<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/23/more-than-10000-first-nations-people-killed-in-australias-frontier-wars-final-massacre-map-shows-ntwnfb>
"The final findings of the “horrendous” eight-year long “massacre map”, tracing
the violent history of the Australian colonial frontier have been released.
The Colonial Frontier Massacres digital map project, spearheaded by the late
emerita professor of history at the University of Newcastle, Dr Lyndall Ryan,
officially concluded in 2022.
Since then, researchers have reviewed every site on the map, with contributions
from the general public, volunteers and peer reviewers. Much of the rest of the
work on the map was completed by professional and academic staff without pay.
In this thorough, final check of archival sources, some sites have been added
and others merged, others have more accurate location data and more details
have been provided in the narrative section.
Guardian Australia collaborated with the university team to produce
The
Killing Times, a long-running series telling the stories of all sides of
Australian frontier history.
The project found that:
* At least 10,657 people were killed in at least 438 colonial frontier
massacres.
* 10,374 of them were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people killed by
colonists.
* Only 160 of those killed were non-Indigenous colonists.
* There were 13 massacres of colonists by Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
people.
* The most intense period of massacres was from the late 1830s into 1840s, with
a pivotal point being the Myall Creek massacre in 1838 – the first time any
perpetrators had been punished.
* After the Myall Creek convictions, the government could no longer involve the
military and new “police” forces were created, which set a pattern for the rest
of the conflict.
* About half of all massacres of Aboriginal people were carried out by police
and other government agents. Many others were perpetrated by settlers acting
with tacit approval of the state.
* Some perpetrators were involved in many massacres.
“For some [perpetrators], you can see a life trajectory where, for example, one
was raised in an area where colonists had been killed and fighting had been
especially intense in Queensland, and went on to commit massacres and other
violence right across the Northern Territory,” digital humanities specialist on
the project, Dr Bill Pascoe, says."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
