Timeline of major crimes in Australia

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Timeline of major crimes in Australia

Contents 1 1800s 1.1 1820s 1.2 1830s 1.3 1840s 1.4 1850s 1.5 1860s 1.6 1870s 1.7 1880s 1.8 1890s 2 1900s 2.1 1920s 2.2 1930s 2.3 1940s 2.4 1960s 2.5 1970s 2.6 1980s 2.7 1990s 3 2000s 4 See also 5 References

[edit] 1800s

[edit] 1820s

• September 13, 1828 - Robbers break into the vault of the Bank of Australasia in Sydney and take off with a loot of various nominations - first bank robbery in Australia.

[edit] 1830s

• 9 June 1838 - Myall Creek Massacre

[edit] 1840s

• October - November 1848 (Approx.) - Avenue Range murders (or massacre) - a farmer and an employee were reported to have murdered nine Aboriginal women, children and an old, blind man. The farmer was arrested, charged and tried, but never convicted due to lack of evidence. The other man escaped South Australia on a south sea whaling ship.

[edit] 1850s

• 28 November - 3 December 1854, - Eureka Stockade Gold prospecters stage uprising against government leading to armed conflict; 22 miners and 6 soldiers killed

[edit] 1860s

• 30 June 1861, - Lambing Flat riots White miners riot against Chinese immigrants, murdering several (numbers unknown)
• 17 October 1861, - Cullin La Ringo massacre in Central Queensland. Nineteen white settlers killed, the largest massacre of whites by Aborigines in Australian history.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1870s

• October 1878, - Stringybark Creek Massacre - Victorian bushrangers the Kelly Gang ambush and kill three police officers at Stringybark Creek

[edit] 1880s

• 27 June 1880, - Ned Kelly's Last Stand - The Kelly Gang hold the town of Glenrowan, Victoria hostage at the town's inn in an attempt to ambush police. The attempt fails and a siege ensues on the 28th, during which three members of the gang and at least one young boy are killed, and Ned Kelly is captured.
• 16 May 1881, - Murder of Police Trooper Harry Pearce - PT Pearce was viciously attacked by a prisoner, Robert Johnson with a knife while escorting him to Kingston SE. PT Pearce died of his injuries on 19 May and Johnson was executed at Mount Gambier Goal on 18 November the same year.

[edit] 1890s

• 26 December 1898, - Gatton murders - Three members of the same family are sexually molested and murdered near the town of Gatton, Queensland (unsolved)

[edit] 1900s

[edit] 1920s

• 21 December 1921 - Gun Alley murder - 12 year old Alma Tirtschke is raped and murdered in Gun Alley, Melbourne. 28 year-old Colin Ross was hanged for the crime, but in 1992 was proved innocent (unsolved).
• August 1928 - Coniston massacre - Northern Territory police constable William Murray leads a series of raids on Aboriginal tribes in response to the murder of a local dingo trapper (official death toll 31, but believed to be much higher)

[edit] 1930s

• 1 Sep, 1934 - Pyjama Girl murder - The body of a woman found beaten and half burnt in a culvert in southern New South Wales
• 1932-1934 - Caledon Bay crisis - A series of rapes, murders and retaliatory violence involving Japanese, Aboriginals and white Australians in the Northern Territory
• 1935 - The Shark Arm Case - The arm of murdered man James Smith is disgorged by a tiger shark being held in a public exhibit in Sydney (unsolved)

[edit] 1940s

• 3 May-4 November 1942 - "Brown Out" serial murders. American Soldier Eddie Leonski murders three women in Melbourne, Victoria

[edit] 1960s

• 7 July 1960 - Graeme Thorne kidnapping - 8-year old boy kidnapped and murdered days after his parents win the Opera House Lottery
• 11 January 1965 - Wanda Beach Murders - Two teenage girls murdered on a southern Sydney beach (unsolved)
• 26 January 1966 - Beaumont children disappearance - Three young children disappear from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia (unsolved)

[edit] 1970s

• 6 October 1972 - Faraday School kidnapping - teacher and 6 pupils kidnapped for $1 million ransom in Victoria.
• 15 November 1972 - First aircraft hijacking in Australia. Ansett Airlines flight 232 from Adelaide to Alice Springs with 28 passengers and a crew of 4. Followed by gun battle at Alice Springs Airport where the hijacker Miloslav Hrabinec shot himself. He died later that day.
• 8 March 1973 - Whiskey Au Go Go fire, 15 killed in arson attack on a Brisbane nightclub.
• 4 July 1975 - Juanita Nielsen Disappearance - Kings Cross 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 - R J Lyttle sets fire to a hotel in Kings Cross. 14 die from carbon monoxide poisoning and one from burns.
• 21 April 1976 - Great Bookie Robbery - A gang of six men steal an undetermined sum (between $6 and $12 million) from the Victoria Club in Queen Street, Melbourne. One man, Norman Lee, is charged but acquitted (technically unsolved).
• 17 July 1977 - Donald Mackay disappearance - Anti-drugs campaigner from Griffith, New South Wales disappears, presumed murdered (unsolved)
• 13 February 1978 - Sydney Hilton bombing - Three killed by bomb blast outside CHOGM in Sydney. Ananda Marga members imprisoned but later pardoned and released
• April 25, 1978 - discovery of the Truro murders

[edit] 1980s

• 17 August 1980 - Azaria Chamberlain disappearance - A two-month old baby disappears from a tent in a camp site at Uluru, Northern Territory. Mother Lindy Chamberlain claims the child is taken by a dingo and is later jailed for her murder but eventually acquitted.
• August 18, 1983 - Douglas Crabbe rams his 25 ton Mack truck into a hotel in Yulara, killing 5 people.
• 31 January 1984 - A man holds up the Commonwealth Bank in Pitt Street, Sydney, and is later shot dead on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
• 14 August 1984 - Fine Cotton Affair - A syndicate of trainers and bookmakers substitutes one horse for another at a Brisbane horse race
• September, 1984 - Milperra massacre - Two rival bikie gangs stage a shoot-out in a car park of a south-western Sydney hotel. 7 people die
• 9 May 1985 - Christopher Flannery disappearance - Melbourne criminal Christopher Dale Flannery disappears without trace, presumed murdered (unsolved).
• 2 February 1986 - Anita Cobby murder - Sydney nurse Anita Cobby is raped, brutalised and murdered by a gang lead by John Travers
• 6 February, 1986 - Sallie-Anne Huckstepp murder - Sydney prostitute and police informant Sallie-Anne Huckstepp is murdered in Centennial Park. Convicted murderer Arthur "Neddy" Smith is charged but acquitted (unsolved).
• 27 March, 1986 - Russell Street bombing - Four men plant a car bomb outside Police Headquarters in Russell Street, Melbourne. A 22-year old policewoman is killed and 22 others injured.
• 19 August, 1986 - Samantha Knight disappearance - 9 year Samantha Knight disappears from a Bondi street
• 8 December 1987 - Queen Street massacre - Frank Vitkovic murders 7 people in the Australia Post building in Queen Street, Melbourne before leaping to his death from the 12th floor window. 5 others are seriously injured.
• 8 September 1988 - Janine Balding murder - 21 year old Janine Balding is abducted, raped and murdered by five homeless youths in Sydney's west
• 12 October 1988 - Walsh Street police shootings - Two police officers executed in Melbourne (unsolved)
• 10 January 1989 - Colin Winchester murder - The Assistant Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police is shot to death outside his home in Canberra.
• November, 1989 - Leigh Leigh murder - Newcastle teenager raped and murdered on a Newcastle beach
• 1989-1990 - Granny Murders - John Wayne Glover murders six elderly women across Sydney's north shore

[edit] 1990s

• 11 July 1990 - Sarah MacDiarmid Age 23 - disappearance and likely murder at Kananook railway station in Melbourne, Victoria. Unsolved
• 1991 - Karmein Chan murder
• 4 July 1991 - Victor Chang - World-renown heart surgeon Victor Chang is murdered in Sydney during an extortion attempt
• 17 August, 1991 - Strathfield massacre - Wade Frankum murders seven then kills himself in a Sydney shopping centre
• 1988-1992 - backpacker murders - Ivan Milat murders seven tourists and buries them in Belanglo State Forest
• 2 March 1994 - NCA Bombing - A parcel bomb explodes at the Adelaide office of the National Crime Authority, killing Detective Sergeant Geoffrey Brown and injuring lawyer Peter Wallis. Dominic Perre is charged but released due to lack of evidence (unsolved).
• 5 September, 1994 - John Newman murder - Sydney politician assassinated outside his home
• 1993 - The Frankston Serial Killer, Paul Denyer, murders 3 women before capture
• 1996 - Tjandamurra O'Shane is set alight in school playground in Cairns, Queensland.
• 28 April 1996 - Port Arthur massacre - Martin Bryant kills 35 at Port Arthur, Tasmania.
• 15 June 1997 - Jaidyn Leskie murder - toddler murdered and found dumped in a dam near Moe, Victoria.
• 16 January 1998 - Alphonse Gangitano murder, Melbourne underworld killing
• 1992 - 1999 - Snowtown murders - 8 bodies found in barrels in a disused bank vault in Snowtown, South Australia. 2 more bodies later discovered in a suburban Adelaide yard
• 16 August 1998 - police officers executed in Moorabbin Police murders

[edit] 2000s

• Winter, 2000 - Sydney gang rapes - A series of apparently racially-motivated gang rapes against teenage girls sweeps Sydney's west
• 23 June, 2000 - Childers Palace Fire - Robert Long sets fire to a backpacker's hostel in Childers, Queensland. 15 people are killed.
• 14 July 2001 - British tourists Joanne Lees and Peter Falconio are assaulted near Barrow Creek, Northern Territory by Bradley John Murdoch. Falconio is never found and Murdoch is subsequently found guilty of his murder.
• 4 April 2002 - Society Murders. Matthew Wales murders his mother Margaret Wales-King and stepfather Paul King and buries them in a shallow grave in Victoria.
• June, 2002 - Moorebank Hotel shooting. Security guard Karen Brown shoots and kills armed robber William Aquilina after he violently bashes her and steals the hotel's takings in a Sydney carpark. Brown is charged with murder but acquitted on self defence grounds.
• 21 October, 2002 - Monash University shooting - Huan Xiang opens fire in a tutorial room, killing two and injuring five.
• April, 2003, Pong Su incident - North Korean freighter boarded after four-day chase and taken into custody in connection with worldwide heroin smuggling operation.
• 14 February 2004 - 2004 Redfern riots - Aboriginal youths riot against police in response to the death of 17-year old TJ Hickey. Hickey had accidentally impaled himself on a fence while fleeing police he mistakenly believed were pursusing him.
• 23 March, 2004 - Sharpe family murders, Husband murdered his family with a spear gun.
• 11 February 2005 - Maria Korp murder - Melbourne woman found in a coma in the boot of her car. Her husband and his lover are subsequently charged with her murder after Mrs Korp's life-support is switched off.
• 26 February - 1 March, 2005 - Macquarie Fields riots - residents of the south western Sydney suburb riot in response to the deaths of two youths during a police pursuit. The youths were passengers in a stolen car being driven by a known criminal. Residents believed police were unfairly persecuting local youth
• 1 June, 2005 - Indonesian embassy bioterrorism hoax
• November 2005 - Sydney teenager Lauren Huxley is bashed and set alight in her home
• December 2005 - 2005 Cronulla riots - rioting by European Australians and people of Middle Eastern origin directed against each other 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.
• 31 January 2006 - Youbert Hormozi murder - Two 14-year old girls rob and murder a disabled taxi driver in Sydney's west
• 26 June, 2006 - Canning Vale murder - 8 year-old Sofia Rodriguez-Urrutia-Shu is raped and murdered in a suburban Perth shopping mall. Dante Wyndham Arthurs is arrested and charged with these crimes, and is remanded in custody awaiting trial.

[edit] See also

• Crime in Australia
• List of Australian criminals
• List of disasters in Australia by death toll

[edit] References

Crime in Australia
Regional crime:	Timeline | Melbourne | Northern Territory | Western Australia | Sydney
Australian law:	Courts | Criminal law | Law enforcement
Australian people:	Bushrangers | Convicts | Criminals | Murderers | Prisoners
Australian prisons:	ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA
International:	Crime by country