Topics: Songlines, Design, Country, Astronomy, Plants, Law, Innovation, Health, Ceremony, Politics (2026)

Australia is dotted with memorials to soldiers who fought in wars overseas. Why are there no official memorials or commemorations of the wars that were fought on Australian soil between Aborigines and white colonists? Why is it more controversial to talk about the frontier war now than it was one hundred years ago?

Based on a forum held at the National Museum in Canberra c. 2003 this book presents a series of essays by leading contributors on the subject of conflict between Aborigines and settlers.

Examines and compares the most prominent statements made in 'The history war', with key primary sources for colonial Queensland's history. Also considers the evidence of white and black victims to frontier violence in north-eastern Australia, providing a full listing of all recorded Europeans and assistants who fell victim during the 19th century to this violence within present day Queensland.

The memoirs of five pioneering families who in the 1860s 'opened up' part of the Channel Country in southwest Queensland. The writers of these memoirs had much in common. And yet a careful reading of these accounts reveals startling differences in how the pioneering experience is portrayed.

Historical perceptions of Native Police Corps treachery or cooperation; recruitment; conditions of employment; status; relationship with remainder of Aboriginal population.