Sydney: Mass shootings are rare in Australia, where gun ownership has been tightly controlled since a massacre in 1996.
Timeline of some recent shootings.
April 28, 1996
Gunman Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 23 in a rampage at the Port Arthur tourist precinct in the state of Tasmania.
In the wake of the attack, the federal and state governments agreed to ban semiautomatic and pump-action shotguns and rifles.
A gun buyback scheme saw more than 700,000 firearms surrendered.
In the decade before the massacre, there had been 11 mass shootings, with at least four dead victims. There were none in the decade that followed.
September 8, 2014
A farmer shot his wife and three children near Lockhart in New South Wales state before killing himself.
December 16, 2014
Three people died when police stormed the Lindt Café in Sydney, where an Iranian-born self-styled cleric had taken 18 people hostage.
The dead included hostage-taker Man Monis, shot by police, a hostage hit by fragments of a police bullet, and one who was shot by Monis.
May 11, 2018
A farmer killed six family members before turning a gun on himself in Western Australia state.
March 15, 2019
An Australian white supremacist gunned down worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch in neighbouring New Zealand, killing 51. It is New Zealand’s worst mass shooting.
June 4, 2019
A man who was out on parole fatally shot four men and wounded a woman in the northern Australian city of Darwin.
December 12, 2022
Six people died in a gunbattle at a rural property in Wieambilla,
Queensland state. Two police officers were shot and killed by extremist Christian conspiracy theorists; the three shooters and one of their neighbours were shot dead by police.
December 14, 2025
Gunmen opened fire during a Hanukkah ceremony at Bondi Beach, killing at least 11 in what authorities called a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community.agencies