Map of 250 massacres reveals Australia’s violent past

Sydney: An online map which has so far documented 250 massacres of indigenous people after Australia was colonised by the British is set to be expanded, researchers said, as they seek to uncover the country’s dark past.

The native Aboriginal population, who have occupied Australia for 50,000 years, were dispossessed of their lands by the arrival of settlers two centuries ago.

As the colonisers pushed into the vast interior of the island continent, historians said they were resisted by the local population, and thousands were killed.

“It wasn’t until I started to do this project that I realised how widespread frontier massacres were in Australia,” indigenous historian Lyndall Ryan of the University of Newcastle said.

“It is beginning to overturn how we think about the past. There’s been a shift in consciousness in Australians and they are ready now to know and understand what happened.”

Since the government-funded “Colonial Frontier Massacres Map” was launched a year ago focusing on eastern Australia from 17881872, Ryan said verified sites – where six or more “undefended Aboriginal people” were killed – had risen from more than 150 to 250 with the help of the public.

More than 6,200 people were killed during the 250 massacres, she said, adding that the final tally of sites could be closer to 500.

International researchers found that as massacres tended to be carried out secretly, they were more easily documented later when people were not afraid of facing retribution for speaking out, she added.