The War of Southern Queensland was a conflict fought between a coalition of Aboriginal tribes in

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. T ...

, the "United Tribes", and the

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great B ...

, from around 1843 to 1855. Following the

Kilcoy Kilcoy is a rural town and locality in the Somerset Region, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Kilcoy had a population of 1,898 people. Geography The township is on the D'Aguilar Highway, north west of the state capital, Brisbane, ...

massacre in 1842, a great meeting was held in the Bunya Scrub of tribes from across South East Queensland north to the

Wide Bay-Burnett WIDE or Wide may refer to: *Wide (cricket) *Wide and narrow data, terms used to describe two different presentations for tabular data *WIDE Project, Widely Integrated Distributed Environment *Wide-angle Infinity Display Equipment *WIDE-LP, a radio ...

and

Bundaberg Bundaberg is a city in the Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia, and is the tenth largest city in the state. Bundaberg's regional area has a population of 70,921, and is a major centre of the Wide Bay–Burnett geographical region. The Bun ...

regions, fuelled by decades of mistrust and misunderstanding with the British, they united into a loose confederation and issued a ‘declaration’ to destroy the settlements on their lands. Most of the Wide Bay-Burnett was abandoned during this period, and the settlements on the ranges were under heavy attack by the Mountain Tribes led by Multuggerah. The worst of the conflict was largely confined to these parts of the country, but the main settlement of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

also suffered from raids that pillaged houses and farms. The war marked a reversal in traditional Indigenous battle tactics, moving away from pitched battles early in the conflict to more ‘hit and run’ attacks and aspects of

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...

. Following over a decade of sustained conflict along with suffering from severe population loss, resistance against the British largely collapsed in the south. Conflict continued well into the 1860s as the frontier moved further north. The general date for the end of the southern war is attributed to the hanging of

Dundalli Dundalli (c. 1820 – 5 January 1855) was an Aboriginal lawman who figured prominently in accounts of conflict between European settlers and indigenous aboriginal peoples in the area of Brisbane in South East Queensland. Traditionally described ...

in 1855, and the subsequent arrival of the

Native Police Australian native police units, consisting of Aboriginal troopers under the command (usually) of at least one white officer, existed in various forms in all Australian mainland colonies during the nineteenth and, in some cases, into the twentie ...

which caused the remaining Aboriginal raiders in Brisbane to flee the town.

Declaration of War

The Aboriginal tribes of South East Queensland every year would gather at the Great Bunya Scrub (Baroon Pocket near Maleny) to feast on Bunya nuts. The occasion was formally used as a festival, to exchange news amongst the tribes. However, following the Kilcoy massacre many of the tribes were aggravated, with many wanting vengeance for the great number that were killed at Kilcoy. At this meeting and spurred on by elders such as

, the tribes vowed to take revenge on the British wherever they were within their lands. Two witnesses to this were

Petrie Petrie is a surname of Scottish origin which may refer to: People * Alexander Petrie (died 1662), Scottish minister * Alistair Petrie (born 1970), English actor * Andrew Petrie (1798–1872), Scottish-born builder, architect and first free settle ...

and Russell who risked their lives to bring news of the 'war declaration' to Brisbane, after having been captured by an inter-tribal group and only freed through severe negotiation. This was followed by a letter sent by German missionaries to the Governor of the war declaration. Several sources support the notion of 1843 as the year of a 'declaration'.

Pugh's Almanac ''Pugh's Almanac'' was an annual almanac published in Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1869 noted that date as 'when the blacks were now beginning to be very troublesome'. And travel writer, Nehemiah Bartley gave defined years for the war in his book, 'Australian Pioneers and Reminiscences' (1896). Citing 1843 and 1855 as the start and end dates, with the 1855 likely referencing the execution of Dundalli.

Decline of the Moreton Bay Clans

The missionaries Christopher Eipper and J.C.S. Handt both prepared annual reports on the state of the Moreton Bay Aborigines. Handt noted the considerable decline of Aboriginal numbers. In 1846 the Anglican Rev. John Gregor of Brisbane claimed a deathrate of one-sixth of the local black population in a period of three years, from what he termed 'licentious intercourse of their females with Europeans' - and further deaths locally of 50 Europeans and at least 300 hundred Aborigines during incessant 'collisions of aggression, defence and retaliation' in the Moreton Bay District.

Notes

{{reflist Australian frontier wars Wars involving the United Kingdom Conflicts in 1843 History of Brisbane