Why we ought to be remembering the frontier wars on Anzac Day

Timothy Bottoms

At the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I, the irascible Billy Hughes responded to a jibe by President Woodrow Wilson stating that he spoke for 60,000 Australian dead. Upon his return, the Prime Minister claimed that Australia had become a nation that our soldiers had earned for us. This was, however, a war fought for questionable reasons that had little to do with the great Southland, except that our settler society was still incredibly loyal to the mother country. 

Hughes, and our nation since, became conveniently adept at whitewashing our 19th century history. Yet the frontier wars were fought for over 80 years in all of the Australian colonies before 1914. In Queensland alone, it has recently been estimated that somewhere between 65,000 and 115,000 Aboriginal men, women and children were killed and perhaps 1500-2000 non-Aborigines. This was an extended war between the original inhabitants who knew the land intimately as their ancestors had occupied it for over 50,000 years, and newcomers who had a different perception of land-use and wanted to 'make good', creating monetary wealth, primarily for themselves. 

The rapaciousness of the colonial frontier is well reflected in an advertisement in the Cairns Post (October 15, 1885) that proclaimed: "Englishmen, Irishmen & Scotsmen – what brings you to Queensland, leaving home in the dear old island 1000s of miles away? It is not for love of country, is it? No, plainly I can hear you answer. It is to make money, & at no distant date to return ... home." The mindset of 'getting rich and going home' pervaded the thinking of many 19th century settlers.  

Initially the combatants were comparatively evenly balanced, but as European technology rapidly developed, the advantage swung in favour of the newcomers with their repeating rifles, horses, steamships and trains as well as military-style, logistical organisations, such as the Native Police.

The evidence is there. Intrepid Australian historians began opening the whitewashed 'Pandora's Box' of frontier history from the early 1970s. At the start of the 21st century it really is time to acknowledge that Australians fought one another for this land. The fact that it was the original Australians versus the newcomers should not preclude this recognition, even if neither side necessarily perceived themselves as 'Australians'. 

The war was long-lasting, extremely bloody and in the latter part of the 19th century, particularly one-sided; but the same traits that are promoted as admirable and deserving of respect during other military conflicts were nevertheless present. Nit-picking about whether the combatants wore uniforms and fought in a recognised European fashion is merely a red-herring, It denies the tenacity of the original Australians' fight for their territories and the fact that they saw their conflict with the new settlers as a kind of war; a war that they lost, and for which they paid a very heavy price indeed. But then, what are Anzac and Gallipoli about?

Surely by acknowledging the frontier wars one is merely being more truly inclusive of all Australians. By not acknowledging the frontier wars, national institutions are confirming the colonial ideologies that underpinned the frontier violence as well as the denialism accompanying them and giving weight to the survival of these perceptions.

Recognition of the frontier wars does not detract from or in any way denigrate the role of our past servicemen and women in the 20th century. In fact it gives credence to our often quoted ideals of 'a fair go': honesty, egalitarianism, self-reliance and resourcefulness, along with a cheeky sense of humour. Recognition can only add to our sense of national integrity. 

 The Australian War Memorial proclaims that: "Anzac Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day on which we remember Australians who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of Anzac, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity."  

It therefore seems both logical and balanced to include remembrance of those who died in the frontier wars. These were perceived by settlers at the time as a series of warlike conflicts and they are similarly regarded as such by most recent scholars and by contemporary Aborigines in general today. 

So it behoves us all to abandon the partial and exclusivist attitudes of the 20th century, to embrace the truth about our history, and to begin to remember the frontier wars on Anzac Day.

Dr Timothy Bottoms is a Cairns historian and  author of Conspiracy of Silence, Queensland's frontier killing times (Allen and Unwin, 2013).

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