---
node: au_frontier_wars
type: event
slug: australian_frontier_wars
title: "Australian frontier wars"
lead: "The series of violent conflicts between Indigenous peoples and settlers that continued for more than a century from 1788 as settlement expanded."
published: 2026-07-15
updated: 2026-07-15
image_file: australian_frontier_wars.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mounted_police_and_blacks.jpg"
image_author: "W.Walton after Louisa and Godfrey Charles Mundy"
image_license: "Public domain"
---

## What happened

As settlers spread inland to graze sheep, Indigenous peoples lost their land, water, and hunting grounds, and clashes of resistance and reprisal broke out across the country. Leaders such as Pemulwuy led organised resistance.

## Background

The conflict ranged from sporadic guerrilla fighting to massacres by settlers and police. Together with introduced diseases, it caused a catastrophic fall in the Indigenous population.

## Consequences

Long downplayed in official history, the frontier wars are now increasingly recognised as a central part of Australia's past and lie at the heart of debates over reconciliation.