Frontier Conflict

Frontier conflict in Australia is topic which has generated much debate over many years. It is topic imbued with much emotion, with strong feeing and opinions on many sides. However, it is a topic which is inherently difficult to unpack. The 'frontier' itself is not so vast, in both distance and time, that it is impossible to think of it as a single and tangible conflict. Rather it includes countless interactions which occurred all over the country within a period of many years. Further complicating the issue is the nature of the frontier itself. By definition, the frontier traces the very edge of 'civilisation' (in this case European civilisation) and as such leads to a distinct lack of detailed record keeping .

That is not to say that discovering what happened on the frontier is either impossible or irrelevent, on the contrary it only serves to place an even greater importance on frontier study. But what the problematic nature of frontier conflict does do is make it hard to place each individual conflict within the framework of any sort of one-size-fits-all explanation.

While perspicacity is hard to maitain in an issue which resonates so loudly and emotionally within the public sphere, it is imperitive to keep in mind the dynamic nature of the frontier itself when considering frontier conflict. Indeed, as the historian Henry Reynolds notes, “the black response to the invaders was more complex and more varied than anyone has hitherto suggested.¹” Trying to tie these complex and varied response into a single, comprehensive narrative would seem to border on the naïve.

Perhaps the key concept which can be taken out of this debate is the uncertain nature of the frontier conflict itself. That is, that each individual interaction which occurred on the frontier be acknowledged for what it is: one thread within the fabric of a wider event. Like Reynold's says: “there was always diversity, contradiction, and competing objectives.”

Natives attacking shepherds' hut, Calvert, Samuel, 1828-1913 National Library of Australia, http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pictureaustralia?action=PADisplay&mode=display&rs=resultset-3716350&no=3

1Reynolds, Henry 'The Other Side of the Frontier' in Gare, Deborah, Ritter David Making Australian History: Perspectives on the Past Since 1788, Cengage Learning (Sydney 2008) p. 165