill is alleged to have been an Australian hitman. Flannery was born in Brunswick, Victoria.- Juvenile Crime:...
- Known as "Mr-Rent-A-Kill", Melbourne hitman Christopher Dale Flannery disappears without trace, presumed murdered (unsolved). - 2 February 1986 - Anita Cobby murderAnita Cobby murderAnita Lorraine Cobby was an Australian registered nurse and beauty pageant winner. At 26 years old, she was abducted from Blacktown, and raped and murdered at nearby Prospect, on the evening of 2 February 1986...
- Sydney nurse Anita Cobby was abducted, robbed, raped, brutalized and murdered by career criminals John Travers, Michael Murdoch and brothers Michael, Gary and Leslie Murphy. - 6 February 1986 - Sallie-Anne Huckstepp murderSallie-Anne HucksteppSallie-Anne Huckstepp was an Australian prostitute and heroin addict who became a writer and whistleblower.-Life:Huckstepp was born Sallie-Anne Krivoshow and attended Dover Heights High School in Sydney. She left school at the age of seventeen and married Bryan Huckstepp...
- Sydney prostitute and police informant Sallie-Anne Huckstepp is found strangled and shot in Centennial ParkCentennial Park, New South WalesCentennial Park is a large public, urban park that occupies 220 hectares in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Centennial Park is located 4 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Randwick...
. Convicted murderer Arthur "Neddy" SmithNeddy SmithArthur Stanley "Neddy" Smith is an Australian criminal who has been convicted of rape, armed robbery and murder.Smith has been serving a life sentence since 1989 and is presently imprisoned in Long Bay Correctional Centre after being moved from Lithgow Correctional Centre in New South Wales,...
is charged with ordering the killing but was acquitted (unsolved). - 27 March 1986 - Russell Street bombingRussell Street BombingThe Russell Street Bombing refers to the 27 March 1986 bombing of the Russell Street Police Headquarters complex in Russell Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...
- Four men planted a car bomb outside Police HeadquartersPolice HeadquartersPolice Headquarters was a 1932 crime radio drama. Bruce Eells Associates produced this series which was syndicated to West Coast NBC radio stations. Each program lasted for about 15 minutes: music was featured in the first part of the show, an announcer would do a commercial or two, then the 12...
in Russell StreetRussell Street, MelbourneRussell Street is a north-south street in the central business district of Melbourne, Australia, part of the Hoddle Grid laid out in 1837. At its southern end it intersects with Flinders Street and Federation Square, while at its northern end it becomes Lygon Street, a street famous for its...
, MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
; a 22-year old policewoman was killed in the explosion and 22 others injured. - 19 August 1986 - Samantha Knight disappearance - 9-year-old Samantha Knight disappeared from a BondiBondi, New South WalesBondi is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bondi is located seven kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council. The postcode is 2026.-Location:...
street; it was eventually found that she had overdosed on sedatives given to her by convicted pedophile Michael GuiderMichael GuiderMichael Guider is an Australian pedophile who has been imprisoned on charges of pedophilia and manslaughter.-Early life:Michael Guider was born on 20 October 1950, in the city of Melbourne, Victoria. He and his mother moved to Sydney in 1952. His mother had an unstable relationship with an army...
.http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/07/1022982768777.html Sydney Morning Herald, "The deadly silence that doomed Samantha", 8 June 2002 - 6 October 1986 - Mary Nielson, first victim of David and Catherine BirnieDavid and Catherine BirnieDavid John Birnie and Catherine Margaret Birnie were an Australian couple who were serial killers. They murdered four women ranging in age from 15 to 31 in their home in the 1980s, and attempted to murder a fifth...
, is killed. The Birnies murdered three more women that year. - 9 August 1987 - Hoddle Street massacreHoddle Street massacreThe Hoddle Street massacre is a spree killing that occurred on the evening of Sunday, 9 August 1987 in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.The shootings resulted in the deaths of seven people, and serious injury to 19 others...
- 19-year-old Julian KnightJulian KnightJulian Knight is the mass murderer who on 9 August 1987, shot dead seven people and injured 19 during a shooting spree in Clifton Hill, Victoria, Australia, in what became known in Australian history as the Hoddle Street Massacre....
killed 7 people and injured 19 at random in Hoddle Street, Melbourne before surrendering to police. - 27 November 1987 - 12-year-old Sian KingiMurder of Sian KingiWatts was tried in 1995 for the murder of Helen Mary Feeney who was last seen alive one month before the murder of Kingi. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years jail for manslaughter, and in 2007 confessed to his involvement in the murder of Sian Kingi.-Beck:...
was abducted, raped, tortured, stabbed and strangled in Noosa, QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
by married couple Barrie Watts and Valmae Beck. - 8 December 1987 - Queen Street massacreQueen Street massacreThe Queen Street massacre was a spree killing suicide that occurred on 8 December 1987 at the Australia Post offices at 191 Queen Street in Melbourne, Australia...
- Frank Vitkovic shot dead 8 people in the Australia PostAustralia PostAustralia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
building in Queen Street, MelbourneQueen Street, MelbourneQueen Street is a street in the Melbourne central business district, forming part of the famous Hoddle Grid. It runs roughly from north to south. The northern end of Queen Street intersects with Victoria Street, while its southern end intersects with Flinders Street...
before leaping to his death from the 11th floor window. 5 others were seriously injured. - 8 September 1988 - Janine BaldingJanine BaldingThe murder of Janine Balding was the killing of a woman in New South Wales, Australia by multiple perpetrators. Twenty-year-old Janine Balding was raped and murdered by a gang of five youths on 8 September 1988....
murder - 21 year old Janine Balding was abducted, robbed, raped and murdered by five homeless youths in SydneySydneySydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's west. Stephen "Shorty" Jamieson, 16-year-old Matthew Elliott, and 14-year-old Bronson Blessington were convicted of Balding's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. - 12 October 1988 - Walsh Street police shootingsWalsh Street police shootingsThe Walsh Street police shootings was the 1988 murder of two Victoria Police officers, Constables Steven Tynan, 22, and Damian Eyre, 20. The officers were responding to a report of an abandoned car when they were gunned down about 4.50am in Walsh Street, South Yarra, Australia on 12 October...
- Two police officers were executed in Melbourne (unsolved). - 10 January 1989 - Colin WinchesterColin WinchesterColin Stanley Winchester APM, was an Assistant Commissioner in the Australian Federal Police . Winchester commanded ACT Police, the community policing component of the AFP Australian Federal Police responsible for the Australian Capital Territory.On 10 January 1989, at about 9:15 pm, he was...
murder - The Assistant CommissionerAssistant CommissionerAssistant commissioner is a rank used in many police forces across the globe. It is also a rank used in revenue administrations in many countries.-Australia:...
of the Australian Federal PoliceAustralian Federal PoliceThe Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...
was shot dead outside his home in Canberra by a sniper, later identified as former public servant David Harold EastmanDavid EastmanDavid Harold Eastman is a former public servant from Canberra, Australia. In 1995 he was convicted of the murder of Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Colin Winchester. On 10 January 1989, Eastman shot Winchester twice in the head at point blank range in the driveway of Winchester's...
. - November 1989 - Leigh Leigh murder - NewcastleNewcastle, New South WalesThe Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
teenager Leigh Leigh was raped and murdered on a Newcastle beach at a party. - 1989-1990 - Granny Murders - John Wayne GloverJohn Wayne GloverJohn Wayne Glover was a British-born Australian serial killer convicted for the murders of six elderly women on Sydney's North Shore....
murdered six elderly women across Sydney's north shore.
1990s
- 30 August 1990 - Paul Anthony Evers killed 5 people and injured 11 with a 12-gauge shotgun at a public housing precinct before surrendering to police.
- 13 April 1991 - Karmein ChanKarmein ChanKarmein Chan was a 13-year-old Australian girl from Templestowe, Victoria who was abducted on the 13th of April in 1991 and subsequently murdered....
(unsolved) - 25 May 1991 - 21-year-old English backpacker Fiona Carty was sexually assaulted and throttled to death by car thief and con-artist David Troy Masters.
- 4 July 1991 - World famous heart surgeon Victor ChangVictor ChangVictor Peter Chang, AC , was a Chinese Australian cardiac surgeon and a pioneer of modern heart transplantation. Born in Shanghai to Australian-born Chinese parents, he grew up in Hong Kong before moving to Australia...
was murdered in Sydney during an extortion attempt. - 29 July 1991 - Six-year-old Sheree Beasley was kidnapped and murdered by serial flasher and sex offender Robert Lowe at SeafordSeaford, VictoriaSeaford is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 36 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Frankston...
.mako-Robert Lowe - 17 August 1991 - Strathfield massacreStrathfield MassacreThe Strathfield massacre was a shooting rampage in Sydney, Australia on Saturday, 17 August 1991. The shooter was Wade Frankum, who killed himself as police arrived at the scene. The incident left eight dead and six wounded.-Perpetrator:...
- Wade Frankum shot seven people dead before killing himself in a Sydney shopping centre. - 27 July 1992 - Brian Corrigan shot dead his pregnant wife Kim and their unborn daughter at their Kiama home.Corrigan Parole Hearing
- 16 August 1992 - 18-year-old Clinton Trezise was bashed to death with a hammer by John Justin Bunting at Bunting's Salisbury North home in the first of the eleven Snowtown murdersSnowtown murdersThe Snowtown murders, also known as the Bodies in Barrels murders, were the murders of 11 people in South Australia, Australia between August 1992 and May 1999...
; Trezise's remains were found in a shallow grave on a farm in Lower Light exactly two years later, but he is not identified until 1999 (see below). - 19 August 1992 - Andrew Garforth kidnapped, raped and drowned nine-year-old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson at Bargo, New South WalesBargo, New South WalesBargo is a small town of the Macarthur Region, New South Wales, Australia in the Wollondilly Shire. It is approximately 100 km south west of Sydney....
. - 1988–1992 - The Backpacker murdersBackpacker murdersThe Backpacker Murders is a name given to serial killings that occurred in New South Wales, Australia during the 1990s. The bodies of seven missing young people aged 19 to 22 were discovered partly buried in the Belanglo State Forest, south west of the New South Wales town of Berrima...
- Ivan Milat murdered seven tourists and buried their bodies in Belanglo State ForestBelanglo State ForestBelanglo State Forest is a planted forest in the Australian state of New South Wales; its total area is about 3800 hectares. The Belanglo State Forest is located south of Berrima in the Southern Highlands, three kilometres west of the Hume Highway between Sydney and Canberra...
.Bellamy, Patrick, "Ivan Milat, the Notorious Australian Backpacker Killer" Crimelibrary.com - 7 February 1993 - Greenough Family MassacreGreenough Family MassacreThe Greenough Family Massacre refers to the axe murders of Karen MacKenzie, 31, and her three children, Daniel 16, Amara, 7, & Katrina, 5, at their remote rural property in Greenough, Western Australia, 400 km north of Perth, on 21 February 1993, by William Patrick...
- Karen McKenzie and her three children were murdered at their remote rural property in Western Australia by former farmhand William Patrick Mitchell. - 30 March 1993 - Cangai siege1993 Cangai siegeIn March 1993 Murderers Leonard Leabeater, Robert Steele and Raymond Bassett went on a nine day rampage across two States of Australia, resulting in them taking hostages in a siege in a farmhouse at Hanging Rock Station, Cangai, near Grafton, New South Wales with them threatening to kill people...
- Murderers Leonard Leabeater, Robert Steele and Raymond Bassett held hostages in a siege at Cangai, near GraftonGrafton, New South WalesThe city of Grafton is the commercial hub of the Clarence River Valley. Established in 1851, Grafton features many historic buildings and tree-lined streets. Located approximately 630 kilometres north of Sydney and 340 km south of Brisbane, Grafton and the Clarence Valley can be reached...
, threatening to kill people indiscriminately. Leabeater killed himself the following day, while Steele and Bassett surrendered to police. Steele was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without parole, while Bassett was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences with a non-parole period of 34 years; Steele hanged himself in prison on 23 December 1994. - June and July 1993 - The Frankston serial killer, Paul DenyerPaul DenyerPaul Charles Denyer is an Australian serial killer, currently serving three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment with a non-parole period 30 years at HM Prison Barwon for the murders of Elizabeth Stevens, 18, Debbie Fream, 22, and Natalie Russell, 17, in Frankston, Victoria in 1993.Denyer is...
, murdered three women before being captured. - 2 March 1994 - NCA BombingNational Crime Authority of AustraliaThe National Crime Authority was an Australian law enforcement agency established in 1984.In 2003 it was superseded by the Australian Crime Commission .The NCA was set up in the wake of the Costigan Commission into tax evasion and organised crime...
- A parcel bomb explodes at the Adelaide office of the National Crime Authority, killing Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Bowen and injuring lawyer Peter Wallis. Dominic Perre was detained but released due to lack of evidence (unsolved). - 22 August 1994 - Kyle and Latisha O'Neill were shot dead as they slept by their father, Norm, in a double murder-suicide in StirlingStirlingStirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
, Western AustraliaWestern AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
.Australian Story - From This Day Forth - 5 September 1994 - Sydney politician John NewmanJohn Newman (Australian politician)John Paul Newman was a member of the New South Wales state parliament and Member for the seat of Cabramatta. He was the first elected politician to be assassinated in Australia.-Early life:...
was assassinated outside his home on the orders of political rival Phoung Ngo. - 29 October 1995 - 10-year-old Leanne Oliver and nine-year-old Patricia Leedie were raped and bashed to death by local handyman and mechanic and convicted sex offender Paul Stephen Osbourne at Warana Beach, QueenslandQueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
.mako-Paul Stephen Osbourne - 28 April 1996 - Port Arthur massacre - Martin Bryant killed 35 at Port Arthur, TasmaniaPort Arthur, TasmaniaPort Arthur is a small town and former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, in Tasmania, Australia. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most significant heritage areas and the open air museum is officially Tasmania's top tourist attraction. It is located approximately 60 km south east of...
and injured 21 others in a shooting spree.Bellamy, Patrick, "The Port Arthur Massacre - A Killer Among Us" Crimelibrary.com - 7 September 1996 - British tourist Brian Hagland was murdered by Aaron Martin at Bondi Beach.Aaron Martin And Sean Cushman Sentences - 16/09/1999 - PRIV - NSW Parliament
- 10 October 1996 - Tjandamurra O'ShaneTjandamurra O'ShaneTjandamurra "Janda" O'Shane is a Murri Indigenous Australian who at age six was the victim of a fire attack whilst playing at a schoolyard in Cairns, Queensland on 10 October 1996. He is the nephew of New South Wales magistrate Pat O'Shane, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner...
was set alight in a school playground in Cairns, QueenslandCairns, QueenslandCairns is a regional city in Far North Queensland, Australia, founded 1876. The city was named after William Wellington Cairns, then-current Governor of Queensland. It was formed to serve miners heading for the Hodgkinson River goldfield, but experienced a decline when an easier route was...
by unemployed drifter Paul Wade Streeton. - 18 May 1997 - champion waterskier Jason Burton was stabbed to death while trying to break up a fight at the General Bourke Hotel in Parramatta, NSW, by Emad Sleiman.
- 15 June 1997 - Jaidyn Leskie was murdered and found dumped in a dam near Moe, VictoriaMoe, VictoriaMoe is a city in the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia. It is about east of Melbourne and at the 2006 census had a population of 15,582 . It is administered by the City of Latrobe council....
(unsolved). - 6 October 1997 - Bega schoolgirl murdersBega schoolgirl murdersThe Bega schoolgirl murders refers to the abduction, rape and murder of New South Wales schoolgirls, 14-year-old Lauren Margaret Barry and 16-year-old Nichole Emma Collins of Bega, New South Wales on 6 October 1997....
- 14-year-old Lauren Barry and 16-year-old Nichole Collins were kidnapped, raped, tortured and murdered by New Zealand-born career criminal Lindsay Beckett and Victorian prison escapee Leslie Camilleri. - 16 January 1998 to 15 June 2009 - Melbourne gangland killingsMelbourne gangland killingsThe Melbourne gangland killings were the murders in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia of 36 criminal figures or partners between 16 January 1998 and 13 August 2010. The murders were in a series of retributional murders involving various underworld groups. The deaths caused a sustained power vacuum...
- A series of 35 murders of crime figures and their associates that began with the slaying of Alphonse GangitanoAlphonse GangitanoAlphonse John Gangitano was an Italian Australian criminal from Templestowe, a suburb of Melbourne. Nicknamed the "Black Prince of Lygon Street", Gangitano was the face of an organisation known as the Carlton Crew, and a close associate of convicted criminals Graham Kinniburgh, Mick Gatto and...
in his home, most likely by Jason MoranJason MoranJason Matthew Patrick Moran was an Australian criminal from Melbourne, Victoria, and one of the leaders of the Moran crime family, notable for its involvement in the Melbourne gangland killings. He sported a 12 cm scar on the side of his face.-Early life:Moran was the son of Lewis Moran and...
, the latest victim being Des MoranJudy MoranJudy Moran is the matriarch of the infamous Moran criminal family of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Judy Moran was first married to Leslie John "Johnny" Cole, who was shot dead in Sydney drug-related gangland conflict in 1982...
who was murdered in Ascot ValeAscot Vale, VictoriaAscot Vale is a suburb 7 km north-west of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Its Local Government Area is the City of Moonee Valley. At the 2006 Census, Ascot Vale had a population of 12,398....
on 15 June 2009. - 12 June 1998 and 19 June 1998 - Mark ValeraMark ValeraMark Valera was convicted in 2000 of the gruesome murders of David O'Hearn and Frank Arkell at Wollongong, New South Wales.- David O'Hearn :...
tortured and murdered Albion Park shopkeeper David O'Hearn and former Wollongong Lord MayorLord MayorThe Lord Mayor is the title of the Mayor of a major city, with special recognition.-Commonwealth of Nations:* In Australia it is a political position. Australian cities with Lord Mayors: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle, Parramatta, Perth, Sydney, and Wollongong...
Frank Arkell. Mark's sister Belinda van Krevel later 'asked' boyfriend Keith Schreiber to murder her father Jack van Krevel in retaliation for alleged sexual assault claims. - 16 August 1998 - Victorian police officers Gary Silk and Rodney Miller were shot dead in an ambush by Bendali Debs and Jason Joseph Roberts in the Moorabbin Police murders.
- 3 February 1999 - Phillip John McCormack was bashed to death in the driveway of his home in the southern suburbs of AdelaideAdelaideAdelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
by Brett Stuart Williams and Lawrence Hersbach; police found McCormack's body in a grave at OwenOwen, South AustraliaOwen is a rural community in the heart of the Adelaide Plains. Owen is above sea-level and receives a reliable 416 mm of rain annually and was first settled in about 1865. It is about 80 km north of Adelaide in South Australia and is approximately 30 minutes by road to the nearest main...
on 27 May 1999. All three were small-time criminals involved in the drug trade.Police Journal Online Sept. 2002, Vol. 83 No. 9 - 20 May 1999 - The Snowtown murdersSnowtown murdersThe Snowtown murders, also known as the Bodies in Barrels murders, were the murders of 11 people in South Australia, Australia between August 1992 and May 1999...
were uncovered when the remains of eight bodies were found in six acid-filled barrels in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, South AustraliaSnowtown, South AustraliaThe town of Snowtown is located in the Mid North of South Australia 145 km north of Adelaide and lies on the main route between Adelaide and Perth. The town's elevation is 103 metres and on average the town receives 389 mm of rainfall per annum.-History:...
, and the remains of two more bodies were later discovered under a brick rainwater tank stand at a Salisbury North property, bringing the total number of victims to eleven.Boston, John, "Snowtown - A Bank Vault's Deadly Math" Crimelibrary.com
2000s
- 29 February 2000 - Katherine KnightKatherine KnightKatherine Mary Knight was the first Australian woman to be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. She was convicted of the murder of her partner, John Charles Thomas Price in October 2001, and is currently detained in Mulawa Correctional Centre now known as Silverwater women's...
stabbed, skinned, partially cooked and cannibalized her de facto husband John Price in Aberdeen, New South WalesAberdeen, New South WalesAberdeen is a small town in the upper Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia, in Upper Hunter Shire. It is located about 12 kilometres north of Muswellbrook on the New England Highway. Aberdeen is named after Aberdeen, Scotland. At the 2006 census, Aberdeen had a population of...
. - 13 March 2000 - Millewa State Forest Murders - Barbara and Stephen Brooks and Stacie Willoughby were found dead, all three having been shot execution style and left in the forest.
- 28 May 2000 - Keith William Allan was murdered in a contract killingContract killingContract killing is a form of murder, in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for consideration, monetary, or otherwise. The hiring party may...
in Melbourne. - Winter 2000 - Sydney gang rapesSydney gang rapesThe Sydney gang rapes were a series of gang rape attacks committed by a group of up to fourteen Lebanese Australian men led by Bilal Skaf against European Australian women and teenage girls, as young as 14, in Sydney Australia in 2000...
- A series of ethnically motivated gang rapes swept Sydney's west. - 23 June 2000 - Childers Palace FireChilders Palace Backpackers Hostel fireThe Childers Palace Backpackers Hostel fire on 23 June 2000 killed 15 backpackers: nine women and six men. The hostel in the town of Childers, Queensland, Australia, is popular amongst backpackers for its fruit picking work. Robert Paul Long was arrested for lighting the fire and charged with...
- Robert Paul Long set fire to a backpacker's hostel in Childers, QueenslandChilders, QueenslandChilders is a town in southern Queensland, Australia, situated at the junction of the Bruce and Isis Highways. The township lies north of the state capital Brisbane and south-west of Bundaberg. Childers is located within Bundaberg Region Local Government Area. At the 2006 census, Childers had a...
; 15 people were killed. - 15 September 2000 - The activities of serial pedophile Geoffrey Robert Dobbs were exposed after he brought a VCR with a jammed cassette into a Melbourne electronics store for repair; police later determined that Dobbs molested at least 63 girls (including five family members) aged between one month and 15 years in Queensland between 1972 and 2000 while acting as a teacher and youth leader. Dobbs was sentenced in July 2003 to two consecutive terms of indefinite imprisonment with a nominal sentence of 30 years.
- 10 July 2001 - Sef GonzalesSef GonzalesSef Gonzales is an Australian who was convicted and sentenced in the Supreme Court of New South Wales to life imprisonment for the murder of his father Teddy Gonzales, 46, mother Mary Loiva Josephine, 43, and sister Clodine, 18....
bashed, stabbed and strangled his sister Clodine, mother Mary and father Teddy within two and a half hours in their North Ryde home in Sydney, NSW. - 12 July 2001 - Carolyn Matthews was repeatedly stabbed on the front lawn of her West LakesWest Lakes, South AustraliaWest Lakes is a suburb of Adelaide in the City of Charles Sturt. It contains the Westfield West Lakes Shopping Centre, AAMI Stadium and the Riverside Golf Course...
home by David William Key on the orders of her husband, Kevin, and his lover, Michelle Burgess, in order to maintain their affair.http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200404/s1079963.htm - 14 July 2001 - British tourists Joanne LeesJoanne LeesJoanne Rachael Lees is a British woman who is most notable for being the girlfriend of Peter Falconio at the time of his murder on a remote stretch of highway near Barrow Creek in outback Northern Territory, Australia on 14 July 2001...
and Peter FalconioPeter FalconioPeter Marco Falconio was a British tourist who disappeared in the Australian outback in July 2001, while travelling with girlfriend Joanne Lees and is nowpresumed dead....
are assaulted near Barrow Creek, Northern TerritoryNorthern TerritoryThe Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
by Bradley John MurdochBradley John MurdochBradley John Murdoch is serving life imprisonment for the July 2001 murder of English backpacker Peter Falconio in Australia. He will be 74 when eligible for parole. Murdoch is being held in Alice Springs Correctional Centre in Alice Springs. He has lodged two appeals against his conviction; both...
; Falconio is never found and Murdoch is subsequently found guilty of his murder. - 4 April 2002 - Society MurdersSociety MurdersThe Society Murders was the name given to the 4 April 2002 murders of husband and wife millionaire socialites Margaret Mary Wales-King, 69, and husband, Paul Aloysius King, 75 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, by their son, Matthew Wales...
: Matthew Wales drugged and bashed his mother Margaret Wales-King and stepfather Paul KingPaul KingPaul King is the name of:*Paul King , British singer and guitarist with pop group Mungo Jerry*Paul King , British rugby league footballer*Paul King , singer and VJ...
to death before burying them in a shallow grave at Marysville, VictoriaMarysville, VictoriaMarysville is a small town, 34 kilometres north-east of Healesville, in the Shire of Murrindindi in Victoria, Australia. The town, which previously had a population of around 500 people, was devastated by the Murrindindi Mill bushfire on 7 February 2009. On 19 February 2009 the official death toll...
. - 14 October 2002 - Dr. Margret Tobin, the South AustraliaSouth AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
n head of Mental Health Services, was shot dead by Jean Eric GassyJean Eric GassyJean Eric Gassy is a deregistered medical practitioner who was convicted in October 2004 of the murder on 14 October 2002 of Dr. Margaret Tobin, then the head of government mental health services in South Australia...
as she walked out of a lift in her office building. - 21 October 2002 - Monash University shootingMonash University shootingThe Monash University shooting refers to a shooting in which a student shot his classmates and teacher, killing two and injuring five. It took place at Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 21 October 2002. The gunman, Huan Yun Xiang, was acquitted of crimes related to the...
- Huan Xiang opened fire in a tutorial room, killing two and injuring five. - April 2003 - Pong Su incidentPong Su incidentThe Pong Su incident occurred during April 2003 when members of the Australian Special Operations Command intercepted and boarded the Pong Su, a North Korean ocean freighter in Australian territorial waters...
: A North KoreaNorth KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
n freighter was boarded after four-day chase and taken into custody in connection with a worldwide heroin smuggling operation. - 30 November 2003 - Cyclist Ian Humphery was stuck and killed by Eugene McGee along the Kapunda Road, South Australia. Due to the controversy over McGee's later conviction and the public protests it ignited, the South Australian Government ordered a Royal CommissionKapunda Road Royal CommissionThe Kapunda Road Royal Commission is a royal commission created by the Government of South Australia to inquire into the circumstances surrounding the hit and run death of Ian Humphrey and the circumstances around the trial and conviction of Eugene McGee. The Royal Commissioner is Greg James QC...
into the incident and the trail. - 7 December 2003 - Daniel Morcombe is abducted from under an overpass on the Sunshine coast, Queensland while waiting for a bus.
- 31 December 2003 - convicted pedophile Jeffrey John Hillsley bashed former coworker Michael Davies to death with a hammer and kidnapped and raped his 10-year-old stepdaughter at Campsie, NSW, before being captured by special operations police after a siege.http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/pedophile-made-good-his-threat/2005/07/04/1120329388566.html
- 14 February 2004 - 2004 Redfern riots2004 Redfern riotsThe Redfern Riots on the evening of Saturday 14 February 2004 was an event in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern sparked by the death of Thomas 'TJ' Hickey, a 17 year old Indigenous Australian....
- AboriginalIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
youths rioted against police in response to the death of 17-year old TJ Hickey, who accidentally impaled himself on a fence while fleeing police he mistakenly believed to be pursuing him. - March 2004 - Darwin sex workers Phuangsri Kroksamrang and Somjai Insamnan were bound with cable ties and thrown alive into the Adelaide River by Ben William McLean and Phu Ngoc Trinh.
- 23 March 2004 - John Sharpe murdered his pregnant wife, two-year-old daughter and unborn son with a speargun at Mornington, Victoria.
- 26 July 2004 - Security guard Karen Brown shot dead armed robber William Aquilina after he violently bashed her and stole the hotel's takings in a Sydney carpark. Brown was charged with murder but acquitted on the grounds of self defence.
- 11 February 2005 - Maria KorpMaria KorpMaria Korp was an Australian woman reported missing for four days and later found, barely alive, in the boot of her car on 13 February 2005. She spent a short time in a coma before emerging into a state of post coma unresponsiveness. She became the centre of a controversy in Australia during 2005...
murder - MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
woman found in a coma in the boot of her car. Her husband and his lover were subsequently charged with her murder after Mrs Korp's life-support was switched off. Joe Korp subsequently hanged himself in the garage of his home. - 26 February - 1 March 2005 - Macquarie Fields riots - residents of the south western Sydney suburb rioted in response to the deaths of two youths, who were passengers in a stolen car being driven by a known criminal, during a police pursuit. Residents believed police were unfairly persecuting local youths.
- 1 June 2005 - Indonesian embassy bioterrorism hoax2005 Indonesian embassy bioterrorism hoaxThe 2005 Indonesian embassy bioterrorism hoax occurred when Indonesian ambassador to Australia Imron Cotan received a suspect letter addressed to him at the Indonesian Embassy in Australia on June 1, 2005. The suspect letter later turned out to be harmless....
- 5 November 2005 - Sydney teenager Lauren Huxley was bashed severely and doused with petrol in her home by Robert Black Farmer.
- December 2005 - 2005 Cronulla riots2005 Cronulla riotsThe 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of sectarian clashes and mob violence originating in Cronulla, New South Wales and spreading, over the next few nights, to additional Sydney suburbs....
- rioting by European Australians and Arab AustralianArab AustralianAn Arab Australian is an Australian citizen or resident of Arab cultural and linguistic heritage and/or identity whose ancestry traces back to any of various waves of immigrants originating from one or more of the twenty-three countries comprised by the Arab World An Arab Australian is an...
s directed against each other were sparked by the reported bashing of Surf Life Savers the previous week by several individuals of "middle-eastern appearance"; retaliatory and counter-retaliatory violence continued for two weeks. - 18 February 2006 - Cardross Hit and RunCardross road accidentThe Cardross road accident refers to a hit and run accident at Cardross, Victoria, Australia at 9.50pm on 18 February 2006, where a driver driving a Ford BA Falcon station wagon, collided with a group of thirteen teenage pedestrians, killing five immediately and injuring eight more...
- Thomas Graham Towle crashed his car at high speed into a group of 13 teenagers killing six and injuring seven near the town of Cardross, VictoriaCardross, VictoriaCardross is a small town approximately 15 km south east of Mildura, in north western Victoria, Australia. At the 2006 census, Cardross and the surrounding area had a population of 739...
. - 20 February 2006 - Errol Graham Hayes set fire to a house at Annerley, Queensland after an argument; his former girlfriend, Theresa Marchetti, her new partner, Mark Christensen, and his own 18-month-old son, Joshua Hayes, were killed in the fire.
- 26 June 2006 - Canning Vale murder - 8-year-old Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu was raped and murdered in a suburban Perth shopping mall by Dante Wyndham ArthursDante ArthursDante Wyndham Arthurs from Perth, Western Australia, was 21 years old when he was charged on the 27th of June 2006, with the Wilful Murder, Sexual Penetration and Unlawful Detention of 8 year old school girl Sofia Rodriguez Urrutia-Shu...
. - 5 June 2007 - Tony Mokbel arrestedTony MokbelAntonios Sajih 'Tony' Mokbel is an Australian from Melbourne, Australia, who was a fugitive until his recapture in Athens, Greece on 5 June 2007. He is of Lebanese descent and born in Kuwait. Detectives from Operation Purana allege that he is the mastermind behind the Melbourne amphetamines trade...
- Convicted drug trafficker Tony MokbelTony MokbelAntonios Sajih 'Tony' Mokbel is an Australian from Melbourne, Australia, who was a fugitive until his recapture in Athens, Greece on 5 June 2007. He is of Lebanese descent and born in Kuwait. Detectives from Operation Purana allege that he is the mastermind behind the Melbourne amphetamines trade...
was arrested in Athens, Greece after fleeing Australia in March 2006 during his trial for the importation of cocaineCocaineCocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
. - 18 June 2007 - Melbourne CBD shooting2007 Melbourne CBD shootingsChristopher Hudson was a full member of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, having defected from rival group The Finks in 2006. Shortly afterward, he was involved in a brawl between both clubs at a kickboxing tournament on the Gold Coast and was shot in the chin...
- Christopher Wayne Hudson opened fire on three people, killing one and seriously wounding two others who intervened when Hudson was assaulting his girlfriend at a busy Melbourne intersection during the morning peak. He gave himself up to police in Wallan, VictoriaWallan, VictoriaWallan or Wallan Wallan is a town in Victoria, from Melbourne on the Northern Highway in Australia.The town sits at the southern end of the large and diverse Shire of Mitchell which extends from the northern fringes of Melbourne into the farming country of north-central Victoria and the lower...
on 20 June. - 7 February 2009 - 2009 Victorian bushfires - Arsonists lit several fires contributing to the deaths of 173 people.
- 2 June 2009 - Violence against Indians stirs up international controversy.
- 18 July 2009 - Five members of the Lin family were found dead in their home in Epping, New South Wales.
2010s
- 28 April 2011 - 2011 Hectorville siege2011 Hectorville siegeThe 2011 Hectorville siege was a siege that took place between the hours of 2:30am and 10:30am on Friday 29 April 2011 in the small suburb of Hectorville, east of Adelaide in the state of South Australia, Australia, when a 39-year old male went on a shooting rampage, killing 3 people and wounding 2...
- A gunman shot dead 3 members of a family and seriously wounded another family member and a police officerSouth Australia PoliceThe South Australia Police is the police force of the Australian state of South Australia. It is an agency of the Government of South Australia within the South Australian Department of Justice.-History:...
at Hectorville, South AustraliaHectorville, South AustraliaHectorville is a small lower middle class suburb of Adelaide in the City of Campbelltown. It is one of eight suburbs within the City of Campbelltown.The first house in Hectorville was built by Price Maurice in 1849 next to Fourth Creek...
before being arrested after an eight hour stand off.
See also
- Crime in AustraliaCrime in AustraliaCrime-wise, Australia is comparatively a safe place to live, though often the perception of crime is much higher. Human smuggling, human trafficking and the illegal drug trade have all impacted Australia in recent years...
- List of Australian criminals
- List of disasters in Australia by death toll
- For information and debate pertaining to the massacre and genocideGenocideGenocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of Aborigines, see Indigenous AustraliansIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
, Black WarBlack WarThe Black War is a term used to describe a period of conflict between British colonists and Tasmanian Aborigines in the early nineteenth century...
and History WarsHistory warsThe history wars in Australia are an ongoing public debate over the interpretation of the history of the British colonisation of Australia and development of contemporary Australian society...
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