How We Cleared The Native People From Their Land

The Voice referendum has shone a light on Australia’s interracial relationships between First Nations people and white Australia. The lethargic acceptance by modern Australia of its neglect of its Indigenous population has been woken up somewhat. The majority of Australians of European descent have little to no appreciation of our history when it comes to how we cleared the native people from their land. It is almost as if magic was used to make them go away in the minds of today’s Australians. Massacres of the blacks by settlers and frontier police forces are out of sight and out of mind for most white descendants.

Queensland Settlers & Frontier Police Murdered & Massacred The Natives

Queensland is expected by pollsters from the No campaign to vote No in the Voice referendum. If you have ever spent some time in regional Queensland and spoken with the locals, you may have come across their fairly blatant racism when it comes to Aboriginal Australians. If you do not know your history, as most Australians don’t really, you may not know its roots. Queensland was a frontier colony and poorly funded to boot, which meant little government oversight in practice. Tens of thousands of First Nations people were murdered and massacred by poison and gunfire in the 19C in Queensland. At its inception, as a colony, numbers were estimated at around 28, 000 white colonists and some 250, 000 Aboriginals.

White Australia Clearing The Lucky Country Of Natives

David Marr, the well-known writer, recently discovered his own ancestor was involved in the frontier police and, through his research, estimated he may have been directly involved in killing some 40, 000 native blacks. Australians don’t like to think that their lucky country was the result of such practices. Former PM John Howard was big on discrediting and diluting the views of Australian historians who brought this stuff up. “It all happened a long time ago,” was his message to the Australian people.

The truth is that if you don’t know your own history, then, you don’t really know who you are. If you don’t know, vote No. Ring the bell of ignorance white Australia!

“David Marr was shocked to discover forebears who served with the brutal Native Police in the bloodiest years on the frontier. Killing for Country is the result – a soul-searching Australian history.

This is a richly detailed saga of politics and power in the colonial world – of land seized, fortunes made and lost, and the violence let loose as squatters and their allies fought for possession of the country – a war still unresolved in today’s Australia.

“This book is more than a personal reckoning with Marr’s forebears and their crimes. It is an account of an Australian war fought here in our own country, with names, dates, crimes, body counts and the ghastly, remorseless views of the ‘settlers’. Thank you, David.”—Marcia Langton”

• (https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/killing-country)

Queensland Frontier Wars Against The Blacks

Queensland and Australia did not magically disappear all those hundreds of thousands of First Nations people – they murdered and massacred them. This was then covered up by governments and officials. This unpalatable truth was not taught in schools. Australian history likes to focus on the heroic exploits of the ANZACS at Gallipoli rather than how settlers and frontier police did devilish things to clear their lands of the original inhabitants. Men, women, and children were poisoned on mass by leaving flour laced with strychnine and arsenic for the local Aborigines to find. Water holes were poisoned likewise. They would die agonising deaths.

Settlers were feted by their fellow peers for the number of blacks they managed to kill. This is why you find today a staunch pride exhibited by their descendants in their racist attitudes toward Indigenous Australians. They see this as their settler forebears fighting for their land – it was an invasion after all.

“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.”

• (https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/archives/collection/war/frontier-wars)

How About A Little Grace & Generosity?

There is little graceful benevolence shown by these white folk today toward the remaining Indigenous population. More like a begrudging acceptance of their right to live, that is all. I have not observed any generosity of spirit in their attitude toward Aboriginal Australia. Downward envy, yes, there is that a plenty. A misguided belief that Indigenous Aussies get some sort of subsidised free ride. The overwhelming promulgated attitude of white Australia toward their black brothers and sisters has been that they are lazy, good for nothing, bludgers.

Most folk thought that the remnants of the population would simply die out over time.

Extermination, Denial, & Divisiveness

I wonder how these Anglo Aussies would feel if their ancestors had been exterminated by an invading force and they themselves were left in bits scattered across the land. Cultural differences between First Nations peoples and European settlers are huge and have never been understood by the victorious invaders. Assimilation has been the order of the day over generations. The No campaigners talk about divisiveness – I talk about denial on their part to recognise the truth. They are so churlish that they will not allow even a Voice for these people today. It strikes me as pretty appalling in light of our history.

Rich Australians Too Busy Worrying About Themselves

Most Australians, despite being citizens of one of the richest nations on earth, are overly concerned with their own hip pocket. This me-centric, materialistic attitude has been fostered by the two main political parties and their leaders over the past few decades. Property prices have been inflated on banking steroids to make them wealthy or in the midst of getting very wealthy. John Howard wanted to make every Liberal voting Australian a shareholder. Worrying about how these folk will manage their first million dollars leaves them little time to reflect on the extreme poverty of most Indigenous Australians. Too busy to bother with wondering what this whole Voice thing is all about. Yes campaigners are hoping that some will do the right thing on the basis of the obvious plight of most First Nations people in this country.

Jack Lang said something like ‘never back against the horse called self-interest in a race.’ Many Australians are scratching their heads trying to work out where their self-interest lies in this Voice referendum. How can I make a buck out of it?

White Pigs With Snouts In Supposedly Black Troughs

If you look back at the billions spent on Aboriginal Affairs over the years, you will find white Australians syphoning off large amounts of those funds into their own pockets.

Government always have to commission reviews into everything, prior to doing anything, and lo and behold, PwC or KPMG, will be there making a motza from doing the review. Plus, a heap of bureaucrats in the department will be at it earning their well paid keep too. Consultants and experts with their snouts in the trough. Then, everything that gets done in Indigenous communities has been largely done in the past by white contractors. As we all know, anytime you do a job for government the prices get jacked up bigtime. That large figure in the budget soon looks a lot smaller when you subtract all these payments from it. The generosity of white Australia is never what it makes out itself to be.

Australian Settlers Killed Off The Native Inhabitants

Thinking about how we cleared the native people from the land and where we find ourselves today is inextricably linked. Settlers killed off the First Nations original inhabitants of this land wherever they could, especially in Queensland. The frontier wars were just that and it is disingenuous and dishonest to say otherwise. Australia was conquered by an invasion and hundreds of thousands of native people died as a direct result of that. It did not happen by magic, and the murder and genocide was condoned by governments and covered up by them too. Let us for once, call a spade a spade, and own the truth of the matter. Especially now, as we have this debate and referendum.

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom.

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