1629: The Batavia Massacre: First European Executions on Australian Soil
When the Dutch East India Company ship Batavia wrecked on a reef off Western Australia in 1629, disgraced merchant Jeronimus Cornelisz seized control of the survivors stranded on the barren Houtman Abrolhos islands. Fearing his crimes would be exposed once rescue came, he set his followers to killing anyone who might oppose him or drain the group’s meagre food and water. Over the following weeks his men murdered at least 125 men, women and children, drowning some and butchering others, while a small band of soldiers under Wiebbe Hayes held out against them on a nearby island.
When commander Francisco Pelsaert finally returned with a rescue ship, Cornelisz had already been captured. He and six of his men were hanged on Long Island in the Houtman Abrolhos on 2 October 1629, the first Europeans executed on Australian soil; Cornelisz had both hands amputated before he was strung up. Two lesser offenders were marooned on the mainland instead, becoming the first Europeans known to live in Australia.
Confessions were extracted from several of the mutineers under torture before the executions were carried out.
