Arnhem Land: Colonial-era Massacres of Aboriginal People

Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, covering approximately 97,000 km2 in the north-eastern corner of the territory. It has been home to the Yolngu people and other Aboriginal groups for tens of thousands of years, with rock art in the region tentatively dated to depict acts of violence between people as far back as 10,000 years ago.

During the colonial period, the region was the site of documented violent conflict between European settlers and the Aboriginal population. In 1884, a large tract of Arnhem Land was sold by the colonial British government to cattle grazier John Arthur Macartney, who established Florida Station and stocked it with cattle overlanded from Queensland. Monsoonal flooding, disease, and strong resistance from the local Aboriginal population led to the station's abandonment by 1893. Jim Randell, the first manager of the property, bolted a swivel cannon to the homestead verandah to keep Indigenous people away. Jack Watson, the station's last manager, reportedly killed a large number of Aboriginal people living on the coast at Blue Mud Bay. During Watson's management, another mass killing is recorded to have occurred at Mirki on the north coast of the station, an event still remembered by Yolngu people today, in which many people, including children, were shot dead.

From 1903 to 1908, property rights over much of Arnhem Land were held by the Eastern and African Cold Storage Supply Company, an Anglo-Australian consortium that leased the region under the name Arafura cattle station in an attempt to build a large-scale cattle and meat production industry. The company employed roving armed gangs to shoot members of the resident Aboriginal population.

A further mass killing, known as the Gan Gan massacre, occurred in 1911 at the community of Gan Gan, an inland riverside settlement in the traditional lands of the Dhalwaŋu people. Colonial police and settlers killed more than 30 men, women, and children in this incident.

The events are remembered within Yolngu oral history and are referenced in broader accounts of the region's history, including discussions of the later Gove land rights case (Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd, 1971), the first litigation on native title in Australia, and continuing disputes over land rights, homelands policy, and self-determination for Aboriginal communities in the region.