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{{Short description|Period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Australians in Tasmania}} |
{{Short description|Period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Australians in Tasmania}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} |
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} |
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{{Use Australian English|date=October 2012}} |
{{Use Australian English|date=October 2012}}{{Neutrality|date=May 2024}} |
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{{Infobox military conflict |
{{Infobox military conflict |
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| conflict = Black War |
| conflict = Black War |
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| partof = the [[Australian frontier wars]] |
| partof = the [[Australian frontier wars]] |
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| image = File:Aborigines_attacking_Milton_farm.png |
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| image = Benjamin Duterrau - Timmy, a Tasmanian Aboriginal, throwing a spear - Google Art Project.jpg |
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| image_size = 300px |
| image_size = 300px |
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| caption = An |
| caption = An 1833 painting of Aboriginal Tasmanians attacking [[John Allen (settler)|John Allen]]'s Milton Farm near [[Swansea, Tasmania|Great Swanport]] |
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| date = |
| date = Mid-1820s–1832 |
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| place = [[Tasmania]] |
| place = [[Tasmania]] |
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| result = British control of Tasmania |
| result = British control of Tasmania |
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| combatant1 = [[British Empire]] |
| combatant1 = [[British Empire]] |
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| combatant2 = [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]] |
| combatant2 = [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]] |
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| commander1 = |
| commander1 = |
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| commander2 = |
| commander2 = |
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| casualties1 = '''Dead''': 219<br>'''Wounded''': 218<br>'''Total''': 437<ref name="whitetoll">{{harvnb|Clements|2013| |
| casualties1 = '''Dead''': 219<br/>'''Wounded''': 218<br/>'''Total''': 437<ref name="whitetoll">{{harvnb|Clements|2013|p=343}}</ref> |
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| casualties2 = 600–900 dead |
| casualties2 = 600–900 dead |
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}} |
}} |
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The '''Black War''' was a period of violent conflict between [[British Empire|British colonists]] and [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]] in [[Tasmania]] from the mid-1820s to 1832 that precipitated the near-extermination of the indigenous population. The conflict was fought largely as a [[guerrilla war]] by both sides; some 600 to 900 Aboriginal people and more than 200 British colonists died.{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=1}}{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=143}} |
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{{Genocide}} |
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When a British penal settlement was established in Tasmania (then called [[Van Diemen's Land]]) in 1803, the Aboriginal population was 3,000 to 7,000 people.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=11–17}} Until the 1820s, the British and Aboriginal people coexisted with only sporadic violence, often caused by settlers kidnapping Aboriginal women and children. Conflict intensified from 1824, as Aboriginal warriors resisted the rapid expansion of British settlement over their land. In 1828, the British declared martial law and in 1830 they unsuccessfully attempted to force hostile Aboriginal nations from the settled districts in a military operation called "the Black Line". In a series of "Friendly Missions" in 1830 and 1831, [[George Augustus Robinson]] and his Aboriginal negotiators secured the surrender of the Aboriginal belligerents. Martial law was revoked in January 1832.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=141}} |
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The '''Black War''' was a period of violent conflict between [[British Empire|British colonists]] and [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]] in [[Tasmania]] from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 to 900 Aboriginal people and more than 200 British colonists.<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=1}}</ref><ref name="Ryan 2012 143">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=143}}</ref> The near-destruction of the [[Aboriginal Tasmanians]] and the frequent incidence of mass killings have sparked debate among historians over whether the Black War should be defined as an act of [[genocide]].<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=4}}</ref> |
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Almost all of the remaining Aboriginal people were removed from mainland Tasmania from 1832 to 1835, and the 220 survivors were eventually relocated to the [[Wybalenna Aboriginal Mission]] on Flinders Island. Infectious diseases and a low birth rate cut the Aboriginal population at Wybalenna to 46 when the mission was closed in 1847.{{sfn|Reynolds|2001|p=71}} |
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== Background == |
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The terms "Black War" and "Black Line" were coined by journalist [[Henry Melville]] in 1835,<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=372 fn 28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-first=Henry |author-last=Melville |title=The History of Van Diemen's Land From the Year 1824 to 1835 |pages=89, 90}}</ref> but historian [[Lyndall Ryan]] has argued that it should be known as the '''Tasmanian War'''. She has also called for the erection of a public memorial to the fallen from both sides of the war.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=xxvi, 145–146}}</ref> |
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The frequent mass killings and near-destruction of the Aboriginal Tasmanians are regarded by some contemporary historians as [[genocide]] by the colonists. Others, however, argue that the colonial authorities did not intend to destroy the Aboriginal population.{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=4}} |
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The escalation of violence in the late 1820s prompted Lieutenant-Governor [[Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet|George Arthur]] to declare [[martial law]]—effectively providing legal immunity for killing Aboriginal people<ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|p=196}}</ref>—and in November 1830 to order a massive six-week military offensive known as the Black Line, in which 2,200 civilians and soldiers formed a series of moving cordons stretching hundreds of kilometres across the island in order to drive Aboriginal people from the colony's settled districts to the [[Tasman Peninsula]] in the southeast, where it was intended they would remain permanently confined.<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=141–144}}</ref><ref name="Ryan 2012 131">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=131}}</ref><ref name="Boyce 2010 273">{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|p=273}}</ref> |
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==Etymology== |
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The Black War was prompted by the rapid spread of British settlers and agricultural livestock throughout areas of Tasmania that had been traditional Aboriginal hunting grounds. Historian Nicholas Clements has described the Aboriginal violence as a resistance movement—the use of force against an invading or occupying enemy. He said the Aboriginal attacks were motivated by revenge for European atrocities and the widespread kidnapping, rape and murder of Aboriginal women and girls by convicts, settlers and soldiers, but particularly from the late 1820s the Aboriginal people were also driven by hunger to plunder settlers' homes for food as their hunting grounds shrank, native game disappeared and the dangers of hunting on open ground grew.<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=58–67}}</ref> European violence, meanwhile, was motivated by mounting terror of Aboriginal attacks and a conviction that extermination of the Aboriginal population was the only means by which peace could be secured. Clements noted: "As black violence grew in intensity, so too did the frequency of revenge attacks and pre-emptive strikes by frontiersmen."<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=42–50}}</ref> |
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The terms "Black War" and "Black Line" were coined by journalist [[Henry Melville]] in 1835.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=372 fn 28}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Henry |last=Melville |title=The History of Van Diemen's Land From the Year 1824 to 1835 |pages=89, 90}}</ref> In the early 21st century, historian [[Lyndall Ryan]] has argued that the conflict should be known as the "Tasmanian War". She has also called for a public memorial to be commissioned to honour the dead on both sides of the war.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=xxvi, 145–146}} |
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== Early conflict == |
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Attacks were launched by groups of Aboriginal people almost always in daylight with a variety of weapons including spears, rocks and [[waddy|waddies]] used to kill and maim settlers and shepherds, as well as their livestock, while homes, haystacks and crops were often set alight. European attacks, in contrast, were mainly launched at night or in the early hours of dawn by pursuit parties or roving parties of civilians or soldiers who aimed to strike as their quarry slept in bush camps. Women and children were commonly casualties on both sides. |
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Although commercial sealing on [[Van Diemen's Land]] had begun in late 1798, the first significant European presence on the island came in September 1803 with the establishment of a small British military outpost at [[Risdon Cove]] on the [[River Derwent (Tasmania)|Derwent River]] near present-day [[Hobart]].{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=18–21}}{{sfn|Hughes|1987|p=122}} |
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[[File:John Glover - Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|''Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land'' by [[John Glover (artist)|John Glover]], 1838]]The British had several hostile encounters with Aboriginal clans over the next five months, with shots fired and an Aboriginal boy abducted. [[David Collins (lieutenant governor)|David Collins]] arrived as the colony's first lieutenant governor in February 1804 with instructions from London that any acts of violence against the Aboriginal people were to be punished. But he failed to publish those instructions, leaving an unclear legal framework for dealing with any violent conflict.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=48}} |
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From 1830 Arthur offered rewards for the capture of Aboriginal people, but bounties were also paid when Aboriginal people were killed. From 1829 efforts were made with the aid of humanitarian [[George Augustus Robinson]] to launch a "friendly mission" to persuade Aboriginal people to surrender and be removed to an island sanctuary; from November 1830 to December 1831 several groups accepted his offer<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=163, 177}}</ref> and 46 were initially placed on [[Flinders Island]], from which escape was deemed to be impossible.<ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|p=290}}</ref> Although conflict between Aboriginal people and settlers almost completely ceased from January 1832, another 148 Aboriginal people were captured in the island's northwest over the next four years as a "cleanup" and [[Deportation|forcibly removed]] to Hunter Island and then Flinders Island.<ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=296–297}}</ref> |
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On 3 May 1804, soldiers, settlers and convicts from Risdon Cove fired on a hunting party of 100 to 300 Aboriginal people. The British commanding officer stated that he thought the Aboriginal group was hostile. Witnesses to the [[1804 Risdon Cove massacre|massacre]] stated that between three and 50 Aboriginal men, women and children had died. A boy whose parents were killed in the massacre was taken and given the name [[Robert Hobart May]]. This boy became the first Indigenous Tasmanian to have extended contact with the British colonial society.<ref>{{cite web |title=Centre For 21st Century Humanities: Risdon Cove massacre |url=https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=462 |access-date=2023-12-09 |website=c21ch.newcastle.edu.au |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312054138/https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=462 |archive-date=12 March 2024}}</ref>{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=49–51}}{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=35}} |
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== Early conflict == |
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Although sealers had begun commercial operations on [[Van Diemen's Land]] in late 1798, the first significant European presence on the island came five years later, with the establishment in September 1803 of a small military outpost at Risdon on the [[River Derwent (Tasmania)|Derwent River]] near present-day [[Hobart]].<ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=18–21}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Hughes|1987|p=122}}</ref> Several bloody encounters with local Aboriginal clans took place over the next five months, with shots fired and an Aboriginal boy abducted. [[David Collins (lieutenant governor)|David Collins]] arrived as the colony's first lieutenant governor in February 1804 with instructions from London that any acts of violence against the Aboriginal people by Europeans were to be punished, but failed to publish those instructions, leaving no legal framework on how to deal with any violent conflict.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=48}}</ref> |
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By 1806, the British had founded two main penal settlements on the sites of modern Hobart and [[Launceston, Tasmania|Launceston]].{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=21–43}} Violence increased during a drought in 1806–7 as tribes in the south of the island killed or wounded several colonists in six incidents mostly sparked by competition for game. There were only three hostile encounters recorded in the northern settlements before 1819, although [[John Oxley]] stated in 1810 that convict [[Bushranger|bushrangers]] inflicted "many atrocious cruelties" on Aboriginal people which led to Aboriginal attacks on solitary white hunters.{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=36}} |
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[[File:John Glover - Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|''Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen's Land'' by [[John Glover (artist)|John Glover]], 1838.]]On 3 May 1804, alarmed soldiers from Risdon fired [[grapeshot]] from a [[carronade]] on a group of about 100 Aboriginal people after an encounter at a farm, while settlers and convicts fired rifles, pistols, and [[musket]]s in support. Magistrate Robert Knopwood told a subsequent inquiry into the so-called Risdon massacre that five or six Aboriginal people had been killed, but other witnesses claimed as many as 50 men, women, and children had died, with 30 bodies later burned or buried to extinguish the odour as they decomposed.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=49–51}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=35}}</ref> |
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The Tasmanian settlements grew slowly up to 1815, with the population reaching 1,933 people that year. Growth was mainly through the arrival of 600 colonists from [[Norfolk Island]] between 1805 and 1813, and 149 male convicts from England in 1812. Former convicts and the Norfolk Islander settlers were given small grants of land. By 1814,{{Convert|12,700|ha|acre}} of land was under cultivation, with 5,000 cattle and 38,000 sheep. Conflict with Aboriginal people increased, mainly due to sporadic murders and colonists hunting game and kidnapping Aboriginal women and children for domestic work and sexual purposes.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=58–64}}{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=53, 105–106}}{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=19–22}} |
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A wave of violence erupted during a drought in 1806–7 as tribes in both the north and south of the island killed or wounded several Europeans in conflicts sparked by the competition for game, while explorer and naval officer [[John Oxley]] referred in an 1810 report to the "many atrocious cruelties" inflicted on Aboriginal people by convict [[bushranger]]s in the north, which in turn led to black attacks on solitary white hunters.<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=36}}</ref> |
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Between 1815 and 1830, the colony expanded rapidly. The British population grew from 2,000 to 24,000, the number of sheep increased to 680,000 and cattle to 100,000. The settled districts{{Mdash}}mainly in the midlands, eastern coast and northwestern region of the island{{Mdash}}accounted for almost 30 per cent of its land area.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=74–75}}<ref name=":39">{{harvnb|Reynolds|2012|pp=51–52}}</ref> The expansion of the colony over Aboriginal hunting grounds led to increased conflict which, according to Nicholas Clements, developed into an Aboriginal resistance movement.{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=59}}{{sfn|Broome|2019|p=42}}{{sfn|Reynolds|2012|p=51}} Aboriginal attacks on colonists averaged 1.7 per year over the 1803{{Ndash}}1823 period, but increased to 18 per year over 1824{{Ndash}}1826.<ref name=":39" /> |
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The arrival of 600 colonists from [[Norfolk Island]] between 1807 and 1813 increased tensions as they established farms along the River Derwent and east and west of [[Launceston, Tasmania|Launceston]], occupying 10 percent of Van Diemen's Land. By 1814 12,700ha of land was under cultivation, with 5,000 cattle and 38,000 sheep. The Norfolk Islanders used violence to stake their claim on the land, attacking Aboriginal camps at night, slaughtering parents, and abducting the orphaned children as their servants. The attacks prompted retaliatory raids on settlers' cattle herds in the southeast. Between 1817 and 1824 the colonial population rose from 2,000 to 12,600, and in 1823 alone more than 1000 land grants totalling 175,704ha were made to new settlers; by that year Van Diemen's Land's sheep population had reached 200,000 and the so-called Settled Districts accounted for 30 per cent of the island's total land area. The rapid colonisation transformed traditional kangaroo hunting grounds into farms with grazing livestock as well as fences, hedges and stone walls, while police and military patrols were increased to control the convict farm labourers.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=58, 62, 66, 74–75}}</ref> |
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Particularly from the late 1820s, the Aboriginal people were also driven by hunger to plunder settlers' homes for food as their hunting grounds shrank, native game disappeared, and the dangers of hunting on open ground grew.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=58–67}} |
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Over the first two decades of settlement Aboriginal people launched at least 57 attacks on white settlers, punctuating a general calm,<ref>{{harvnb|Broome|2010|p=42}}</ref> but by 1820 the violence was becoming markedly more frequent, with one Russian explorer reporting that year that "the natives of Tasmania live in a state of perpetual hostility against the Europeans".<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=41}}</ref> From the mid-1820s, the number of attacks initiated by both whites and blacks rose sharply. Clements says the main reasons for settler attacks on Aboriginal people were revenge, killing for sport, sexual desire for women and children and suppression of the native threat. Van Diemen's Land had an enormous gender imbalance, with male colonists outnumbering females six to one in 1822 and the ratio as high as 16 to one among the convict population. Clements has suggested the "voracious appetite" for native women was the most important trigger for the Black War. He wrote: "Sex continued to be a central motivation for attacking natives until around 1828, by which time killing the enemy had taken priority over raping them."<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=20, 49}}</ref> |
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Clements states that the main reasons for frontier violence against Aboriginal people were revenge, killing for sport, sexual desire for women and children, and suppression of the native threat. Male colonists outnumbered females six to one in 1822 and Clements argues that a "voracious appetite" for Aboriginal women was the most important immediate trigger for the Black War. However, after 1828 settler violence was mainly motivated by fear of Aboriginal attacks and a growing conviction among those on the frontier that extermination of the Aboriginal population was the only means by which peace could be secured.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=20, 42–50}} |
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== Crisis years, 1825–1831 == |
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From 1825 to 1828, the number of native attacks more than doubled each year, raising panic among settlers. By 1828, says Clements, colonists had no doubt they were fighting a war—"but this was not a conventional war, and the enemy could not be combated by conventional means. The blacks were not one people, but rather a number of disparate tribes. They had no home base and no recognisable command structure."<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=42}}</ref> |
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== Crisis years (1825–1831) == |
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George Arthur, Governor of the colony since May 1824, had issued a proclamation on his arrival that placed Aboriginal people under the protection of British law and threatened prosecution and trial for Europeans who continued to "wantonly destroy" them. Arthur sought to establish a "native institution" for Aboriginal people and in September 1826 expressed a hope that the trial and subsequent hanging of two Aboriginal people arrested for the spearing of three colonists earlier that year would "not only prevent further atrocities ... but lead to a conciliatory line of conduct". But between September and November 1826 six more colonists were murdered. Among them was George Taylor Junior, a "respectable settler" from Campbell Town, whose body was found "transfixed with many spears, and his head dreadfully shattered with blows, inflicted either with stones or [[waddy|waddies]]." The ''Colonial Times'' newspaper, in response, demanded a drastic change of official policy, urging the forcible removal of all Aboriginal people from the Settled Districts to an island in the [[Bass Strait]]. It warned: "Self-defence is the first law of nature. The government must remove the natives—if not, they will be hunted down like wild beasts, and destroyed!"<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=78–80}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=43}}</ref> |
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From 1825 to 1828, the number of Aboriginal attacks on colonists and their property more than doubled each year. Clements states that although the colonists knew they were fighting a war, "this was not a conventional war, and the enemy could not be combated by conventional means. The blacks were not one people, but rather a number of disparate tribes. They had no home base and no recognisable command structure."{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=42}} |
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[[File:Tasmanian tribes MJC.jpg|thumb|right|upright| |
[[File:Tasmanian tribes MJC.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Tasmanian tribes at the time of first European contact]]George Arthur, governor of the colony since May 1824, had issued a proclamation on his arrival that placed Aboriginal people under the protection of British law and threatened prosecution for anyone who murdered them. Two Aboriginal men were hanged in September 1826 for the murder of three colonists and Arthur hoped that this would deter further attacks on colonists. But between September and November 1826 six more colonists were murdered, taking the number of colonists killed in the conflict to 36 since 1823. The ''Colonial Times'' newspaper advocated the removal of all Aboriginal people from the settled districts to an island in the [[Bass Strait]], warning: "if not, they will be hunted down like wild beasts, and destroyed!"{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=78–80}}{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=43}} |
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On 29 November 1826, Arthur issued a notice authorising settlers to treat hostile Aboriginal groups as open enemies and to use arms to force them from the settled districts. He also deployed additional soldiers and police to these areas. The ''Colonial Times'' saw this as a declaration of war on Aboriginal people in the settled districts.{{sfn|Reynolds|2012|p=59}}{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=80–83}} Historian Lyndall Ryan argues that Arthur intended to force the surrender of the hostile Aboriginal tribes.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=80}} Clements states that the November proclamation failed to clarify when it was legal for settlers to kill Aboriginal people.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=53–54}} |
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Over the summer of 1826–7 clans from the Big River, Oyster Bay and North Midlands nations speared a number of stock-keepers on farms and made it clear that they wanted the settlers and their sheep and cattle to move from their kangaroo hunting grounds. Settlers responded vigorously, resulting in many mass-killings, though this was poorly reported at the time. On 8 December 1826 a group led by Kickerterpoller threatened a farm overseer at Bank Hill farm at Orielton, near [[Richmond, Tasmania|Richmond]]; the following day soldiers from the [[40th Regiment of Foot|40th Regiment]] killed 14 Aboriginal people from the Oyster Bay nation and captured and jailed another nine, including Kickerterpoller. In April 1827 two shepherds were killed at Hugh Murray's farm at Mount Augustus near Campbell Town, south of Launceston, and a party of settlers with a detachment of the 40th Regiment launched a reprisal attack at dawn on an undefended Aboriginal camp, killing as many as 70 Aboriginal men, women and children. In March and April several settlers and convict servants were killed and a pursuit party avenged one of the incidents in a dawn raid in which "they fired volley after volley in among the Blackfellows ... they reported killing some two score (40)." In May 1827 a group of Oyster Bay Aboriginal people killed a stock-keeper at Great Swanport near [[Swansea, Tasmania|Swansea]] and a party of soldiers, field police, settlers and stock-keepers launched a night raid on the culprits' camp. A report noted: "Volley after volley of ball cartridge was poured in upon the dark groups surrounding the little camp fires. The number slain was considerable."<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=87–91, 123–124}}</ref> |
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Over the summer of 1826–27, warriors from the Big River, Oyster Bay and North Midlands nations killed a number of stock-keepers on farms. The colonists responded with reprisal raids, in which many Aboriginal people were killed.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=89–91}} On 8 December 1826, a group led by [[Kikatapula|Kickerterpoller]] threatened a farm overseer at Bank Hill farm at Orielton, near [[Richmond, Tasmania|Richmond]]; the following day soldiers from the [[40th Regiment of Foot|40th Regiment]] killed 14 Oyster Bay people and captured another nine, including Kickerterpoller.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=87–88}} |
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[[File:Natives attacking shepherds hut.jpg|thumb|right|Samuel Calvert's depiction of Aboriginals attacking a shepherds' hut as released in The Illustrated Melbourne Post.]]Over 18 days in June 1827 at least 100 members of the Pallittorre clan from the North nation were killed in reprisals for the killing of three stockmen and Ryan calculates that in the eight months from 1 December 1826 to 31 July 1827 more than 200 Aboriginal people were killed in the Settled Districts in reprisal for their killing of 15 colonists. An entire clan of 150 Oyster Bay people may have been killed in one pursuit through the Sorell Valley in November 1827, significantly reducing population numbers. In September Arthur appointed another 26 field police and deployed another 55 soldiers from the 40th Regiment and New South Wales Royal Veteran Company into the Settled Districts to deal with the rising conflict. Between September 1827 and the following March, at least 70 Aboriginal attacks were reported throughout the Settled Districts, taking the lives of 20 colonists. By March 1828 the death toll in the Settled Districts for the 16 months since Arthur's November 1826 official notice had risen to 43 colonists and probably 350 Aboriginal people. But by then reports were being received that Aboriginal people were more interested in plundering huts for food—stealing bread, flour, tea and digging up potatoes and turnips from settlers' gardens—than killing colonists.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=93–100}}</ref> |
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In April 1827, two shepherds were killed at a farm at Mount Augusta, south of Launceston, and a pursuit party launched a reprisal attack at dawn on an Aboriginal camp, killing up to 40 Aboriginal men, women and children.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=88, 90}} In May 1827, a group of Oyster Bay Aboriginal people killed a stock-keeper at Great Swanport near [[Swansea, Tasmania|Swansea]]. A pursuit party of soldiers, police and civilians later attacked an Aboriginal camp killing at least six people.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=90–91}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930: Sally Peak (1) |url=https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=466 |website=The Centre of 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle, Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312054216/https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=466 |archive-date=12 March 2024}}</ref>[[File:Natives attacking shepherds hut.jpg|thumb|right|Samuel Calvert's depiction of Aboriginals attacking a shepherds' hut as released in ''The Illustrated Melbourne Post'']]In June 1827, at least 80 to 100 members of the Pallittorre clan from the North nation were killed in reprisals for the killing of three stockmen.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=93–95}}<ref name=":03">{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Site List Timeline, , Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930 |url=https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/timeline.php |access-date=5 June 2024 |website=Centre for 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle, Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318004102/https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/timeline.php |archive-date=18 March 2024}}</ref> From December 1826 to July 1827, at least 140 Aboriginal people were killed,<ref name=":03" /> and Ryan suggests that the figure might be over 200 for their killing of 15 colonists.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=95–96}} |
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Arthur reported to the Colonial Office secretary in London that the Aboriginal people "already complained that the white people have taken possession of their country, encroached upon their hunting grounds, and destroyed their natural food, the kangaroo" and in a memo he proposed settling the Aboriginal people "in some remote quarter of the island, which should be reserved strictly for them, and to supply them with food and clothing, and afford them protection ... on condition of their confining themselves peaceably to certain limits". He said Tasmania's northeast coast was the preferred location for such a reserve and suggested they remain there "until their habits shall become more civilised". He pursued the proposal by issuing on 19 April 1828 a "Proclamation Separating the Aborigines from the White Inhabitants" that divided the island into two parts to regulate and restrict contact between blacks and whites. The northeast region was an area traditionally visited by many groups for its rich food reserves, and rivers, estuaries and sheltered bays as well as its mild climate. It was also largely unoccupied by colonists. But the proclamation partitioning the island also provided the first official sanction of the use of force to expel any Aboriginal people from the Settled Districts. Historian [[James Boyce (author)|James Boyce]] observed: "Any Aborigine could now be legally killed for doing no more than crossing an unmarked border that the government did not even bother to define."<ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=262–265}}</ref> |
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In September 1827, Arthur appointed another 26 field police and deployed another 55 soldiers into the settled districts to deal with the rising conflict. Between September 1827 and the following March, at least 70 Aboriginal attacks were reported on the frontier, taking the lives of 20 colonists. By March 1828 the death toll in the settled districts for the 16 months since Arthur's November 1826 official notice had risen to 43 colonists and up to 350 Aboriginal people.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=97–100}} |
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In a letter to colonial officials in London in April 1828, Arthur admitted: |
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Although Arthur received reports that Aboriginal people were more interested in plundering huts for food than in killing colonists, settlers also reported Aboriginal warriors shouting, "Go away, go away!", burning crops and huts, and stating that they intended to kill every white man on the island.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=89, 94, 97–100}} Clements states that much of the Aboriginal violence in the early stages of the war was targeted revenge for killings and abductions by the colonists, but that the arson and killing of livestock were clearly acts of resistance.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=59–64}} |
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{{blockquote|"We are undoubtedly the first aggressors, and the desperate characters amongst the prisoner population, who have from time to time absconded into the woods, have no doubt committed the greatest outrages upon the natives, and these ignorant beings, incapable of discrimination, are now filled with enmity and revenge against the whole body of white inhabitants. It is perhaps at this time in vain to trace the cause of the evil which exists; my duty is plainly to remove its effects; and there does not appear any practicable method of accomplishing this measure, short of entirely prohibiting the Aborigines from entering the settled districts ..."<ref>{{harvnb|Reynolds|2001|p=64}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command, Volume 19 |pages=5 |chapter=Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land: Copy of a Despatch from Lt.Gov. Arthur to Mr. Secr. Huskisson, 17th April 1828 |year=1831 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rzQSAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA5}}</ref>}} |
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Arthur reported to the Colonial Office secretary in London that the Aboriginal people "already complain that the white people have taken possession of their country, encroached upon their hunting grounds, and destroyed their natural food, the kangaroo".{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=100}} In January 1828, he proposed settling the Aboriginal people "in some remote quarter of the island, which should be reserved strictly for them, and to supply them with food and clothing, and afford them protection ... on condition of their confining themselves peaceably to certain limits". His preferred location for the reserve was Tasmania's north-east coast and he suggested they remain there "until their habits shall become more civilised".{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=262–263}} |
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Arthur enforced the border by deploying almost 300 troops from the 40th and [[57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot|57th]] Regiments at 14 military posts along the frontier and within the Settled Districts. The tactic appeared to deter Aboriginal attacks; through the winter of 1828 few Aboriginal people appeared in the Settled Districts, and those that did were driven back by military parties. Among them were at least 16 undefended Oyster Bay people who were killed in July at their encampment in the Eastern Tiers by a detachment of the 40th Regiment.<ref name="spring">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=101–105, 123}}</ref> |
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On 19 April 1828, Arthur issued a "Proclamation Separating the Aborigines from the White Inhabitants". The proclamation aimed to remove Aboriginal Tasmanians from the settled districts of eastern, central and north-western Tasmania as a precursor to negotiations with them for a reserve in the north-east region which was largely uncolonised and was traditionally visited by many Aboriginal groups for its abundant native game and other foods.{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=263–64}}{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=101–102}} The proclamation authorised colonists to use violence to expel Aboriginal people from the settled districts in defined circumstances. However, the restrictions on violence were unclear and difficult to enforce and the settled districts were not well defined.{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=262–265}}{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=54}} Historian [[James Boyce (author)|James Boyce]] states that in practice: "Any Aborigine could now be legally killed for doing no more than crossing an unmarked border that the government did not even bother to define."{{sfn|Boyce|2010|p=265}} |
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=== Martial law, November 1828 === |
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[[File:Gov Davey's proclamation-edit2.jpg|right|thumb|upright| Proclamation board labelled "[[Thomas Davey (governor)|Governor Davey]]'s [[Governor Davey's Proclamation|Proclamation]]" painted in Van Diemen's Land about 1830, in the time of Governor Arthur. Nailed to trees, proclamation boards were designed to show that colonists and Aboriginal people were equal before the law, and they depicted a policy of friendship and equal justice which did not exist at the height of the Black War.]] |
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Any hopes of peace in the Settled Districts were dashed in spring. Between 22 August and 29 October 15 colonists died in 39 Aboriginal attacks—about one every two days—as the Oyster Bay and Big River clans launched raids on stock huts, while Ben Lomond and North clans burned down stock huts along the Nile and Meander rivers in the east and west. From early October Oyster Bay warriors also began killing white women and children. Galvanised by the escalation of violence, Arthur called a meeting of Van Diemen's Land's Executive Council—comprising himself, the chief justice and the colonial treasurer—and on 1 November declared [[martial law]] against the Aboriginal people in the Settled Districts, who were now "open enemies of the King". Proclamation of martial law was a crown prerogative to be used "against rebels and enemies as a ... convenient mode of exercising a right to kill in war, a right originating in self-defence"<ref>{{harvnb|Calder|2010|p=175}}</ref> and Arthur's move was effectively a declaration of total war. Soldiers now had the right to apprehend without warrant or to shoot on sight any Aboriginal person in the Settled Districts who resisted them, though the proclamation ordered settlers: |
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Arthur admitted that the British were "the first aggressors" but thought continued violence could only be prevented by enforcing the ban on Aboriginal people entering the settled areas.{{sfn|Reynolds|2001|p=64}} He deployed almost 300 troops from the 40th and [[57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot|57th]] Regiments at 14 military posts along the frontier and within the settled districts. This measure appeared to deter Aboriginal attacks. Through the winter of 1828, few Aboriginal people appeared in the settled districts, and those that did were driven back by military parties. Among them were at least 16 Oyster Bay people who were killed in July at their encampment in the Eastern Tiers by a detachment of the 40th Regiment.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=101–103, 123}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022 |title=Eastern Tiers, Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930 |url=https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=470 |access-date=7 June 2024 |website=Centre For 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle, Australia |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312054239/https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/detail.php?r=470 |archive-date=12 March 2024}}</ref> |
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{{blockquote|" ... that the actual use of arms be in no case resorted to, if the Natives can by other means be induced or compelled to retire into the places and portions of this Island herein before excepted from the operation of Martial Law; that bloodshed be checked, as much as possible; that any Tribes which may surrender themselves up, shall be treated with every degree of humanity; and that defenceless women and children be invariably spared."<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=54}}</ref>}} |
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=== Martial law (November 1828) === |
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Martial law would remain in force for more than three years, the longest period of martial law in Australian history.<ref name="spring" /> |
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[[File:Gov Davey's proclamation-edit2.jpg|right|thumb|upright| Proclamation board labelled "[[Thomas Davey (governor)|Governor Davey]]'s [[Governor Davey's Proclamation|Proclamation]]" painted in Van Diemen's Land about 1830, in the time of Governor Arthur. Nailed to trees, proclamation boards were designed to show Aboriginal people the benefits of living in peace with colonists under an idealised equal British justice.]]Violence escalated from August to October 1828, with the Oyster Bay, Big River, Ben Lomond and Northern peoples launching raids on stock huts during which 15 colonists were killed in 39 attacks. From early October, Oyster Bay warriors also began killing white women and children. On 1 November, Arthur declared [[martial law]] against the Aboriginal people in the settled districts, who were now "open enemies of the King". Arthur's move was effectively a declaration of war. Soldiers were authorised to arrest any Aboriginal person in the settled districts without warrant and to shoot those who resisted.<ref name=":04">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=103–105}}</ref>{{sfn|Calder|2010|p=175}} However, the proclamation also stated:{{blockquote|... that the actual use of arms be in no case resorted to, if the Natives can by other means be induced or compelled to retire into the places and portions of this Island herein before excepted from the operation of Martial Law; that bloodshed be checked, as much as possible; that any Tribes which may surrender themselves up, shall be treated with every degree of humanity; and that defenceless women and children be invariably spared.{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=54}}}} Martial law would remain in force for more than three years, the longest period in Australian history.<ref name=":04" /> Although the proclamation authorised only the military to shoot Aboriginal people in the settled districts on sight, in practice other colonists did so with impunity.{{sfn|Boyce|2010|p=196}}{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|p=139}} Only one colonist was ever prosecuted for killing an Aboriginal person.{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|p=130}} |
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About 500 Aboriginal people from five clan groups were still operating in the |
About 500 Aboriginal people from five clan groups were still operating in the settled districts when martial law was declared and Arthur's first action was to encourage civilian parties to capture them. On 7 November, a party operating from [[Richmond, Tasmania|Richmond]] captured Umarrah — a leader of the North Midlands nation — and four others including his wife and a child. Umarrah remained defiant and was jailed for over a year.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=106–107}} |
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Arthur established military patrols from the [[39th (Dorsetshire) Regiment of Foot|39th]], 40th and 63rd Regiments that scoured the settled districts for Aboriginal people, whom they should capture or shoot. By March 1829, about 400 troops were deployed in the settled districts and about 200 soldiers patrolled the area in 23 parties of eight to 10 men. Patrols usually included convict police who were familiar with the area and sometimes included Aboriginal guides from outside the settled areas. Settlers also formed patrols whose official role was to capture Aboriginal people.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=108–111}} |
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The main tactic of the military and settler patrols was to execute dawn raids on Aboriginal camps and there are many reported massacres of six or more Aboriginal people in these raids. The patrols reportedly killed 60 Aboriginal people and captured from 20 to 30 in the two years from November 1828. Ryan, however, estimates the Aboriginal death toll was at least 200 by March 1830.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=109–112, 121}}{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|pp=136–140}} |
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[[File:The avengers NLA.jpg|thumb|right|Samuel Thomas Gill's depiction of a night-time punitive raid on an Aboriginal camp]] |
[[File:The avengers NLA.jpg|thumb|right|Samuel Thomas Gill's depiction of a night-time punitive raid on an Aboriginal camp]] |
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In the first six months of 1829, the Oyster Bay people killed eight convict workers in the Pitt Water district. This was followed by a lull in fighting before a wave of attacks in the spring and summer. Overall, 33 colonists were kill in 1829 compared with 27 the previous year.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=112–117}}{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|pp=138–139}} |
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The Aboriginal attacks fuelled settlers' anger and a craving for revenge, but according to Clements the primary emotion colonists experienced was fear, ranging from a constant unease to paralysing terror. He noted: "Everybody on the frontier was afraid, all the time." The financial loss from theft, destruction of stock and arson attacks was a constant threat: there were no insurance companies and settlers faced financial ruin if crops and buildings were burnt or their stock destroyed.<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=95–101}}</ref> The ''Hobart Town Courier'' newspaper warned that the Aboriginal people had declared a "war of extermination" on white settlers, while the ''Colonial Times'' declared: "The Government must remove the natives. If not they will be hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed."<ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=192–193}}</ref> |
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In mid-1829 Arthur estimated that there were 2,000 Aboriginal people in the colony. Other estimates by the colonists ranged from 500 to 5,000. Settlers reported that the Oyster Bay people were moving in considerably smaller groups, but sightings of the Big River people in groups of 100 or more continued. It is likely that the massacres, privation and a falling birth rate had reduced the Aboriginal population to under 1,000 and that less than 300 remained in southeastern Tasmania.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=112, 115}}{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|p=140}} |
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By winter 1829 the southern part of the Settled Districts had become a war zone and Aboriginal people later identified campsites where their relatives had been killed and mutilated. Several more incidents were reported in which Aboriginal people were raiding huts for food and blankets or digging up potatoes, but they too were killed. In an effort to conciliate Aboriginal people, Arthur arranged for the distribution of "proclamation boards" comprising four panels that depicted white and black Tasmanians dwelling together peaceably, and also illustrated the legal consequences for members of either race that committed acts of violence—that an Aboriginal would be hanged for killing a white settler and a settler would be hanged for killing an Aboriginal person.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=112–115}}</ref> No colonist was ever charged in Van Diemen's Land, or committed for trial, for assaulting or killing an Aboriginal person.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=78}}</ref> |
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Arthur also pursued conciliation. In March 1829, he established an Aboriginal mission on Bruny Island in the hope it would attract Aboriginal people from the settled districts. He also commissioned "proclamation boards" with drawings meant to show Aboriginal people the benefits of living peacefully with the colonists under an ideal British justice in which whites would be hanged for killing blacks and blacks hanged for killing whites.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=113–115}} |
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Aboriginal people maintained their attacks on settlers, killing 19 colonists between August and December 1829—the total for the year was 33, six more than for 1828. Among the white victims was a servant burned to death in a house at Bothwell and a settler mutilated. But the white response was even more vigorous, with the report after one expedition noting "a terrible slaughter" resulting from an overnight raid on a camp. In late February 1830 Arthur introduced a bounty of £5 for every captured Aboriginal and £2 per child, and also sought a greater military presence, trying to halt the departure to India of the last detachment of the 40th Regiment and requesting reinforcements from the 63rd Regiment in Western Australia, but without success.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=116–117, 120}}</ref> In April he also advised London that a significant boost to the convict population in remote frontier areas would help protect settlers and explicitly asked that all convict transport ships be diverted to Van Diemen's Land.<ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|p=270}}</ref> |
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Violence, however, did not abate. There were 60 Aboriginal attacks on colonists from November 1829 to March 1830, most of them in the [[Clyde River (Tasmania)|Clyde]], [[Oatlands, Tasmania|Oatlands]] and Richmond police districts. Settlers reported arson attacks on buildings and crops which threatened the viability of their farms. In late 1829, one police magistrate informed Arthur that he needed three times his allocation of soldiers to protect local settlers. In February 1830, settlers and the press launched a campaign for increased military protection on the frontier and the removal of hostile tribes to the Bass Strait islands.<ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=117–120}}</ref>{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=194–195}} |
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=== Aborigines Committee === |
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[[File:Bishop Broughton.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Archdeacon William Broughton, who headed the Aborigines Committee]]In March 1830 Arthur appointed Anglican [[Archdeacon]] [[William Broughton (bishop)|William Broughton]] as chairman of a six-man Aborigines Committee to conduct an inquiry into the origin of the black hostility and recommend measures to stop the violence and destruction of property. Sixteen months had now passed since the declaration of martial law in November 1828 and in that time there had been 120 Aboriginal attacks on settlers, resulting in about 50 deaths and more than 60 wounded. Over the same period at least 200 Aboriginal people had been killed, with many of them in mass killings of six or more. Among submissions it received were suggestions to set up "decoy huts, containing flour and sugar, strongly impregnated with poison", that Aboriginal people be rooted out with bloodhounds and that [[Māori people|Maori]] warriors be brought to Tasmania to capture the Aboriginal people for removal to [[New Zealand]] as slaves. Settlers and soldiers gave evidence of killings and atrocities on both sides, but the committee was also told that despite the attacks, some settlers believed very few Aboriginal people now remained in the Settled Districts. The inquiry was conducted in the context of a further escalation in hostilities: in February alone there were 30 separate incidents in which seven Europeans were killed.<ref name="boyce268">{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=268–270}}</ref> |
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The predominant mood among colonists on the frontier was fear and panic mixed with anger and a desire for revenge. Although by the end of 1829 the number of Aboriginal people in the war zone had greatly diminished, this was not widely known and the threat that the remaining hostile Aboriginal groups posed to frontier farms was real.<ref name=":42">{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=95–101}}</ref> |
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In its report, published in March 1830, the committee noted that "It is manifest that (the Aboriginal people) have lost the sense of superiority of white men, and the dread of the effects of fire-arms" and were now on a systematic plan of attacking the settlers and their possessions. The committee's report supported the bounty system, recommended an increase in mounted police patrols and urged settlers to remain well armed and alert.<ref name="committee">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=121–126, 134}}</ref> Arthur, in turn, forwarded their report to [[Secretary of State for War and the Colonies]] Sir [[George Murray (British Army officer)|George Murray]], pointing out that although "lawless convicts" and convict stock-keepers had acted with great inhumanity towards the black natives, "it is increasingly apparent the Aboriginal natives of this colony are, and have ever been, a most treacherous race; and that the kindness and humanity which they have always experienced from the free settlers has not tended to civilize them to any degree."<ref name="boyce268" /> Murray responded in a letter that it was possible that in the near future the entire "race" of Tasmanian Aborigines would extinct, and any lines of conduct aimed at the declared or occult extinction of the native population could leave an indelible stain on the British government's reputation.<ref>Letter to Arthur of 5 November 1830.</ref>{{sfn|Hughes|1987|loc=Chapter XI, § 6}} |
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in November 1829, Arthur established an Aborigines Committee to inquire into the causes of the Aboriginal violence and make policy recommendations. The following February, he introduced a bounty of £5 for every captured Aboriginal adult and £2 for each child. He also sought the help of other colonies in increasing the military presence in Van Diemen's Land but without success.<ref name=":1" /> |
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News of friendly encounters with Aboriginal people and a season decline in attacks prompted Arthur on 19 August to issue a government notice expressing his satisfaction "a less hostile disposition" being displayed by the indigenous population and advising that settlers cautiously "abstain from acts of aggression against these benighted beings" and allow them to feed and depart. But still the attacks continued, however, and as public panic and anger mounted, the Executive Council met a week later and decided a full-scale military operation would be required to force an end to what threatened to become a "war of extermination" between settlers and the Big River and Oyster Bay people. Martial law was extended to the whole of Van Diemen's Land on 1 October<ref>{{harvnb|Calder|2010|p=181}}</ref> and every able-bodied male colonist was ordered by Arthur to assemble on 7 October at one of seven designated places in the Settled Districts to join a massive drive to sweep "these miserable people" from the region. The campaign, which became known as the Black Line,<ref name="Boyce 2010 273"/><ref name="committee" /> was greeted enthusiastically by the colonist press. The ''Hobart Town Courier'' said it doubted settlers would need persuading "to accomplish the one grand and glorious object now before them".<ref>{{harvnb|Calder|2010|p=182}}</ref> |
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=== The Aborigines Committee === |
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[[File:Bishop Broughton.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Archdeacon William Broughton, who headed the Aborigines Committee]]In March 1830, Arthur appointed Anglican [[Archdeacon]] [[William Broughton (bishop)|William Broughton]] as chairman of the seven-man Aborigines Committee inquiring into the conflict. Since the declaration of martial law in November 1828 there had been 120 Aboriginal attacks on colonists, resulting in about 50 colonists dead and over 60 wounded.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=121–122}} The inquiry was conducted in the context of a further escalation in hostilities: in February there were 30 separate incidents in which seven Europeans were killed.<ref name="boyce2682">{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=268–270}}</ref> |
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Violence in the island's north-west, where the colonists were servants of the [[Van Diemen's Land Company]], erupted in 1825, fuelled by disputes over Aboriginal women, who were often violated or abducted, and the destruction of kangaroo stocks. An escalating cycle of violence broke out in 1827 after white shepherds attempted to force themselves on black women; a shepherd was speared and more than 100 sheep killed in retribution and in turn a white party launched a dawn attack on an Aboriginal campsite, killing 12. The conflict led to the [[Cape Grim massacre]] of 10 February 1828 in which shepherds armed with muskets ambushed up to 30 Aboriginal people as they collected shellfish at the foot of a cliff.<ref name="northwest">{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=180–189}}</ref> |
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Among submissions it received were suggestions to set up decoy huts containing poisoned flour and sugar, that Aboriginal people be rooted out with bloodhounds and that [[Māori people|Māori]] warriors be brought to Tasmania to capture the Aboriginal people for removal to [[New Zealand]] as slaves. Settlers and soldiers gave evidence of killings and atrocities on both sides, but the committee was also told that despite the attacks, some settlers believed very few Aboriginal people now remained in the settled districts.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=122–125}} |
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On 21 August 1829 four company servants shot an Aboriginal woman in the back, then executed her with an axe at Emu Bay, near present-day [[Burnie, Tasmania|Burnie]]. Violence continued in the region, with three company men fatally speared in July and October 1831 and heavy losses inflicted on sheep and oxen. The population of North West clans fell from 700 to 300 through the 1820s, while in the North nation—where shepherds vowed to shoot Aboriginal people whenever they saw them—numbers had plummeted from 400 in 1826 to fewer than 60 by mid-1830. Violence ceased in 1834 but resumed between September 1839 and February 1842 when Aboriginal people made at least 18 attacks on company men and property.<ref name="northwest" /><ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=168–174}}</ref> |
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In its report, published in March 1830, the committee stated that the Aboriginal people had lost their sense of superiority of white men, no longer feared British guns, and were now on a systematic plan of attacking the colonists and their possessions. The committee's report supported the bounty system, recommended more mounted police, and urged settlers to remain well armed and alert.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=121–126, 134}}{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|pp=141–142}} |
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Arthur forwarded their report to [[Secretary of State for War and the Colonies]] Sir [[George Murray (British Army officer)|George Murray]], blaming convicts for mistreating the Aboriginal people but adding, "it is increasingly apparent the Aboriginal natives of this colony are, and have ever been, a most treacherous race; and that the kindness and humanity which they have always experienced from the free settlers has not tended to civilize them to any degree."<ref name="boyce2682" /> Murray stated in response that the Aboriginal people could become extinct in the near future and that any British conduct with that aim would "leave an indelible stain upon the character of the British Government."{{sfn|Reynolds|2001|p=59}} |
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Arthur accepted most of the committee's recommendations but only deployed a small number of additional mounted police due to the expense and a shortage of horses in the colony. He also advised London that an increase in the convict population in remote frontier areas would help protect settlers and asked that all convict transport ships be diverted to Van Diemen's Land.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=126}}{{sfn|Boyce|2010|p=270}} |
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The war continued. In April, the military and colonists killed at least 12 Big River and Pallittorre people in separate encounters.<ref name=":03"/> From April to early August, there were 22 Aboriginal attacks in the Clyde district in which three colonists were killed and nine wounded. Arthur, however, had heard that two of his emissaries, George Augustus Robinson and Captain Welsh, had established friendly contacts with Aboriginal groups outside the settled districts. On 19 August, he issued a notice informing settlers of this success and advising them not to harm or capture any non-hostile Aboriginal person in search of food. He also warned settlers that the bounty would not be paid to colonists who captured friendly Aboriginal people and that anyone killing them would be prosecuted.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=127–129}} |
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Following the killing of a prominent settler on 22 August, a group of settlers wrote to Arthur protesting against his change in policy. The Aborigines Committee and Executive Council also advised him that stronger measures were required to subdue the hostile Oyster Bay and Big River nations.<ref name=":05">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=129–130}}</ref> In response, Arthur extended martial law to the whole of Van Diemen's Land on 1 October.{{sfn|Calder|2010|p=181}} He also ordered every able-bodied male colonist to assemble on 7 October at one of seven designated places to join a massive drive to sweep the hostile Aboriginal people from the settled districts in a military campaign which became known as the Black Line.<ref name=":05" />{{sfn|Boyce|2010|p=273}} The news was greeted enthusiastically by the colonist press. The ''Hobart Town Courier'' said that it doubted settlers would need persuading "to accomplish the one grand and glorious object now before them".{{sfn|Calder|2010|p=182}} |
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=== Northwestern conflict === |
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The Aboriginal people of northwestern Tasmania had sporadic and sometimes violent encounters with the British before the region was colonised in 1826. The colonists were servants of the [[Van Diemen's Land Company]] which had been granted land for grazing sheep and cattle. An escalating cycle of violence broke out in 1827 after company shepherds killed an Aboriginal man and abducted Aboriginal women for sex. A shepherd was speared and more than 100 sheep killed in retribution, and colonists responded with a dawn attack on an Aboriginal campsite, killing 12. The conflict led to the [[Cape Grim massacre]] of 10 February 1828 in which shepherds armed with muskets ambushed up to 30 Aboriginal people as they collected shellfish at the foot of a cliff.<ref name="northwest2">{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=180–189}}</ref><ref name=":06">{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=202–205}}</ref> |
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On 21 August 1829, four company servants killed an Aboriginal woman at Emu Bay, near present-day [[Burnie, Tasmania|Burnie]]. An investigation was launched but no one was prosecuted. Three company men were fatally speared in July and October 1831 and there were heavy losses inflicted on sheep and oxen. There were 16 recorded acts of violence against Aboriginal people in the conflict, but the number of Aboriginal deaths is unknown. Company employees stated that they believed killing Aboriginal people was justified to protect livestock.<ref name=":06" /><ref name="northwest2" /> |
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The population of the northwestern clans fell from an estimated 400-700 at the time of colonisation to about 100 by 1835. The population of the neighbouring northern Aboriginal people fell from 400 in 1826 to fewer than 60 by mid-1830. Violence in the northwest ceased in 1834 but resumed between September 1839 and February 1842 when Aboriginal people made at least 18 attacks on company men and property.<ref name="northwest2" />{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=168–174}}<ref name=":06" /> |
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=== Military strategy and tactics === |
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Aboriginal warriors conducted a guerrilla war against the British.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=79, 83–84, 87}}{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=82–83}} They mostly used three weapons: spears, rocks and [[Waddy|waddies]]. They almost always attacked during the day in war parties of 10 to 20 men. Although they favoured ambushes and hit-and-run raids against isolated shepherds and settler huts, sieges of huts for up to a day were not uncommon. Warriors often lit fires or used women to lure colonists out of their huts and into an ambush. They quickly learned that [[Musket|muskets]] could only be fired about once every 30 seconds, so they often encouraged colonists to fire then closed in for an attack. War parties would sometimes divide into separate diversionary and main attack groups and then disperse after an attack to make pursuit more difficult. Attacks on livestock and arson of buildings and crops were also common but were not used systematically as a major war strategy.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=40, 82–90}} |
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The main British military response involved official pursuit parties and roving parties. Pursuit parties mostly consisted of soldiers and convicts whose task was to track down Aboriginal groups presumed to be responsible for a particular attack. They were usually in the field for 12 to 48 hours. Roving parties were groups of soldiers, convicts and authorised civilians who patrolled the frontier for 12 to 18 days at a time with the aim of dispersing hostile Aboriginal groups. The main tactic of the official parties was to attack at night after campfires had revealed the position of the Aboriginal groups. Although their instructions were to capture hostile Aboriginal people where possible, in practice a successful ambush of a campsite almost always led to lethal violence. The main weapons used in ambushes were the [[Brown Bess]] musket, bayonets and clubs.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=45–48, 71–75}} |
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Vigilante groups mainly consisted of convicts but settlers and their employees were often involved. They generally used the same weapons and tactics as the official parties but probably inflicted more deaths on Aboriginal groups.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=75–79}} |
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== Black Line, October–November 1830 == |
== Black Line, October–November 1830 == |
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{{redirect|Black Line|other uses|Blackline (disambiguation){{!}}Blackline}}The '''Black Line''' of October to November 1830 consisted of 2,200 men: about 550 soldiers, 738 convict servants and 912 civilians.{{sfn|Calder|2010|p=183}} Arthur, who maintained overall control, placed Major Sholto Douglas of the 63rd Regiment in command of the forces.<ref>{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=McMahon |first=J. F. |title=Douglas, Sholto (1795–1838) |date=2005 |id2=douglas-sholto-12892 |access-date=1 April 2015}}</ref> Separated into three divisions and aided by Aboriginal guides, they formed a staggered front more than 300 km long that began pushing south and east across the Settled Districts from 7 October. The intention was to form a pincer movement to push members of four of the nine Aboriginal nations across the [[Forestier Peninsula]] to East Bay Neck and into the [[Tasman Peninsula]], which Arthur intended to declare an Aboriginal reserve.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=131}}{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=144}}{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=273–274}} |
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{{redirect|Black Line|other uses|Blackline (disambiguation){{!}}Blackline}} |
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The '''Black Line''' consisted of 2,200 men: about 550 soldiers—a little over half of the entire garrison in Van Diemen's Land—as well as 738 convict servants and 912 free settlers or civilians.<ref>{{harvnb|Calder|2010|p=183}}</ref> Arthur, who maintained overall control, placed Major Sholto Douglas of the 63rd Regiment in command of the forces.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=McMahon |author-first=JF |title=Douglas, Sholto (1795–1838) |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |publisher=Australian National University |date=2005 |url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/douglas-sholto-12892 |access-date=1 April 2015}}</ref> Separated into three divisions and aided by Aboriginal guides, they formed a staggered front more than 300 km long that began pushing south and east across the Settled Districts from 7 October with the intention of forming a pincer movement to trap members of four of the nine Aboriginal nations in front of the line and drive them across the [[Forestier Peninsula]] to East Bay Neck and into the [[Tasman Peninsula]], which Arthur had designated as an Aboriginal Reserve.<ref name="Ryan 2012 131"/> |
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The campaign was |
The campaign was hampered by severe weather, difficult terrain, inadequate maps and poor supply lines. Although two of the divisions met in mid-October, the difficult terrain soon resulted in the cordon being broken, leaving many wide gaps through which the Aboriginal people were able to easily pass. Many of the colonists, by then barefoot and their clothes tattered, deserted the line and returned home. The campaign's single success was a dawn ambush on 25 October in which two Aboriginal people were captured and two killed. The Black Line was disbanded on 26 November.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=130–140, 143}} |
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When the Black Line commenced, about 300 members of the hostile Big River, Oyster Bay, Ben Lomond and North Midlands nations were still alive and about 100 to 200 of these were within the line's field of operations. They launched at least 50 attacks on colonists—both in front of and behind the line—during the campaign, often plundering huts for food.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=133}}{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=146–150, 152}} |
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== Surrender and removal == |
== Surrender and removal == |
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=== Surrender in the settled districts === |
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Colonists' hopes of peace rose over the summer of 1830-31 as Aboriginal attacks fell to a low level and the ''Colonial Times'' newspaper speculated that their enemy had either been wiped out or frightened into inaction. But the north remained a dangerous place: on 29 January a Dairy Plains woman was murdered—three months after her husband had died in a similar attack—and in March a mother carrying her infant was fatally speared while working in her garden on the East Tamar. Though the number of attacks in 1831 was less than a third of those the previous year—a total of 70, compared with 250 in 1830—settlers remained so fearful that many men refused to go out to work.<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=155–159, 176}}</ref> |
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Following the Black Line campaign, there were probably only about 100 hostile Aboriginal people in the settled districts, although the colonists believed the figure was at least 500. Hopes of peace rose over the summer of 1830-31 as Aboriginal attacks fell to a low level. The ''Colonial Times'' newspaper speculated that their enemy had either been wiped out or frightened into inaction. However, there was a new wave of attacks in late January and March in which several colonists were killed, and many men on the frontier refused to go out to work.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=158–160}} |
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In February 1831, the Aborigines Committee issued a report recommending that settlers should remain vigilant and that parties of armed men should be stationed in the most remote stock huts. In response, up to 150 stock huts were turned into ambush locations, military posts were established on native migratory routes and new barracks were built at Spring Bay, Richmond and Break O'Day Plains. There was an increased military presence at farms, and military parties of 50 to 90 men sometimes went out in pursuit of hostile Aboriginal groups.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=160–161}} |
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[[File:George a robinson.jpg|thumb|right|upright|George Augustus Robinson]]Yet, as the Aborigines Committee discovered in a new series of hearings, there was some positive news arising from the work of evangelical [[Humanitarianism|humanitarian]] [[George Augustus Robinson]], who in 1829 had been appointed storekeeper at a ration depot for Aboriginal people on [[Bruny Island]]. From January 1830 Robinson had embarked on a series of expeditions across the island to make contact with Aboriginal people and in November he secured the surrender of 13 of them, prompting him to write to Arthur claiming he could remove "the entire black population", which he estimated to be 700.<ref name="robinson">{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=161–164}}</ref> In a new report on 4 February 1831, the Aborigines Committee praised Robinson's "conciliatory mission" and his efforts to learn the local languages and "explain the kind and pacific intentions of the government and the settlers generally towards them". The committee recommended that Aboriginal people who surrendered should be sent to [[Vansittart Island (Tasmania)|Gun Carriage Island]] in [[Bass Strait]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Report of the Aborigines Committee |date=4 February 1831 |work=Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command, Volume 19 |page=76 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rzQSAAAAYAAJ&q=aborigines+committee+february+1831&pg=RA1-PA80 |access-date=4 April 2015}}</ref> But the committee also urged settlers to remain vigilant, recommending that parties of armed men should be stationed in the most remote stock huts. In response up to 150 stock huts were turned into ambush locations, military posts were established on native migratory routes and new barracks were built at Spring Bay, Richmond and Break O'Day Plains.<ref name="robinson" /> |
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[[File:George a robinson.jpg|thumb|right|upright|George Augustus Robinson]] |
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The committee, however, also endorsed the government's attempts to conciliate the hostile Aboriginal clans. In March 1829, George Augustus Robinson had been appointed the head of the Aboriginal Mission on Bruny Island where about 20 survivors of the southeastern Aboriginal people were accommodated. From January to September 1830, Robinson and 19 Aboriginal negotiators had carried out a "Friendly Mission" to establish contacts with the Aboriginal clans of southwestern, western and northwestern Tasmania. In October that year, he reported to Arthur that his mission had been a partial success and the governor authorised him to seek conciliation with the northeastern clans.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=155–168}} |
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By January 1831, Robinson's party had contacted more than fifty Aboriginal people and had moved them temporarily to [[Swan Island (Tasmania)|Swan Island]] in Bass Strait. Those moved to the island included the resistance leader [[Mannalargenna]], whose group had killed a number of colonists.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=133–134, 176–184}} In February, Arthur appointed Robinson to head an Aboriginal Establishment on the [[Furneaux Group|Furneaux Islands]] and authorised him to negotiate the surrender of the remaining Big River and Oyster Bay people. In March, the 53 Aboriginal Tasmanians under Robinson's care were transferred to a settlement on Gun Carriage Island (now [[Vansittart Island]]).{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=182–184}}{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|pp=210–213}} |
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Arthur's conciliatory approach and his support for Robinson's "friendly mission" brought widespread condemnation from colonists and the settler press, which intensified after a series of violent mid-winter raids launched by evidently hungry, cold and desperate Aboriginal people in the Great Western Tiers in the island's northern highlands. Those raids culminated in the murder of Captain Bartholomew Thomas and his overseer James Parker at Port Sorell on the north coast on 31 August 1831. The killings would, in fact, turn out to be the last of the Black War, but they triggered an unprecedented surge of fear and anger, particularly because Thomas—the brother of the Colonial Treasurer—had been sympathetic towards Aboriginal people and had made attempts to conciliate the local indigenous population. The ''Launceston Advertiser'' declared that the only course left was the "utter annihilation" of Aboriginal population, while another newspaper expressed fears that the natives would resort to even greater atrocities in the coming season. Several weeks later a group robbed huts at [[Swansea, Tasmania|Great Swansea]], causing panic, and in late October 100 armed settlers formed a cordon across the narrow part of [[Freycinet Peninsula]] in an attempt to capture several dozen Aboriginal people who had passed on to the peninsula. The cordon was abandoned four days later after Aboriginal people slipped through and escaped at night.<ref name="surrender">{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=164–168, 174, 177}}</ref> |
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[[File:Montpelliatta.png|thumb|left|[[Montpelliatta]]]] |
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In June, Robinson and a party of Aboriginal negotiators set off to locate a resistance group led by Umarrah which had conducted a series of raids killing several colonists.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=187–191}} The public mood, however, swung further against Arthur's conciliatory approach after an Aboriginal group led by [[Montpelliatta]] conducted further raids in the [[Great Western Tiers]] culminating in the death of two prominent settlers in August. The ''Launceston Advertiser'' declared that only "utter annihilation" could subdue the Aboriginal people.<ref name=":2" /> |
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Several weeks later, an Aboriginal group robbed huts at [[Swansea, Tasmania|Great Swansea]] and, in late October, 100 armed settlers formed a cordon across the narrow part of [[Freycinet Peninsula]] in an attempt to capture several dozen Aboriginal people who had entered the peninsula. The cordon was abandoned four days later after the Aboriginal people slipped through and escaped at night.<ref name=":2">{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=165–167}}</ref> |
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On the 31st of December, 1831, Robinson and his group of about 14 black envoys negotiated the surrender of 28 members of the Mairremmener people, an amalgam of Oyster Bay and Big River tribes. The tiny group of 16 men, nine women and a child, led by Tongerlongeter and Montpelliatta, was all that remained of what had once been one of the island's most powerful clans and much of Hobart Town's population lined the streets as Robinson walked with them through the main street towards Government House.<ref name="surrender" /> They were sent to the Wybalenna settlement on Flinders Island, joining another 40 Aboriginal people who had previously been captured, although another 20 interned on the island had earlier died. By late May many more, including Kickerterpoller and Umarrah, had also contracted influenza and died.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=198–202}}</ref> |
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Robinson's efforts at conciliation were more successful. In September, he and Mannalargenna persuaded Umarrah and his group to suspend hostilities. The following month, Robinson and Mannalargenna met Arthur to discuss the terms of a surrender. Robinson, Mannalargenna and Umarrah then set off for the interior to locate and negotiate with the remaining hostile Big River and Oyster Bay groups. On 31 December, they made contact with a party of 26 Big River and Oyster Bay people led by Montpelliatta and [[Tongerlongeter]]. Umarrah's wife, Woolaytopinnyer, persuaded them to surrender.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=190–197}} |
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The December surrender effectively brought to a close the Black War. There were no further reports of violence in the Settled Districts from that date, although isolated acts of violence continued in the north-west until 1842.<ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|p=180}}</ref> |
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[[File:Tongerlongeter.png|thumb|[[Tongerlongeter]]]] |
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Robinson led the 26 Aboriginal people to Hobart where they surrendered to governor Arthur on January 7, 1832. Ten days later, the groups led by Montpelliatta, Tongerlongeter and Umarrah were sent to [[Flinders Island|Flinders island]] where the Aboriginal Establishment had been relocated the previous November.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=196}}{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|pp=215–216}} |
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The December surrender effectively ended the Black War, and martial law was revoked in January 1832.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=141}} There had been 70 Aboriginal attacks on colonists in 1831, in which 33 colonists were killed or wounded.{{sfn|Boyce|2010|p=289}}{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=176}} But the number of attacks had been well below the 250 recorded in 1830, and it was now clear that the remnants of the hostile Aboriginal clans had been exhausted, hungry and desperate throughout 1831.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=174–176}} |
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Martial law was revoked in January 1832, two weeks after the well-publicised surrender, and the bounty on captured Aboriginal people was scrapped on 28 May 1832. |
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There were no further reports of Aboriginal attacks in the eastern settled districts from December 1831, although isolated acts of violence continued in the north until 1834 and in the northwest until 1842. The death toll from 1832 to 1834 was ten colonists and 40 Aboriginal people.{{sfn|Clements|2014|p=180}}{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=141}} |
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In February, 1832, Robinson embarked on the first of several expeditions to the west, north-west and the Launceston area to secure the surrender of remaining Aboriginal people, believing the strategy was "for their own good" and would save them from extermination at the hands of settlers while providing them with the benefits of British civilisation and Christianity. Warning that they faced violent hostility without protection,<ref name="lawsonsurrender">{{harvnb|Lawson|2014|pp=84–86}}</ref> he persuaded several small groups to be transported to [[Flinders Island]]—where many died of [[pneumonia]], [[influenza]] and [[catarrh]]<ref>{{harvnb|Calder|2010|p=224}}</ref>—but from early 1833 began to use force to capture those who still lived freely in the north-east, despite the cessation of violence. Both [[Hunter Island (Tasmania)|Hunter Island]], at Tasmania's north-west tip, and penal stations on islands in [[Macquarie Harbour]], on the west coast, were used to detain captured Aboriginal people, where many succumbed quickly to disease and the mortality rate reached 75 percent. Robinson noted of conditions in the Macquarie Harbour penal stations: "The mortality was dreadful, its ravages was unprecedented, it was a dreadful calamity." In November, 1833, all surviving Aboriginal people were moved from Macquarie Harbour to Flinders Island.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=199–216}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|pp=299–306}}</ref> |
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=== Removal of western Aboriginal nations === |
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By early 1835 almost 300 people had surrendered to Robinson,<ref name="lawsonsurrender" /> who reported to the colonial secretary: "The entire Aboriginal population is now removed", although in 1842 he located one remaining family near Cradle Mountain, who surrendered.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=198, 203–216}}</ref> Men on the island were expected to clear forest land, build roads, erect fences and shear sheep, while women were required to wash clothes, attend sewing classes and attend classes. All were expected to wear European clothes and many women were given European names.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=226–227}}</ref> A high rate of infectious disease at the Wybalenna settlement on Flinders Island cut the population from about 220 in 1833 to 46 in 1847.<ref>{{harvnb|Reynolds|2001|p=71}}</ref> |
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Arthur authorised Robinson to negotiate the surrender of the remaining southwestern and western Aboriginal clans and their removal to Flinders Island, believing that this would be the only way of saving them from extermination at the hands of settlers while providing them with the benefits of British civilisation and Christianity. In February 1832, Robinson and his Aboriginal negotiators embarked on the first of several expeditions to the west and north-west of Tasmania. His party persuaded several small groups to seek refuge on Flinders Island, warning them that they faced violent hostility without protection.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=198–203}}<ref name="lawsonsurrender2">{{harvnb|Lawson|2014|pp=84–86}}</ref> |
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However, after a hostile encounter with a group of 29 [[Tarkine|Tarkiner]] people at [[Arthur River (Tasmania)|Arthur River]] in September, Robinson resolved to use force if necessary to secure the removal of the remaining Aboriginal people. [[Hunter Island (Tasmania)|Hunter Island]], at Tasmania's northwestern tip, and penal stations in [[Macquarie Harbour]], on the western coast, were used to hold captured Aboriginal people until their transfer to Flinders Island, but many succumbed quickly to disease and the mortality rate reached 75 percent.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=199–216}}{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=299–306}} |
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== Death toll == |
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Estimates of Tasmania's Aboriginal population in 1803, the year of the first British arrivals, range from 3,000 to 7,000. Lyndall Ryan's analysis of population studies led her to conclude that there were about 7,000 spread throughout the island's nine nations;<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=14, 43}}</ref> However, Nicholas Clements, citing research by [[Brian Plomley|N.J.B Plomley]] and [[Rhys Jones (archaeologist)|Rhys Jones]], settled on a figure of 3,000 to 4,000.<ref name="toll">{{harvnb|Clements|2013|pp=324, 325}}</ref> |
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=== Aftermath === |
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By early 1835 almost 300 people had surrendered to Robinson,<ref name="lawsonsurrender2" /> who reported to the colonial secretary that the entire Aboriginal population had been removed to Flinders Island. However, a family was discovered near Cradle Mountain in 1836 and they eventually surrendered in 1842. Aboriginal women also continued to live with sealers on the Bass Strait islands and small Aboriginal groups remained in the Great Western Tiers.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=xviii, 140-41, 198, 203–216}} |
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In February 1833, the Aboriginal Establishment was moved to a more suitable location on Flinders Island and renamed Wybalenna. Children attended school, men were expected to work in the garden, build roads, erect fences and shear sheep, while women were required to cook, wash clothes, sew and attend evening school. All were expected to attend Scripture classes and wear European clothes and many were given European names. However, convicts were assigned to do most of the labour and the Aboriginal people were free to roam the island where they hunted and gathered food and performed traditional ceremonies.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=222–227}} Despite the presence of a resident doctor, a high rate of respiratory disease cut the population from about 220 in 1833 to 46 in 1847.{{sfn|Reynolds|2012|pp=79–81}} |
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== Population and death toll == |
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=== Deaths === |
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{| class="wikitable floatright" |
{| class="wikitable floatright" |
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!Phase |
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!Aboriginal people |
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killed (est.) |
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!Colonists |
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killed |
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!Total |
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|- |
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|Nov 1823—Nov 1826 |
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! Phase |
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|80 |
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! Aboriginal People<br>killed (est.) |
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|40 |
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! Colonists<br>killed |
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|120 |
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! Total |
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|- |
|- |
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|Dec 1826—Oct 1828 |
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| Nov 1823—Nov 1826 |
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| |
|408 |
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| |
|61 |
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|469 |
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| 120 |
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|- |
|- |
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|Nov 1828—Jan 1832 |
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| Dec 1826—Oct 1828 |
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(martial law) |
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| 408 |
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| |
|350 |
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|90 |
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| 469 |
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|440 |
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|- |
|- |
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|Feb 1832—Aug 1834 |
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| Nov 1828—Jan 1832<br>(martial law) |
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|40 |
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| 350 |
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| |
|10 |
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|50 |
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| 440 |
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|- |
|- |
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|'''Total''' |
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| Feb 1832—Aug 1834 |
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|'''878''' |
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| 40 |
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|'''201''' |
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| 10 |
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|'''1079''' |
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| 50 |
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|- |
|- |
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| colspan="4" |Source: Ryan (2012). p. 143 |
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| '''Total''' |
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| '''878''' |
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| '''201''' |
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| '''1079''' |
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|} |
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Historians acknowledge that recorded killings in the Black War are minimum figures because most killings of Aboriginal people went unreported.{{sfn|Clements|2013|pp=323–324}} Nevertheless, Clements concludes that even if only reported deaths are considered, annual deaths per head of population were over 600 per 10,000, making the Black War one of the deadliest in history.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=3–4}} |
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But Aboriginal numbers began dropping almost immediately: violent encounters were reported in the Hobart region, while at [[George Town, Tasmania|Port Dalrymple]] in the colony's north, Lieutenant-Governor [[William Paterson (explorer)|William Paterson]] is thought to have ordered soldiers to shoot at Aboriginal people wherever they were found, leading to the virtual disappearance of North Midlands clans in that region after 1806. In 1809 New South Wales surveyor-general John Oxley reported that kangaroo hunting by whites had led to a "considerable loss of life among the natives" throughout the colony. One settler, the convict adventurer [[Jørgen Jørgensen]], also claimed that Aboriginal numbers were "much reduced during the first six or seven years of the colony" as whites "harassed them with impunity". By 1819 the Aboriginal and British population reached parity with about 5,000 of each, although among the colonists men outnumbered women four to one. At that stage both population groups enjoyed good health, with infectious diseases not taking hold until the late 1820s.<ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=54–57, 71}}</ref> |
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Ryan, based on a contemporary newspaper estimate, states that there were 1,200 Aboriginal people in the settled districts in 1826. She estimates that 838 Aboriginal people were killed in eastern Tasmania from November 1823 to January 1832 and that 40 more were killed in the following period to August 1834.<ref name=":34">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=142–144}}</ref> |
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Clements states that the recorded Aboriginal death toll in the conflict was 260.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=3–4}} He estimates, however, that only 100 Aboriginal people survived the eastern conflict from a pre-war population of 1,000, and he therefore concludes that 900 died from 1824 to 1831. He surmises that about one-third may have died through internecine conflict, disease and natural deaths, leaving an estimated 600 deaths from frontier violence. However, he states: "The true figure might be as low as 400 or as high as 1,000."{{sfn|Clements|2013|pp=329–331}} Johnson and McFarlane argue that at least 400 Aboriginal deaths in the northwestern conflict should be added to this figure, giving over 1,000 Aboriginal deaths in the conflict across Tasmania.{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|p=199}} |
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Ryan states that there were 191 recorded deaths of colonists in the conflict from November 1823 to January 1834, and another 10 deaths after this.<ref name=":34" /> Clements, who studied a wider range of sources, states that there were 450 casualties among colonists, including 219 recorded deaths, in the eastern conflict from 1824 to 1831. However, the number killed or wounded was probably under-reported due to administrative inefficiency and because the colonists did not want to discourage British investment in, and emigration to, the colony.{{sfn|Clements|2013|pp=iv, 279–281, 343}} |
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=== Aboriginal population decline === |
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Estimates of Tasmania's Aboriginal population in 1803, the year of British settlement, range from 3,000 to 7,000. Lydall Ryan, citing studies by [[Brian Plomley|N.J.B Plomley]], [[Rhys Jones (archaeologist)|Rhys Jones]], Colin Pardoe and [[Harry Lourandos]], reaches a figure of 7,000 spread throughout the island's nine nations.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=14, 42}} Nicholas Clements, however, also citing Plomley, Jones and others, estimates the population at 3,000 to 4,000.{{sfn|Clements|2013|pp=324–325}} Johnson and McFarlane state that the consensus figure is 4,500 to 5,000.{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|p=378}} |
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Historians also disagree over the extent and causes of Aboriginal population decline before the Black War. Ryan argues that the population of some clans near the two main British settlements probably declined from 1803 to 1807 due to settler violence, although other clans possibly prospered from the introduction of hunting dogs.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=56–57}} She states that by 1819 the Aboriginal and British population reached parity with about 5,000 of each, although among the colonists men outnumbered women four to one. At that stage both population groups enjoyed good health, with infectious diseases not taking hold until the late 1820s. She therefore concludes that settler violence was the main cause of Aboriginal population decline before the Black War.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|p=71}} |
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Clements, however, believes that frontier violence does not explain population decline in the first 20 years of British settlement as there were few colonists in the interior. He argues that reduced fertility caused by venereal diseases was probably a significant cause of early population decline. He also states that although the health of the Aboriginal population was generally good, at least one southern Aboriginal clan was decimated by other introduced diseases before the Black War.{{sfn|Clements|2013|pp=325–329}} |
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Boyce also argues that the impact of violence and disease on the Aboriginal population was moderate up to 1816 and that there is no evidence of low numbers of children and elderly people nor critically low numbers of women.{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=99–100}} Johnson and McFarlane, however, argue that kidnapping of Aboriginal women by sealers was a key factor in the population decline of Aboriginal clans in the northern and southern coastal regions.{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|p=382}} |
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== Historiography == |
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Ryan accepts a figure of 1,200 Aboriginal people dwelling in the Settled Districts in 1826 at the start of the Black War,<ref>Ryan draws her figure from an estimate made by the ''Colonial Times'' newspaper on 11 February 1826. See Ryan, page 142.</ref> while Clements believes the number in the eastern part of Tasmania was about 1,000.<ref name="toll2">{{harvnb|Clements|2013|pp=329–331}}</ref> |
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=== Conflict and depopulation === |
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Historians have differed in their estimates of the total number of fatalities in the Black War and acknowledge that most killings of Aboriginal people went unreported. The ''Colonial Advocate'' newspaper reported in 1828 that "up country, instances occur where the Natives are 'shot like so many crows', which never come before the public'."<ref name="toll" /> The table above, depicting fatalities among Aboriginal people and colonists, is based on statistics in Ryan's account of the conflict in the Settled Districts.<ref name="Ryan 2012 143"/> |
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Writing in 2002, Keith Windschuttle argued that the Aboriginal population in 1803 was only about 2,000, that only 118 Aboriginal people were killed in the conflict with British settlers, and that the conflict was an outbreak of criminality rather than a war.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Windschuttle |first=Keith |title=The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847 |date=2002 |publisher=Macleay Press |isbn=1-876492-05-8}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|pp=xx—xxvi}}</ref>{{sfn|Johnson|McFarlane|2015|pp=7–9}} His arguments have been challenged by numerous authors including James Boyce,{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=10–11}} Henry Reynolds,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Henry |title=Whitewash: on Keith Windschuttle's fabrication of Aboriginal history |publisher=Black Inc |year=2003 |isbn=0975076906 |editor-last=Manne |editor-first=Robert |editor-link=Robert Manne |location=Melbourne |pages=109–138 |chapter=Terra Nullius Reborn}}</ref> [[Lyndall Ryan]]<ref name=":8" /> and Nicholas Clements{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=5–6}} who conclude that the conflict was an Aboriginal war of liberation in which 600 to 900 Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed. |
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[[Geoffrey Blainey]] and [[Josephine Flood]] argue that although Aboriginal deaths in the conflict were devastating, the major cause of Aboriginal depopulation was disease.<ref name=":33">{{cite book |last=Blainey |first=Geoffrey |title=A Land Half Won |date=1980 |publisher=Macmillan |location=South Melbourne, Vic. |page=75}}</ref>{{sfn|Flood|2019|pp=109–111, 116}} Ryan and Boyce, however, argue that the Aboriginal death rate from disease was low before 1820 and that Aboriginal Tasmanians were more likely to die from disease after they had surrendered to the British.{{sfn|Ryan|2012|pp=71, 144}}{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=64–65}} |
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About 100 Tasmanian Aboriginal people survived the conflict and Clements—who calculates that the Black War began with an indigenous population of about 1,000—has therefore concluded 900 died in that time. He surmises that about one-third may have died through internecine conflict, disease and natural deaths, leaving a "conservative and realistic" estimate of 600 who died in frontier violence, though he admits: "The true figure might be as low as 400 or as high as 1,000."<ref name="toll2" /> |
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=== Academic discussion of genocide === |
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== Genocide controversy == |
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{{see also|Genocide of Indigenous Australians}} |
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The near-destruction of Tasmania's Aboriginal population has been described as an act of genocide by historians including [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]], James Boyce, [[Lyndall Ryan]], Tom Lawson, [[Mohamed Adhikari]], Benjamin Madley, and Ashley Riley Sousa.<ref name="hughesgenocide">{{harvnb|Hughes|1987|p=120}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Boyce|2010|p=296}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=xix, 215}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Lawson|2014|pp=xvii, 2, 20}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Adhikari |first=Mohamed |date=25 July 2022 |title=Destroying to Replace: Settler Genocides of Indigenous Peoples |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ht9dEAAAQBAJ |location=Indianapolis |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company |page=xxix |isbn=978-1647920548}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Madley |first1=Benjamin |title=Patterns of frontier genocide 1803–1910: the aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California, and the Herero of Namibia |year=2004 |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462352042000225930 |pages=167–192 |volume=6 |issue=2 |doi=10.1080/1462352042000225930|s2cid=145079658 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sousa |first1=Ashley Riley |title="They will be hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed!": a comparative study of genocide in California and Tasmania |year=2004 |journal=Journal of Genocide Research |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462352042000225949 |pages=193–209 |volume=6 |issue=2 |doi=10.1080/1462352042000225949|s2cid=109131060 }}</ref> The author of the concept of genocide, [[Raphael Lemkin]], considered Tasmania the site of one of the world's clear cases of genocide<ref>{{harvnb|Reynolds|2001|p=50}}</ref> and Hughes has described the loss of Aboriginal Tasmanians as "the only true genocide in English colonial history".<ref name="hughesgenocide" /> However, other historians including [[Henry Reynolds (historian)|Henry Reynolds]], [[Richard Broome]], and Nicholas Clements do not agree with the genocide thesis, arguing that the colonial authorities did not intend to destroy the Aboriginal population in whole or in part.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Broome |first=Richard |title=Aboriginal Australians |publisher=Allen and Unwin |year=2019 |isbn=9781760528218 |edition=Fifth |location=Crows Nest |pages=44}}</ref><ref name=":2">Clements, Nicholas (2013). pp. 110-12</ref> |
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{{Genocide}}The near-destruction of [[Aboriginal Tasmanians|Tasmania's Aboriginal population]]{{sfn|Taylor|2023|pp=481–484}} has been described as an act of genocide by historians and genocide scholars including [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]], James Boyce, [[Lyndall Ryan]], Tom Lawson, [[Mohamed Adhikari]], Benjamin Madley, Ashley Riley Sousa, [[Rebe Taylor]], and Tony Barta.<ref>{{harvnb|Hughes|1987|p=120}}; {{harvnb|Boyce|2010|p=296}}; {{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=xix, 215}}; {{harvnb|Lawson|2014|pp=xvii, 2, 20}}; {{harvnb|Adhikari|2022|p=xxix}}; {{harvnb|Madley|2004}}; {{harvnb|Sousa|2004}}; {{harvnb|Taylor|2023|p=484}}; {{harvnb|Barta|2023|p=51}}</ref>{{sfn|Shipway|2017|pp=4–6}} The author of the concept of genocide, [[Raphael Lemkin]], considered Tasmania the site of one of the world's clear cases of genocide{{sfn|Reynolds|2001|p=50}} and Hughes has described the loss of Aboriginal Tasmanians as "the only true genocide in English colonial history".{{sfn|Hughes|1987|p=120}} However, other historians{{snd}}including [[Henry Reynolds (historian)|Henry Reynolds]], [[Richard Broome]], and Nicholas Clements{{snd}}do not agree that the colonial authorities pursued a policy of destroying the Indigenous population, although they do acknowledge that some settlers supported extermination.{{sfn|Broome|2019|p=44}}{{sfn|Clements|2013|pp=110–112}} |
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Boyce has claimed that the April 1828 "Proclamation Separating the Aborigines from the White Inhabitants" sanctioned force against Aboriginal people "for no other reason than that they were Aboriginal". However, as Reynolds, Broome and Clements point out, there was open warfare at the time. |
Boyce has claimed that the April 1828 "Proclamation Separating the Aborigines from the White Inhabitants" sanctioned force against Aboriginal people "for no other reason than that they were Aboriginal". However, as Reynolds, Broome and Clements point out, there was open warfare at the time.{{sfn|Broome|2019|p=44}}{{sfn|Clements|2013|pp=110–112}} Boyce describes the decision to remove all Aboriginal Tasmanians after 1832—by which time they had given up their fight against white colonists—as an extreme policy position. He concludes: "The colonial government from 1832 to 1838 [[Ethnic cleansing|ethnically cleansed]] the western half of Van Diemen's Land and then callously left the exiled people to their fate."{{sfn|Boyce|2010|pp=264, 296}} |
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As early as 1852 [[John West (writer)|John West]]'s ''History of Tasmania'' portrayed the obliteration of Tasmania's Aboriginal people as an example of "systematic massacre" |
As early as 1852 [[John West (writer)|John West]]'s ''History of Tasmania'' portrayed the obliteration of Tasmania's Aboriginal people as an example of "systematic massacre"{{sfn|Lawson|2014|p=8}} and in the 1979 [[High Court of Australia|High Court]] case of [[Paul Coe|Coe v Commonwealth of Australia]], judge [[Lionel Murphy]] observed that Aboriginal people did not give up their land peacefully and that they were killed or forcibly removed from their land "in what amounted to attempted (and in Tasmania almost complete) genocide".{{sfn|Reynolds|2001|p=29}} |
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Historian [[Henry Reynolds (historian)|Henry Reynolds]] says there was a widespread call from settlers during the frontier wars for the "extirpation" or "extermination" of the Aboriginal people. |
Historian [[Henry Reynolds (historian)|Henry Reynolds]] says that there was a widespread call from settlers during the [[Australian frontier wars|frontier wars]] for the "extirpation" or "extermination" of the Aboriginal people.{{sfn|Reynolds|2001|pp=52–54}} But he has contended that the British government acted as a source of restraint on settlers' actions. Reynolds says there is no evidence the British government deliberately planned the wholesale destruction of indigenous Tasmanians—a November 1830 letter to Arthur by Sir George Murray warned that the extinction of the race would leave "an indelible stain upon the character of the British Government"{{sfn|Reynolds|2001|p=59}}—and therefore what eventuated does not meet the definition of genocide codified in the 1948 [[Genocide Convention|United Nations convention]]. He says that Arthur was determined to defeat the Aboriginal people and take their land, but believes that there is little evidence that he had aims beyond that objective and wished to destroy the Tasmanian race.{{sfn|Lawson|2014|pp=15, 78, 85}} In contrast to Reynolds' argument, historian Lyndall Ryan, based on a sample of massacres taking place in the Meander River region in June 1827, concludes that massacres of Aboriginal Tasmanians by white settlers were likely part of an organised process and were sanctioned by government authorities.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ryan |first1=Lyndall |author1-link=Lyndall Ryan |date=6 November 2008 |title=Massacre in the Black War in Tasmania 1823–34: a case study of the Meander River Region, June 1827 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623520802447834 |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=479–499 |doi=10.1080/14623520802447834 |s2cid=145287373 |access-date=8 March 2022}}</ref> |
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Clements accepts Reynolds' argument but also exonerates the colonists themselves of the charge of genocide. He says that unlike genocidal determinations by [[The Holocaust|Nazis against Jews]] in World War II, [[Rwandan genocide|Hutus against Tutsis]] in [[Rwanda]] and [[Armenian genocide|Ottomans against Armenians]] in present-day [[Turkey]] |
Clements accepts Reynolds' argument but also exonerates the colonists themselves of the charge of genocide. He says that, unlike genocidal determinations by [[The Holocaust|Nazis against Jews]] in World War II, [[Rwandan genocide|Hutus against Tutsis]] in [[Rwanda]] and [[Armenian genocide|Ottomans against Armenians]] in present-day [[Turkey]] which were carried out for ideological reasons, Tasmanian settlers participated in violence largely out of revenge and self-preservation. He adds: "Even those who were motivated by sex or morbid thrillseeking lacked any ideological impetus to exterminate the natives." He also argues that while genocides are inflicted on defeated, captive or otherwise vulnerable minorities, Tasmanian natives appeared as a "capable and terrifying enemy" to colonists and were killed in the context of a war in which both sides killed noncombatants.{{sfn|Clements|2014|pp=56–58}} |
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Lawson, in a critique of Reynolds' stand, argues that genocide was the inevitable outcome of a set of British policies to colonise Van Diemen's Land. |
Lawson, in a critique of Reynolds' stand, argues that genocide was the inevitable outcome of a set of British policies to colonise Van Diemen's Land.{{sfn|Lawson|2014|p=14}} He says that the British government endorsed the use of partitioning and "absolute force" against Tasmanians, approved Robinson's "Friendly Mission" and colluded in transforming that mission into a campaign of ethnic cleansing from 1832. He says that once on Flinders Island, the indigenous peoples were taught to both farm land like Europeans and worship God like Europeans and concludes: "The campaign of transformation enacted on Flinders Island amounted to cultural genocide."{{sfn|Lawson|2014|pp=51, 205}} |
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Writing in 2023, historian [[Rebe Taylor]] points to the arguments of Windschuttle as being a minority opinion among historians who generally accept the Black War as a case of genocide.{{sfn|Taylor|2023|pp=486–487, 504–506}} |
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== Historical dispute == |
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The conflict has been a controversial area of study by historians, even characterised as among Australia's [[history wars]]. [[Geoffrey Blainey]] wrote that, in Tasmania, by 1830: "Disease had killed most of them but warfare and private violence had also been devastating."<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Blainey |author-first=Geoffrey |title=A Land Half Won |publisher=Macmillan |location=South Melbourne, Vic. |date=1980 |pages=75}}</ref> [[Josephine Flood]] wrote: "The catastrophic death rate was due to new diseases, particularly pulmonary and sexually transmitted ones."<ref>{{cite book|author-last=Flood |author-first=Josephine |title=The Original Australians: Story of the Aboriginal People |publisher=Allen & Unwin |date=2006 |isbn=978-1741148725 |pages=89}}</ref> [[Keith Windschuttle]] in his 2002 work, ''The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847'',<ref>{{cite book|title=The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847 |author-first=Keith |author-last=Windschuttle |date=2002 |isbn=1-876492-05-8}}</ref> questioned the [[historiography|historical evidence]] used to identify the number of Aboriginal people killed and the extent of conflict. He stated his belief that it had been exaggerated and he challenged what is labelled the "[[Black armband view of history]]" of Tasmanian colonisation. Windschuttle argued that there were only 2000 Aboriginal people in Tasmania at the moment of colonisation, that they had an internally dysfunctional society with no clear tribal organisation or connection to the land and were politically incapable of conducting a guerrilla war with the settlers. He argued they were more like "black bushrangers" who attacked settlers' huts for plunder and were led by "educated black terrorists" disaffected from white society. He concluded that two colonists had been killed for every Aboriginal person and there was only one massacre of Aboriginal people. He also claimed that the Aboriginal Tasmanians, by prostituting the women tribe members to sealers and stock-keepers, by catching European diseases, and through intertribal warfare, were responsible for their own demise. His argument in turn has been challenged by a number of authors, including S.G. Foster in ''[[Quadrant (magazine)|Quadrant]]'', Lyndall Ryan and Nicholas Clements.<ref>"Contra Windschuttle", S.G. Foster ''[[Quadrant (magazine)|Quadrant]]'', March 2003, 47:3 {{cite web|url=http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id%3D252 |title=Contra Windschuttle |access-date=13 July 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219181415/http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=252 |archive-date=19 February 2008}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Ryan|2012|p=xx—xxvi}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Clements|2014|pp=5–6}}</ref> |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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* [[List of massacres of Indigenous Australians]] |
* [[List of massacres of Indigenous Australians]] |
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* [[Trugernanner]] |
* [[Trugernanner]] and [[Fanny Cochrane Smith]] |
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* ''[[Manganinnie]]'', an Australian 1980 film |
* ''[[Manganinnie]]'', an Australian 1980 film |
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* ''[[The Nightingale (2018 film)|The Nightingale]]'', an Australian 2018 film |
* ''[[The Nightingale (2018 film)|The Nightingale]]'', an Australian 2018 film |
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* [[Tunnerminnerwait]] |
* [[Tunnerminnerwait]] |
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*''[[Conflict in Van Diemen's Land]]'' |
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* [[Australian frontier wars]] |
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== References == |
== References == |
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== Bibliography == |
== Bibliography == |
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{{refbegin}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Adhikari |first=Mohamed |author-link=Mohamed Adhikari |date=25 July 2022 |title=Destroying to Replace: Settler Genocides of Indigenous Peoples |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ht9dEAAAQBAJ |location=Indianapolis |publisher=Hackett Publishing Company |isbn=978-1647920548}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Barta |first1=Tony |date=2023 |chapter=A Very British Genocide: Acknowledgement of Indigenous Destruction in the Founding of Australia and New Zealand |title=The Cambridge World History of Genocide |volume=II: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One |editor1-first=Ben |editor1-last=Kiernan |editor1-link=Ben Kiernan |editor2-first=Ned |editor2-last=Blackhawk |editor2-link=Ned Blackhawk |editor3-first=Benjamin |editor3-last=Madley |editor4-first=Rebe |editor4-last=Taylor |editor4-link=Rebe Taylor |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-108-48643-9 |doi=10.1017/9781108765480 |pages=46–68}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Boyce |first=James |title=Van Diemen's Land |publisher=Black Inc |year=2010 |location=Melbourne |isbn=978-1-86395-491-4 |author-link=James Boyce (author)}} |
* {{Cite book |last=Boyce |first=James |title=Van Diemen's Land |publisher=Black Inc |year=2010 |location=Melbourne |isbn=978-1-86395-491-4 |author-link=James Boyce (author)}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Broome |first=Richard |
* {{Cite book |last=Broome |first=Richard |title=Aboriginal Australians: a history since 1788 |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |year=2019 |isbn=9781760528218 |edition=5th |location=Crows Nest, NSW}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Calder |first=Graeme |title=Levée, Line and Martial Law |publisher=Fullers Bookshop |year=2010 |location=Launceston |isbn=978-0-64653-085-7}} |
* {{Cite book |last=Calder |first=Graeme |title=Levée, Line and Martial Law |publisher=Fullers Bookshop |year=2010 |location=Launceston |isbn=978-0-64653-085-7}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Clements |first=Nicholas |title=The Black War |publisher=[[University of Queensland Press]] |year=2014 |location=Brisbane |isbn=978-0-70225-006-4}} |
* {{Cite book |last=Clements |first=Nicholas |title=The Black War |publisher=[[University of Queensland Press]] |year=2014 |location=Brisbane |isbn=978-0-70225-006-4}} |
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* {{Cite thesis |last=Clements |first=Nicholas |title=Frontier Conflict in Van Diemen's Land (PhD thesis) |year=2013 |publisher=[[University of Tasmania]] |url=http://eprints.utas.edu.au/17070/2/Whole-Clements-thesis.pdf}} |
* {{Cite thesis |last=Clements |first=Nicholas |title=Frontier Conflict in Van Diemen's Land (PhD thesis) |year=2013 |publisher=[[University of Tasmania]] |url=http://eprints.utas.edu.au/17070/2/Whole-Clements-thesis.pdf}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Flood |first=Josephine |title=The Original Australians: the story of the Aboriginal People |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |year=2019 |isbn=9781760527075 |edition=2nd |location=Crows Nest, NSW}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Hughes (critic) |title=[[The Fatal Shore]] |publisher=Pan |year=1987 |location=London |isbn=0-330-29892-5}} |
* {{Cite book |last=Hughes |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Hughes (critic) |title=[[The Fatal Shore]] |publisher=Pan |year=1987 |location=London |isbn=0-330-29892-5}} |
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* {{Cite book | |
* {{Cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Murray |title=Van Diemen's Land: An Aboriginal History |last2=McFarlane |first2=Ian |publisher=University of New South Wales Press |year=2015 |isbn=9781742234212}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Lawson |first=Tom |title=The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania |publisher=[[I. B. Tauris]] |year=2014 |location=London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rP1fAwAAQBAJ |isbn=978-1-78076-626-3}} |
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* {{Cite journal |last1=Madley |first1=Benjamin |title=Patterns of frontier genocide 1803–1910: the aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California, and the Herero of Namibia |year=2004 |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462352042000225930 |pages=167–192 |volume=6 |issue=2 |doi=10.1080/1462352042000225930 |s2cid=145079658}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Reynolds (historian) |title=An Indelible Stain? |publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]] |year=2001 |location=Sydney |isbn=978-0-67091-220-9}} |
* {{Cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Reynolds (historian) |title=An Indelible Stain? |publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]] |year=2001 |location=Sydney |isbn=978-0-67091-220-9}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Reynolds |first=Henry |title=A History of Tasmania |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=9780521548373 |location=Melbourne and New York}} |
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* {{Cite book |last=Ryan |first=Lyndall |author-link=Lyndall Ryan |title=Tasmanian Aborigines |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |year=2012 |location=Sydney |isbn=978-1-74237-068-2}} |
* {{Cite book |last=Ryan |first=Lyndall |author-link=Lyndall Ryan |title=Tasmanian Aborigines |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |year=2012 |location=Sydney |isbn=978-1-74237-068-2}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Shipway |first=Jesse |title=The Memory of Genocide in Tasmania, 1803–2013: Scars on the Archive |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |year=2017 |series=Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide |isbn=978-1-137-48443-7 |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-48443-7}} |
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* {{Cite journal |last1=Sousa |first1=Ashley Riley |title="They will be hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed!": a comparative study of genocide in California and Tasmania |year=2004 |journal=[[Journal of Genocide Research]] |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1462352042000225949 |pages=193–209 |volume=6 |issue=2 |doi=10.1080/1462352042000225949 |s2cid=109131060}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Rebe |author1-link=Rebe Taylor |date=2023 |chapter=Genocide in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), 1803–1871 |title=The Cambridge World History of Genocide |volume=II: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One |editor1-first=Ben |editor1-last=Kiernan |editor1-link=Ben Kiernan |editor2-first=Ned |editor2-last=Blackhawk |editor2-link=Ned Blackhawk |editor3-first=Benjamin |editor3-last=Madley |editor4-first=Rebe |editor4-last=Taylor |editor4-link=Rebe Taylor |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-108-48643-9 |doi=10.1017/9781108765480 |pages=481–507}} |
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{{refend}} |
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==Further reading== |
==Further reading== |
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* {{Citation | |
* {{Citation |last=Turnbull |first=Clive |author-link=Clive Turnbull |title=Black War |publisher=F.W. Cheshire Ltd |year=1948 |location=Melbourne}} |
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==External links== |
==External links== |
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{{Campaignbox Australian frontier wars}} |
{{Campaignbox Australian frontier wars}} |
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{{Aboriginal peoples in Tasmania}} |
{{Aboriginal peoples in Tasmania}} |
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{{Genocide navbox}} |
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[[Category:1820s conflicts]] |
[[Category:1820s conflicts]] |
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[[Category:History of Tasmania]] |
[[Category:History of Tasmania]] |
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[[Category:History of Indigenous Australians]] |
[[Category:History of Indigenous Australians]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Australian frontier wars]] |
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[[Category:Australian war crimes]] |
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[[Category:British war crimes]] |
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[[Category:History of Australia (1788–1850)]] |
[[Category:History of Australia (1788–1850)]] |
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[[Category:Indigenous Australians in Tasmania]] |
[[Category:Indigenous Australians in Tasmania]] |
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[[Category: |
[[Category:Genocide of Indigenous Australians]] |
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[[Category:Guerrilla wars]] |
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[[Category:Violence against Indigenous Australians]] |
[[Category:Violence against Indigenous Australians]] |
Latest revision as of 03:37, 8 November 2024
Black War | |||||||
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Part of the Australian frontier wars | |||||||
An 1833 painting of Aboriginal Tasmanians attacking John Allen's Milton Farm near Great Swanport | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
British Empire | Aboriginal Tasmanians | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Dead: 219 Wounded: 218 Total: 437[1] | 600–900 dead |
The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832 that precipitated the near-extermination of the indigenous population. The conflict was fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides; some 600 to 900 Aboriginal people and more than 200 British colonists died.[2][3]
When a British penal settlement was established in Tasmania (then called Van Diemen's Land) in 1803, the Aboriginal population was 3,000 to 7,000 people.[4] Until the 1820s, the British and Aboriginal people coexisted with only sporadic violence, often caused by settlers kidnapping Aboriginal women and children. Conflict intensified from 1824, as Aboriginal warriors resisted the rapid expansion of British settlement over their land. In 1828, the British declared martial law and in 1830 they unsuccessfully attempted to force hostile Aboriginal nations from the settled districts in a military operation called "the Black Line". In a series of "Friendly Missions" in 1830 and 1831, George Augustus Robinson and his Aboriginal negotiators secured the surrender of the Aboriginal belligerents. Martial law was revoked in January 1832.[5]
Almost all of the remaining Aboriginal people were removed from mainland Tasmania from 1832 to 1835, and the 220 survivors were eventually relocated to the Wybalenna Aboriginal Mission on Flinders Island. Infectious diseases and a low birth rate cut the Aboriginal population at Wybalenna to 46 when the mission was closed in 1847.[6]
The frequent mass killings and near-destruction of the Aboriginal Tasmanians are regarded by some contemporary historians as genocide by the colonists. Others, however, argue that the colonial authorities did not intend to destroy the Aboriginal population.[7]
Etymology
[edit]The terms "Black War" and "Black Line" were coined by journalist Henry Melville in 1835.[8][9] In the early 21st century, historian Lyndall Ryan has argued that the conflict should be known as the "Tasmanian War". She has also called for a public memorial to be commissioned to honour the dead on both sides of the war.[10]
Early conflict
[edit]Although commercial sealing on Van Diemen's Land had begun in late 1798, the first significant European presence on the island came in September 1803 with the establishment of a small British military outpost at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River near present-day Hobart.[11][12]
The British had several hostile encounters with Aboriginal clans over the next five months, with shots fired and an Aboriginal boy abducted. David Collins arrived as the colony's first lieutenant governor in February 1804 with instructions from London that any acts of violence against the Aboriginal people were to be punished. But he failed to publish those instructions, leaving an unclear legal framework for dealing with any violent conflict.[13]
On 3 May 1804, soldiers, settlers and convicts from Risdon Cove fired on a hunting party of 100 to 300 Aboriginal people. The British commanding officer stated that he thought the Aboriginal group was hostile. Witnesses to the massacre stated that between three and 50 Aboriginal men, women and children had died. A boy whose parents were killed in the massacre was taken and given the name Robert Hobart May. This boy became the first Indigenous Tasmanian to have extended contact with the British colonial society.[14][15][16]
By 1806, the British had founded two main penal settlements on the sites of modern Hobart and Launceston.[17] Violence increased during a drought in 1806–7 as tribes in the south of the island killed or wounded several colonists in six incidents mostly sparked by competition for game. There were only three hostile encounters recorded in the northern settlements before 1819, although John Oxley stated in 1810 that convict bushrangers inflicted "many atrocious cruelties" on Aboriginal people which led to Aboriginal attacks on solitary white hunters.[18]
The Tasmanian settlements grew slowly up to 1815, with the population reaching 1,933 people that year. Growth was mainly through the arrival of 600 colonists from Norfolk Island between 1805 and 1813, and 149 male convicts from England in 1812. Former convicts and the Norfolk Islander settlers were given small grants of land. By 1814,12,700 hectares (31,000 acres) of land was under cultivation, with 5,000 cattle and 38,000 sheep. Conflict with Aboriginal people increased, mainly due to sporadic murders and colonists hunting game and kidnapping Aboriginal women and children for domestic work and sexual purposes.[19][20][21]
Between 1815 and 1830, the colony expanded rapidly. The British population grew from 2,000 to 24,000, the number of sheep increased to 680,000 and cattle to 100,000. The settled districts—mainly in the midlands, eastern coast and northwestern region of the island—accounted for almost 30 per cent of its land area.[22][23] The expansion of the colony over Aboriginal hunting grounds led to increased conflict which, according to Nicholas Clements, developed into an Aboriginal resistance movement.[24][25][26] Aboriginal attacks on colonists averaged 1.7 per year over the 1803–1823 period, but increased to 18 per year over 1824–1826.[23]
Particularly from the late 1820s, the Aboriginal people were also driven by hunger to plunder settlers' homes for food as their hunting grounds shrank, native game disappeared, and the dangers of hunting on open ground grew.[27]
Clements states that the main reasons for frontier violence against Aboriginal people were revenge, killing for sport, sexual desire for women and children, and suppression of the native threat. Male colonists outnumbered females six to one in 1822 and Clements argues that a "voracious appetite" for Aboriginal women was the most important immediate trigger for the Black War. However, after 1828 settler violence was mainly motivated by fear of Aboriginal attacks and a growing conviction among those on the frontier that extermination of the Aboriginal population was the only means by which peace could be secured.[28]
Crisis years (1825–1831)
[edit]From 1825 to 1828, the number of Aboriginal attacks on colonists and their property more than doubled each year. Clements states that although the colonists knew they were fighting a war, "this was not a conventional war, and the enemy could not be combated by conventional means. The blacks were not one people, but rather a number of disparate tribes. They had no home base and no recognisable command structure."[29]
George Arthur, governor of the colony since May 1824, had issued a proclamation on his arrival that placed Aboriginal people under the protection of British law and threatened prosecution for anyone who murdered them. Two Aboriginal men were hanged in September 1826 for the murder of three colonists and Arthur hoped that this would deter further attacks on colonists. But between September and November 1826 six more colonists were murdered, taking the number of colonists killed in the conflict to 36 since 1823. The Colonial Times newspaper advocated the removal of all Aboriginal people from the settled districts to an island in the Bass Strait, warning: "if not, they will be hunted down like wild beasts, and destroyed!"[30][31]
On 29 November 1826, Arthur issued a notice authorising settlers to treat hostile Aboriginal groups as open enemies and to use arms to force them from the settled districts. He also deployed additional soldiers and police to these areas. The Colonial Times saw this as a declaration of war on Aboriginal people in the settled districts.[32][33] Historian Lyndall Ryan argues that Arthur intended to force the surrender of the hostile Aboriginal tribes.[34] Clements states that the November proclamation failed to clarify when it was legal for settlers to kill Aboriginal people.[35]
Over the summer of 1826–27, warriors from the Big River, Oyster Bay and North Midlands nations killed a number of stock-keepers on farms. The colonists responded with reprisal raids, in which many Aboriginal people were killed.[36] On 8 December 1826, a group led by Kickerterpoller threatened a farm overseer at Bank Hill farm at Orielton, near Richmond; the following day soldiers from the 40th Regiment killed 14 Oyster Bay people and captured another nine, including Kickerterpoller.[37]
In April 1827, two shepherds were killed at a farm at Mount Augusta, south of Launceston, and a pursuit party launched a reprisal attack at dawn on an Aboriginal camp, killing up to 40 Aboriginal men, women and children.[38] In May 1827, a group of Oyster Bay Aboriginal people killed a stock-keeper at Great Swanport near Swansea. A pursuit party of soldiers, police and civilians later attacked an Aboriginal camp killing at least six people.[39][40]
In June 1827, at least 80 to 100 members of the Pallittorre clan from the North nation were killed in reprisals for the killing of three stockmen.[41][42] From December 1826 to July 1827, at least 140 Aboriginal people were killed,[42] and Ryan suggests that the figure might be over 200 for their killing of 15 colonists.[43]
In September 1827, Arthur appointed another 26 field police and deployed another 55 soldiers into the settled districts to deal with the rising conflict. Between September 1827 and the following March, at least 70 Aboriginal attacks were reported on the frontier, taking the lives of 20 colonists. By March 1828 the death toll in the settled districts for the 16 months since Arthur's November 1826 official notice had risen to 43 colonists and up to 350 Aboriginal people.[44]
Although Arthur received reports that Aboriginal people were more interested in plundering huts for food than in killing colonists, settlers also reported Aboriginal warriors shouting, "Go away, go away!", burning crops and huts, and stating that they intended to kill every white man on the island.[45] Clements states that much of the Aboriginal violence in the early stages of the war was targeted revenge for killings and abductions by the colonists, but that the arson and killing of livestock were clearly acts of resistance.[46]
Arthur reported to the Colonial Office secretary in London that the Aboriginal people "already complain that the white people have taken possession of their country, encroached upon their hunting grounds, and destroyed their natural food, the kangaroo".[47] In January 1828, he proposed settling the Aboriginal people "in some remote quarter of the island, which should be reserved strictly for them, and to supply them with food and clothing, and afford them protection ... on condition of their confining themselves peaceably to certain limits". His preferred location for the reserve was Tasmania's north-east coast and he suggested they remain there "until their habits shall become more civilised".[48]
On 19 April 1828, Arthur issued a "Proclamation Separating the Aborigines from the White Inhabitants". The proclamation aimed to remove Aboriginal Tasmanians from the settled districts of eastern, central and north-western Tasmania as a precursor to negotiations with them for a reserve in the north-east region which was largely uncolonised and was traditionally visited by many Aboriginal groups for its abundant native game and other foods.[49][50] The proclamation authorised colonists to use violence to expel Aboriginal people from the settled districts in defined circumstances. However, the restrictions on violence were unclear and difficult to enforce and the settled districts were not well defined.[51][52] Historian James Boyce states that in practice: "Any Aborigine could now be legally killed for doing no more than crossing an unmarked border that the government did not even bother to define."[53]
Arthur admitted that the British were "the first aggressors" but thought continued violence could only be prevented by enforcing the ban on Aboriginal people entering the settled areas.[54] He deployed almost 300 troops from the 40th and 57th Regiments at 14 military posts along the frontier and within the settled districts. This measure appeared to deter Aboriginal attacks. Through the winter of 1828, few Aboriginal people appeared in the settled districts, and those that did were driven back by military parties. Among them were at least 16 Oyster Bay people who were killed in July at their encampment in the Eastern Tiers by a detachment of the 40th Regiment.[55][56]
Martial law (November 1828)
[edit]Violence escalated from August to October 1828, with the Oyster Bay, Big River, Ben Lomond and Northern peoples launching raids on stock huts during which 15 colonists were killed in 39 attacks. From early October, Oyster Bay warriors also began killing white women and children. On 1 November, Arthur declared martial law against the Aboriginal people in the settled districts, who were now "open enemies of the King". Arthur's move was effectively a declaration of war. Soldiers were authorised to arrest any Aboriginal person in the settled districts without warrant and to shoot those who resisted.[57][58] However, the proclamation also stated:
... that the actual use of arms be in no case resorted to, if the Natives can by other means be induced or compelled to retire into the places and portions of this Island herein before excepted from the operation of Martial Law; that bloodshed be checked, as much as possible; that any Tribes which may surrender themselves up, shall be treated with every degree of humanity; and that defenceless women and children be invariably spared.[52]
Martial law would remain in force for more than three years, the longest period in Australian history.[57] Although the proclamation authorised only the military to shoot Aboriginal people in the settled districts on sight, in practice other colonists did so with impunity.[59][60] Only one colonist was ever prosecuted for killing an Aboriginal person.[61]
About 500 Aboriginal people from five clan groups were still operating in the settled districts when martial law was declared and Arthur's first action was to encourage civilian parties to capture them. On 7 November, a party operating from Richmond captured Umarrah — a leader of the North Midlands nation — and four others including his wife and a child. Umarrah remained defiant and was jailed for over a year.[62]
Arthur established military patrols from the 39th, 40th and 63rd Regiments that scoured the settled districts for Aboriginal people, whom they should capture or shoot. By March 1829, about 400 troops were deployed in the settled districts and about 200 soldiers patrolled the area in 23 parties of eight to 10 men. Patrols usually included convict police who were familiar with the area and sometimes included Aboriginal guides from outside the settled areas. Settlers also formed patrols whose official role was to capture Aboriginal people.[63]
The main tactic of the military and settler patrols was to execute dawn raids on Aboriginal camps and there are many reported massacres of six or more Aboriginal people in these raids. The patrols reportedly killed 60 Aboriginal people and captured from 20 to 30 in the two years from November 1828. Ryan, however, estimates the Aboriginal death toll was at least 200 by March 1830.[64][65]
In the first six months of 1829, the Oyster Bay people killed eight convict workers in the Pitt Water district. This was followed by a lull in fighting before a wave of attacks in the spring and summer. Overall, 33 colonists were kill in 1829 compared with 27 the previous year.[66][67]
In mid-1829 Arthur estimated that there were 2,000 Aboriginal people in the colony. Other estimates by the colonists ranged from 500 to 5,000. Settlers reported that the Oyster Bay people were moving in considerably smaller groups, but sightings of the Big River people in groups of 100 or more continued. It is likely that the massacres, privation and a falling birth rate had reduced the Aboriginal population to under 1,000 and that less than 300 remained in southeastern Tasmania.[68][69]
Arthur also pursued conciliation. In March 1829, he established an Aboriginal mission on Bruny Island in the hope it would attract Aboriginal people from the settled districts. He also commissioned "proclamation boards" with drawings meant to show Aboriginal people the benefits of living peacefully with the colonists under an ideal British justice in which whites would be hanged for killing blacks and blacks hanged for killing whites.[70]
Violence, however, did not abate. There were 60 Aboriginal attacks on colonists from November 1829 to March 1830, most of them in the Clyde, Oatlands and Richmond police districts. Settlers reported arson attacks on buildings and crops which threatened the viability of their farms. In late 1829, one police magistrate informed Arthur that he needed three times his allocation of soldiers to protect local settlers. In February 1830, settlers and the press launched a campaign for increased military protection on the frontier and the removal of hostile tribes to the Bass Strait islands.[71][72]
The predominant mood among colonists on the frontier was fear and panic mixed with anger and a desire for revenge. Although by the end of 1829 the number of Aboriginal people in the war zone had greatly diminished, this was not widely known and the threat that the remaining hostile Aboriginal groups posed to frontier farms was real.[73]
in November 1829, Arthur established an Aborigines Committee to inquire into the causes of the Aboriginal violence and make policy recommendations. The following February, he introduced a bounty of £5 for every captured Aboriginal adult and £2 for each child. He also sought the help of other colonies in increasing the military presence in Van Diemen's Land but without success.[71]
The Aborigines Committee
[edit]In March 1830, Arthur appointed Anglican Archdeacon William Broughton as chairman of the seven-man Aborigines Committee inquiring into the conflict. Since the declaration of martial law in November 1828 there had been 120 Aboriginal attacks on colonists, resulting in about 50 colonists dead and over 60 wounded.[74] The inquiry was conducted in the context of a further escalation in hostilities: in February there were 30 separate incidents in which seven Europeans were killed.[75]
Among submissions it received were suggestions to set up decoy huts containing poisoned flour and sugar, that Aboriginal people be rooted out with bloodhounds and that Māori warriors be brought to Tasmania to capture the Aboriginal people for removal to New Zealand as slaves. Settlers and soldiers gave evidence of killings and atrocities on both sides, but the committee was also told that despite the attacks, some settlers believed very few Aboriginal people now remained in the settled districts.[76]
In its report, published in March 1830, the committee stated that the Aboriginal people had lost their sense of superiority of white men, no longer feared British guns, and were now on a systematic plan of attacking the colonists and their possessions. The committee's report supported the bounty system, recommended more mounted police, and urged settlers to remain well armed and alert.[77][78]
Arthur forwarded their report to Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Sir George Murray, blaming convicts for mistreating the Aboriginal people but adding, "it is increasingly apparent the Aboriginal natives of this colony are, and have ever been, a most treacherous race; and that the kindness and humanity which they have always experienced from the free settlers has not tended to civilize them to any degree."[75] Murray stated in response that the Aboriginal people could become extinct in the near future and that any British conduct with that aim would "leave an indelible stain upon the character of the British Government."[79]
Arthur accepted most of the committee's recommendations but only deployed a small number of additional mounted police due to the expense and a shortage of horses in the colony. He also advised London that an increase in the convict population in remote frontier areas would help protect settlers and asked that all convict transport ships be diverted to Van Diemen's Land.[80][81]
The war continued. In April, the military and colonists killed at least 12 Big River and Pallittorre people in separate encounters.[42] From April to early August, there were 22 Aboriginal attacks in the Clyde district in which three colonists were killed and nine wounded. Arthur, however, had heard that two of his emissaries, George Augustus Robinson and Captain Welsh, had established friendly contacts with Aboriginal groups outside the settled districts. On 19 August, he issued a notice informing settlers of this success and advising them not to harm or capture any non-hostile Aboriginal person in search of food. He also warned settlers that the bounty would not be paid to colonists who captured friendly Aboriginal people and that anyone killing them would be prosecuted.[82]
Following the killing of a prominent settler on 22 August, a group of settlers wrote to Arthur protesting against his change in policy. The Aborigines Committee and Executive Council also advised him that stronger measures were required to subdue the hostile Oyster Bay and Big River nations.[83] In response, Arthur extended martial law to the whole of Van Diemen's Land on 1 October.[84] He also ordered every able-bodied male colonist to assemble on 7 October at one of seven designated places to join a massive drive to sweep the hostile Aboriginal people from the settled districts in a military campaign which became known as the Black Line.[83][85] The news was greeted enthusiastically by the colonist press. The Hobart Town Courier said that it doubted settlers would need persuading "to accomplish the one grand and glorious object now before them".[86]
Northwestern conflict
[edit]The Aboriginal people of northwestern Tasmania had sporadic and sometimes violent encounters with the British before the region was colonised in 1826. The colonists were servants of the Van Diemen's Land Company which had been granted land for grazing sheep and cattle. An escalating cycle of violence broke out in 1827 after company shepherds killed an Aboriginal man and abducted Aboriginal women for sex. A shepherd was speared and more than 100 sheep killed in retribution, and colonists responded with a dawn attack on an Aboriginal campsite, killing 12. The conflict led to the Cape Grim massacre of 10 February 1828 in which shepherds armed with muskets ambushed up to 30 Aboriginal people as they collected shellfish at the foot of a cliff.[87][88]
On 21 August 1829, four company servants killed an Aboriginal woman at Emu Bay, near present-day Burnie. An investigation was launched but no one was prosecuted. Three company men were fatally speared in July and October 1831 and there were heavy losses inflicted on sheep and oxen. There were 16 recorded acts of violence against Aboriginal people in the conflict, but the number of Aboriginal deaths is unknown. Company employees stated that they believed killing Aboriginal people was justified to protect livestock.[88][87]
The population of the northwestern clans fell from an estimated 400-700 at the time of colonisation to about 100 by 1835. The population of the neighbouring northern Aboriginal people fell from 400 in 1826 to fewer than 60 by mid-1830. Violence in the northwest ceased in 1834 but resumed between September 1839 and February 1842 when Aboriginal people made at least 18 attacks on company men and property.[87][89][88]
Military strategy and tactics
[edit]Aboriginal warriors conducted a guerrilla war against the British.[90][91] They mostly used three weapons: spears, rocks and waddies. They almost always attacked during the day in war parties of 10 to 20 men. Although they favoured ambushes and hit-and-run raids against isolated shepherds and settler huts, sieges of huts for up to a day were not uncommon. Warriors often lit fires or used women to lure colonists out of their huts and into an ambush. They quickly learned that muskets could only be fired about once every 30 seconds, so they often encouraged colonists to fire then closed in for an attack. War parties would sometimes divide into separate diversionary and main attack groups and then disperse after an attack to make pursuit more difficult. Attacks on livestock and arson of buildings and crops were also common but were not used systematically as a major war strategy.[92]
The main British military response involved official pursuit parties and roving parties. Pursuit parties mostly consisted of soldiers and convicts whose task was to track down Aboriginal groups presumed to be responsible for a particular attack. They were usually in the field for 12 to 48 hours. Roving parties were groups of soldiers, convicts and authorised civilians who patrolled the frontier for 12 to 18 days at a time with the aim of dispersing hostile Aboriginal groups. The main tactic of the official parties was to attack at night after campfires had revealed the position of the Aboriginal groups. Although their instructions were to capture hostile Aboriginal people where possible, in practice a successful ambush of a campsite almost always led to lethal violence. The main weapons used in ambushes were the Brown Bess musket, bayonets and clubs.[93]
Vigilante groups mainly consisted of convicts but settlers and their employees were often involved. They generally used the same weapons and tactics as the official parties but probably inflicted more deaths on Aboriginal groups.[94]
Black Line, October–November 1830
[edit]The Black Line of October to November 1830 consisted of 2,200 men: about 550 soldiers, 738 convict servants and 912 civilians.[95] Arthur, who maintained overall control, placed Major Sholto Douglas of the 63rd Regiment in command of the forces.[96] Separated into three divisions and aided by Aboriginal guides, they formed a staggered front more than 300 km long that began pushing south and east across the Settled Districts from 7 October. The intention was to form a pincer movement to push members of four of the nine Aboriginal nations across the Forestier Peninsula to East Bay Neck and into the Tasman Peninsula, which Arthur intended to declare an Aboriginal reserve.[97][98][99]
The campaign was hampered by severe weather, difficult terrain, inadequate maps and poor supply lines. Although two of the divisions met in mid-October, the difficult terrain soon resulted in the cordon being broken, leaving many wide gaps through which the Aboriginal people were able to easily pass. Many of the colonists, by then barefoot and their clothes tattered, deserted the line and returned home. The campaign's single success was a dawn ambush on 25 October in which two Aboriginal people were captured and two killed. The Black Line was disbanded on 26 November.[100]
When the Black Line commenced, about 300 members of the hostile Big River, Oyster Bay, Ben Lomond and North Midlands nations were still alive and about 100 to 200 of these were within the line's field of operations. They launched at least 50 attacks on colonists—both in front of and behind the line—during the campaign, often plundering huts for food.[101][102]
Surrender and removal
[edit]Surrender in the settled districts
[edit]Following the Black Line campaign, there were probably only about 100 hostile Aboriginal people in the settled districts, although the colonists believed the figure was at least 500. Hopes of peace rose over the summer of 1830-31 as Aboriginal attacks fell to a low level. The Colonial Times newspaper speculated that their enemy had either been wiped out or frightened into inaction. However, there was a new wave of attacks in late January and March in which several colonists were killed, and many men on the frontier refused to go out to work.[103]
In February 1831, the Aborigines Committee issued a report recommending that settlers should remain vigilant and that parties of armed men should be stationed in the most remote stock huts. In response, up to 150 stock huts were turned into ambush locations, military posts were established on native migratory routes and new barracks were built at Spring Bay, Richmond and Break O'Day Plains. There was an increased military presence at farms, and military parties of 50 to 90 men sometimes went out in pursuit of hostile Aboriginal groups.[104]
The committee, however, also endorsed the government's attempts to conciliate the hostile Aboriginal clans. In March 1829, George Augustus Robinson had been appointed the head of the Aboriginal Mission on Bruny Island where about 20 survivors of the southeastern Aboriginal people were accommodated. From January to September 1830, Robinson and 19 Aboriginal negotiators had carried out a "Friendly Mission" to establish contacts with the Aboriginal clans of southwestern, western and northwestern Tasmania. In October that year, he reported to Arthur that his mission had been a partial success and the governor authorised him to seek conciliation with the northeastern clans.[105]
By January 1831, Robinson's party had contacted more than fifty Aboriginal people and had moved them temporarily to Swan Island in Bass Strait. Those moved to the island included the resistance leader Mannalargenna, whose group had killed a number of colonists.[106] In February, Arthur appointed Robinson to head an Aboriginal Establishment on the Furneaux Islands and authorised him to negotiate the surrender of the remaining Big River and Oyster Bay people. In March, the 53 Aboriginal Tasmanians under Robinson's care were transferred to a settlement on Gun Carriage Island (now Vansittart Island).[107][108]
In June, Robinson and a party of Aboriginal negotiators set off to locate a resistance group led by Umarrah which had conducted a series of raids killing several colonists.[109] The public mood, however, swung further against Arthur's conciliatory approach after an Aboriginal group led by Montpelliatta conducted further raids in the Great Western Tiers culminating in the death of two prominent settlers in August. The Launceston Advertiser declared that only "utter annihilation" could subdue the Aboriginal people.[110]
Several weeks later, an Aboriginal group robbed huts at Great Swansea and, in late October, 100 armed settlers formed a cordon across the narrow part of Freycinet Peninsula in an attempt to capture several dozen Aboriginal people who had entered the peninsula. The cordon was abandoned four days later after the Aboriginal people slipped through and escaped at night.[110]
Robinson's efforts at conciliation were more successful. In September, he and Mannalargenna persuaded Umarrah and his group to suspend hostilities. The following month, Robinson and Mannalargenna met Arthur to discuss the terms of a surrender. Robinson, Mannalargenna and Umarrah then set off for the interior to locate and negotiate with the remaining hostile Big River and Oyster Bay groups. On 31 December, they made contact with a party of 26 Big River and Oyster Bay people led by Montpelliatta and Tongerlongeter. Umarrah's wife, Woolaytopinnyer, persuaded them to surrender.[111]
Robinson led the 26 Aboriginal people to Hobart where they surrendered to governor Arthur on January 7, 1832. Ten days later, the groups led by Montpelliatta, Tongerlongeter and Umarrah were sent to Flinders island where the Aboriginal Establishment had been relocated the previous November.[112][113]
The December surrender effectively ended the Black War, and martial law was revoked in January 1832.[5] There had been 70 Aboriginal attacks on colonists in 1831, in which 33 colonists were killed or wounded.[114][115] But the number of attacks had been well below the 250 recorded in 1830, and it was now clear that the remnants of the hostile Aboriginal clans had been exhausted, hungry and desperate throughout 1831.[116]
There were no further reports of Aboriginal attacks in the eastern settled districts from December 1831, although isolated acts of violence continued in the north until 1834 and in the northwest until 1842. The death toll from 1832 to 1834 was ten colonists and 40 Aboriginal people.[117][5]
Removal of western Aboriginal nations
[edit]Arthur authorised Robinson to negotiate the surrender of the remaining southwestern and western Aboriginal clans and their removal to Flinders Island, believing that this would be the only way of saving them from extermination at the hands of settlers while providing them with the benefits of British civilisation and Christianity. In February 1832, Robinson and his Aboriginal negotiators embarked on the first of several expeditions to the west and north-west of Tasmania. His party persuaded several small groups to seek refuge on Flinders Island, warning them that they faced violent hostility without protection.[118][119]
However, after a hostile encounter with a group of 29 Tarkiner people at Arthur River in September, Robinson resolved to use force if necessary to secure the removal of the remaining Aboriginal people. Hunter Island, at Tasmania's northwestern tip, and penal stations in Macquarie Harbour, on the western coast, were used to hold captured Aboriginal people until their transfer to Flinders Island, but many succumbed quickly to disease and the mortality rate reached 75 percent.[120][121]
Aftermath
[edit]By early 1835 almost 300 people had surrendered to Robinson,[119] who reported to the colonial secretary that the entire Aboriginal population had been removed to Flinders Island. However, a family was discovered near Cradle Mountain in 1836 and they eventually surrendered in 1842. Aboriginal women also continued to live with sealers on the Bass Strait islands and small Aboriginal groups remained in the Great Western Tiers.[122]
In February 1833, the Aboriginal Establishment was moved to a more suitable location on Flinders Island and renamed Wybalenna. Children attended school, men were expected to work in the garden, build roads, erect fences and shear sheep, while women were required to cook, wash clothes, sew and attend evening school. All were expected to attend Scripture classes and wear European clothes and many were given European names. However, convicts were assigned to do most of the labour and the Aboriginal people were free to roam the island where they hunted and gathered food and performed traditional ceremonies.[123] Despite the presence of a resident doctor, a high rate of respiratory disease cut the population from about 220 in 1833 to 46 in 1847.[124]
Population and death toll
[edit]Deaths
[edit]Phase | Aboriginal people
killed (est.) |
Colonists
killed |
Total |
---|---|---|---|
Nov 1823—Nov 1826 | 80 | 40 | 120 |
Dec 1826—Oct 1828 | 408 | 61 | 469 |
Nov 1828—Jan 1832
(martial law) |
350 | 90 | 440 |
Feb 1832—Aug 1834 | 40 | 10 | 50 |
Total | 878 | 201 | 1079 |
Source: Ryan (2012). p. 143 |
Historians acknowledge that recorded killings in the Black War are minimum figures because most killings of Aboriginal people went unreported.[125] Nevertheless, Clements concludes that even if only reported deaths are considered, annual deaths per head of population were over 600 per 10,000, making the Black War one of the deadliest in history.[126]
Ryan, based on a contemporary newspaper estimate, states that there were 1,200 Aboriginal people in the settled districts in 1826. She estimates that 838 Aboriginal people were killed in eastern Tasmania from November 1823 to January 1832 and that 40 more were killed in the following period to August 1834.[127]
Clements states that the recorded Aboriginal death toll in the conflict was 260.[126] He estimates, however, that only 100 Aboriginal people survived the eastern conflict from a pre-war population of 1,000, and he therefore concludes that 900 died from 1824 to 1831. He surmises that about one-third may have died through internecine conflict, disease and natural deaths, leaving an estimated 600 deaths from frontier violence. However, he states: "The true figure might be as low as 400 or as high as 1,000."[128] Johnson and McFarlane argue that at least 400 Aboriginal deaths in the northwestern conflict should be added to this figure, giving over 1,000 Aboriginal deaths in the conflict across Tasmania.[129]
Ryan states that there were 191 recorded deaths of colonists in the conflict from November 1823 to January 1834, and another 10 deaths after this.[127] Clements, who studied a wider range of sources, states that there were 450 casualties among colonists, including 219 recorded deaths, in the eastern conflict from 1824 to 1831. However, the number killed or wounded was probably under-reported due to administrative inefficiency and because the colonists did not want to discourage British investment in, and emigration to, the colony.[130]
Aboriginal population decline
[edit]Estimates of Tasmania's Aboriginal population in 1803, the year of British settlement, range from 3,000 to 7,000. Lydall Ryan, citing studies by N.J.B Plomley, Rhys Jones, Colin Pardoe and Harry Lourandos, reaches a figure of 7,000 spread throughout the island's nine nations.[131] Nicholas Clements, however, also citing Plomley, Jones and others, estimates the population at 3,000 to 4,000.[132] Johnson and McFarlane state that the consensus figure is 4,500 to 5,000.[133]
Historians also disagree over the extent and causes of Aboriginal population decline before the Black War. Ryan argues that the population of some clans near the two main British settlements probably declined from 1803 to 1807 due to settler violence, although other clans possibly prospered from the introduction of hunting dogs.[134] She states that by 1819 the Aboriginal and British population reached parity with about 5,000 of each, although among the colonists men outnumbered women four to one. At that stage both population groups enjoyed good health, with infectious diseases not taking hold until the late 1820s. She therefore concludes that settler violence was the main cause of Aboriginal population decline before the Black War.[135]
Clements, however, believes that frontier violence does not explain population decline in the first 20 years of British settlement as there were few colonists in the interior. He argues that reduced fertility caused by venereal diseases was probably a significant cause of early population decline. He also states that although the health of the Aboriginal population was generally good, at least one southern Aboriginal clan was decimated by other introduced diseases before the Black War.[136]
Boyce also argues that the impact of violence and disease on the Aboriginal population was moderate up to 1816 and that there is no evidence of low numbers of children and elderly people nor critically low numbers of women.[137] Johnson and McFarlane, however, argue that kidnapping of Aboriginal women by sealers was a key factor in the population decline of Aboriginal clans in the northern and southern coastal regions.[138]
Historiography
[edit]Conflict and depopulation
[edit]Writing in 2002, Keith Windschuttle argued that the Aboriginal population in 1803 was only about 2,000, that only 118 Aboriginal people were killed in the conflict with British settlers, and that the conflict was an outbreak of criminality rather than a war.[139][140][141] His arguments have been challenged by numerous authors including James Boyce,[142] Henry Reynolds,[143] Lyndall Ryan[140] and Nicholas Clements[144] who conclude that the conflict was an Aboriginal war of liberation in which 600 to 900 Aboriginal Tasmanians were killed.
Geoffrey Blainey and Josephine Flood argue that although Aboriginal deaths in the conflict were devastating, the major cause of Aboriginal depopulation was disease.[145][146] Ryan and Boyce, however, argue that the Aboriginal death rate from disease was low before 1820 and that Aboriginal Tasmanians were more likely to die from disease after they had surrendered to the British.[147][148]
Academic discussion of genocide
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The near-destruction of Tasmania's Aboriginal population[149] has been described as an act of genocide by historians and genocide scholars including Robert Hughes, James Boyce, Lyndall Ryan, Tom Lawson, Mohamed Adhikari, Benjamin Madley, Ashley Riley Sousa, Rebe Taylor, and Tony Barta.[150][151] The author of the concept of genocide, Raphael Lemkin, considered Tasmania the site of one of the world's clear cases of genocide[152] and Hughes has described the loss of Aboriginal Tasmanians as "the only true genocide in English colonial history".[153] However, other historians – including Henry Reynolds, Richard Broome, and Nicholas Clements – do not agree that the colonial authorities pursued a policy of destroying the Indigenous population, although they do acknowledge that some settlers supported extermination.[154][155]
Boyce has claimed that the April 1828 "Proclamation Separating the Aborigines from the White Inhabitants" sanctioned force against Aboriginal people "for no other reason than that they were Aboriginal". However, as Reynolds, Broome and Clements point out, there was open warfare at the time.[154][155] Boyce describes the decision to remove all Aboriginal Tasmanians after 1832—by which time they had given up their fight against white colonists—as an extreme policy position. He concludes: "The colonial government from 1832 to 1838 ethnically cleansed the western half of Van Diemen's Land and then callously left the exiled people to their fate."[156]
As early as 1852 John West's History of Tasmania portrayed the obliteration of Tasmania's Aboriginal people as an example of "systematic massacre"[157] and in the 1979 High Court case of Coe v Commonwealth of Australia, judge Lionel Murphy observed that Aboriginal people did not give up their land peacefully and that they were killed or forcibly removed from their land "in what amounted to attempted (and in Tasmania almost complete) genocide".[158]
Historian Henry Reynolds says that there was a widespread call from settlers during the frontier wars for the "extirpation" or "extermination" of the Aboriginal people.[159] But he has contended that the British government acted as a source of restraint on settlers' actions. Reynolds says there is no evidence the British government deliberately planned the wholesale destruction of indigenous Tasmanians—a November 1830 letter to Arthur by Sir George Murray warned that the extinction of the race would leave "an indelible stain upon the character of the British Government"[79]—and therefore what eventuated does not meet the definition of genocide codified in the 1948 United Nations convention. He says that Arthur was determined to defeat the Aboriginal people and take their land, but believes that there is little evidence that he had aims beyond that objective and wished to destroy the Tasmanian race.[160] In contrast to Reynolds' argument, historian Lyndall Ryan, based on a sample of massacres taking place in the Meander River region in June 1827, concludes that massacres of Aboriginal Tasmanians by white settlers were likely part of an organised process and were sanctioned by government authorities.[161]
Clements accepts Reynolds' argument but also exonerates the colonists themselves of the charge of genocide. He says that, unlike genocidal determinations by Nazis against Jews in World War II, Hutus against Tutsis in Rwanda and Ottomans against Armenians in present-day Turkey which were carried out for ideological reasons, Tasmanian settlers participated in violence largely out of revenge and self-preservation. He adds: "Even those who were motivated by sex or morbid thrillseeking lacked any ideological impetus to exterminate the natives." He also argues that while genocides are inflicted on defeated, captive or otherwise vulnerable minorities, Tasmanian natives appeared as a "capable and terrifying enemy" to colonists and were killed in the context of a war in which both sides killed noncombatants.[162]
Lawson, in a critique of Reynolds' stand, argues that genocide was the inevitable outcome of a set of British policies to colonise Van Diemen's Land.[163] He says that the British government endorsed the use of partitioning and "absolute force" against Tasmanians, approved Robinson's "Friendly Mission" and colluded in transforming that mission into a campaign of ethnic cleansing from 1832. He says that once on Flinders Island, the indigenous peoples were taught to both farm land like Europeans and worship God like Europeans and concludes: "The campaign of transformation enacted on Flinders Island amounted to cultural genocide."[164]
Writing in 2023, historian Rebe Taylor points to the arguments of Windschuttle as being a minority opinion among historians who generally accept the Black War as a case of genocide.[165]
See also
[edit]- List of massacres of Indigenous Australians
- Trugernanner and Fanny Cochrane Smith
- Manganinnie, an Australian 1980 film
- The Nightingale, an Australian 2018 film
- Tunnerminnerwait
- Conflict in Van Diemen's Land
References
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- ^ Ryan 2012, p. 372 fn 28.
- ^ Melville, Henry. The History of Van Diemen's Land From the Year 1824 to 1835. pp. 89, 90.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. xxvi, 145–146.
- ^ Boyce 2010, pp. 18–21.
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- ^ "Centre For 21st Century Humanities: Risdon Cove massacre". c21ch.newcastle.edu.au. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
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- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 19–22.
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- ^ Broome 2019, p. 42.
- ^ Reynolds 2012, p. 51.
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- ^ "Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930: Sally Peak (1)". The Centre of 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle, Australia. 2022. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024.
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- ^ a b c "Site List Timeline, , Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930". Centre for 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle, Australia. 2022. Archived from the original on 18 March 2024. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
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- ^ Reynolds 2001, p. 64.
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- ^ "Eastern Tiers, Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930". Centre For 21st Century Humanities, University of Newcastle, Australia. 2022. Archived from the original on 12 March 2024. Retrieved 7 June 2024.
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- ^ Calder 2010, p. 175.
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- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, p. 139.
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- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 106–107.
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- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 112, 115.
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, p. 140.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 113–115.
- ^ a b Ryan 2012, pp. 117–120
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- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 121–126, 134.
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, pp. 141–142.
- ^ a b Reynolds 2001, p. 59.
- ^ Ryan 2012, p. 126.
- ^ Boyce 2010, p. 270.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 127–129.
- ^ a b Ryan 2012, pp. 129–130
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- ^ Calder 2010, p. 182.
- ^ a b c Clements 2014, pp. 180–189
- ^ a b c Boyce 2010, pp. 202–205
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- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 79, 83–84, 87.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 40, 82–90.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 45–48, 71–75.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 75–79.
- ^ Calder 2010, p. 183.
- ^ McMahon, J. F. (2005). "Douglas, Sholto (1795–1838)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
- ^ Ryan 2012, p. 131.
- ^ Clements 2014, p. 144.
- ^ Boyce 2010, pp. 273–274.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 130–140, 143.
- ^ Ryan 2012, p. 133.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 146–150, 152.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 158–160.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 160–161.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 155–168.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 133–134, 176–184.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 182–184.
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, pp. 210–213.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 187–191.
- ^ a b Clements 2014, pp. 165–167
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 190–197.
- ^ Ryan 2012, p. 196.
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, pp. 215–216.
- ^ Boyce 2010, p. 289.
- ^ Clements 2014, p. 176.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 174–176.
- ^ Clements 2014, p. 180.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 198–203.
- ^ a b Lawson 2014, pp. 84–86
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 199–216.
- ^ Boyce 2010, pp. 299–306.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. xviii, 140–41, 198, 203–216.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 222–227.
- ^ Reynolds 2012, pp. 79–81.
- ^ Clements 2013, pp. 323–324.
- ^ a b Clements 2014, pp. 3–4.
- ^ a b Ryan 2012, pp. 142–144
- ^ Clements 2013, pp. 329–331.
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, p. 199.
- ^ Clements 2013, pp. iv, 279–281, 343.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 14, 42.
- ^ Clements 2013, pp. 324–325.
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, p. 378.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 56–57.
- ^ Ryan 2012, p. 71.
- ^ Clements 2013, pp. 325–329.
- ^ Boyce 2010, pp. 99–100.
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, p. 382.
- ^ Windschuttle, Keith (2002). The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803–1847. Macleay Press. ISBN 1-876492-05-8.
- ^ a b Ryan 2012, pp. xx–xxvi
- ^ Johnson & McFarlane 2015, pp. 7–9.
- ^ Boyce 2010, pp. 10–11.
- ^ Reynolds, Henry (2003). "Terra Nullius Reborn". In Manne, Robert (ed.). Whitewash: on Keith Windschuttle's fabrication of Aboriginal history. Melbourne: Black Inc. pp. 109–138. ISBN 0975076906.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 5–6.
- ^ Blainey, Geoffrey (1980). A Land Half Won. South Melbourne, Vic.: Macmillan. p. 75.
- ^ Flood 2019, pp. 109–111, 116.
- ^ Ryan 2012, pp. 71, 144.
- ^ Boyce 2010, pp. 64–65.
- ^ Taylor 2023, pp. 481–484.
- ^ Hughes 1987, p. 120; Boyce 2010, p. 296; Ryan 2012, p. xix, 215; Lawson 2014, pp. xvii, 2, 20; Adhikari 2022, p. xxix; Madley 2004; Sousa 2004; Taylor 2023, p. 484; Barta 2023, p. 51
- ^ Shipway 2017, pp. 4–6.
- ^ Reynolds 2001, p. 50.
- ^ Hughes 1987, p. 120.
- ^ a b Broome 2019, p. 44.
- ^ a b Clements 2013, pp. 110–112.
- ^ Boyce 2010, pp. 264, 296.
- ^ Lawson 2014, p. 8.
- ^ Reynolds 2001, p. 29.
- ^ Reynolds 2001, pp. 52–54.
- ^ Lawson 2014, pp. 15, 78, 85.
- ^ Ryan, Lyndall (6 November 2008). "Massacre in the Black War in Tasmania 1823–34: a case study of the Meander River Region, June 1827". Journal of Genocide Research. 10 (4): 479–499. doi:10.1080/14623520802447834. S2CID 145287373. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
- ^ Clements 2014, pp. 56–58.
- ^ Lawson 2014, p. 14.
- ^ Lawson 2014, pp. 51, 205.
- ^ Taylor 2023, pp. 486–487, 504–506.
Bibliography
[edit]- Adhikari, Mohamed (25 July 2022). Destroying to Replace: Settler Genocides of Indigenous Peoples. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1647920548.
- Barta, Tony (2023). "A Very British Genocide: Acknowledgement of Indigenous Destruction in the Founding of Australia and New Zealand". In Kiernan, Ben; Blackhawk, Ned; Madley, Benjamin; Taylor, Rebe (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Genocide. Vol. II: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One. Cambridge University Press. pp. 46–68. doi:10.1017/9781108765480. ISBN 978-1-108-48643-9.
- Boyce, James (2010). Van Diemen's Land. Melbourne: Black Inc. ISBN 978-1-86395-491-4.
- Broome, Richard (2019). Aboriginal Australians: a history since 1788 (5th ed.). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760528218.
- Calder, Graeme (2010). Levée, Line and Martial Law. Launceston: Fullers Bookshop. ISBN 978-0-64653-085-7.
- Clements, Nicholas (2014). The Black War. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0-70225-006-4.
- Clements, Nicholas (2013). Frontier Conflict in Van Diemen's Land (PhD thesis) (PDF) (Thesis). University of Tasmania.
- Flood, Josephine (2019). The Original Australians: the story of the Aboriginal People (2nd ed.). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 9781760527075.
- Hughes, Robert (1987). The Fatal Shore. London: Pan. ISBN 0-330-29892-5.
- Johnson, Murray; McFarlane, Ian (2015). Van Diemen's Land: An Aboriginal History. University of New South Wales Press. ISBN 9781742234212.
- Lawson, Tom (2014). The Last Man: A British Genocide in Tasmania. London: I. B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78076-626-3.
- Madley, Benjamin (2004). "Patterns of frontier genocide 1803–1910: the aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California, and the Herero of Namibia". Journal of Genocide Research. 6 (2): 167–192. doi:10.1080/1462352042000225930. S2CID 145079658.
- Reynolds, Henry (2001). An Indelible Stain?. Sydney: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-67091-220-9.
- Reynolds, Henry (2012). A History of Tasmania. Melbourne and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521548373.
- Ryan, Lyndall (2012). Tasmanian Aborigines. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74237-068-2.
- Shipway, Jesse (2017). The Memory of Genocide in Tasmania, 1803–2013: Scars on the Archive. Palgrave Studies in the History of Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-48443-7. ISBN 978-1-137-48443-7.
- Sousa, Ashley Riley (2004). ""They will be hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed!": a comparative study of genocide in California and Tasmania". Journal of Genocide Research. 6 (2): 193–209. doi:10.1080/1462352042000225949. S2CID 109131060.
- Taylor, Rebe (2023). "Genocide in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), 1803–1871". In Kiernan, Ben; Blackhawk, Ned; Madley, Benjamin; Taylor, Rebe (eds.). The Cambridge World History of Genocide. Vol. II: Genocide in the Indigenous, Early Modern and Imperial Worlds, from c.1535 to World War One. Cambridge University Press. pp. 481–507. doi:10.1017/9781108765480. ISBN 978-1-108-48643-9.
Further reading
[edit]- Turnbull, Clive (1948), Black War, Melbourne: F.W. Cheshire Ltd
External links
[edit]- Extract from James Bonwick, Black War of Van Diemen’s Land, London, pp. 154–155 Accessed 15 August 2009