Interesting that Thomas Pamphlett in his account of the 7 months he and his two companions spent living with the natives around Moreton Bay in 1823 that there was only one hostile action between clans in that time. Pamphlett described it as large numbers on both sides gathering, including women and children and after much talk and gesturing, a spear was thrown wounding a native from the other group. According to Pamphlett both sides were satisfied with that action/outcome and then dispersed. Pamphlett did not reference any severe hostile action between the various groups in the entire 7 months he spent with them. There is also no European accounts of native hostility on a sizeable scale between large groups of Aboriginals around Sydney Cove during the early years of European Settlement.

mhaze, can you reference any large scale pitched battles between native clans/groups, which resulted in mass deaths? How about some more of that Blainey BS, where he offers speculation but with no concrete evidence to back it up.

Dear mhaze,

Now you are just being pathetic.

Stop scratching for scraps when there are none.

I didn't mention Turkey because you wanted to exclude all the women and children slaughtered including the Armenians during the war even though Blainey's figures included them for the Wadawurrung.

Then there was this from you: “Still, having not read Blainey, SR purports to have an intimate understanding of his numbers.”

I quoted directly from him you berk. Here you go:

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=9Ip_TyXUTIoC&pg=PA106&lpg=PA106&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

And this: “marginally better than the death toll in the most catastrophic war in European history”. The most? For Russia, Germany and Austria WW2 was far more devastating. Or Poland which lost 6 million of its 35 million population. You are talking gibberish.

Or this: “dodgy calculations eg the war lasted more than 4 years.” Indeed it did which is why I used 4.3 years in my calculations, something I spelt out clearly.

You couldn't help yourself and you over-egged a dubious claim by Blainey. You got found out. Now you are grasping at non-existent straws.

There are none. Give it away.

Dear Foxy,

Thank you. Yes there is a lot of material debunking the myths about precolonial history. Just getting the myopic buffoons to read it is the challenge.

D and A testing on pre-colonial Aboriginal skeletal remains indicates many lived in excess of 70 years, whilst the life expectancy of
the English in 1790 was less than 40 years, according to records. Early accounts of Europeans on the First Fleet indicate there were many elderly Aboriginal folk living peacefully around Sydney Cove in 1788.

Paul,

Firstly it is DNA, not D and A, secondly, age is determined by the bones and not the DNA, Thirdly, a few samples of aboriginals living to 70 does not make that the life expectancy of the group.

SR,

There is no instance in history or prehistory where small independent tribes did not engage in war with each other and the greater the tribes/nations became the larger the conflicts but the smaller the proportion of people that died from warfare.

That pre-colonial aboriginal tribes co-existed with each other in bucolic harmony is laughable.

SM,

You and others, mhaze for example, are quick to accept the word of Blainey as fact, when there is no supporting evidence, and there is no way Blainey could have knowledge of how Aboriginal people lived tens of thousands of years ago. The study of skeletal remains, dated by DNA testing (to determine the age of the bones) these remains indicate there was a high proportion of Aboriginal people living beyond 70 years. Where as the life expectancy of the Pom in 1790 was only 39.7 years.

I gave you the first hand account by Thomas Pamphlett (Moreton Bay 1823) of Aboriginal hostile interaction, and that indicates "battles" were more a case of posturing and fained aggression, more so than outright bloodshed, which served no ones purpose.

What you or mhaze can't produce is any evidence of battles involving large numbers of Aboriginals, which resulted in high numbers of deaths. Far more Aboriginals met their end at the hands of the European than were killed because of tribal conflict!

Well as we know, a negative narrative suits your mantra so you claim it as fact. What I will say is there is not overriding evidence one way or the other, and the "historian" Geoffrey Blainey's BS is simply that, BS.

Frst Dtrrlr.

The myopic buffoons no longer matter in the history of this
country. They will be left behind especially as the
younger generations reach voting age. Look what happened
with same-sex marriage, and at the last election. The majority
of Australians will get it right this time around.