The Australian Wars

The truth about the bloody battles fought to establish a nation

For the first time, The Australian Wars brings what for too long has been considered the historical past into connection with its reverberations in the present.

It is estimated up to 100,000 people died in the frontier wars that raged across Australia for more than 150 years. This is equivalent to the combined total of all Australians killed in foreign battles to date. But there are few memorials marking these first, domestic wars.

The Australian Wars was conceived by Rachel Perkins following her award-winning documentary series produced by Blackfella Films for SBS and edited along with Stephen Gapps, Mina Murray and Henry Reynolds. This is the first book to tell the story of the continental sweep of massacres, guerilla warfare, resistance and the contests of firearms and traditional Aboriginal weaponry as Indigenous nations resisted colonial occupation of their lands, territory by territory. At stake was the sovereignty of an entire country.

Black and white writers tell the stories of these battles across three crucial time periods, and all the states and territories. It notes the lands that were unconquered, as well as the role of disease, weapons and tactics, and the story of women on the frontier.

This history is still alive in those descendants who carry the stories of their ancestors. The Australian Wars brings what for too long has been considered the historical past into the present so that we might know the truth of the origins of this nation.


'As it peels back the enduring veils of silence and denial about our shared past, The Australian Wars exposes a complex legacy of shame, pride, crime and valour. It offers us an opportunity to ask ourselves, in a spirit of humility and honesty, what it truly means to be an Australian patriot. The authors of this work have delivered a huge favour wrapped in a hard lesson.' TIM WINTON


'An inspiring, game-changing work of collective truth-telling about our shared history.' KATE GRENVILLE


‘Rachel Perkins and her fellow editors have done us all a great service in bringing this history together.' DAVID KEMP AC


'Together with the TV series The Australian Wars puts down a marker: no more denial, no more cant. These wars happened and we cannot blink them away.' DON WATSON


'This book has the best of contemporary research. It will ensure that the original people of this nation are not denied the dignity of their resistance and the truth telling has the edge it should.' KIM BEAZLEY


'A compelling call to truth-telling and national reckoning. Essential reading for all Australians.' THE HON KEN WYATT AC