The ruthless campaign of Tasmania's ‘Black War’

Before the arrival of British settlers, the Indigenous peoples of Tasmania lived in established communities, such as the Mouheneener, the Tommeginne, and the Big River people.

These groups belonged to larger nations that included at least nine regional identities with over forty distinct clans. 

They were organized into clan groups which had their own distinct territory, language, and customs. 

The First Nations peoples practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, which involved seasonal movement within their lands to make the most of the island’s various natural resources. 

As a result, they developed detailed knowledge of the environment, including advanced methods for hunting, fishing, and gathering food. 

Tasmanian Indigenous society relied on elders to pass down stories, laws, and knowledge to younger generations. 

Also, these communities operated on principles of working together and sharing tasks and maintained a religious connection to the land, which they viewed as both a physical and spiritual entity. 

This meant that their traditional hunting grounds were closely tied to their sense of identity. 

European settlement in Tasmania began in 1803, when the British established a penal colony on the island. 

This decision had originally stemmed from the need to secure the southern part of Australia from potential French claims and to relieve overcrowding in British prisons. 

The earliest settlers were mainly convicts, along with their military overseers. Due to limited modern infrastructure, the first few years were particularly difficult as they attempted to cultivate the land through European agricultural techniques. 

As a result, the settlers struggled to produce enough food, which led to hunger and unrest. 

As the settlement expanded, conflict with the Indigenous population became inevitable. 

By 1804, the British had moved to establish another outpost at Risdon Cove, where the first clash between settlers and Indigenous people occurred. 

In that year, a group of Indigenous Tasmanian peoples, likely unaware of the settlers' intentions, approached the camp. 

The settlers interpreted this as a threat and responded with violence, which resulted in the deaths of several of the Indigenous people.

Contemporary reports vary widely, with estimates ranging from a few individuals to as many as thirty casualties, and the exact number remains disputed by historians. 

The arrival of more settlers in the 1820s and 1830s increased the pressure on the Indigenous population as new land grants encouraged settlers to move deeper into the island. 

In many cases, the Indigenous people were forced from their hunting grounds and sacred sites. 

Also, the introduction of European diseases, such as influenza, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, devastated the Indigenous population, who had no immunity to these new infections. 

These illnesses spread rapidly among the Indigenous population and meant that their numbers began to decline sharply. 

The Black War erupted from a toxic combination in which greed drove settlers to seize land, while fear deepened mistrust and misunderstandings shaped violent encounters. 

Government authorities in Tasmania (also known as Van Diemen’s Land), who were eager to expand the colony’s agricultural output, encouraged settlers to take more land. 

As they did so, European settlers increasingly encroached on the territories of the Tasmanian Indigenous people. 

As the settlers pushed further into the interior of the island, the Indigenous people faced a stark choice: resist the invaders or risk the complete loss of their way of life. 

Tensions between the two groups escalated as resources became scarcer. The settlers, viewing the Indigenous people as obstacles to their progress, often resorted to brutal measures to protect their territorial claims. 

In many cases, Indigenous people retaliated against these aggressions, leading to a cycle of violence that grew more intense. 

The European perception of the Tasmanian Indigenous peoples as primitive and inferior only fueled this conflict. 

In response to Indigenous resistance, the colonial government implemented punitive expeditions, offering rewards for the capture or killing of Indigenous people. 

Although the event that has come to be known as the ‘Black War’ did not involve a formal declaration of war, it constituted a period of intense violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians from 1824 to 1832. 

It began with sporadic skirmishes between European settlers and the Tasmanian Indigenous people, though small in scale were quite brutal. 

By 1826, the violence had escalated significantly. Many settlers, armed with weapons provided by the government, formed vigilante groups. 

These groups often acted with brutal efficiency: they attacked Indigenous camps, killed inhabitants, and destroyed food sources. 

The Tasmanian Indigenous people, though vastly outnumbered and outgunned, mounted a determined resistance against the European settlers who sought to dispossess them. 

Groups such as the Oyster Bay and Big River nations took up arms and applied their knowledge of the rugged Tasmanian terrain to gain an advantage. 

Despite their limited resources, the Indigenous warriors employed guerrilla tactics; in small, mobile groups, they struck quickly and disappeared into the dense forests, making it difficult for the settlers to track and retaliate against them. 

In particular, they launched raids on isolated farms, disrupting the settlers' efforts to expand and maintain control. 

In response to the increasing bloodshed, in 1828, Lieutenant Governor George Arthur declared martial law, which effectively sanctioned the widespread use of military force against the Indigenous population. 

Soldiers and settlers were given free rein to hunt down and kill Indigenous people. 

That same year, the infamous 'Black Line' campaign was launched, which was a coordinated effort to round up and capture the remaining Indigenous groups. 

As part of this initiative, hundreds of settlers and soldiers formed a human chain that swept across the island, driving the Indigenous people into smaller and more confined areas. 

Although the campaign was largely unsuccessful in capturing its intended targets, it caused immense suffering and further decimated the Indigenous population. 

Before European contact, scholars estimate that the Indigenous population numbered between 4,000 and 5,000 people. 

By the end of the Black War in 1832, this number had dwindled to fewer than 300 individuals. 

These shocking losses arose from violent conflict that claimed lives and from disease and displacement that undermined the survivors’ ability to recover. 

The war's final years saw the near-complete destruction of Tasmania's Indigenous communities. 

By 1830, the Indigenous resistance had been largely crushed, with many of the survivors either killed or captured. 

In an attempt to end the conflict, George Augustus Robinson, a Christian missionary, was tasked with negotiating the surrender of the remaining Indigenous people. 

Through a series of deceptive promises, Robinson convinced many to surrender peacefully, leading to their relocation to Flinders Island. 

However, this relocation, which was intended to protect the survivors, resulted in further hardship and death due to poor living conditions and disease. 

By 1847, when the survivors were moved again to Oyster Cove, only 47 remained. 

With so few survivors, the cultural and social structures of the Tasmanian Indigenous people were permanently damaged. 

Their languages, traditions, and ways of life, which had been passed down through generations, were almost entirely lost. 

Some historians consider the mass killings and near-destruction of Aboriginal Tasmanians to constitute a genocide: a calculated strategy to eliminate the Tasmanian Indigenous population.

Others debate the degree of planned intent, though many agree that the outcome aligns with key definitions of genocide under modern international law. 

They conclude this because the colonial government implemented specific policies to exterminate them. 

In this context, the term 'extermination' carried its literal meaning and demonstrated the clear objective of the settlers' actions. 

The 'Black Line' campaign of October 1830 constituted one of the clearest examples of this practice. 

The colonial military and settlers coordinated to encircle and remove the remaining Indigenous people. 

The psychological impact of being hunted like animals left deep scars on the survivors, who would have lived in constant fear of entrapment. 

Therefore, the overarching goal of these practices was to clear the land for European settlement. 

It ultimately dehumanized the Indigenous peoples in a way that would have been unthinkable under different circumstances. 

As a result, the use of organized violence, forced removal, and loss of culture could all be seen as part of an intentional plan to ensure that the Indigenous people would no longer pose a threat to colonial ambitions. 

In the end, these practices led to the near-total destruction of the Tasmanian Indigenous population.