A Letter by Ralph Clark (Figure 1), written some 9 months after the settlement at Sydney Cove. It has a footnote supporting the idea the Aborigines were opportunists willing to use violence in small scale, irregular fighting with settlers and convicts but NOT in formal battle with the redcoats. This supports the idea there was no “war” between two military forces. Rather it was the government and its soldiers desperately trying to keep law and order between the settlers & convicts on the one side, and the Aborigines on the other.
Figure 1
2. Other Commentary on early Sydney and the response by some local Aborigines to the Soldiers and Redcoats comes from the book Red Coat Dreaming by Craig Cox ( CUP, 2009) in Figures 2A,B&C - Hardly the attitudes of Aborigines at “war” with the soldiers.
Figures 2A -Craig Cox, Red Coat Dreaming ( CUP, 2009), p19
Figures 2B - ibid., p20
Figures 2B - ibid., p21
