Aborigines and Australian Frontier War

British authorities did not recognize these conflicts as war, as to do so would undermine the basis on which the British had occupied Australia. The British did not acknowledge aboriginal land ownership when they established the colony of New South Wales at Sydney in 1788. Unlike other British colonies, no treaties were signed with indigenous peoples. The British government claimed that all Australian Aborigines had automatically become British subjects and therefore any aboriginal armed attack was defined as criminal rather than warlike activity. As the Colonial Secretary, Lord Glenelg, told Sir Richard Bourke, Governor of New South Wales, in 1837 that “To regard them as Aliens with whom a War can exist, and against whom H[er] M[ajesty]’s Troops may exercise belligerent right, is to deny them that protection to which they derive the highest possible claim from the Sovereignty which has been assumed over the whole of their Ancient Possession.” Australian Aborigines fought on the frontier using a combination of traditional warfare and new tactics developed to deal with the new enemy. Aborigines spoke about 250 different languages, and these nations were further divided into smaller autonomous groups sharing kinship or a connection to a particular area of land. Aborigines did not have chiefs or hierarchical structures of government. Instead, decisions were made by a consensus of the elder men. For this reason, Aborigines found it hard to unite against the British and generally each group fought the invader on their own. Warriors used traditional tactics of raiding and ambush and also learned to attack crops, sheep, and cattle and to burn fences and farmhouses.

In some areas where the terrain assisted this style of warfare, Aborigines were able to temporarily hold back the settlers. They retained their traditional weapons of spears and clubs and made little use of firearms. The British, as the sole colonizing power in Australia, were in a position to prevent firearms passing across the frontier, but equally the spear was a symbol of manhood in some aboriginal groups, and they may have thought it inconceivable to fight with another weapon. On the British side, warfare was carried out by soldiers, mounted police, and settlers. Although New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land (present-day Tasmania) remained mainly convict colonies, governors were unwilling to distribute firearms among the civilian population and sent detachments of soldiers to the frontier to fight the Aborigines when required. These operations were defined as “aid to the civil power” rather than warfare. Martial law was declared in New South Wales in 1824 and in Van Diemen’s Land from 1828 to 1831 to provide legal protection for any soldier who killed an Aborigine. The last major British army deployment to the frontier took place in New South Wales in 1838. Thereafter, settlers and police took over the fight.