During the British colonisation of Australia, land ownership was forcefully transferred from the various Indigenous populations to the colonists. Several military and paramilitary organisations such as the British Army, Native Police, Border Police and New South Wales Mounted Police were utilised by the British to eliminate any Aboriginal resistance to this acquisition of land. However, it was often the responsibility of the pioneering colonists themselves to take the initiative in enforcing land ownership transferral. Usually this was done violently through the use of firearms to intimidate or kill the native people. Some colonists though, chose an alternative approach, using poison concealed in consumables as a method of extirpating the original custodians of the land. The tainted consumables were either knowingly given out to groups of native people, or purposely left in accessible places where they were taken away and eaten collectively by the local clans. As a result, incidents of mass deaths of Aboriginal Australians due to these deliberate mass poisonings occurred throughout the continent. The mass poisonings were generally done in a secretive manner but there are many documented cases with some involving police and government investigations. They appear to have begun as a colonial method in Australia during the 1820s when toxic substances utilised in the sheep farming industry became readily available. Chemicals such as arsenic, strychnine, corrosive sublimate, aconitum and prussic acid were all used. There are no cases of convictions being reported against any of the perpetrators of these mass poisonings.
Some examples of mass poisonings
1824, Bathurst - members of the Wiradjuri people poisoned with arsenic infused damper.
1827, Hunter Valley - colonists along the Hunter River poisoning Aboriginals with corrosive sublimate.
~1833, Gangat - large number of Aboriginals killed near Gloucester by being given poisoned flour in up to three separate incidents.
1840, Glen Innes - reports of deaths of Aboriginals by prussic acid poisoning investigated by government authorities but denied by pastoralists.
1841, Wannon River - at least seven Aboriginals poisoned to death on one of the Henty brothers' leaseholds.
1842, Tarrone - at least nine Aboriginals poisoned to death near Port Fairy by being given poisoned flour on the squatting run of James Kilgour.
1842, Mount Kilcoy - a large number of Aboriginals were poisoned to death at an outpost of Evan Mackenzie's Kilcoy property.
1846, Tyntynder - between 8 and 20 Aboriginal people killed by eating poisoned flour given to them by Scottish colonist Andrew Beveridge near Swan Hill.
1847, Whiteside - at least three Aboriginals killed by arsenic-laced flour being placed out for Aboriginals to take. This occurred on the Whiteside squatting run of Captain George Griffin.
1847, Kangaroo Creek - close to 30 Aboriginals killed by poison given to them in flour by Thomas Coutts near Grafton. Coutts was arrested and sent to Sydney but the case was dropped.
1849, Port Lincoln - five Aboriginals including an infant were killed after being given flour mixed with arsenic by hutkeeper Patrick Dwyer near Port Lincoln. Despite being arrested with strong evidence against him, Dwyer was released from custody by Charles Driver, the Government Resident at Port Lincoln.
1856, Hornet Bank - a number of Aboriginals killed by being given strychnine-laced Christmas pudding in the lead-up to the Hornet Bank massacre.
~1890, Dungog - "young blacks" begging near to town "were easily disposed of" by being given poison in their food.
1895, Fernmount - six Aboriginals poisoned to death near Bellingen by being given aconite to drink by John Kelly. Kelly was suspected of manslaughter and committed for trial but was found not guilty and discharged.
1896, Lakeland Downs - Arsenic deliberately placed in baking powder killed a significant number of Aboriginals near Lakeland as "just retribution" for the spearing of a Scottish colonist.
1908, Mt Ida - eight Aboriginals killed by poison near Leonora. Explorer William Carr-Boyd described them as "eight niggers..who got something more to eat than they bargained for". It appears that the Western Australian police, the coroner and health authorities actively downplayed the incident.
1936, Timber Creek - five Aboriginals killed by arsenic being put in their food near Timber Creek.
1981, Alice Springs - two Aboriginal people were killed and fourteen others were made ill by drinking from a bottle of sherry which had strychnine deliberately added to it. The poisoned bottle was intentionally left by persons unknown in a place of easy access to this group of Aboriginals.
2015, Collarenebri - three Aboriginal people, Norman Boney, Sandra Boney and Roger Adams, were poisoned to death after buying methanol-laced moonshine from Mary Miller in the town of Collarenebri. Miller was not charged in relation to the deaths and only received a $5,000 fine for selling liquor without a licence from magistrate Clare Girotti.
The Secret River, a 2005 novel by Kate Grenville, graphically depicts a quasi-fictional account of a deliberate mass poisoning of Indigenous Australians camped along the Hawkesbury River. The novel was later adapted into a stage play and also a television mini-series.
