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livestock, there is no deeper explanation provided of the original source of the conflicts
between the two groups, and does not make problematic or offer any critique of the decision
of non-Indigenous Australians to migrate to areas under traditional land guardianship of
Indigenous tribes. Instead, a reason provided for conflict between Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Australians is attributed to scarcity of resources. Conflict is thus justified as a
arising as a consequence of lack of natural resources (see Source 6.20).
Source 6.20. “Conflict between the advancing squatters and the aborigines” extract
from The first hundred years (Palmer and McLeod, 1954/1964, p. 59)
Landmarks (Blackmore et al., 1969) includes the following passage as the second of two
narratives on the Frontier Conflicts:
Between 1926 and 1934 a series of incidents stirred the public conscience. In 1928,
for example, Aborigines killed a dingo shooter. An expedition of white men shot
thirty-two Aboriginal men and women in retaliation. The court of enquiry held that
the shootings were justified. (Blackmore et al., 1969, p. 165)
Information is not provided how this “stirred the public conscience” (Blackmore et al., 1969,
p. 165), as no consequence or outcome of the impact of the decision handed down by the
court that declared 32 Indigenous Australians were shot as a result of the death, even if it was
murder, of one non-Indigenous person. There seems to be a theme of the Wild West running
through this narrative whereby if you happen to be of the same demographic as someone else
accused of a crime, then you are vulnerable to prosecution. How the decision was made to
declare the “shootings were justified” (Blackmore et al., 1969, p. 165) is not made explicit to
students.
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