The Coniston Massacre of 1928 was a series of punitive raids in Central Australia that is often referred to as the last frontier massacre of Aboriginal people in Australia. An official enquiry found that 31 Central Australian Aboriginal people had been killed, but the true figure may be much higher. A key perpetrator, police constable William Murray, was a veteran of the First World War. In some retellings of the events, Murray’s war service has been presented as the key to understanding the violence. This paper argues instead that the massacre fits with earlier mass killings from around Australia.

Without losing sight of Murray’s war service, I want to consider the Coniston Massacre in the context of the Australian frontier. In this way, we can see the aspects of the massacre that fit the pattern of earlier killings, as well as those that deviated from the broader pattern of frontier violence.