Frontier wars
The frontier wars were a series of violent conflicts between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While conflicts and skirmishes continued between European land holders and Traditional Owners, the military instrument of the Queensland Government was the Native Police.
The Native Police was a body of Aboriginal troopers that operated under the command of white officers on the Queensland frontier from 1849 to the 1920s. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men were often forcefully recruited from communities—already diminished due to colonisation—that were normally a great distance from the region in which they were to work. They were offered low pay, along with rations, firearms, a uniform and a horse. Many deserted.
Although we will never know exactly how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were killed during the frontier wars, estimates range from thousands to tens of thousands. Regardless of the number, many First Nations peoples were killed on the land that became known as Queensland.
Records
Queensland State Archives (QSA) holds records that were created or received by Queensland Government departments (sometimes called agencies). The records do not usually express the views of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples.
As the Native Police were a government-directed force, many records relating to their activities and operations are held at QSA. Records relating to individual violence—perpetrated by pastoralists, squatters, miners and Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander peoples—can be found in Courts and Prison series. See below for more information.
QSA does not hold personal or private records such as diaries, journals or private correspondence, nor do we hold newspapers, military records or birth, death or marriage certificates.
Finding records
These records contain graphic content and may cause distress. They include descriptions of violence, racist and offensive language and sexual assault.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are warned that the records may include the names of people who have passed away.
Other sources
- The Australian Wars, produced by SBS and Blackfella Films
- The Australian Wars: Evidence from the archives, produced by Queensland State Archives
- Land wars , produced by NITV
- The Queensland Native Mounted Police Research Database: Archaeology on the frontier
- The Native Police of Queensland, History Compass
- Native Police, Queensland History Atlas
- Australian Frontier Conflicts: 1788-1940s
- Colonial Frontier Massacres, Australia, 1788 to 1930
- Oscar’s sketchbook, National Museum Australia
- Trove—digitised historical newspapers
- The Secret War, by Jonathan Richards
- Police of the Pastoral Frontier, by LE Skinner
- Exterminate with Pride, by Bruce Breslin
- Invasion and Resistance, by Noel Loos
- Frontier Lands & Pioneer Legends, by Pamela Lukin Watson
- The Way We Civilise: black and white, the native police, by Carl Feilberg
- The Other Side of the Frontier, by Henry Reynolds
- Forgotten War, by Henry Reynolds
- Truth-telling, by Henry Reynolds
- This Is What Happened, edited by Luise Hercus and Peter Sutton
- The Australian Frontier Wars 1788-1838, by John Connor
Support for healing
Protocols for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content
QSA supports the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protocols for Libraries, Archives and Information Services.