Australian Wars and Resistance

Some Australian Wars are already relatively well recognised, such as the Sydney Wars, First Wiradjuri War (Bathurst War), the Black War or Tasmanian Genocide in Lutruwita, the Eumeralla War and the Bunuba Resistance lead by Jandamarra. Other wars are less widely recognised by have been identified through books being about them such as ‘Goodbye Bussamarai’ (Pat Collins), or Surviving New England (Callum Clayton-Dixon). John Connor's 'Frontier Wars' discusses wars that military forces were officially involved in: Sydney, Hawkesbury Nepean, Bathurst (Wiradjuri), Hunter Valley, Northern (Tiwi and Iwaidja), Western (Nyungar), Van Diemen's Land, Liverpool Plains and, Port Phillip District. Some distinct regions of violence are discussed within books about colonial violence generally which focus on topics such as resistance, the Native Police, genocide; resistance leaders of individual colonists, or on specific incidents such as the spearing of Governor Phillip or the Myall Creek Massacre.

Wars and resistance are remembered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the invasion and defence of their particular homelands. While a good case, grounded in theory and evidence, can be made for calling these conflicts ‘war’ some prefer another term, because of the extreme unfairness and one-sidedness or ‘assymetry’ of the conflict, and so this website uses the term ‘Resistance’ for those situations.

Colonial primary sources indicate that colonists often referred to violence in particular regions as ‘war’. Historical works and primary sources can be found discussing, to a greater or lesser degree, every war or resistance movement marked on the map.

Massacres as evidence

Violent conflict and resistance spread, continuously and contiguously across the content as the colonial frontier spread, as demonstrated by the spread of massacres. There are many decades during which there was at least one known massacre every year. Yet, the genocide in Lutruwita/Tasmania in the early period, is different to the conflict in the Northern Territory and Kimberley in the later period. How can we distinguish each war, one from another, in this continuum of violence?

With some exceptions there were no official declarations of war or treaties, so we must look at the real events that comprise wars. Because they were fought as asymmetrical guerilla wars these events were not pitched battles between large armies, but raids, killings and massacres, usually carried out by small mobile groups or individuals.

Across the continent there are periods of more intense violence in regions. Although it may be difficult to identify where they start and end, and they are all connected, we can still see where and when open violence is most intense. To make an analogy, although the colours of a sunset merge into each other, we can still tell the difference between orange and blue. In some cases there may be a specific event to mark the beginning or end of a war, such as a rape, killing or stock raid, which triggered an escalation of war, but in many cases there is a gradual and overlapping transition to the mission phase, with different forms of violence and resistance.

Massacres are cases of extreme violence against a people. Data on massacres can be used to identify periods and times of intensity in conflict. The Colonial Frontier Massacres, 1788 to 1930 (Ryan et al) data was gathered with a consistent methodology across Australia, with rigorous evidence based criteria for inclusion, and so provides a robust indicator of intensity of violence in places over time. Simply looking at the massacre map we can easily see some areas of intensity at particular times, such as the Eumeralla Wars (western Victoria), the Murray River, the east coast, the central desert and the Kimberley, and that natural barriers make some of these distinctions obvious, such as in Lutruwita/Tasmania and in Nyungar country (south west WA).

Computational clustering methods provide a way to more rigorously identify and visualise regions and times of intensity. These methods separate massacres into groups either by how close together they are in kilometres and/or in time, or by grouping based on which events are to each other (see the clustering code for detail on this process). This helps us identify focal points of intense violence that we might not have seen before. What cut off point in terms of kilometres or duration counts as 'near' and 'far' may be debatable, and varies with different terrain and ecology, but it is hard to argue that at least 3 massacres within a few years, in a region about the same size as an Indigenous nation or language group are isolated incidents - this is clearly an intense period of violence between two groups of people.

Massacres are not the only factor to consider. There are many other events. Computational clustering provides evidence of wars, and helps distinguish them, but this must also be considered in relation to over events, historical context and Indigenous knowledge. In all cases of wars identified by clustering, some match already recognised wars, and all have been identified by historians at least through there being some discussion of them as conflict in that particular region, to a greater or lesser degree. For these reasons, some clusters have been adjusted, and some have been identified where there were relatively few known massacres, based on other evidence (Tiwi Islands, Southern Wiradjuri, Flinders Ranges and Eyre Peninsula). Intensity of violence as signified by massacres provides reliable evidence for a distinct war in a place and time. Absence of massacres or there being few massacres in a region does not disprove the existence of a war. The extent of war is not limited to the first and last massacre. Other considerations, such as intensity of other acts of violence, the involvement of military and paramilitary forces, etc, may be evidence of war, and its extent.

Wars within wars

Another difficulty in distinguishing wars is at what scale to make the distinction. At one extreme there is an individual incident, at the other there is colonial frontier violence across the entire continent. When we look at the massacre map we can see broad regions of intensity made up of smaller regions of intensity. Looking at historical descriptions, conflict is sometimes discussed in broad terms, such as the 'Rising' of the entire south east of Australia (Kerkhove, 2023; Gapps, 2025) or in terms of smaller regions (Millis, 1992; Collins, 2022) or individual events (Lydon & Ryan, 2017).

Computational clustering methods depend on what the threshold of distance for 'near' and 'far' is set at. If it is set small, small clusters form, if large then large clusters form. Some clusters are consistent across many scales, others less so. Working form large to small we see wars within wars, or smaller regional conflicts that are part of much larger conflicts. Working through this, the most coherent way to describe the various scales, that accords best with historians and Indigenous people's discussion of these wars and with the clustering methods, is as 4 scales of conflicts within conflicts:

• Periods - There are four broad periods: early, southern, northern and late period. This distinction is based on time.
• Regions - These are broad areas of conflict. This distinction is focused on space. In some cases some wars in a region, are in different periods.
• Wars - These are areas and times of intense and open armed violence between colonists and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people. At this scale of conflict, the area typically involved one or several peoples or language groups, and often involved the same individuals, neighbours and groups of colonists, such as particular squatters and police officers. This scale usually correspond to an ecological zone, and a region sought after by colonists for economic reasons, such as pastoral regions or for cash crops.
• Stages - Within each war there may be distinct phases, such as an early and late phase, and may involve a flow of conflict from one area to another. Stages help understand the story of a war's ebb and flow. For example, it may begin with attacks near a river and stations, and culminate in the mountains or wetlands.

For more details about the process see the Plan and the computational results.

This map is from the first stable results based on massacres.

Wars and resistance occurred within 4 broad periods of conflict.

Early: 1794-09-01 to 1838-12-31 (72 incidents)

South: 1835-01-01 to 1870-12-31 (142 incidents)

North: 1848-10-01 to 1904-12-31 (188 incidents)

Late: 1903-01-01 to 1928-10-15 (36 incidents)

This map is from the first stable results based on massacres.

These wars occurred within broader regions of conflict.

East: 1794-09-01 to 1900-07-20 (88 incidents)

North East: 1834-08-01 to 1902-12-31 (42 incidents)

North West: 1880-01-01 to 1927-12-10 (59 incidents)

Centre: 1865-01-01 to 1928-10-15 (43 incidents)

North: 1824-01-20 to 1913-12-31 (30 incidents)

South East: 1833-03-01 to 1860-01-12 (66 incidents)

South: 1849-05-01 to 1863-11-27 (6 incidents)

Gulf Country: 1861-12-01 to 1918-12-31 (24 incidents)

Lutruwita: 1804-05-03 to 1830-08-27 (34 incidents)

North East Inland: 1848-01-01 to 1872-12-31 (32 incidents)

South West: 1829-01-01 to 1880-11-30 (13 incidents)

Pilbara: 1864-01-01 to 1899-12-31 (5 incidents)

The regions marked on this map are derived from events in this war, beginning with massacres. The regions indicated are likely to change as more events are added to the massacres.

This following map is the first stable results of based on massacres.

Sydney: 1794-09-01 to 1818-10-01 (6 massacres)

Lutruwita: 1804-05-03 to 1830-08-27 (34 massacres)

First Wiradjuri (Bathurst): 1823-06-01 to 1824-09-30 (6 massacres)

Hunter Valley and Port Macquarie: 1824-01-01 to 1828-12-31 (8 massacres)

Tiwi: 1824-01-20 to 1828-07-21 (2 massacres)*

Noongar: 1829-01-01 to 1880-11-30 (13 massacres)

Bays: 1831-07-01 to 1862-08-31 (17 massacres)

Eumeralla: 1833-03-01 to 1860-01-12 (28 massacres)

Northern Rivers: 1834-01-01 to 1895-06-07 (20 massacres)

Torres Strait: 1834-08-01 to 1869-06-30 (6 massacres)

Gomeroi: 1835-01-01 to 1838-08-31 (9 massacres)

South Road: 1836-01-01 to 1843-12-15 (13 massacres)

Murray River: 1836-05-27 to 1848-06-30 (12 massacres)

Second Wiradjuri: 1839-01-01 to 1854-31-12*

Gunai Kurnai: 1840-01-01 to 1851-05-31 (13 massacres)

Inland Rivers: 1841-01-01 to 1870-12-31 (8 massacres)

Anewan: 1841-05-01 to 1860-06-30 (4 massacres)

McIntyre River: 1842-09-11 to 1849-06-30 (9 massacres)

Mandandanji: 1848-01-01 to 1853-09-29 (10 massacres)

Eyre Peninsula: 1849-05-01 to 1856-01-14 (1 massacres)*

Flinders Ranges: 1852-03-17 to 1863-11-27 (2 massacres)*

Rockhampton: 1855-12-27 to 1872-12-31 (5 massacres)

Upper Dawson: 1857-10-27 to 1864-12-13 (15 massacres)

Northern Downs: 1861-10-30 to 1872-12-31 (7 massacres)

Gulf Country: 1861-12-01 to 1918-12-31 (24 massacres)

Tropical Coast: 1864-01-01 to 1890-06-30 (13 massacres)

Cape York: 1864-12-16 to 1902-12-31 (14 massacres)

Pilbara: 1864-01-01 to 1899-12-31 (5 massacres)

Daly and Mary River: 1864-09-08 to 1895-07-30 (7 massacres)

Channel Country and Thargomindah: 1865-01-01 to 1899-12-31 (9 massacres)

Bowen: 1866-07-01 to 1880-12-31 (4 massacres)

Roper River: 1872-07-01 to 1904-12-31 (12 massacres)

Central Desert: 1873-07-18 to 1928-10-15 (21 massacres)

Yolngu: 1875-08-08 to 1913-12-31 (7 massacres)

Kalkadoon and Selwyn Ranges: 1879-02-01 to 1884-09-30 (8 massacres)

Kimberley East: 1880-01-01 to 1926-07-31 (31 massacres)

Central WA: 1886-01-01 to 1910-09-11 (5 massacres)

Victoria River: 1886-04-01 to 1924-12-31 (18 massacres)

Bunuba and Kimberley West: 1892-06-01 to 1927-12-10 (10 massacres)

Outliers: 1806-03-01 to 1900-07-20 (3 massacres)*

* There are only one or two massacres in the data for the wars in the Tiwi Islands, Southern Wiradjuri, Flinders Ranges and Eyre Peninsula. These have been included because they are already known from history. The massacre data has been supplemented with some specific incidents from these wars that are not massacres. All wars will be supplemented with other events like this as research continues. Some massacres have been treated as 'outliers'. One is a massacre occurring long after other massacres in the region which would skew the time period of the intensity of violence in that region. Another was a massacre of Macassans. Twofold Bay occured in the early period, but is far from Sydney and may be considered part of the maritime conflict in the south, related to sealing and whaling. These are none the less important events.

In addition to the wars identified on land there was conflict resulting from Colonial maritime industries. These conflicts included some massacres, as well as killings, rape and abduction. The two broad periods of maritime conflict were related to:

Sealing and Whaling (early/south)

Sealing and Whaling throughout the south of the continent had focal points where colonists based their operations, and conducted their activity. This includes Twofold Bay, Bass Strait, Kangaroo Island and Eyre Peninsula, and various locations around Perth and Albany. These lead to abductions of women, and violent incidents including a massacre at Twofold Bay and at Convincing Ground. The massacre of shipwrecked colonists from the 'Maria' at the Coorong may also have been a response to prior contact with sealers and whalers.

Pearling and Trepanging (late/north)

Pearling and trepanging throughout the north of Australia also had various focal points, such as at Broome, the Northern Territory and Cape York. 'Shanghaiing' or abducting people to work on ships was part of this conflict. Blackbirding is also related. The massacre of Macassan trepangers by Aboriginal people is another aspect of this conflict.