Frontier Wars: Library Resources/Clickview

Between 1788 and 1938 some 2000 settlers and 20,000 Aborigines died in an armed struggle for land. It was a war between the original inhabitants and the white invaders. This is their story. Letters, diaries, official records, artworks and historical photographs provide gripping first-hand accounts of battles, massacres and betrayals. With readings by some of Australia's acting elite, including Geoffrey Rush and Hugo Weaving, the story is one of passionate debate, of decency and missed opportunity.

Pemulwuy was a traditional lawman of the Bidgigal clan, the original Woodlands people of Toongabbie and Parramatta in Sydney. When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, Pemulwuy, along with his better-known Bidgigal clansman Bennelong, tried to coexist with the colonists. But Pemulwuy saw the white man breaking his law and he began a 12-year guerrilla war of retribution which almost brought the young colony of New South Wales to its knees.