| Mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians | |
|---|---|
 Aboriginal boys standing near a waterhole. William Best alleged that large scale deliberate poisonings of local Wiradjuri occurred from poisoned waterholes. | |
| Date | Mid-1800s, irregular occurrences since then |
Attack type | Poisoning |
| Perpetrator | British colonisation of Australia, Settlers |
Several recorded instances of mass poisonings of Aboriginal Australians occurred during the British colonisation of Australia. Aboriginal resistance to colonisation led settlers to look for ways to kill or drive them off their land. While the settlers would typically attempt to eliminate Aboriginal resistance through massacres, occasionally they would attempt to secretly poison them as well. Typically, poisoned food and drink would be given to Aboriginal people or left out in the open where they could find it.
Whilst Aboriginal raids on new settlers' homes may have led to the consumption of poisonous products which had been mistaken for food, there is some evidence that tainted consumables may have either been knowingly given out to groups of Aboriginal people, or purposely left in accessible places where they were taken away and eaten collectively by the local clans. As a result, numerous incidents of deaths of Aboriginal people due to the consumption of poisonous substances occurred throughout the decades, and in many different locations.[1][2]
There are many documented cases of poisonings, with some involving investigations by police and government. These poisonings appear to have coincided with the introduction, from the 1820s onwards, of toxic substances used in the sheep farming industry. Chemicals such as arsenic, strychnine, corrosive sublimate, aconitum and prussic acid were allegedly involved. There are no cases of convictions being reported against anyone for deliberate poisoning.[1][2]
- ^ a b Elder, Bruce (2003). Blood on the Wattle (3rd ed.). London: New Holland. ISBN 9781741100082.[page needed]
- ^ a b Kiernan, Ben (2007). Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10098-3.[page needed]