June 28.
Artwork by Glenn Loughrey
Soldiers and Settlers
Differing responses between soldiers and settlers
While the fact that a '“Guerrilla” war' was fought on the Australian frontier cannot be forgotten, it must be remembered that the fighting was on a much smaller scale than that of comparable conflicts, such as the New Zealand wars. [1] The non-hierarchical organisation of Aboriginal society meant they were unable to unite against the invaders, and each Aboriginal group fought the British on its own.* On the British side, the Australian frontier before 1838 was less violent than it became later for two reasons. First, the settlers lacked organisation and weapons. Despite a request by Port Phillip District settlers in 1838, civilians in Australia were never organised into militia units to fight on the frontier. [2] Civilian gun ownership on the frontier in this early period of settlement was not as common as it became later. Colonial governors sometimes issued muskets to settlers considered in danger of Aboriginal attack, but Sir Thomas Brisbane, the New South Wales governor, wrote in 1825 that 'it would not be expedient to thrust Arms generally into the hands of the people'. [3] Prior to 1838 settlers, when they faced strong Aboriginal resistance, generally expected the colonial garrison to be deployed to the frontier. In 1837 settlers west of Geelong told Governor Bourke that 'without assistance' they would be 'unable to check' Wathaurong attacks; even as late as 1850 farmers at Moreton Bay expected troops to protect their crops from Yuggera raids. [4] The second reason for the relatively limited level of violence on the Australian frontier before 1838 was that professional soldiers were more likely to be controlled in their use of violence than untrained settlers. There were exceptions to this, such as Captain Nathaniel Lowe in the Hunter Valley and Major James Nunn on the Liverpool Plains. These men who killed Aborigines indiscriminately are balanced, however, by officers such as Captain Peter Bishop, who in 1826 negotiated an end to conflict between settlers and Ngunnawal around Lake George 'without shedding a drop of human blood', or Captain William Lonsdale, who in 1838 refused a soldier's request to shoot an Aboriginal man rather than arrest him. Just as some British officers fighting the French during the Peninsular War were appalled by the atrocities committed by armed Spanish civilians (the original guerrillas) fighting alongside them, so soldiers like Colonel George Arthur complained of the conduct of armed British settlers on the Australian frontier. [5]
Melville, History of Van Diemen's Land, p. 33; Wilcox, 'Culture of Restrained Force', p.9.
Militias known as 'Loyal Associations' were formed in New South Wales during the war with France but they never fought the Aborigines. Duncan McCallum, 'The Early “Volunteer” Associations in New South Wales and the Proposals in the First Quarter of the Nineteenth Century', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, 47 (6), 1961, pp.352-67; letter - Sir George Gipps, NSW Governor to Lord Glenelg, British Colonial Secretary, 21 July 1838, HRA, XIX: 509; Wilcox, 'Culture of restrained Force', p.9
Broome, 'Struggle for Australia', p. 100; Australian 28 June 1826; Perth Gazette, 2 March 1833; letter – Brisbane to Bathurst, 8 November 1825, HRA, XI: 898.
Letter – Western District settlers to Bourke, 8 June 1837, HRV, 1:219; Matthew Higgins, '”Deservedly respected”: – a first look at the 11th Regiment in Australia', Journal of the Australian War Memorial, 6, 1985, p.7.
Sydney Gazette, 6 May, 27 December 1826; letter – Lonsdale to Thomson, 5 June 1838, HRV, 2A: p 224; Gunther Rothenburg, 'The Age of Napoleon' in Michael Howard, George J Andreopoulos, & Mark R Shulman (eds), The Laws of War: Constraints on Warfare in the Western World, Yale University Press, Hartford, Conneticut, 1994, p. 96; Governor's Proclamation, 23 June 1824, British Parliamentary Papers, Colonies, Australia (hereafter BPP Australia) 34 vols. Irish University Press, Shannon, Ireland, 1968-70, 5: 191.
Acknowledgment: John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars – 1788-1838, pp. 16-17, 129, n.60, n.61, n.62, 130 n.63, n.64.
* For an account of the uniting of clans against the European invaders see Libby Connors, Warrior – A legendary leader's dramatic life and violent death on the colonial frontier, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, 2015, pp. 63ff.