Timeline of major crimes in Australia

 

Timeline of major crimes in Australia

1800s

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.

1830s

• 9 June, 1838 - Myall Creek Massacre

1840s

• October - November 1848 (Approx.) - Avenue Range murders (or massacre) - a farmer and an employee were reported to have killed 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.

1850s

• 28 November - 3 December 1854, - Eureka Stockade Gold prospecters stage uprising against government leading to armed conflict; 22 miners and 6 soldiers killed^[1]

1860s

• 30 June 1861, - Lambing Flat riots White miners riot against Chinese immigrants, killing 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^[2].

1870s

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

1880s

• 26 June 1880, - Joe Byrne shoots dead Aaron Sherritt for giving the police information about the Kelly Gang in exchange for money.
• 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.
• 11 November 1880, - Ned Kelly is hanged at the Melbourne Gaol.
• 23 November 1880, - 12 days after the hanging of Ned Kelly, Judge Redmond Barry who sentenced Kelly to death, falls ill and dies.
• 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 Goal on 18 November the same year.

1890s

• 26 December 1898, - Gatton murders - Three members of the same family are sexually molested and murdered near the town of Gatton, Queensland (unsolved)^[3]

1900s

1900s

• July 16 1911 - Scott Street Tragedy - Timothy Daly is gunned down on a street in Newcastle, New South Wales. A policeman on a passing streetcar is first to the scene.

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).
• April 1927 - Newcastle Tragedy - Mary Buckley is slain by her husband at their Newcastle townhouse while she sleeps in the same bed as their 16-year-old daughter.
• 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)
• December 1929 - May 1930 - The Murchison Murders - Snowy Rowles murders three men in Outback Western Australia using a method being discussed by novelist Arthur Upfield for a forthcoming book.

1930s

• 1 Sep, 1934 - Pyjama Girl murder - The body of a woman found beaten and half burnt in a culvert near Albury, New South Wales^[4]
• 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)^[5]

1940s

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

1960s

• 7 July, 1960 - Graeme Thorne kidnapping - 8-year old boy kidnapped and murdered days after his parents win the Opera House Lottery
• 1964 - The Nedlands Monster - Serial killer Eric Cooke murders eight people and assaults 20 more during a spree in Perth
• 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)

1970s

• 6 October, 1972 - Faraday School kidnapping - teacher and 6 pupils kidnapped for $1 million ransom in Victoria.
• 15 November, 1972 - Ansett Airlines Flight 232 - 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)^[6]
• 13 February, 1978 - Sydney Hilton bombing - Three killed by bomb blast outside CHOGM in Sydney. Ananda Marga members imprisoned but later pardoned and released^[7]
• 22 April, 1978 - discovery of the Truro murders

1980s

• 26 April, 1980 - Louise and Charmian Faulkner disappearance - A mother and her two and a half year old daughter disappear from outside their St Kilda, Victoria residence and are presumed murdered (unsolved).
• 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
• September, 1987 - Hoddle Street massacre - Julian Knight kills 9 people and injures 17 at random Hoddle Street, Melbourne before surrendering to police.
• 8 December, 1987 - Queen Street massacre - Frank Vitkovic murders 8 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 dead outside his home in Canberra by a sniper.
• 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

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 - 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
• 19 August, 1992 - Ebony Simpson murder - Andrew Garforth rapes and drowns 9-year old schoolgirl Ebony Simpson at Bargo, New South Wales
• 1988-1992 - backpacker murders - Ivan Milat murders seven tourists and buries them in Belanglo State Forest^[8]
• 30 March, 1993 - Calgai siege - Murderers Leonard Leabeater, Robert Steele and Raymond Bassett hold hostages in a siege at Calgai, near Grafton, threatening to kill people indiscriminately. Leabeater kills himself the following day; Steele surrender to police and later hangs himself in prison.
• 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 detained 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
• 28 April, 1996 - Port Arthur massacre - Martin Bryant kills 35 at Port Arthur, Tasmania^[9].
• 7 September, 1996 - Murder of Brian Hagland, British Tourist, by Aaron Martin at Bondi Beach.
• 10 October, 1996 - Tjandamurra O'Shane is set alight in school playground in Cairns, Queensland.
• 15 June, 1997 - Jaidyn Leskie murder - toddler murdered and found dumped in a dam near Moe, Victoria.
• October 6, 1997 - Bega schoolgirl murders
• 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^[10]
• 16 August, 1998 - police officers executed in Moorabbin Police murders

2000s

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.
• July 10, 2001 - Sef Gonzales - Stabs and kills his father Teddy, mother Mary, and sister Clodine, within 2 and a half hours in their North Ryde home in Sydney, NSW.
• 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
• 18 February, 2006 - Cardross Hit and Run - Graham Thomas Towle crashes his car at high speed into a group of 13 teenagers, instantly killing five, and injuring eight, near the town of Cardross, Victoria^[11].
• 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, and is remanded in custody awaiting trial.
• 5 June, 2007- Tony Mokbel arrested - Convicted drug trafficker Tony Mokbel is arrested in Athens, Greece after fleeing Australia in March 2006 during his trial for the importation of cocaine.
• 18 June, 2007- Melbourne CBD shooting - A man shoots three people, killing one and seriously wounding two others. The gunman was assaulting his girlfriend at a busy Melbourne intersection during the morning peak when two men intervened. Christopher Wayne Hudson gave himself up to police in Wallan, Victoria on 20 June^[12].

See also

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

References

Crime in Australia
Regional crime	Timeline · Melbourne · Northern Territory · Western Australia · Sydney · Newcastle · Brisbane
Australian law	Courts · Criminal law · Law enforcement
Australian people	Bushrangers · Bank Robbers · Convicts · Criminals · Fraudsters · Murderers · Rapists · Prisoners
Australian prisons	ACT · NSW · NT · QLD · SA · TAS · VIC · WA
International	Crime by country

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