Our darkest days: Australia’s worst mass murders in recent times
The now-jailed Bourke Street street attacker committed one of Australia’s worst mass murders. But there were other callous killers before him whose crimes sent shockwaves through the nation.
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Melbourne’s Bourke Street killer committed one of Australia’s worst mass murders.
James Gargasoulas, 29, has learned his fate — life in prison — for killing six people in a “callous and cowardly” driving rampage.
Gargasoulas used a stolen Holden Commodore to mow down his victims in Bourke Street mall on January 20, 2017. They included three-month-old Zachary Bryant who was thrown 60m from his pram and 10-year-old girl Thalia Hakin, who was holding her mum’s hand when she was struck.
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Dozens more were injured in the attack. On Friday Gargasoulas was told he will not be eligible for parole until his early 70s.
Justice Mark Weinburg declared the attack “one of the worst examples of mass murder in Australian history.”
As Gargasoulas begins his jail term, it’s a timely reminder that while instances of mass murder is rare in Australia compared to other countries, the impact of these horrific crimes is no less painful or long-lasting.
Here we look back at recent crimes that resulted in some of the darkest days the country has seen.
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THE OSMINGTON KILLINGS
Western Australia, May 11, 2018
The tiny village east of Margaret River was rocked to learn a family of seven had died by murder-suicide.
Grandfather Peter Miles, 61, killed his wife Cynda, 58, their daughter Katrina, 35, and her four children Taye, 13, Rylan, 12, Ayre, 10 and Kadyn 8.
Police found three guns licensed to Miles and each family member had all suffered shot wounds.
The children’s father Aaron Cockman, who had been estranged from his family, told Seven’s Sunday Night shortly after the crime that he suspected Miles had wanted to kill himself and did not want his family to see him suffer.
THE CAIRNS CHILD KILLINGS
Queensland, December 19, 2014
When Raina Thaiday took the lives of her seven children and her niece it shattered the Torres Strait Islander community and also left a nation grieving for the four young boys and four young girls who died by her hand.
She initially killed the family’s pet duck, then later decided she must kill her children “in order to save them”.
Years later Thaiday was ruled to be of “unsound mind” when she murdered the children at the small timber Murray St home in Cairns.
This meant she would never face a criminal trial for her actions.
Instead she is being treated for schizophrenia at the Park Centre in Wacol, outside of Brisbane.
The home where the child killings occurred has since been demolished.
THE HODDLE STREET MASSACRE
Melbourne, August 9 1987
Seven people died and 19 others were seriously injured when a teenage army cadet opened fire in Hoddle Street, Clifton Hill.
Julian Knight was eventually sentenced to life in prison with a 27-year non parole period.
But just before that period expired, Victoria’s government changed the law and prevented him from seeking parole.
When this was introduced in 2014, then-premier Denis Napthine said Knight “deserved to rot in jail” for his crimes.
QUAKERS HILL NURSING HOME FIRE
Sydney, November 18, 2011
Roger Dean had been hired as a nurse at the NSW aged care home without any reference checks. Months later 14 elderly residents died in a fire that he had lit.
Dean was jailed for life after being found guilty of 11 counts of murder.
He had used a cigarette lighter to set fire to two beds.
Before he was charged with murder, he had appeared on television boasting his efforts to help evacuate residents.
WHISKEY AU GO GO FIRE
Brisbane, March 8, 1973
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Shortly after 2am fire engulfed the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in the city’s nightclub strip Fortitude Valley.
15 people were killed after two drums of diesel fuel were set on fire in the building foyer.
James Finch and John Andrew Stuart were later convicted as the firebombers and sentenced to life in prison.
Years later new evidence surfaced that others were involved in the crime but killer cop Roger Rogerson, has insisted there’s no more to the story.
Rogerson, who had taken part in the initial investigation, was questioned in prison last year about the fire.
CHILDERS PLACE BACKPACKERS HOSTEL FIRE
Queensland, June 23 2000
The former Palace Hotel in the tiny town of Childers had been turned into a backpackers hostel and was popular with fruit-pickers doing work there.
Robert Paul Long is serving a life sentence for deliberately starting the fire, which killed 15 people — nine women and six men.
Most of them were travellers who wanted to explore Queensland’s beauty and relaxed lifestyle.
To date it is one of Queensland’s worst deliberately lit fires.
BLACK SATURDAY CHURCHILL FIRE
Victoria, February 7, 2009
A former Victorian Country Fire Authority volunteer deliberately lit a bushfire on Black Saturday, killing ten people.
Brendan Sokaluk was found guilty of arson causing death and sentenced to almost 18 years in prison.
On this day the temperature had hit 46C with winds of up to 70km per hour, creating an inferno near Churchill, in the state’s La Trobe Valley.
The fire also destroyed 150 homes and 36,000 hectares of land.
Initially Sokaluk said he may have accidentally started the fire by throwing cigarette ash out of his car window.
He had denied deliberately starting it.
PORT ARTHUR MASSACRE
Tasmania, April 28, 1996
Australia’s deadliest mass shooting saw Martin Bryant kill 35 people and wound 23 others.
Bryant received 35 life sentences and will never be eligible for parole.
The horrific shooting eventually led to stricter gun laws in the country, including a near ban on all fully automatic and semiautomatic guns.
On the day of the massacre, Hobart resident Bryant drove to Seascape Cottage and killed its owners. He then drove to the Port Arthur historic site where he ate at a tourist cafe’ and then pulled a rifle from a duffel bag and opened fire.
Within two minutes 20 people were dead.
He then fled in his car and continued his killing spree, stealing another car and killing its occupants at a toll booth.
From there he returned to Seascape Cottage where a siege situation unfolded with police.
Bryant never gave a reason for his crimes.
Originally published as Our darkest days: Australia’s worst mass murders in recent times
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