Posted from 11 Nov 2025
The following ever-expanding collection of images are from Australia’s frontier war conflicts of 19th and early 20th century. Was it “war” or just conflict?
Figure 1 - Source: Ray Kerkhove 8 Nov 2025
Figures 2 - Commentary:
This is a 1880s sketch album. Note “work of black police…where they destroyed a camp”. I have countless reports of people seeing skeletal remains but Aussie soils are very acidic so little remains. But also when things are scattered even the Battle of Little Big Horn site mostly consisted of shell casings
The weird thing about the James Vogan Album of his sketched 1886-1889 is that his 'horror scenes' are just part of a lot of sketches of landscapes, rural life and other things he saw - as though all this was normal.
Figure 2A - Source of Images 2B, 2C and 2D. Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figure 2B - - Ray Kerkhove
Figure 2C - - Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figure 2D - Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figure 3 - Illustration in Bladgen Chambers reminiscence (he lived 1846-1943) Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figures 4 Commentary - 6 Aug 2025:
About 10 years ago I went to the Mitchell Library specifically to see if there were, and I found quite a few (some attached). Yes, they aren't images of corpse-strewn battlefields, but that's to be expected, as very few of the conflicts here involved pitched battles. Rather, they were mostly individual killings and hut-sieges.
Figure 4A - Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figure 4B - Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figure 4C - Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figure 4D - Source: Ray Kerkhove
Figure 4E Source: Ray Kerkhove
