The document discusses the role of violence in the British settlement of Australia and the treatment of indigenous Aboriginal people. It argues that violence against Aboriginals was widespread and significant, with military campaigns and massacres common. While Aboriginals were theoretically protected under British law and enlightenment ideals, in practice they faced violence, displacement from their lands, and population decline due to massacres and warfare between tribes following contact with settlers. The document examines historical evidence of massacres by settlers and analyzes scholarly debates around the extent and impact of violence on Aboriginal populations during the British colonization of Australia.

1. 1
Student no: 42779006
Callum Craigie
MHIS 204: The Origins of Modern Australia: Research Essay
Assess the role of violence in the British ‘settlement’ of Australia.
It will be highlighted violence was in the implementation and the defense of the
enlightened society being created in the British settlement of Australia. There is
abundant historical evidence of the role of violence in the British ‘settlement’ of
Australia. It will be argued, the indigenous Aboriginals were perceived as the
threat to the implementation and defense of the enlightened British settlement
of Australia. The Aborigines resisted with violence in the process of settlement.
Massacres occurred upon Aborigines, settlers and the colonial government did
consider the violence or ‘massacres’ against aboriginals to be an illegitimate
action and controversial in its’ reasoning in the process of British settlement. The
process of the British settlement of Australia was the implementation of the
enlightenment ideology, which highlights the reasoning of the role of violence or
massacres against Aboriginals. Agriculture in the enlightened British settlement
of Australia was is in the reasoning of the role of violence upon the Aborigines.
There is naivety amongst scholars in the severity of the role violence upon
Aborigines in the British settlement of Australia. Henry Reynolds in ‘The Other
Side of the Frontier’ highlights in old scholarly research of Aborigines there are

2. 2
ignorant analyses arguing the population ‘faded away’ after settlement1. Bruce
Elder admits there was violence upon aborigines in the process of settlement.
However his argument was that aborigines made no attempts to resist British
invasion, as they were passive victims2. Geoffrey Blainey in ‘Triumph of the
Nomads’ suggests the reduction of the Aboriginal population was the inadvertent
introduction of diseases3. Richard Broome in ‘Aboriginal Victorians’ argues
whilst decease was partial, it was violence to have contributed considerably in
the reduction of the aboriginal population, however Broome is ignorant as to the
severity of its’ role in the British settlement. With the example of the Port Phillip
settlement Broome suggests it was a mire class of colonialism and unfamiliar
culture4. The role of violence however was considerably implemented upon
Aborigines in the British settlement of Australia. The process of British
settlement was the infliction of violence upon Aboriginals.
Aborigines resisted with violence the British settlement of Australia. John
Connor is of particular relevance in his analysis of Australian frontier warfare.
Connor argues Aborigines respondedwith considerable resistance involving
strategic warfare against British settlers. Aborigines used guerilla warfare tactics
in the resistance to an invasion, no different to the indigenous people in New
Zealand in their resistance to British settlement. Connor claims Aboriginals used
1 Reynolds. H, ‘The Other Side of the Frontier’, James Cook University, 1981, p.
50-104.
2 Elder. B, ‘Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal
Australians since 1788’, 3rd edition, New Holland Publishers, 2009, p. 14.
3 Blainey. G, ‘Triumph of the Nomads’, Macmillan Press, Melbourne, 1975, p. 101-
112.
4 Broom. R, ‘Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800’, Allen and Unwin, 2005,
p. 91-92.

3. 3
violent methods of resistance, however strategic in several small and effective
isolated attacks. The most apparent was the destruction of farms including the
burning crops, the spearing and consumption of livestock. Furthermore
murderous ambushes were used upon lone stockmen; firearms were taken in the
raiding and burning down of settler’s homes. Connor claims settlers in the
severity of violent Aboriginal resistance settlers were forced to call upon military
assistance5. It is apparent settlers and their farms were met with violent gorilla
style warfare resistance, by the aboriginal population, furthermore no different
to the New Zealand indigenous population.
The process of British settlement was the infliction of violence upon Aboriginals.
Ryan Lyndall in his analysis of violence in settlement describes military
campaigns and garrisons been specifically for aborigines resisting British
settlement. As early as the first frontier of the Hawkesbury River region in the
1790s, Lyndall describes the British garrison undertaking several military
campaigns against Aborigines. Furthermore Lyndall argues British garrison units
evolved into the 19th century from light infantry to mounted troopers to “hunt
down their prey”, being the Aborigines6. Lyndall analyses Broome’s argument
that was previously stated above, to be an understatement of violence upon
Aborigines in the process of settlement. “Broome’s account of the dramatic
population collapse has many important components, but it tends to overlook
the possible impact of the phenomenon of settler massacre, that is the killing of
5 Connor. J, ‘The frontier that never was’, in Stockings. C, ‘Zombie Myths of
Australian Military History’, Chapter 1, UNSW Press, 2010, p. 16.
6 Lyndall. R, ‘Untangling Aboriginal resistance and the settler punitive
expedition: the Hawkesbury River frontier in the New South Wales: 1794-1810’,
Routledge, Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 15, No.2, 2013, p. 220.

4. 4
an undefended group of Aborigines in one action”7. Dirk Moses in ‘Genocide and
settler society in Australian History’ is adamant of the process of settlement to
have been in the massacre of the Aboriginal population. Settler massacres are
argued to have been the norm in the expansion of British settlement up until the
1850s8. The process of British settlement is argued to have been the massacre of
Aborigines, with specialist military units evolving for the purpose from the 18th
to 19th century.
Massacres of Aborigines are abundant throughout British settlement history. The
Myral Creek massacre is an example of a large massacre of Aborigines by
settlers. In 1838 a group of eleven stockmen murdered twenty-eight Aborigines
at a station in Myral Creek. According to the station keeper George Anderson the
stockmen were not of the station, however persisted in violent activities against
the aborigines that were taking shelter on the station with knowledge of
hostilities against Aborigines in the area9. “While Master was away, some men
came on a Saturday, about 10; I cannot say how many days after master left; they
came on horseback, armed with muskets and swords and pistols; all were
armed… the blacks, when they saw the men coming, ran into our hut, and the
men then, all of them, got off their horses; I asked what they were going to do
with the blacks, and Russel said 'We are going to take them over the back of the
7 Lyndall. R, 2013, p. 258.
8 Moses. D. A, ‘Genocide and Settler Society in Australian History’, Berghahn
Books, New York, 2004, p. 30-35.
9 Bottoms. T, ‘Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland’s frontier killing times’, Sydney:
Allen and Unwin, 2013, p. 15 and 178.

5. 5
range, to frighten them”10. Lyndall argues by 1838 although it was illegal for
murder of aboriginals it was impossible for the colonial authorities to bind the
conduct of settler men. The incident of Myall Creek is argued to have been a
legitimate force in the mindset of the stockman in the frustration Aboriginals11.
Furthermore outside of New South Wales, Victoria depicts a similar history of
massacres of Aborigines. According to Broome more than half of Aboriginals
were killed in mass settler killings in the first half of the 19th century12.
Furthermore Moses argues for every one settler killed between 1788 and 1930
at least ten Aborigines were killed13. Therefore massacres conducted by British
settlers upon Aborigines were considerable in the settlements.
The British settlement of Australia caused violence amongst the Aborigines.
Michael Cannon in ‘Who Killed the Kooris?’ considers the role violence in the
settlement of Port Phillip settlement upon the Aboriginal population. Cannon
argues there was considerable violence amongst the Aboriginal population of the
Murray district region in the 1840s, however more Aborigines died in tribal
battles than by white men14. Beverly Blaskett in the study of Aboriginal response
to white settlement between 1835 and 1850 considers Port Phillip to have
consisted tribal warfare fatalities considerably, exceeding settler massacres
10 Stone. S. N, ‘4.5 George Anderson's eye-witness account’, Aborigines in White
Australia: A documentary history of the attitudes affecting official policy and the
Australian Aborigines, 1697–1973. Melbourne: Heinemann, 1974.
11 Lyndall. R, 2013, p. 42.
12 Broome. R, 2005, p. 91-92.
13 Moses. D. A, ‘Genocide and Settler Society in Australian History’, Berghahn
Books, New York, 2004, p. 30-35.
14 Cannon. M, ‘Who Killed the Kooris?’ William Heinemann Australia, Port
Melbourne, 1990, p. 231.

6. 6
upon Aboriginals15. Blaskett proves consistent with Cannon, however
furthermore develops an argument as to reasoning in the intertribal warfare.
Blaskett argues the reasoning in the violence of intertribal warfare was the result
of the introduction of white settlers, which caused more intertribal mobility. The
intertribal conflict was normally caused in a revenge killing as a result of all
death within the tribe. Blaskett explains deaths were thought have occurred in
the contact and at the hand of sorcery practiced by strange aborigines in other
tribes16. Aborigines moved away from their traditional tribal boundary lines in
the attraction to European settlements and in the loss of their own lands to white
settlers17. Therefore Aboriginal tribes coming into more frequent contact with
one another and trial warfare was the result of the introduction of British
settlers. The role of violence amongst Aborigines was in their displacement
caused by the British settlements.
The violence upon Aboriginals within settler society proves to be controversial
in its’ reasoning in the process of British settlement. Dirk Moses in ‘Genocide and
Settler Society’ highlights within the eyes of British law; “Aboriginals were
forbidden from testifying in legal proceedings when they were otherwise
regarded as British subjects, equal before the law”18. Russel Ward and John
Robertson describe early examples depicting Aboriginals been protected under
the law, furthermore with violent punishment inflected upon convict
15 Blaskett. B, ‘The Aboriginal Response to White Settlement in Port Phillip
District 1835-1850’, Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1979, p. 20.
16 Blaskett. B, 1979, p. 311.
17 Blaskett. B, 1979, p. 157.
18 Day. D, ‘Claiming a Continent: A New History of Australia’, Harper and Collins
Australia, 1996, p. 130. Cited Moses. D. A, 2004, p. 7.

7. 7
perpetrators. In 1789 according to Captain Watkin Tench “the natives continued
to complain of being robbed of spears, and fishing tackle. A convict was at length
taken in the fact of stealing fishing tackle from Dar-in-ga, the wife of Colbee. The
governor ordered that he should be severely flogged, in the presence of as many
natives as could be assembled, to whom the cause of punishment could be
explained”19. According to the theories of enlightenment by the first Governor
Arthur Phillip Aborigines were civilizable and ordered they were to treated well,
furthermore christian belief insisted Aborigines were children of god and human
beings20. It would be controversial to argue violence was not alone to Aboriginals
in the British Settlement of Australia. As the rule of law both recognized and
protected Aboriginals, furthermore the theories of enlightenment and
christianity cement violence upon Aboriginals were not easily permitted.
Aboriginals in theory of the British settlement of Australia, would not have been
subject to violence. According to Ford and Salter; “James Cook’s botanist, the
celebrated Joseph Banks, assured colonial officials in London that Australia was
relatively fertile and thinly inhabited by extremely uncivilized and timid
Indigenous people who would recede before European settlement without
treaty, cost or violence”21. Furthermore on these grounds in the British
19 Captain Watkin Tench, Ed. L. F. Fitzhardinge, ‘Sydney’s First Four Years, A
Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and A Complete Account of the
Settlement at Port Jackson, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1961, p. 144. Cited
Ward. R and Robertson. J, ‘Such Was Life: Select documents in Australian Social
History’, Ure Smith Publishing, Sydney, London, 1969, p. 45.
20 D. Day, 1996, p. 130. Cited Moses. D. A, 2004, p. 7.
21 Banner. T, ‘Why Terra Nullius?’, Anthropology and Property Law, Law and
History Review, Vol. 23, 2005, p. 95-132. Cited Ford. L and Salter. B, ‘From
Pluralism to Territorial Sovereignty: the 1816 trial of Mow-watty in the Superior
Court of New South Wales’, Indigenous Law Journal, Vol. 7, 2008, p. 73.

8. 8
settlement of Australia it can be assumed there were good intentions of treating
Aborigines well. This is evident with the example previously stated above with
1789 flogging of convicts.
Massacres or violence upon the aboriginals were recognized as an issue into the
19th century. The Colonial Office in London considered the Australian frontier
expansion to be a considerable issue with the safety of Aboriginal population. In
1837 a select committee of Inquiry after researching the vitality of indigenous
populations in the colonies urged government authorities to assume more moral
responsibility. It was considered that the indigenous peoples could become
extinct in South Africa, Australia and North America. It was not until 1838 that
the law was enforced upon the murder of Aborigines as a capital offence22. The
rationality of what role of violence or the massacres of Aborigines was is not
recognized however. The term ‘massacre’ is a commonly discussed amongst
scholars in the British settlement of Australia and aboriginal history. Ian Clark
reviews aboriginal massacres of the 19th century. Clark defines a massacre to be
“the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of a number of human beings, as in
barbarous warfare or persecution, or for revengeor plunder. In a wider sense, it
is taken to refer to the general slaughter of human beings”23. As previously stated
Aboriginals were recognized in enlightenment theory, Christianity and British
Law, however contrary Aboriginals were subjected to violence in the British
22 Adams. F, ‘The Boomerang’. 1st of Feburary 1888. Cited Walker. D, ‘Anxious
Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850-1939’, University of Queensland
Press, 1999, p. 40-41.
23 Clark. I, ‘Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Site in Western
Victoria, 1803-1859, Canberra ACT, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995, p. 7.

9. 9
settling of Australia. It is apparent a massacre was considered an illegitimate
action and inhumane, however massacres are present upon aborigines in the
British settlement.
The process of the British settlement of Australia was the implementation of the
enlightenment ideology, which highlights the reasoning of the role of violence or
massacres against Aboriginals. The enlightenment in European thought allowed
colonial Australia to be the new environment in which convicts once exposed to,
could reform into model citizens. With the example of the colony of New South
Wales it was believed exposure to a new undeveloped environment, the convict
population would be turned into good and useful citizens24. Furthermore the
main focus of development in the British settlement of Australia was agriculture.
According to John Gascoigne in agriculture was the opportunity for convicts to
earn their own land and become reformed useful members of the new
enlightened society. “The language of agricultural improvement, for many,
provided the most concrete illustration of the ways in which enlightenment
based attitudes to reason and science could have practical and beneficial
implications for the advancement of society”25. Agriculture or farming was the
important to the British settlement of Australia as the colonization was the
implementation of enlightenment ideals.
24 Gascoigne. J, ‘The Enlightenment and the Origins of European Australia,
Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2002, p. 7.
25 Gascoigne. J, 2002, p. 10.

10. 10
Agriculture in the enlightened British settlement of Australia was is in the
reasoning of the role of violence upon the Aborigines. As previously stated above
the Aborigines destroyed farms including the burning crops, the spearing and
consumption of livestock. Furthermore murderous ambushes were used upon
lone stockmen; firearms were taken in the raiding and burning down of settler’s
homes26. It is particularly evident under the Governor Lachlan Macquarie who is
known for his contribution for the development of commerce and agriculture27.
According to Grace Karskens Governor Macquarie was regarded as autocratic in
his implementation of nation building by enlightenment ideals through the
development of agriculture28. Governor Macquarie at first appeared to be
fascinated and peaceful towards the Aborigines in his diary of the exploration of
the Blue Mountains29. However six years after Governor Macquarie’s arriving in
Australia he considered the Aborigines to be a threat to the enlightened society
as they had proven to be in retaliation and destructive farmland. According to
Ford and Salter in 1816 Macquarie issued two proclamations that permitted the
use of violence against Aborigines. The first was no “Black Native or Body of
Black Natives shall ever appear at or within one mile of any Town, Village or
Farm occupied by or belonging to any British subject, armed”. Furthermore the
second was that “no number of Natives exceeding in the whole six persons being
entirely unarmed shall ever come to lurk or loiter about any farm in the
26 Connor. J, 2010, p. 16.
27 Karskens. G, ‘The Colony’, Melbourne University Press, Ch. 7, 2009, p. 189.
28 Karskens. Grace, 2009, p. 190-193.
29 Extracts from Lachlan Macquarie, ‘Journals of his Tours in New South Wales
and Van Diemen’s Land 1810-1822’, Journeys in Time 1809-1822 project,
Macquarie University Library, p. 1-3.

11. 11
Interior”30. The violation of any of the two proclamations would the offending
Aborigines would be treated as enemies of the colony. Ford and Salter further
argue “these provisions echoed earlier responses to Aboriginal violence in the
colony by declaring war against Indigenous people31.
In conclusion the role of violence in the British ‘settlement’ of Australia was
primarily inflicted upon Aborigines, as they posed a threat to the implementation
and the defense of the enlightened society. There is naivety amongst scholars in
the severity of the role violence upon Aborigines. Aborigines resisted settlers
and their farms with violent gorilla style warfare resistance. Massacres of
Aborigines are abundant throughout British settlement history, with specialist
military units evolving for the purpose from the 18th to 19th century and settler
violence upon continuing into the 19th century beyond the bounds of law, with
the example of Myral Creek massacre. Violence upon Aborigines was not a
concerning issue by authorities until the 19th century with the law enforcing the
murder of Aborigines to a capital offence. The settlement of Australia caused
violence amongst the Aborigines with intertribal warfare as a result of their
displacement caused by the British settlements. Violence upon Aboriginals
within settler society proves was controversial as the rule of law, the
enlightenment ideologies and christianity, both recognized and protected
Aboriginals. Aboriginals in theory of the British settlement of Australia were not
supposed to have been subject to violence. Aboriginals by Captain Cook’s
30 Ford. L and Salter. B, ‘From Pluralism to Territorial Sovereignty: the 1816 trial
of Mow-watty in the Superior Court of New South Wales’, Indigenous Law
Journal, Vol. 7, 2008, p. 78-79.
31 Ford. L and Salter. B, 2008, p. 79.

12. 12
excursion were considered extremely uncivilized and timid Indigenous people
who would recede before European settlement without treaty, cost or violence.
Agriculture or farming was the implementation of enlightenment ideals,
however it conflicted with the indigenous population. The Governor Macquarie
era with the introduction of two proclamations, marked the declaration of war
upon the Aboriginal population, in defense of the enlightened society. Thus
violence played a role upon Aborigines in the British ‘settlement’ of Australia, as
they posed a threat to the implementation and the defense of the enlightened
society.

13. 13
Bibliography:
Articles:
Banner. T, ‘Why Terra Nullius?’, Anthropology and Property Law, Law and
History Review, Vol. 23, 2005.
Ford. L and Salter. B, ‘From Pluralism to Territorial Sovereignty: the 1816 trial of
Mow-watty in the Superior Court of New South Wales’, Indigenous Law Journal,
Vol. 7, 2008.
Lyndall. R, ‘Untangling Aboriginal resistance and the settler punitive expedition:
the Hawkesbury River frontier in the New South Wales: 1794-1810’, Routledge,
Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 15, No.2, 2013.
Books:
Adams. F, ‘The Boomerang’. 1st of Feburary 1888. Cited Walker. D, ‘Anxious
Nation: Australia and the Rise of Asia, 1850-1939’, University of Queensland
Press, 1999.
Blainey. G, ‘Triumph of the Nomads’, Macmillan Press, Melbourne, 1975, p. 101-
112.
Bottoms. T, ‘Conspiracy of Silence: Queensland’s frontier killing times’, Sydney:
Allen and Unwin, 2013.

14. 14
Broom. R, ‘Aboriginal Victorians: A History Since 1800’, Allen and Unwin, 2005,
p. 91-92.
Cannon. M, ‘Who Killed the Kooris?’, William Heinemann Australia, Port
Melbourne, 1990.
Clark. I, ‘Scars in the Landscape: A Register of Massacre Site in Western Victoria,
1803-1859, Canberra ACT, Aboriginal Studies Press, 1995.
Connor. J, ‘The frontier that never was’, in Stockings. C, ‘Zombie Myths of
Australian Military History’, Chapter 1, UNSW Press, 2010.
Day. D, ‘Claiming a Continent: A New History of Australia’, Harper and Collins
Australia, 1996.
Elder. B, ‘Blood on the Wattle: Massacres and Maltreatment of Aboriginal
Australians since 1788’, 3rd edition, New Holland Publishers, 2009.
Gascoigne. J, ‘The Enlightenment and the Origins of European Australia,
Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2002.
Karskens. G, ‘The Colony’, Melbourne University Press, Ch. 7, 2009.

15. 15
Moses. D. A, ‘Genocide and Settler Society in Australian History’, Berghahn Books,
New York, 2004.
Reynolds. H, ‘The Other Side of the Frontier’, James Cook University, 1981.
Ward. R and Robertson. J, ‘Such Was Life: Select documents in Australian Social
History’, Ure Smith Publishing, Sydney, London, 1969.
Other:
Blaskett. B, ‘The Aboriginal Response to White Settlement in Port Phillip District
1835-1850’, Thesis, University of Melbourne, 1979.
Captain Watkin Tench, Ed. L. F. Fitzhardinge, ‘Sydney’s First Four Years, A
Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and A Complete Account of the
Settlement at Port Jackson, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, 1961.
Extracts from Lachlan Macquarie, ‘Journals of his Tours in New South Wales and
Van Diemen’s Land 1810-1822’, Journeys in Time 1809-1822 project, Macquarie
University Library.
Stone. S. N, ‘4.5 George Anderson's eye-witness account’, Aborigines in White
Australia: A documentary history of the attitudes affecting official policy and the
Australian Aborigines, 1697–1973. Melbourne: Heinemann, 1974.