Australian frontier wars

The Australian frontier wars encompassed a long period of tension and conflict throughout Australia from about 1788 to as late as the 1930s or 1940s. Indigenous peoples had lived in Australia for thousands of years, but in the eighteenth century, explorers from Europe took an interest in the vast island. By 1788, British authorities began colonizing Australia, mostly paying little heed to the Indigenous people who were already there. Attempts by the British to evict the Indigenous peoples led to resistance, which spawned reprisals and violence on both sides. The British in particular became known for widespread massacres that would lead to the deaths of thousands of Indigenous people.

More than a century of bloody conflicts followed the British arrival, during which time Indigenous power was largely subdued and silenced. In modern times, Australians are investigating the legacy of the frontier wars, mainly to honor the suffering and deaths of the Indigenous peoples and honor their resistance against the ultimately unstoppable wave of colonization.

Background

Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders are closely related to the people of New Guinea. These countries were joined as one landmass, Sahul, until about 8,000 years ago, when rising sea levels covered the land bridge that had linked them. The earliest inhabitants of Sahul likely arrived from Asia by crossing the sea at least 48,000 to 50,000 years ago. The archaeological record includes stone tools, rock and ochre art, charcoal deposits, and shell middens. The oldest human fossil remains date to about 40,000 years ago.

The earliest people likely settled the northern territories first, gradually moving south over thousands of years. They were semi-nomadic fisher-hunter-gatherers who moved in a circuit throughout the year as berries, fruits, roots, and nuts became available. They ate birds and their eggs, crayfish, seals, porcupine, and other animals.

As the last ice age ended, the climate warmed and the continent became wetter. People moved as the rainforests expanded. Sea levels rose, cutting the continent off from other landmasses, leaving the Indigenous people to live in isolation for thousands of years. Over time, groups migrated and grew, using features of the land such as mountain ranges, rivers, and valleys to define their territories. They learned to make watercrafts of sheets of bark and reeds tied with fiber cords so they could cross wide rivers and travel to nearby islands to hunt. They built semi-permanent dwellings. In warm coastal areas they built windbreaks for shelter, while in cold and windy places they constructed domed huts of boughs, bark, mud, and grasses.

They developed hundreds of language groups further subdivided into extended families that gathered periodically. They traded goods, celebrated the seasons, socialized, and performed ceremonies. Indigenous Australians used fire to manage the land, burning off vegetation to increase the availability of food for themselves and for wildlife and to keep pathways needed for travel and trade open.

Cultural practices varied but shared some similarities. Ochre pigments were used by people in many parts of Australia to draw symbols on stone and paint their bodies. The dead were cremated, buried in sand, or entombed in tree hollows.

The belief system of the Indigenous people is closely tied to the landscape and nature. Life was created in the Dreamtime, with the term the Dreaming referring to beliefs and stories about creation. Dreaming is simultaneously past, present, and future. The people believe that the physical world has been created and shaped by their spiritual ancestors. For example, every animal, plant, and feature of the landscape, such as rocks and rivers, were created by these ancestors. A winding stream may have been created by a serpent, for instance. Dreaming stories explain how ways of living came to be. The Indigenous people developed a system of laws covering offenses such as homicide, assault, theft, and sacrilege, as well as inaction. For example, not sharing food is an offense.

While people had geographic boundaries within which they lived, their understanding of land was not that they owned it, but rather they belonged to the land. The territory of a family group was explained in Dreaming stories and the people were linked to the territory on a spiritual basis. Knowledge was shared through dancing, drawing, painting, singing, storytelling, and sculpture.

Responsibilities were divided by gender. Notably, women had responsibilities toward certain sites associated with staple foods, while men hunted. Both men and women of the extended family took part in caring for and teaching children. The strong kinship of the Indigenous people meant that relationships were more important than possessions. Indigenous societies apply the classificatory system of kinship, which means that people of the same level are equivalent. For example, two sisters are equivalent. If one has a child, both sisters are identified in the family system as the child’s mother. While in Western traditions children of siblings are called cousins, in Indigenous family groups these children are considered brothers and sisters. However, a mother’s brother would be an uncle, and a father’s sister is an aunt. Personal names are part of a person and should be used carefully; more commonly, an Indigenous person is referenced as a someone’s brother, father, etc.

Starting in the seventeenth century, Dutch and English ships visited Australia’s northern and western coasts, but no European landed on the eastern coast until 1770, when British Lieutenant James Cook arrived. Although he described it as an empty land, Australia was home to between 300,000 and 950,000 people speaking about 260 language groups and 500 dialects.

Overview

The Australian frontier wars were the long conflict between the Australian Indigenous peoples and colonists from Europe. The conflicts began in the late eighteenth century, peaked during the nineteenth century, and continued into the 1930s and 1940s. The basis of this conflict involved British attempts to establish colonies in Australia in the face of ongoing resistance by the Indigenous peoples who were living there. The wars were costly and damaging to both sides, but proved devastating to the Indigenous peoples.

The frontier wars began in 1788, with the arrival of British ships containing officials, soldiers, and prisoners. Their intention to settle Australia and turn it into a British-run colony met with almost immediate opposition from the Indigenous peoples. Both sides launched attacks, small and large, but the British became known for large-scale killings. University of Newcastle researchers have determined that at least 416 massacres of Indigenous people took place during the course of the frontier wars, claiming the lives of at least ten thousand people.

Many Indigenous warriors became well-known for their fighting prowess and determination to uproot the colonists. Among these were Yagan, Jandamarra, Tunnerminnerwait, Maulboyheenner, and Dundali. Likely the most celebrated Indigenous warrior was Pemulwuy, who led resistance efforts in the Sydney region from around 1792 to 1802. He was skilled at rallying native efforts as well as striking fear in the hearts of colonists. A colonial governor placed a bounty on Pemulwuy, dead or alive. The bounty was collected by a British sailor who shot him in 1802.

The conflicts covered much of Australia, although some were confined mainly to certain groups and regions. One of the most notable of these was the Black War (1804–1830), in which Indigenous Tasmanians battled British settlers and soldiers over the course of decades. The conflict began slowly with isolated harassments but then turned into large-scale attacks in the 1820s. The conflict climaxed in 1830 when British forces formed the “black line,” a mass of settlers moving through the bush in side-by-side order, flushing out and attacking Indigenous people. Although this effort met with mixed results, it continued to whittle away Indigenous power, and showed that the tide of colonization would be unlikely to stop.

Other significant massacres took place in the late 1830s. In December 1837, a group of settlers under command of a British officer tracked Indigenous warriors to a water-hole where they attacked. This episode was known as the Waterloo Creek Massacre. Another massacre in 1838, the Myall Creek Massacre, involved twelve settlers who killed a number of Indigenous people. In many cases, colonial authorities turned a blind eye to offenses against native people, or even encouraged them. However, in this situation, colonial leaders acknowledged the killings as criminal, and tried and hanged seven participants for their actions.

In the Australian state of Queensland, the colonial government raised a militarized unit called the Native Police in 1849. The Native Police consisted of Indigenous troopers led by British officers whose task would be to patrol and protect British settlements and attempt to control Indigenous people in the area. The troopers in these units were often coerced into joining, or were drawn in by the offer of food and pay, however meager. Still, many detested the work and having to repress other Indigenous people, and deserted the police. The Native Police dissolved in the 1920s.

Conflicts and massacres continued well into the twentieth century. One of the last major killings took place in the Northern Territory, in the vicinity of Alice Springs, in 1928. In this attack, a British officer led forces to a water-hole frequented by Indigenous people and oversaw a massacre, known to history as the Coniston Massacre. Other attacks and harassment lasted into the 1930s and, in some cases, beyond.

One of the major disparities in the frontier wars involved the weaponry being used. Most of the British Army-aligned forces were equipped with firearms, mainly the so-called Brown Bess musket, while most Indigenous warriors were equipped with much-less-advanced weapons such as spears. Muskets of the era were far from ideal weapons, as they were notoriously inaccurate and took most soldiers about twenty to sixty seconds to reload after each shot. They were also prone to malfunction in rain or humidity. Still, musket projectiles were far deadlier than spears, which could only be used at relatively short distances and whose attacks could be muffled with even light protective clothing. In addition, the loud noises and smoke of each shot fired added an impressive and often frightening display to an attack.

The difference in weaponry afforded European forces an instant and constant advantage in battles. However, Indigenous warriors overcame much of their disadvantage by applying guerilla tactics. Whereas Europeans of the era generally fought in long lines of organized soldiers standing in open areas, guerilla fighters may sneak, hide under cover, attack quickly, conduct sabotage, and then retreat before enemies have time to react. In this way, a small group could potentially hamper the progress of even a large army. Indigenous people used their knowledge of the land and its resources to combat British units and frighten off colonists. These efforts included burning crops and sending dingoes to attack livestock and settlements.

In the twenty-first century, many Australians are focusing on the events of the frontier wars, particularly the suffering and injustices the Indigenous people experienced and the repercussions on their present-day populations. Organizations and individuals have created many memorials and other acknowledgements marking the lives—and, often, deaths—of these native-born people, many of whose names were lost to history. Reformers have made a significant push to include the frontier wars in the traditional mainstream list of wars in which Australia has been involved, including acknowledging these conflicts on Anzac Day, Australia and New Zealand’s national day of remembrance for wars, other conflicts, veterans, and those who died.

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