The Australian Wars

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BBC History Channel

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Factual: History

The forgotten story of the bloody conquest of Australia. 

The forgotten story of the bloody conquest of Australia. Personal perspectives on the battles between colonial settlers and First Nations people - and the echoes they leave today.

Series 1

BBC Four

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The Australian Wars: Series 1: Episode 3

Episode 3

BBC Four - The Australian Wars, Series 1, Episode 3

Northern Australia becomes the final frontier as settler expansion accelerates.

Colonists spread across the continent, assisted by the proliferation of rifles and horses. Everywhere, they were met with resistance from First Nations people.

The abolition of slavery in the 1830s was a defining moment for the British Empire. Buoyed by their success, the abolitionists looked to the plight of Indigenous people. Their aim: to ensure the foundation of South Australia was done differently and access to land negotiated with First Nations people. But London was literally on the other side of the planet, and on the ground, no such arrangements or treaties were made as settler interests prevailed. 

In the final part of this authored series, film-maker Rachel Perkins, who has both European and Indigenous Australian ancestry, follows the frontier conflict as it expands across the continent as the British administration gives way to state parliaments and the federated Commonwealth. 

In Queensland, the new government established its own Native Police to help clear the way for the settlers. Designed to move with the frontier, they gradually made their way north. Over 50 years of its existence, it is estimated the Native Police may have killed perhaps 72,000 Indigenous people. Further north and west, the settlement pattern is repeated. Vast pastoral stations are carved out across Indigenous territories, and a process of ‘quietening the blacks’ begins - a process that First Nations people refer to as the ‘killing times’.

The Australian Wars: Series 1

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The forgotten story of the bloody conquest of Australia.

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The Australian Wars

Series 1

Episode 3

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BBC History Channel