Reading Notes: John Connor, The Australian Frontier Wars, 1788–1838 (2002)

A military historian examines tactics, weapons and strategy on both sides of the early frontier.

John Connor, a military historian, approached the frontier as a war and asked how it was fought. He compares the British Army’s experience with Aboriginal methods of warfare and shows why the colonists’ advantages were not as decisive as often assumed.

Key ideas

• Muskets were slow and unreliable; Aboriginal warriors understood their limits and used the landscape, speed and surprise.
• The turning points came with mounted troops and, later, with breech-loading guns.
• Covers the Hawkesbury–Nepean, the Bathurst War, Tasmania’s Black War and early Western Australia.

Connor’s book is a good companion to Reynolds: one tells the story from the Aboriginal side, the other through the lens of military history. It is in copyright; these are Reader notes.

Part of the Boston Made Reader’s special collection Courage, Conscience & Service. Written for the Reader and free to read here.