Massacres

It is now 33 years since the Australian War Memorial (AWM) was first asked to consider recognising the "frontier wars". The suggestion came from an historian and consultant to the memorial, none other than Geoffrey Blainey.

Blainey's case is straightforward. It has now been established beyond doubt that armed conflict between black and white occurred across the continent over a long period of time, and was routinely referred to by participants and observers as a "war"; those conflicts were similar to other irregular warfare already commemorated by the memorial; so, the "frontier wars" should be commemorated also.

Richard Fotheringham The Australian
06 October 2010

The discovery of a memoir by Steele Rudd's father sheds light on the murderous collision between settlers and Aborigines on the Darling Downs

European settlement in Australia was bloody brutal. The idea that on small or imagined provocation you had to kill Aborigines indiscriminately was tacitly acknowledged throughout the immigrant rural communities: "how else could the land be made safe for settlers and their families?"

Here is a book review that reveals a few historical records of southern Queensland's frontier wars. An uncomfortable silence still hangs over the most controversial issue in Australian colonial history.