THE SHOOTING dead of at least 32 people in Tasmania is the worst mass killing in Australia's history.
The killer who went on a wild rampage at an historic former penal settlement followed a pattern that has repeated itself worldwide - the lone gunman picks a crowded public place, often in peaceful surroundings.
Australia has seen its share of these incidents during the past 10 years:
August 9th, 1987: Failed army officer cadet Julian Knight (20), kills seven people in the Melbourne suburb of Clifton Hill. A court is told he went on the rampage because his car broke down and a barmaid rebuffed his advances. He is jailed for life.
December 8th, 1987: Law student Frank Vitkovic (22), regarded by his friends as a "wimp", slaughters eight people in Melbourne before plunging to his death from the window of a high rise building.
August 30th, 1990: Unemployed Paul Evers (35), kills five people with a 12 gauge shotgun in the inner Sydney suburb of Surry Hills after one of his neighbours abuses him for being a lay about.
August 17th, 1991: Part time taxi driver Wade Frankum shoots seven dead in a shopping plaza in the western Sydney suburb of Strathfield before turning his semiautomatic rifle on himself.
October 27th, 1992: Crazed gunman Malcolm Baker (45), kills six people on an hour long shooting rampage through a sleepy holiday area north of Sydney after the breakdown of his relationship with one of the victims. He is jailed for life after pleading guilty.
Worldwide, the worst incident of killing by alone gunman happened in South Korea in 1982. Former policeman Woo Bum Kong went on a drunken rampage with rifles and hand grenades, killing 57 people and wounding 38 before blowing himself up. In 1994 29 worshippers were killed in a West Bank mosque by Baruch Goldstein, and in Colombia in 1986 a Vietnam veteran killed 29 people before being shot himself by police.
