Coniston, Central Australia, 1928: the murder of an itinerant prospector triggered a series of police-led expeditions that ranged over vast areas for two months, with the ‘hunting parties’ shooting down Warlpiri victims by the dozen. The official death toll, declared by the whitewash federal inquiry as being all in self-defence, was thirty-one. The real number was certainly many times that.

The Coniston massacre, August-October 1928,  was the last known officially sanctioned massacre of Indigenous Australians and one of the last events of the Australian Frontier Wars. Between 31 and 200 Indigenous Australians were killed. The Wikipedia article is very well sourced.

A gripping multi-generational saga about Australian frontier violence and cultural theft, and the myths that stand between us and history's unpalatable truths.

One event in 1934—the shooting at Uluru of Aboriginal man Yokununna by white policeman Bill McKinnon, and subsequent Commonwealth inquiry—stood out as a mirror of racial politics in the Northern Territory at the time. But then, through speaking with the families of both killer and victim, McKenna unearthed new evidence that transformed the historical record and the meaning of the event for today. As he explains, ‘Every thread of the story connected to the present in surprising ways.’ In a sequence of powerful revelations, McKenna explores what truth-telling and reconciliation look like in practice.

Overview of the reaction of government authorities to Aborigines in the Northern Territory during the period 1863 to 1910, when the Territory was controlled by South Australia; what policy development there was is set in the context of how the government and white settlers viewed Aborigines; influence of social Darwinism on policy and attitudes; contact history and violent conflict on the frontier as Europeans attempted to realise the economic promises made by government; use of Aboriginal labour, policies on education and welfare.

Seeks to document the frontier conflicts between European colonists and Australia’s First Peoples. Maps, timelines, names of warriors, memorials, resources, latest news. Separate sites for each state.