March 27.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Colonial frontier wars
Lieutenant Sorell’s response to stories of abuse of Aboriginal women.
Lieutenant-Colonel William Sorell, who replaced Davey as lieutenant-governor in 1817, was horrified by these incidents. [1] He disparaged the popular belief held even by the chaplain Robert Knopwood that the Aborigines were a 'Hostile People' who were in league to destroy the colonists and their stock. He was even more horrified by the stories of settlers and stock-keepers chasing after Aboriginal women 'for the purpose of compelling them to abandon their Children' and warned that he would punish any colonist who had 'destroyed or maltreated any of the Native people (not strictly in Self-defence)' [original emphasis]. [2] But the threat appears to have been more about covering himself on paper than an active desire to bring the offenders to justice.
On "these incidents" see entry for 10/17/24 April – Ryan p.68 n.30
HTG, 27 March 1819; see also Nicholls, The Diary of the Reverend Robert Knopwood, 216.
Acknowledgment: Lyndall Ryan, Tasmanian Aborigines – A history since 1803,pp. 68, 367 n.31.
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Two Centuries of War & Peace
The European colonial expansion between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, including the British invasion and settlement of Australia, led to frontier wars on every continent. There is a rich history of military history concerning frontier conflicts almost everywhere from Angola to Alaska...[but] this volume is the first book-length military history of the Australian frontier wars. [1]
Why has so little military history been written about the Australian frontier? There are two reasons. The first, as Joan Beaumont has written, is that 'in Australia the study of war has tended to be on the margins of the academic community'. [2] ...Of course there are exceptions to this generalisation, the most significant being Richard Broome's groundbreaking chapter on frontier warfare in Australia: Two Centuries of War & Peace published for the bicentenary in 1988. [3]
The second reason for this neglect is that Australian military historians have ignored frontier conflict even though they have the expertise to write about the subject. Their concentration on the major twentieth-century conflicts means that the frontier remains unexamined. Again there are exceptions to this generalisation, most notably Jeffrey Grey's chapter on frontier warfare in his A Military History of Australia and Craig Wilcox's thoughtful consideration of the frontier's 'culture of force'. [4]
See [John Connor's] entries on the Australian frontier wars in Joan Beaumont (ed), Australian Defence: Sources and Statistics, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 2001, pp. 369-72; Charles Messenger (ed), Reader's Guide to Military History, Fitzroy Dearborn, London, 2001, pp.40-41.
Joan Beaumont, 'The State of Australian History of War', Australian Historical Studies, 121, 2003, p.165.
Richard Broome, 'The Struggle for Australia: Aboriginal-European Warfare, 1770-1930', in M. McKerman & M. Brown (eds), Australia Two Centuries of War & Peace, Australia war Memorial in association with Allen & Unwin, Canberra, 1988, pp. 92-120.
Jeffrey Grey, A Military History of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, [rev.edn) 1999 [1990], pp. 25-37; Craig Wilcox, 'The Culture of Restrained Force in British Australia', in Carl Bridge (ed.), Ranging Shots: New Directions in Australian Military History, Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, University of London, London, 1998, pp. 7-18.
Acknowledgment: John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars 1788-1838, pp. ix, 123 n. 1, n.3, n.4, n.5.