Understanding the conflicts between
Aborigines and Europeans
PART ONE – OVERALL REPORT ON MASSACRES
The European invasion of Australia in 1780 impacted on the lives of all the Aboriginal people that lived in and around the invaded areas. The peaceful way of life of the Aboriginal people soon turned into a life of war, dispossession, displacement and massacres. There were many massacres and slaughters of the Aborigines with many of these events going unrecorded in Australian history. It is only recently that historians have begun to research this chapter in Australia’s history revealing the conflict and change that the Europeans brought with them. The white settlers bought with them their laws, ideals, diseases, livestock and people. The need for land increased and settlers began to venture outwards from the main settlements, the frontier broadened and the Aboriginal population began to shrink. The encroachment upon the land meant that many Aboriginal people were now being forced to come into closer contact with the Europeans. Their lives would never be the same again as European ideals affected the aborigines for generations to follow. The invasion of Australia bought to the aboriginal people, large scale violence which in turn led to resistance and a history of massacres.
Conflict arose from the illegal claiming of the continent with many Europeans seeing the land as theirs for the taking due to the ideals that the Europeans had as to what humans should live in. They did not see any European dwellings or villages and saw no visible boundaries therefore the Europeans declared the Aboriginal inhabitants held no ownership of the continent and thus declared it Terra Nullius. The Europeans did not understand that the Aboriginal people lead a nomad lifestyle and that their connection to the land was spiritual. The British bought with them their laws that stated any unowned land could be settled and as a result British law was enforced and Aboriginal laws...