The modern-day city of Sydney was the birthplace of contemporary Australia and the first battleground in the First Wars. With no treaty in place, the relationship between the European occupying forces and the land’s First Nations people was predetermined to be violent. Despite the best efforts of the first governor to make peace, he responded violently when faced with the first named resistance leader Pemulwuy.
The absence of public memorialisation of frontier warfare in Tasmania is incongruous in an island so characterised by its colonial past. This public amnesia is in stark contrast to the richly detailed records of war left by the colonial government in the Tasmanian archives. This government enacted elaborate military plans with the backing of martial law across the island in an effort to conquer the Tasmanian First Nations people. The First Nations people fought almost down to the last person before accepting an armistice, the terms of which were never honoured.
In 1837 the Colonial Office in London began opening up the entire territory of Australia for sale and the great squatting age began. The north of Australia was the final frontier and with the technological advancement of guns, the proliferation of horses and the use of native police, the battle for the north tipped irreversibly in favour of the squatters.
