Thousands of articles relevant to the Australian Wars can be found in Trove by searching keywords such as ‘black, native, outrage‘. Many others can be found in government archives and colonial police reports. The following are just some related to pivotal moments in the Australian Wars, or provide good examples of various aspects of the wars.
Governor Phillip’s Instructions, 25 April, 1787
Governor Phillip orders for establishing the first British colony including securing it from Aboriginal people, attempting to negotiate peace, punishing any colonies who harmed Aboriginal people, and attempting trade.
Governor Phillip’s Instructions, 25 April, 1787 Museum of Australian Democracy https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/resources/transcripts/nsw2_doc_1787.pdf
Governor Phillip Speared
Watkin Tench’s account of the early years of the British colony at Sydney describes the spearing of Governor Phillip and many other interesting events.
Tench, Watkin A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson Project Gutenberg, 2006 https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3534/3534-h/3534-h.htm#8
Governor Macquarie’s Proclamation
Responding to Aboriginal resistance, Governor Macquarie ordered that Aboriginal people appearing in ‘state of hostility’ and any group larger than 6, near a farm, should be regarded as enemies and ‘treated accordingly’.
‘Proclamation’ in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1803 – 1842) 4 May 1816, p1 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2176637
Governor Brisbane Declares Martial Law
During the first Wiradjuri War (the Bathurst War) Governor Brisbane declared martial law on 26 August, 1824. This also allowed 'all his majesty's subjects', as well as soldiers, to kill Aboriginal people according to 'summary justice'. The state of martial law was lifted in December of that year.
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, 1824, August 26, p 1. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2183166
Public Meeting, Hobart Town Hall, 24 Sept 1830
Colonists at a town hall meeting in Hobart discuss Government Order No. 10 and debate ‘a war of extermination’.
‘Public Meeting’ in Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 – 1857) Fri 24 Sept 1830, p 3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/8645368
Governor Bourke’s Proclamation, 26 August 1835
In response to Batman’s claims to have made a treaty with people of the Kulin nation, Bourke asserted all lands to be crown lands, such that Aboriginal sovereignty was ignored and no treaty or transaction with Aboriginal people over lands and waters could be honoured by the British: ‘every such treaty, bargain, and contract with the Aboriginal Natives … is void and of no effect against the rights of the Crown’
Proclamation of Governor Bourke, 10 October 1835, PRO UK: CO 201/247 ff 411 r + v https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-did-42.html
Parliamentary Select Committee Report on Aboriginal Tribes
This report is representative of changing attitudes and government policy in Britain towards Indigenous peoples in British colonies. These ‘protective’ attitudes and policies were not necessarily reflected in colonies, or sometimes caused harm in different forms.
Parliamentary Select Committee, Report on Aboriginal Tribes (British Settlements), 01 January 1837 https://www.towardstruth.org.au/doc0014-parliamentary-select-committee-report-on
Gipps’s Despatch to Lord Glenelg, 21 July, 1838
Governor Gipps discusses a massacre committed by Major Nunn’s forces on an expedition to the north of Sydney, in Gomeroi country, and raids and massacres of colonists and Aboriginal people in Port Phillip (Victoria). Colonists in Port Phillip had petitioned him to ‘levy Punitive war against the Blacks, or sanction the enrolment of a Militia for that purpose and allow them to be supplied with Arms and Munitions of War from Her Majesty’s stores.’ He rejected both options but established ‘military posts’ and increased mounted police forces (recruited from active or retired military).
‘Sir George Gipps to Lord Glenelg, Despatch No. 115, 21st July, 1838’ in Watson, Frederick Historical Records of Australia Sydney: The Library Committee of the Commonwealth Parliament, 1923 https://archive.org/details/historicalrecord00v19aust/page/508/mode/2up
The “Rising” of 1842-4
A colonist describes for posterity, Aboriginal resistance throughout the south east of Australia, from Wide Bay (Kabi Kabi / Badjtala, Bundaberg) to Portland (Gunditjmara, Victoria): “The simultaneous aggressive movement of the Aborigines throughout the entire colony, and along its boundaries, commenced in 1842, and continued through the two or three succeeding years, belongs to the history of the country. For more than two years the warfare which the blacks waged upon the stations situate along the boundaries of the colony, from one extreme to the other, was universal, implacable, and incessant.”
“The Aborigines of Australia” Empire (Sydney, NSW : 1850 – 1875) 15 April 1854: 3. Web. 23 Mar 2024 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article60151188.
Governor Bowen’s letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies 16/12/1861
Governor Bowen summarises the massacre of colonists by Aboriginal people at Cullin-la-Ringo, the reprisal, and includes comments that are relevant to many aspects of the Australian Wars generally. He describes the exceptional skill of the Native Police in tracking and combat, comparing them in sagacity to First Nations people in North America, and suggesting there would have been no ‘war’ in New Zealand if Native Police had been used there. He mentions a massed group of 100 warriors, Aboriginal people’s skilled use the terrain in evading capture, reprisal massacres, and that the intention of the colonial government was to ‘educate’ Aboriginal children and put Aboriginal people to work for colonists, in this case on a ‘Missionary Cotton Plantation’.
Bowen to Newcastle, 16 Dec. 1861, QSA GOV/23/61/74 (DR110747) ITM17671 https://www.archivessearch.qld.gov.au/items/ITM3682012
Aboriginal people unable to give evidence in court until 1876
Aboriginal people were not allowed to give evidence in court until 1876. Towards Truth provides access to legal documents, policy and commentary on this.
Small Wars, Their Principle and Practice
The term ‘guerilla’ comes from the Spanish word for ‘small war’. This book by Colonel Callwell, first published in 1896, about anti-insurgency in colonised areas became a British Army textbook. It was based on over a hundred years of Britain’s military experiences in suppressing resistance in colonies. While it doesn’t mention Australia specifically, many of the strategies and tactics are familiar to those who know the history of colonial violence in Australia. Many of those involved in colonial violence in Australia were military, ex-military or ‘police’.
Callwell, C.E. Small Wars, Their Principle and Practice London: Harrison and Sons, 1906 https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/s/small-wars-their-principles-and-practice.html
Murray Scourge of the Myalls - Ernestine Hill
This sensationalised interview with a perpetrator of the Coniston massacres is an example of unashamed racist attitudes associated with massacres, as well as providing further details on events not previously admitted to.
Warning: this article includes descriptions of extreme violence, abuse and racist language.
Hill, Ernestine 'Murray Scourge of the Myalls' Northern Standard, 3 Mar 1933, p 5 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/48058883