Violence on the Australian Colonial Frontier, 1788-1960

January 2014December 2016
ARC Discovery Grant

How many Aborigines and settlers were killed on the Australian frontier? Were they mostly killed in ones and twos or in mass killings? How can we know? These questions are of first national importance in understanding the past. This project takes a fresh approach to frontier violence by employing new analytical methods to investigate the complex array of sources to produce new estimates of casualties 1788 to 1960. The findings will be made available in online maps and transform our understanding of the ongoing trauma of frontier violence that persists in Australian society today.

Professor Lyndall Ryan is also a Chief Investigator on this ARC Discovery Project grant, which is administered by The University of Newcastle.

Project members

Dr Jonathan Richards

Dr Jonathan Richards

Adjunct Research Fellow in History