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.
Early Period
Captain Cooks Journals
Cpt Cook described his encounters on the east coast of Australia during which Aboriginal people made it clear British were not welcome. For example on Sunday, 29th, April, 1770 at Anchor, Botany Bay their landing was opposed, "As we approached the Shore they all made off, except 2 Men, who seem'd resolved to oppose our landing."
Cook, James in Wharton, W.J.L. Captain Cook's Journal During his First Voyage Round The World Made in H.M. Bark "Endeavor", 1768-71 London: 1893 https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/e00043.html#ch8
Governor Phillip's instructions, 1787
The instructions for Governor Phillip for establishing the first colony show that the British expected their landing might cause conflict: "It is therefore Our Will and Pleasure that you do immediately upon your landing after taking Measures for securing Yourself and the people who accompany you, as much as possible from any attacks or Interruptions of the Natives of that Country..." He was also instructed to barter with Aboriginal people and "...to conciliate their affections, enjoining all Our Subjects to live in amity and kindness with them..." adding "... if any of Our Subjects shall wantonly destroy them, or give them any unnecessary Interruption... cause such offenders to be brought to punishment..."
"Phillip’s Instructions at the Court at St James's, the 25 April 1787" in pp 84-91, Bladen, F. M & Britton, Alexander & Cook, James. (1892). Historical records of New South Wales Retrieved November 22, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-343658027
Governor Phillip speared, Watkin Tench's journal
Watkin Tench’s account of the early years of the British colony at Sydney describes the spearing of Governor Phillip. It also describes the failure of British infantry, wearing red coats and carrying heavy muskets and knapsacks, to effectively counter attack Aboriginal warriors. These early encounters lead to adaptions in strategy and tactics on both sides.
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
South Period
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.
North Period
Native Police Force, Report, Queensland Legislative Assembly, 1861
The Native Police in Queensland became a notorious force in Queensland frontier conflict. This report in 1861 includes extensive details about many conflicts up to that time and contemporary colonial opinions about their effectiveness and role. In the final paragraph in the report, Henry Challinor remarks "If, however, the sole object of a Protective Force is to pursue the aborigines into scrubs and there slaughter them without discrimination or remorse, I think no force could be better adapted for that work than the present Native Police Force. But, as this mode of protection appears to me as utterly repugnant to British law as it is to every principle of justice and equity, I could never consent to the continuance of such a system." This clearly indicates that the government was well aware of the realities of police operations, and that they did not correspond with the role of the police to bring 'justice and equity', yet the Native Police continued to be involved in frontier conflict long after this report in the same manner. Seven massacres of 6 or more people involving the Native Police occurred in 1871 alone, and 51 more in the decades following to 1902, and they were involved in many more killings of less that 6.
Queensland. Parliament. Legislative Assembly. (1860). Votes and proceedings of the Legislative Assembly ... with the various documents connected therewith Retrieved November 22, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-53959485
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.
The Alleged Slaughter of Blacks In The Northern Territory, 1886
This news article includes many details in, and controversy following, a report from Corporal Montagu describing reprisal killings of Aboriginal people from Daly River to Mary River. It shows that the euphemism 'dispersal' involves killing people, "I have spoken to the natives that were dispersed by Corporal Montagu and party, and from what the natives say there were two shot and one wounded in the head". Orders were issued sanctioning killing people: "Do not hesitate to use the severest measures to arrest offenders" with the words "to arrest offenders" struck out. This and related articles show that truth telling was contentious at the time of massacres, with the high death tolls reported by Corporal Montagu being denied and disputed.
The Alleged Slaughter of Blacks In The Northern Territory. (1886, February 12). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 - 1912), p. 4 (SECOND EDITION). Retrieved November 24, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article197810419
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
Late Period
Royal Commission On The Condition Of The Natives, Western Australia, 1905
This Royal Commission describes conditions in the north of Western Australia including harsh and unjust treatment of prisoners, exploitation in the pearling industry, abduction and rape of women and 'komboism'. There were severe reprisals for cattle killing and resistance, including the use of neck chains on children aged 14 to 16, and groups of people being chained, 'starved' and 'hammered' on their way to court, where they were forced under duress to plead guilty, enabling them to be imprisoned summarily with harsh sentences. The report mentions an example of a child aged 10 sentenced to 6 months hard labour for killing a cow, and a child of 15 to 9 months for killing a goat "and at least eight other children, between 14 and 16 years of age, to two years' hard labour for alleged cattle-killing" (p 18).
Royal Commission On The Condition Of The Natives, Western Australia, Perth: 1905 https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/intranet/libpages.nsf/WebFiles/Royal+Commissions+-+Report+of+the+Royal+Commission+on+the+condition+of+the+natives/$FILE/Report+of+the+Royal+Commission+on+the+condition+of+the+natives.pdf
Royal Commission of Iquiry into Alleged Killing and Burning of Bodies of Aborigines in East Kimberley and into Police Methods when Effecting Arrests, 1927
An inquiry into violent police practices.
Royal Commission of Iquiry into Alleged Killing and Burning of Bodies of Aborigines in East Kimberley and into Police Methods when Effecting Arrests, Western Australia, 1927 https://www.parliament.wa.gov.au/intranet/libpages.nsf/WebFiles/Royal+Commission+of+inquiry+into+alleged+killing+and+burning+of+bodies+of+Aborigines+in+East+Kimberley+and+into+police+methods+when+effecting+arrests/$FILE/Royal+Commission+of+Inquiry+into+Alleged+Killing+and+Burning+of+Bodies+of+Aborigines+.pdf
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