Australian mass murders
Several massacres occurred in Australia leading up to firearms licensing laws in 1996 after the Port Arthur massacre, one of the deadliest lone wolf massacres in history. Most major gun massacres in Australia occurred before 1996.
Mass deaths
- Cullin-La-Ringo massacre - Horatio Wills and his traveling party were killed by Aborigines at Cullin-La-Ringo Station in Queensland in 1860; police, native police and civilians killed 60 to 70 Aborigines in response.
- George David Silva murdered six members of the Ching family at Alligator Creek near Mackay, Queensland in 1911.
- Coniston massacre - Over 50 Aboriginal people were killed in the last Aboriginal massacre in 1928. The motive was revenge for the killing of dingo hunter Frederick Brooks.
- Clifford Bartholomew massacre - A man shot dead ten members of his family in Hope Forest near Adelaide, September 1971.
- Milperra massacre - Two biker gangs, the Comanchero and the Bandidos, engaged in a shoot-out in a hotel car park, killing 7 people in 1984, including a bystander. Only one defendant was acquitted on the murder charges.
- Joseph Schwab - 1987, Schwab shot dead 5 people in and around the Kimberley region in Western Australia before being shot dead by police. [1]
- Hoddle Street massacre - Armed with two rifles and a shotgun, Julian Knight shot 7 people dead and wounded another 19 in 1987 before surrendering to authorities.
- Queen Street massacre - Armed with a sawn-off rifle, Frank Vitkovic roamed the Australia Post building killing 8 and wounding 5, also in 1987. When the weapon was finally wrestled from him, he committed suicide by jumping out of a nearby window.
- Surry Hills massacre - Paul Anthony Evers killed 5 people with a 12-gauge shotgun at a public housing precinct in Surry Hills in 1990 before surrendering to police. [2]
- Strathfield massacre - In 1991 Wade Frankum killed 7 people and wounded 6 others with a large knife and an SKS before turning the gun on himself when he realised he could not escape.
- Central Coast Massacre - Malcolm Baker killed 6 people and injured another with a shotgun in 1992 before being arrested by police.
- Port Arthur massacre - In 1996, armed with two semi-automatic rifles, Martin Bryant killed 35 people around Port Arthur and wounded 21 before being caught by police the next day following an overnight siege.
- Childers Palace Fire - In June 2000, drifter and con-artist Robert Long started a fire at the Childers Palace backpackers hostel that killed 15 people.
Murders over an extended period of time
- Eric Edgar Cooke murdered 8 people between 1959 and 1963.
- Backpacker murders - Ivan Milat killed seven international backpackers in the early 1990s, and is widely suspected of killing 30 more young adults.
- Melbourne gangland killings - 36 underworld figures murdered so far in gang related violence between 1998 and 2010.
- Snowtown murders - 11 murders committed from 1992 until 1999.
- John Wayne Glover - murders of six elderly women on Sydney's North Shore over a fourteen month period in 1989-90
Miscellaneous
- Whiskey Au Go Go fire - Fire lit in club killed 15
- Douglas Crabbe - Truck driver deliberately crashed his truck into a hotel, killing five and badly wounding 16.
- Russell Street Bombing - 23 wounded when a car bomb ignites outside a Police Building. One of the wounded, a female police officer, died later of injuries from the explosion.
- Sydney Hilton bombing - Two garbage men were killed and 12 passers-by were injured by a bomb planted in a garbage bin outside the Sydney Hilton Hotel in the 1978. A police officer who was wounded died later.
Effects on firearm laws
- Port Arthur Massacre - Semi-automatic rifles and pump action/self-loading shotguns were banned from civilians, and ammunition capacity restricted to 5 rounds in magazine-fed rifles. Licensing is also introduced, and both a firearms license and a buyers permit are necessary to legally purchase a firearm. Furthermore, an acceptable reason must be stated on the permit for buying the weapon, and a minimum 28 day "cooling off" period must be enforced before the issuing of the license.
- Monash University shooting - Pistols restricted to .38 calibre and magazine capacity restricted to ten rounds maximum unless under special circumstances. Furthermore, pistol barrels are restricted to a minimum of 120 mm (4.72 inches) and revolver barrels to a minimum of 100 mm (3.94 inches) to make pistols harder to conceal.
See also
References