(Flint)lock, stock and two smoking barrels: A modern military interpretation of frontier economic warfare

Abstract

Despite the recent upsurge of interest in the Australian Frontier Wars, the military tactics adopted by First Nations groups have consistently failed to attract the attention of scholars. What work that does exist often struggles to move beyond a characterisation of First Nations dispossession as a profound defeat, one that continues to resonate in contemporary Australia. Yet by utilising a centre of gravity analysis, a standard military appreciation tool, it is possible to identify compelling evidence that the economic warfare, as practiced along multiple frontiers in Australia by First Nations groups, was both sophisticated and remarkably effective. By utilising modern military analytical frameworks to assess Frontier Warfare, it is possible to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of First Nations tactics and identify lessons for modern military operations.