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Concept
Australian frontier wars
Summary
The Australian frontier wars were the violent conflicts between Indigenous Australians (including both Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders) and primarily British settlers during the colonisation of Australia. The first conflict took place several months after the landing of the First Fleet in January 1788, and the last frontier conflicts occurred in the early 20th century, with some occurring as late as 1934. An estimated minimum of 100,000 Indigenous Australians and 2,000-2,500 settlers died in the conflicts. Conflicts occurred in a number of locations across Australia.
In 1770 an expedition from Great Britain under the command of then-Lieutenant James Cook made the first voyage by the British along the Australian east coast. On 29 April, Cook and a small landing party fired on a group of the local Dharawal nation who had sought to prevent them from landing at the foot of their camp at Botany Bay, described by Cook as "a small village". Two Dharawal men made threatening gestures and threw a stone at Cook's party. Cook then ordered "a musket to be fired with small-shot" and the elder of the two was hit in a leg. This caused the two Dharawal men to run to their huts and seize their spears and shields. Subsequently, a single spear was thrown toward the British party, which "happily hurt nobody". This then caused Cook to order "the third musket with small-shots" to be fired, "upon which one of them threw another lance and both immediately ran away". Cook did not make further contact with people of the Dharawal nation.
In his voyage up the east coast of Australia, Cook claimed to have observed no signs of agriculture or other development by its inhabitants. Some historians have argued that under prevailing European law such land was deemed terra nullius or land belonging to nobody or land "empty of inhabitants" (as defined by Emerich de Vattel), though this doctrine was overturned by the High Court of Australia decision in Mabo v Queensland (No 2).
Official source
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