Battle of Broken Hill

Battle of Broken Hill
The White Rocks Reserve at Broken Hill, the location of Mahomed and Abdullah's last stand after their attack on the picnic train on New Year's Day 1915.
LocationBroken Hill, Australia
Date1 January 1915
TargetCivilians
Attack type
Mass murder, massacre
Deaths6 (including both perpetrators)
Injured7
PerpetratorGool Badsha Mahomed
Mulla Abdullah
MotiveSupport for the Ottoman Empire in World War I

The Battle of Broken Hill was a fatal incident which took place in Australia near Broken Hill, New South Wales, on 1 January 1915. Two men fired with rifles at a passing picnic train, killing four people and wounding seven more, before being killed by police and military officers. Though politically and religiously motivated, the men were not members of any sanctioned armed force and the attacks were criminal. The two men, Mulla Abdullah and Gool Badsha Mahomed, were later identified as Muslim 'Ghans' from colonial India who believed they were fighting a holy war under orders from the Turkish Sultan.

The events at Broken Hill on New Year's Day 1915 represent the only documented engagement with the enemy to take place on Australian soil during World War I.[1]

  1. ^ "1915 Picnic Train Attack and White Rocks Reserve". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Department of Planning & Environment. H02002. Retrieved 29 June 2022. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) under CC BY 4.0 licence.