Blood on the Wattle: Massacres & maltreatment of Aboriginal Australians since 1788

by Bruce Elder

Voted one of the ten most influential works on non-fiction of the last century, Blood on the Wattle draws together, in a single volume, most of the information about the massacres of Aboriginal people that have been recorded in books and journals. It also creates a broad-based level of awareness of the scale of the massacres of Aboriginal people so that this dimension of Australian history can become part of the Australian consciousness.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Australia, Indigenous, Historical

310 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

Bruce Elder is a journalist, writer and commentator. He is currently a full-time journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald specialising in travel and popular culture. His other areas of expertise include film, television, and popular music. He has written extensively around Australia and has a passion for Australian history. He is also the director of Walkabout, the Fairfax organisation's detailed travel internet site.

Reviews

[zed · Rating 1 out of 5]

No footnotes etc make this book a target for the critics. Being such a controversial subject and to not back ones sources is a huge mistake.

[Thomas Isern · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important book, poorly done. Blood on the Wattle brings a great amount of horrific material before the Australian public, on a subject that must not be suppressed. Elder, however, does no original research, and he writes without annotation. In other words, he lets others do the hard yards, and then expects us to trust him to use their work judiciously. It is not a denial of the crimes that took place on the frontier to point out that Elder is suspect as to both method and attitude. In the first place, he makes up his mind about history in advance of examining the evidence, then paints the frontier with a broad and bloody brush.

There was no law and no morality on the frontier. It was a shifting territorial cliche where men were men, life was tough, loneliness was normal, and fortunes were carved out of the bush with bare hands.--74

Passages like these make me wonder about both method and attitude. Moreover, Elder is steeped in anti-establishment 80s attitudes that cause him continually to pre-judge the past.

A certain kind of person becomes a policeman. The duties, the uniform, the discipline, the authority, the carrying of arms, the small-scale power, the security, the 'respect' draw people who find these attributes of the job attractive.--147

Note that the passage just quoted, the introduction to what is supposed to be a historical chapter, is all in the present tense.

To say that Elder is uncritical as to his evidence is an understatement. Rather than sifting it, he just piles it on. As one point he is reduced to a chapter title, "Massacres, Massacres, Massacres."

To be fair, the work was published before agency became the watchword of scholarly historians. In the 80s it was regarded as good enough just to show white people were bad. It was not deemed relevant to inquire as to what people of color were thinking or doing.

The work gets a place on my shelf as a landmark in the history of public attitudes on race in Australia.

[DJ_Keyser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly harrowing at times, Blood on the Wattle tells the story, in sobering detail, of what is nothing short of a prolonged and persistent attempted genocide of Australia’s First Nations people since colonisation. It’s a difficult read to get through, but an essential for anyone who considers themselves an Australian, exposing the white blight that ravaged one of our planet’s most majestic cultures.

[Graham Catt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elder’s book reveals the ugliest, most brutal episodes in Australian History in harrowing detail.

A shocking, shame-inducing, but necessary read.

[John Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my eight decades, I’ve found it ever difficult to read of the blatant disregard in which our forefathers held the lives of indigent Australian nations and peoples without feeling a sense of guilt or, at least, shame. As 200-year white Australians - the time my family has been here - although not directly involved in the assaults and massacres of the day, our mere presence as large landholders made us culpable of the equal crime of dispossession. Murder almost unversally accompanied the dispossession.

I’m a sixth-generation Tasmanian of Scottish descent. Through my lifetime, I’ve been especially interested in the legacy created by what Bruce Elder terms Near Genocide In Van Diemen’s Land, Chapter 3 in his book. Clearing the initially peaceful original inhabitants from the land they’d occupied for tens of thousands of years, whether by shooting or clubbing or incarceration on offshore islands, places with which they were unfamiliar, at least 60% of the Aboriginal population was killed in a bare 12 months.

In retrospect, some of the methods used were unutterably ridiculous and, at times, even palpably humorous. During one attempted roundup, “Civilians clambered over mountain ranges, officers forded fast-flowing rivers, believing that Aboriginal people were fleeing as they advanced. (However, they) slipped back to safety, chuckling at the inept stupidity of the whites.” As the author notes, Governor Arthur was like some confused Antipodean Don Quixote!

Elder describes the major massacres, chapter by chapter, including some of the better known - but not necessarily understood - bloodbaths such as Myall Creek (chapter 7), Forrest River (chapter 15), Gippsland and Kilcoy (chapters 9 and 10). I will make no attempt to write about individual events - it would need a book! - but should note that the author’s journalistic background shows through; he has an innate ability to provide a clinically researched and clearly defined record of our early colonialism and barbarous ways.
As is the case with the Holocaust, there are deniers, those who don’t believe such massacres occurred or were anywhere near as bad as recorded. I found chapter 20 especially interesting: Did These Massacres Really Occur? Elder has a look at the naysayers, especially Keith Windschuttle and ‘the black armband view of Australian history.’ He calmly dissects the Windschuttle theses.

I’ve said in earlier reviews that certain books simply must be mandated as inclusions in the libraries of every Australian secondary and tertiary college. None should have greater presence than Bruce Elder’s Blood On The Wattle, now in its fourth decade of continuous publication. Beyond that, it is a reference work all thinking Australians should have on the shelves of their home libraries.
__________

I must return briefly to my opening statement. Whatever sentiment the book’s reading may evoke in someone of ‘Anglo’ origin - and evocative it is - it can never equate to the sense of abject loss imposed on our indigenous first people.
__________

My sincere thanks to Buzz Group and New Holland Publishers for the ARC.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an enjoyable book to read but I felt compelled to read it. I like to read about a nations history and I've read many other Nations but never my own. Although I knew some of the atrocities committed against Australia's indigenous people I was appalled to read about the true extent of what happened. Possibly should be included in School teaching.

[Renee V · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for the Aussie Readers Spring Challenge 2014

This is a detailed account of some of the massacres of Aborigines that took place in the 'settlement' of Australia. It is an important book.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Blood on the Wattle' took me over a year to read because I kept having to put it down and walk away. Bruce Elder does a tremendous job at compiling nation-wide evidence of wide scale massacres and mistreatment of Indigenous Australians since the start of colonisation, and it is deeply sad and shameful that we let it happen in the first place, and that we have shunted this part of our history off to the dark corners instead of acknowledging it, sitting with it, learning from it, and trying to be part of making something better. Elder uses historical records of murders and mistreatment, both blatently acknowledging towards it, and those that allude towards it but don't specifically detail the actions either because they didn't think the lives they took were worth the same acknowlegement, or to avoid any trouble post Myall Creek Massacre. This book is immensely sad and brutal, and important reading for acknowledging this aspect of our history in Australia.

[Seb Swann · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The blood of tens of thousands of Aboriginal people killed since 1788, and the sense of despair and hopelessness which informs so much modern-day Aboriginal society, is a moral responsibility all white Australians share. Our wealth and lifestyle is a direct consequence of Aboriginal dispossession. We should bow our heads in shame."

Read this if you want to learn more about Australia's colonial history and it's long-standing violence and racism towards and maltreatment of Aboriginal people.

StoryGraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews...

[midsizedchillybin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such a disappointing read. The writer makes no effort to cite almost anything, including most extended quotes and images. Totally leaves it open to be criticised and have its thesis dismissed out of hand. I wholeheartedly agree with the book’s premise, and it definitely helped me learn a lot about it. But it’s so unfortunately constructed and often quite badly written! Very frustrating - this should’ve been great and it was all just too distracting.

[Lisa Gunders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems comprehensive, but I don't think the imaginative style added anything to the account. It's value is in demonstrating that the violence was on both sides as the original inhabitants fought back against occupation--making it difficult to deny that it was war following invasion, an issue dealt with at the end of the book.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only gave it 4 stars because I found it heavy going, it is more of a technical read and the subject matter is so horrible. A gruesome expose of white Australian's crimes and attitudes in this country.
It is a Must Read for any Australian or anyone with an interest in Australia's modern history.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very hard to read. This is not a part of our history that we can be proud of. I support some of the other reviews that made the point that the lack of referencing is disappointing. I would like to have seen more sources identified as well. A tragic history, but at least most Australians have come to understand it. I hope this book becomes more widely read.

[Heidi]

Aboriginal history is an integral part of Australian history, not a footnote to the European history of Australia. It is the moral responsibility of all white Australian’s to do the work and understand this history well because as Bruce Elder says, “Our wealth and lifestyle is a direct consequence of aboriginal dispossession. We should bow our heads in shame.”

[John Oxley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disturbing and powerful

[Gabrielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative collection of stories from across Australia about the destruction of Aboriginal peoples by Europeans.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a challenge to push through this book, not because of the extent of the atrocities, but more because it became just a long list of events. I think it is essential these masscres were documented, but this isn't the kind of book you read in just one go. It is more about creating a record. I suppose I was also saddened by the complete exclusion of Aboriginal or white women in the book. I think throughout the entire book, only two or three women were even named. The rest were faceless victims or sexual pawns. Where are the Aboriginal women's stories? Where are the stories of white women 'settlers'?

[Steve Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sad period in Australia's history. This book goes from one atrocity to the next. I can certainly understand why the indigenous people of Australia need to be shown more respect. There needs to be more coverage of these events in schools so that the younger generation will grow up with a better understanding of aboriginal issues.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The narrative is often a bit flat but this is a thoroughly detailed chronicle of the many horrors perpetrated upon Aboriginal Australians by whites. The parallels between the maltreatment of them and Native Americans is quite apparent.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absorbing details of the savagery of white settlers to this country. Nothing to be proud of!

[Peter Johnson]

Informative harrowing and a necessary read for every Australian. Take notice.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many parts of this book are just factually incorrect. A photo of an Aboriginal taken in Roma in 1824 - it's impossible, as the earliest surviving photo in Australia is dated 1845. So many accounts of "perhaps 20 or 30 were killed", and then followed up with something like "no records were kept, everyone stayed silent". How would you know how many were killed, then? One should only trust documented massacres in this book - the rest is just pure speculation and fanciful fiction. Journalists should not write history.