Domestic violence occurs in all cultures, even matriarchal ones, and within living memory it happened in mainstream Australian culture; women were subject to their husbands and even to open a bank account needed their husbands signature (permission).
Beating his wife was a husband’s prerogative and the law took no notice unless he went to far and caused grievous bodily harm or killed her.
Black eyes were not uncommon and the wife had little help, even family would turn a blind eye, although sometimes family got positively involved.
I remember coming home and telling my parents that I’d seen Mr Blank with two black eyes and his nose in plaster and he was walking funny.
Dad remarked to mum that Blank’s wife’s brothers must have had a talk to him.
Later I overheard (alright I was listening in) dad telling mum that Blank’s wife threatened to leave him if he ever beat her again, so he gave her a real belting and took her against her will ( it was some years before I knew what that meant) and she went home to her parents.
Dad said that she shewed her brothers her bruises and told them everything; they interviewed her husband, broke his nose, blacked his eyes and broke two ribs and that he was walking funny because they hit him where it really hurts.
Such happenings were rare however and husbands got away with a lot.
Mainstream culture has changed and for the better but domestic violence still goes on.

Watkin Tench clearly shewed that violence towards women was cultural in Aboriginal society and a 12 times higher murder rate shews that extreme violence is still part of that culture.

" The well-educated Tench was motivated by his
British sense of superiority and culture. He had
stories to tell and books to write about the
"savages" at Port Jackson that had been contracted with
publishers before he left Britain."

http://eorapeople.com.au/tag/watkin-tench/

If it were just Tench, then dismissing his observation might be acceptable. But it's not just Tench. There are any number of other early observers/writers who noted the plight of the aboriginal women.

There is also the historic evidence of aboriginal women being sold by their owners/elders to Chinese traders and early European sealers/whalers. (This was part of the reason for the decline of the Tasmania natives whose birth rate declined precipitately due to the extensive loss of women, traded/sold for grog and flour).

Finally there is archaeological evidence from ancient bones where it is found that females through the ages suffered bone and skull fractures at levels unseen in other stone age peoples. That is part of the reason why the aboriginal industry is trying to stop examination of ancient bones - to hide the facts as to the nature of their ancestors

Of course there are "any number of observers" who attested to the brutality of indigenous culture in original documents - all witnessed at the time. Some ideologs just don't want to know, so they fossick around for mere opinions by contemporary cowboys as overboard as they are themselves.

There is no substitute for the real thing; and there is no sense to be had from pigheaded, ignorant story-tellers and their gullible audiences. Ignore them.

Foxy is extremely well and widely tead and understands perfectly well as she has a degree in English (she has told us so) therefore to attempt to disparage Watkin Tench, when she is fully aware of the other evidence, is strange to say the least.
What having contracted to write a book has to do with the veracity of the author escapes me, many, if not most authors contract to write books and after their first successful publication wii seek/obtain an advance to fund research/expenses.

Here is just one example of how history can be twisted after the facts by modern activists and ideologues:

The term “Stolen Generations” was first coined in 1981 by a then unknown postgraduate history student named Peter Read who wrote the 20-page pamphlet in a single day outlining his case. Significantly, the original title was “The LOST Generations” but his wife advised him to substitute the more attention-getting adjective, STOLEN.

The lie continues today.