The years 1788-1850 saw the much debated Aboriginal resistance to white settlement most commonly known as the ‘Australian Frontier Warfare’. It is important not to imply the traditional definitions of warfare in the western world to that of the Aboriginal warfare. Aborigines were not resisting white settlement for economic or political reasons and their non-hierarchical society meant it impossible to unite against the British invasion. It has been documented that initial encounters between these two groups were relatively peaceful. The Aborigines viewed the British as enemies with whom accommodation was possible. It is clearly apparent now to understand the inevitability of these two vastly different cultures trying to live together as one ending in violence. With such different beliefs as to the use of land, water, animals and women and the declaration of terra nullis we can start to explore the events that led up to and continuing through the Aboriginal resistance. The more significant events that occurred were that of The Hawkesbury-Nepean River 1795-1816, The Cape Grim Massacre, Van Diemen’s Land and the Hornet Creek Massacre in 1857.

The declaration of Terra Nullis being ordered in Australia caused a rippling affect although not felt straight away. ” A land that until its settlement in 1788 lacked human habitation, law, government or history.” The British saw the land as theirs for the taking as it had not been subject to houses, villages, crops, domesticated animals or cultivation of the land. In doing this took all rights of the Aboriginal people away. To strip the Aborigine people of their land and way of life has impacted Australia to this day and in many ways was the main cause that contributed to the Aboriginal resistance.

Good relations were attempted to be made with the Aborigine people by Governor Arthur Philip stating that ‘dispute with the natives, a few of which I shall endeavour to persuade to settle near us, and who I mean to furnish with everything that can tend to civilise them, and to give them a high opinion of their new guests’ . This statement also shows the British understanding and view of the Aborigine people in comparison with the British egalitarian society. That their way of life was superior to that of the Aborigines comparing the two drastically different cultures to one another. Because Australia was settled for convict purposes there were conflicts between the Aborigines and the convicts. Philip attempted to protect the Aboriginal people by punishing convicts who committed crimes against them, but in doing so setting an attitude of the Aborigines towards the convicts. Sydney is an example of what is referred to as ‘beachhead frontiers’. The everyday existence of these two groups around these beachhead frontiers was relatively peaceful being they did not take up that much land and the Aborigine people still had a vast amount of their land to live off. With the expansion of these ‘beachhead frontiers’ frontier warfare began.

The first major Aboriginal resistance that took place happened on the Hawkesbury Nepean River, 1795-1819. There were many attacks between the convict settlers and the Aboriginal people prior to 1795 at the Hawkesbury River mainly revenge attacks but when the supplies, crops, land and water ways were slowly being taken away from them and their confusion over the sharing of such possessions marked the start of the frontier warfare The Aborigines previously had to stop their fighting to attend to the gathering of food, but now gathering of food became its own form of warfare. With this they raided farmhouses, crops, cattle and anything that could be of use to them. This type of warfare had no precedent in previous Aboriginal warfare. The other use of warfare for the Aboriginal groups was the use of fire. Fire had been previously used to hunt kangaroo but now they used it to burn corn crops and set fire to farmhouses. Therefore the newly formed tactics deserve to be regarded as a new warfare, Australian Frontier warfare. This new kind of warfare is even more astonishing in regards to the non hierarchical Aboriginal culture. There were still limitations to these raids being they could not attack in daylight and could not attack in open areas due to being seen. They still could not use this tactic to fight large British soldiers or settlers. Due to these newly formed raids it made settling of the Hawkesbury River even harder for the British. Although it did not stop it all together it definitely made it all the more difficult with the British not settling the land until late 1816. The Hawkesbury-Neapan River played an important part in the Australian Frontier Warfare.

In Tasmania in 1814 relations between the settlers and the Aborigines were relatively peaceful, with even some of the Aborigines living among the settlers and often trading of supplies occurred. With the Hobart Town Gazette reporting: ‘Several of them are to be seen about this town and its environs, who obtain subsistence from the charitable and well-disposed.’ In 1824 Governor Sorell in his final report made no mention of ‘the natives’. This relatively peaceful co-existence of settlers and Aboriginals ended in 1824 when the British Governor encouraged free settlers with capital to occupy the vast majority of ‘empty’ land and use it to graze sheep. Increasing the settler’s population in Tasmania extensively. This land that had been given to the free settlers was mostly made up of Aboriginal hunting ground. They used this land to hunt kangaroos and with the expansion of settlers made it impossible for the Aborigines to hunt on this ground which they had previously done for many years. The Cape Grim Massacre is a much debated one as to the specific details that occurred that day. It is believed the mass killing of mainly women and children took place at the hands of shepherds in retaliation of Aborigines driving a herd of their sheep over a cliff. An estimated 30 women and children were slaughtered on that day. Sadly the conflict in Tasmania did not stop there. The attacks from both the British and Aboriginals continued to escalate. On August 27 1830 the council agreed that the Governor to call on the civilian population to join with the police and British military in an operation known as the ‘black line’ in Van Diemen’s Land. It was intended that all Aborigines from settled areas be captured and removed. On 1 October 1830 the Governor extended martial law to all of Van Diemen’s Land. The ‘Black Line’ failed due to the Aborigines expertise of the land. Their ability to pass through the line undetected meant little Aborigines were being caught. Another tactic used by the Aborigines in the Frontier Warfare.

The Massacre in Hornet Bank Queensland in 1857 was notorious. One of the British’s frontier warfare tactics can be seen here with the use of recruiting Aboriginal people from different tribes to help the British navigate through the often harsh bushland and track down other Aboriginal people from different tribes. They were known as the black police. The British using the non-hierarchal society of Aborigines against them. Had they joined together to fight the British invasion such groups like the black police wouldn’t of existed. 11 People were slaughtered from the Fraser family including Mrs Fraser, seven of her children, two shepherds and their tutor. It is understood this was a revenge attack on the settlers due to one of Mrs Fraser’s sons attacking an Aboriginal girl and raping her. This attack had a catastrophic effect with the public outrage overwhelming the black police and some of the settlers setting in motion a killing spree that ended in an estimated 150 Aboriginal people killed.

There are many contributing factors to Aboriginal resistance to white settlement and although it was extremely violent and overwhelming at times it needs to be understood the motives and different society’s that are trying to co-exist together. The detrimental effect of not negotiating a treaty is still an ongoing factor in the relationship between Australians and Aboriginals. What is clear that faced with the overwhelming British invasion the demise of the Aborigines was inevitable but the fact they fought for so long and introduced new frontier warfare is remarkable in its own right.

Bibliography

Josephine Flood, The Original Australians, story of the Aboriginal people (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin
John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars 1788-1838 (Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002),
Henry Reynolds, Frontier (Sydney: Allen & Unwin1987)
Stuart Macintyre, A Concise history of Australia (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2009),
Richard Broome, Aboriginal Australians, Black Responses to White Dominance 1788-2001(Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin 3rd edition,2002).
Henry Reynolds, The Other Side Of The Frontier(North Queensland:James Cook University. Penguin Books Australia. 1981)