This is a timeline of major crimes in Australia.
19th century 1800s 4 March 1804 – Castle Hill convict rebellion. 26 January 1808 – George Johnston played a key role in the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history, the Rum Rebellion. Johnston later sailed for England and was found guilty of mutiny.
1820s 1821 – Bank of New South Wales Cashier Francis Williams embezzled £12,000 (approx. $3,202,000AU in 2024) from Australia's first bank. 20 September 1822 – Alexander Pearce, Bob Greenhill and six others escaped from Macquarie Harbour. Pearce and Greenhill later killed their fellow escapees and ate them. 1820s – Thomas Jeffrey was a bushranger, serial killer and cannibal in the early 19th century in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania, Australia). He and his gang killed four male adults and a five-month-old baby in the mid-1820s. He was executed by hanging on 4 May 1826. 10 February 1828 – Cape Grim massacre – Four shepherds with muskets ambushed over 30 Tasmanian Aboriginal people from the Pennemukeer band from Cape Grim, killing 30 and throwing their bodies over a 60-metre cliff into the sea. 14 September 1828 – Bank of Australia robberyBaxter, Carol Breaking the Bank: An Extraordinary Colonial Robbery, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2008
1830s 10 June 1838 – Myall Creek Massacre – up to 30 Aboriginal people were slaughtered at the Myall Creek near Bingara in northern New South Wales. After two trials, seven of the 11 colonists involved in the killings were found guilty of murder and hanged.
1840s June to July 1840 – Maria shipwreck massacre – 25 survivors of the Maria shipwreck were massacred along the Coorong under mysterious circumstances while being accompanied back to Adelaide by members of the Ngarrindjeri. Governor George Gawler ordered a hasty investigation and the execution of those responsible. A drumhead court-martial led to the execution of two Ngarrindjeri men.
1850s 28 November to 3 December 1854 – Eureka Stockade gold prospectors staged an uprising against the government leading to armed conflict; 22 miners and 6 soldiers were killedCorfield, Justin, Wickham, Dorothy, Gervasoni, Clare, Ballarat Heritage Services, The Eureka Encyclopaedia, 2004
1860s 30 June 1861 – Lambing Flat riots White miners rioted against Chinese immigrants. 17 October 1861 – Cullin La Ringo massacre in Central Queensland. Nineteen white settlers were killed, one of the largest massacres of whites by Aboriginal Australians in Australian history. 15 June 1862 – Eugowra gold escort robbery – Frank Gardiner's gang, including Ben Hall, stole 2700 ounces of gold worth more than 14,000 pounds. 9 April 1865 – Daniel Morgan, a prominent bushranger who had been raiding banks in Victoria and New South Wales for more than a decade, was killed. 27 April 1867 – Southern New South Wales bushrangers, Thomas and John Clarke were captured. They were hanged on 25 June that year. February to May 1868 – Flying Foam Massacre – confrontations between white settlers and Aboriginal people around Flying Foam Passage on Murujuga (Burrup Peninsula) resulted in the deaths of between 20 and 150 people 1869 – Bushranger Andrew "Captain Moonlite" Scott robbed the London Chartered Bank of Australia in Mount Egerton, Victoria escaping with £1,000.
1870s October 1878 – Stringybark Creek Massacre – Victorian bushrangers, the Kelly Gang, ambushed and killed three police officers at Stringybark Creek. December 1878 – Bushranger Ned Kelly raided a bank in Euroa and, at a nearby sheep station, hosted a party for his 22 hostages shortly afterwards.
1880s 26 June 1880 – Bushranger Joe Byrne shot and killed associated Aaron Sherritt; Byrne believe Sherritt had turned police informant 27 June 1880 – Ned Kelly's Last Stand – The Kelly Gang held the town of Glenrowan, Victoria, hostage at the town's inn in an attempt to ambush police. The attempt failed, and a siege ensued on the 28th, during which time three members of Kelly's gang and a young boy were killed, and Kelly was captured after being wounded by police. 24 July 1880 – John James MacGregor Greer shot his wife, Annice, M. A. Louis Soudry and himself at the Melbourne Opera House. He died; the others recovered. 16 May 1881 – Police Trooper Harry Pearce was viciously attacked by a prisoner, Robert Johnson, with a knife while on escort to Kingston SE. Pearce died of his injuries on 19 May, the second South Australian policeman to die while on duty. Johnson was executed at Mount Gambier Gaol on 18 November the same year.
1890s 24 December 1891 – The Windsor murder – English gasfitter, confidence trickster and career criminal Frederick Bailey Deeming murdered his new wife Emily (née Mather) at a newly rented house in Andrew Street, Windsor, Melbourne, 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 Rainhill, England in July or August 1891. Their bodies were not discovered until after the Windsor murder. Deeming was arrested at Southern Cross, Western Australia, 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 Ripper. 11 October 1896 – Joseph Thyer, a sheep farmer, murdered his wife and five children before hanging himself in Cavanagh, SAA terrible tragedy – A sheep farmer murders his wife and five children, The West Australian (14 October 1896) – The Brisbane Courier – Thursday, 13 October 1896, The Brisbane Courier (13 October 1896) – A dreadful tragedy – Murder of a wife and five children, The Brisbane Courier (15 October 1896) 1 March 1898 – Glover family tragedy – A mother murdered her six children and then committed suicide in the town of Triabunna, TasmaniaA Terrible Tragedy – A mother murders six children, The West Australian (3 March 1898) – The Tasmanian Tragedy – Later Particulars, The West Australian (4 March 1898) – The Tasmanian Tragedy – Results of Inquests, The West Australian (5 March 1898) – The Tasmanian Tragedy – Three Bodies Exhumed, The West Australian (15 March 1898) – The Triabunna Tragedy- A Municipal Inquiry, The West Australian (6 April 1898) 26 December 1898 – Gatton murders – Three members of the same family were murdered, the sisters having been sexually assaulted, near the town of Gatton, Queensland (unsolved)Whiticker. pp12 – 25
20th century 1900s 20 July 1900 – Jimmy Governor murdered four members of the Mawbey family and schoolteacher Helen Josephine Kerz at Breelong, NSW. Later, with his brother Joe, he murdered two old men, Alexander McKay and Kyrien Fitzpatrick, and members of the O'Brien family— mother and wife Elizabeth and her unborn child, along with her 10-month-old son— near Merriwa in the Upper Hunter district. After being on the run for around 100 days, Joe was shot dead and Jimmy was taken to Sydney for trial, where he was found guilty of the murder of Miss Kerz (not of any of his other victims) and hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol in January 1901. 2 January 1902 – Bertha Schippan was found murdered at Towitta, South Australia, two weeks before her 14th birthday. After an inquest, her 24-year-old sister Mary stood trial in Adelaide, but was acquitted. April 1902 – The charred remains of Albert Dahlke and Constable George Doyle of the Upper Warrego police station were found in Lethbridge's Pocket. They had set out during Easter 1902 to arrest James and Patrick Kenniff for horse-stealing. Strong suspicion for the murders fell on the Kenniffs. Sam Johnson, Doyle's aboriginal tracker, heard shots fired, and when he neared the arrest scene, the Kenniffs pursued him, but he escaped. Despite a reward of £1000 and a large police manhunt, the Kenniffs were not taken until 23 June at Arrest Creek, south of Mitchell.
1910s 16 November 1911 – George David Silva shot and bludgeoned six members of the Ching family near Mackay, Queensland. 8 June 1913 – 11-year-old Ivy Mitchell was raped and murdered on her way home from school near Samford, Queensland by Ernest Austin; he was the last person in Queensland to be hanged. 1 January 1915 – Two Muslim men attacked a picnic train near Broken Hill, in what is known as The Battle of Broken Hill. Both attackers were shot dead by police; four other people were killed and seven wounded. 14 February 1916 – Liverpool riot – An initial strike by 5000 AIF soldiers from Casula near Liverpool became a three-day riot and pub crawl ending at Central and East Sydney, involving commandeered trains, destruction of property, and confrontations with police and military guards. NSW Premier William Holman called a state of emergency and closed Sydney's pubs. About 1000 soldiers were court-martialled and gaoled or discharged from the army. One consequence was the introduction of six o'clock closing, already present in South Australia, following a June 1916 referendum. The NSW "six o'clock swill" saw the rise of sly-grog shops and lasted until 1955 when the closing time was changed to 10 pm following another referendum."Razor Gang Feuds – Tilly Devine vs Kate Leigh", Dimensions in Time, ABC December 1917 – early 1918 – Wonnangatta murders – On 23 February 1918, in the remote Wonnangatta Valley in East Gippsland, Victoria, the badly decomposed body of Jim Barclay, the manager of Wonnangatta Station, was found near the station homestead. 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 during a statewide search carried out after 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 February 1921 – Murder of Chrissie Venn – A 13-year-old girl was found murdered outside the village of North Motton, near Ulverstone, Tasmania. 21 December 1921 – The Gun Alley Murder – 12-year-old Alma Tirtschke was found raped and murdered in Gun Alley, Melbourne. Although 29-year-old Colin Ross was hanged for the crime, a judicial re-assessment, prompted by author Kevin Morgan's book, found that Ross was probably innocent. After DNA testing cleared Ross, he was pardoned posthumously on 22 May 2008. May 1926 – Forrest River massacre – Western Australia – 11 people were murdered in a series of punitive raids after the murder of a pastoralist in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. 27 October 1927 – Squizzy Taylor died after a shootout with rival gangster Snowy Cutmore in Melbourne. Cutmore died in the same shootout. August 1928 – Coniston massacre – Northern Territory police constable William Murray led a series of raids on Aboriginal tribes in response to the murder of a local dingo trapper. The official death toll was 31, but some experts believe it was much higher. 23 February 1929 – Constable John Holeman was shot in Grenfell Street, Adelaide, by John Stanley McGrath while he was taking McGrath's motorcycle and sidecar to the City Watchhouse. Holeman died an hour and a half later. McGrath was sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment, and served 15 years. 26 February 1929 – Father Andrew Thomas Edgar Archur murdered his five children and his wife and then set fire to their house in Devonport, Tasmania. He killed himself after the attack.Family perish in fire – Murder arson, and suicide, The Canberra Times (27 February 1929) – Father's crime, The Brisbane Courier (20 March 1929) December 1929 – May 1930 – The Murchison Murders – Snowy Rowles murdered three men in Outback Western Australia.
1930s 21 August 1931 – Roderick A. Davies, a 36-year-old carpenter, shot his wife and five children dead before taking his own life in Perth.Family tragedy, The Sydney Morning Herald (22 August 1931)