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Wominjeka! Yumalundi!*
We pay respect to First Nations people and to their Elders past, present and emerging. This website was developed in Naarm (Kulin Nation) and Kamberri (Ngambri and Ngunnawal people) on land that always was and always will be Aboriginal and has never been ceded. This website contains information and images (including images of people who have died) that may cause distress to First Nations people.
* Wominjeka means ‘welcome’ or ‘come with purpose’ in the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Yumalundi means ‘Hello’ in the Ngunnawal language of the Canberra traditional owners.
Defending Country
Defending Country applies to all who have fought for Australia or parts of it. It applies just as much to First Australians (Arrernte, Noongar, Wiradjuri, and others), defending their Country on Country (and dying on Country), as it does to uniformed Australians fighting our overseas wars.
For an expanded explanation of Defending Country, link here.
As a veteran I can’t see how my service was somehow more deserving of being commemorated than that of First Australians warriors who fought bravely against superior forces. (Noel Turnbull, 104 Field Battery, Vietnam, 1968-69)
The Australian Frontier Wars
Read why the Australian Frontier Wars are important to Australia and Australians. In summary:
- Australia is built on the Frontier Wars.
- The Frontier Wars killed tens of thousands of Australians.
- Intergenerational trauma cannot be left in the silence.
- What we commemorate shows what we regard as important.
- We need to close the Commemoration Gap.
Australia was fought for in an endless war of little, cruel battles. (David Marr, Killing for Country, 2023, p. 131)
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Reading List Selections
What has the Australian War Memorial got to do with the Australian Frontier Wars?
‘As a former historian at the Memorial, I have advocated for forty years that it should recognise what we now call the Australian wars’, Professor Peter Stanley writes.
‘As a former historian at the Memorial, I have advocated for forty years that it should recognise what we now call the Australian wars’, Professor Peter Stanley writes.
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First Nations History
Colonial Frontier Massacres in Australia, 1788-1930
University of Newcastle: The Centre for 21st Century Humanities
From the moment the British invaded Australia in 1788 they encountered active resistance from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owners and custodians of the lands. In the frontier wars which continued into the 1920s frontier massacres were a defining strategy to contain and eradicate that resistance. As a result thousands of Aboriginal men, women and children were killed. This site presents a map, timelines, and information about frontier massacres in Australia between 1788 when British colonisation began until 1930. Only frontier massacres for which sufficient evidence exists and can be verified are included. The map also includes information about frontier massacres of non- Aboriginal people such as colonists and others in Australia in the same period.
Frontier Wars
First Nations History
Fighting Wars
Australian Museum, Sydney
Australia was not peacefully settled; it was taken by force through strategic, political and military campaigns. The early colony was militarised to protect it from foreign attacks, to maintain civil order over the convict population, and to suppress Aboriginal resistance against colonial interests.
Defining the decades of armed, violent conflicts between sovereign First Nations and the colonists as “wars”, is often contested. However, the historical records from this period included this specific term to describe events on the frontier.
The ongoing refusal to recognise this history of First Nations warriors and their adversaries denies them the memory, and the respect, they deserve.
Frontier Wars
Queensland
Killing for Country: a Family Story (2023)
Marr, David
A gripping reckoning with the bloody history of Australia's frontier wars.
David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in the bloodiest years on the frontier. Killing for Country is the result – a soul-searching Australian history.
This is a richly detailed saga of politics and power in the colonial world – of land seized, fortunes made and lost, and the violence let loose as squatters and their allies fought for possession of the country – a war still unresolved in today's Australia.
Other Resources
Patrons and Supporters
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Defending Country thanks these distinguished Australians for agreeing to be Patrons of our website and project. While each of them supports the objectives of the Defending Country campaign, they do not necessarily endorse every post or every word on the defendingcountry.au website.
Patron
Clare Wright
Professor Clare Wright OAM is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster who has worked in …
Patron
Henry Reynolds
Professor Henry Reynolds of the University of Tasmania is Australia’s leading historian of the …
Patron
Megan Davis
Professor Megan Davis is Co-chairof the Uluru Dialogue and was a leading campaigner for the YES …